Tag Archives: 9/11

In case of emergency, think twice before you dial 911

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Trigger warning: Explicit video of a homeless man being executed by the cops.

I strongly recommend that you don’t call the police. If you do, because for some reason you have to, get the hell out of there before they arrive. Why? Because our Post-9/11 first responder philosophy is not the first responder philosophy you grew up with. First responders have one primary directive: Protect themselves, at all costs. Your safety is the cost. For firefighters and the like this means running the other way when there is danger, because of 9/11. Recently, a New York City fire chief was quoted as saying “Good thing we didn’t get here sooner” (or words to that effect) in relation to a gas explosion. In recent weeks somebody who did not get the memo called the cops for a “domestic disturbance” happening in a public park. When the cops arrive they killed a man that was trying to help. It goes on and on. The police, generally, will protect themselves before they protect you, even if it means gunning down people who are not really a threat to them.

Here is the video. Yes, the guy had knives. He was probably either a bit disturbed when the cops got there or became disoriented when they started shooting flash bangs at him. But they had him surrounded, run to ground, and it was only after he turned away from them that they gunned him down. After he was gunned down the police acted like he was a live cobra, but really, he was just some guy bleeding out on the ground where they dropped him.

I predict that this will be determined a justifiable shooting.

I’m quoting here from Daily Kos who quotes AP (the AP site is borked):

The illegal camper shot by Albuquerque police this week was turning away from officers when they fired at him, according to video released by Chief Gorden Eden on Friday.

The shots come after a confrontation in which the man, identified as 38-year-old James Boyd, tells police he’s going to walk down the mountain with them.

“Don’t change up the agreement,” Boyd says. “I’m going to try to walk with you.”

He tells officers he’s not a murderer.

Boyd picks up his belongings and appears ready to walk down toward officers. An officer fires a flash-bang device, which disorients Boyd.

Boyd appears to pull out knives in both hands as an officer with a dog approaches him. He makes a threatening motion toward the officer, then starts to turn around away from police.

That’s when shots ring out, and Boyd hits the ground. Blood can be seen on the rocks behind him.

Mother Jones Blames American People for Iraq War

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And probably justifiably.

Jonathan Stein and Tim Dickinson make the point that some of us have been making since the World Trade Center fell: If we become a nation motivated mainly by fear, we will become a militaristic police state.

But the blame for Iraq does not end with Cheney, Bush, or Rumsfeld. Nor is it limited to the intelligence operatives who sat silent as the administration cherry-picked its case for war, or with those, like Colin Powell or Hans Blix, who, in the name of loyalty or statesmanship, did not give full throat to their misgivings. It is also shared by far too many in the Fourth Estate, most notably the New York Times’ Judith Miller. But let us not forget that it lies, inescapably, with we the American people, who, in our fear and rage over the catastrophic events of September 11, 2001, allowed ourselves to be suckered into the most audacious bait and switch of all time.

Welcome to the party.

Read the essay here: Lie by Lie: A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq

Should the military, and predator drones in particular, be used by US law enforcement?

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Apparently, “predator drones” have been used to assist US based law enforcement officials for domestic law enforcement a number of times. We all knew that drones were being used to guard our borders from hoards of Canadians coming from the North, but lately North Dakota local and state police have had drone assistance in entirely domestic law enforcement.

Continue reading Should the military, and predator drones in particular, be used by US law enforcement? →

The disposal of human remains by the US Air Force

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You’ve heard about this: The US Air Force, at Dover, has incinerated “partial remains” of nearly 300 American troops, and had the ashes carted off with medical waste to the landfill. If you have heard of this, you’ve also heard the indignation, the loathing, the accusations of inhumanity, and the verbal rending of cloth. If you have been observing this, have you also noticed how everybody has it wrong? Continue reading The disposal of human remains by the US Air Force →

Generation 9/11. History will be embarrassed by us.

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A former engineering student, on seeing film of the World Trade Center towers collapse on September 11th, 2001, indicated surprise. He told a friend that he would have thought that on being hit with jumbo jets, the two or three immediately affected floors of the tower would have been destroyed but the structures would probably remain standing, or at most the floors above the impact sites could possibly collapse due to melting support beams but the lower floors would stand. The complete collapse, above and below the impact sites, of both of the structures was a surprise to him, given his engineering training.

Continue reading Generation 9/11. History will be embarrassed by us. →

9/11 Reverberates …

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I will surely write something about 9/11 on 9/11, but in the mean time I thought I’d repost something I wrote some time ago about how things changed after the WTC towers collapsed. In the post reproduced before, I’m saying essentially what is being said here. I won’t bother mentioning that I said it many years ago, that would be obnoxious. The original post was titled 911 Reverberates in Boston.

Continue reading 9/11 Reverberates … →

9/11 Coloring Book

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We Shall Never Forget 9/11 Coloring Book – Graphic Coloring Novel is a coloring book for kids produced by Really Big Coloring Books Inc of St. Louis, MO. Their coloring books cover a lot of different topics, including African-American Leaders with this description:

African American Leaders celebrates the diversity, history, and accomplishments of African Americans in North America. Used widely in schools around the nation for educational purposes. This is a Really Big Educational Coloring & Story Book!

and Dinosaurs …

Dino’s has 32 exciting pages of Dino coloring, including Velociraptor, Tyrannosaurus, Seismosaurus, Pretty Jaw and much more. This book includes two pages of Dino cutouts, Dino plants, and a Dino forest. A Really Big Coloring Book!

But also Noah and the Ark ..

Noah and the Ark is one of the best known and most beloved stories of the Old Testament. In addition to telling the traditional story, the coloring book includes many animals for children to color. The Noah coloring book has been used as a teaching tool.

and Blessing of the Pets Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Custom Coloring Book, whatever that is, and Story of Creation and the Ten Commandments

This book describes to children the story of creation and lists the Ten Commandments. The commandments are all listed on one page and then each commandment is written seperately on 10 different pages. A Really Big Coloring Book.

But I digress.

Part of the description of the 9/11 book is:

The September 11, 2001 attacks on America are now commonly referred to as 9/11. It was a series of coordinated attacks by a radical Islamic Muslim extremist terrorist group who call themselves Al Qaeda. They were self-proclaimed Jihadists; many American people refer to them as homicide bombers. Their leader was a Saudi national named Osama Bin Laden. He and his men used hijacked U.S. airplanes as weapons. A total of 3,000+ innocent people from over 70 countries were killed. There were no survivors from any of the airplanes.

And it includes this picture of Seal Team Six killing Osama bin Laden and his family:

The Guardian reports that

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has condemned the book as “disgusting”, saying that it characterises all Muslims as linked to extremism, terrorism and radicalism, which could lead children reading the book to believe that all Muslims are responsible for 9/11, and that followers of the Islamic faith are their enemies.

And, here’s the promotional video for it:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nJlk_Em7xY&w=500&h=311]

I have no comments at this time. But I will. I’m saving them up.