Featured Posts
  • Romney Calls Santorum the ‘D’ Word

    Romney Calls Santorum the 'D' Word

    Mitt Romney believes that his best line of attack is making the claim that he has not spent a moment as a D.C. politician while his two main opponents, Newt ...

    Read More

  • Holy Rick Santorum, Batman!

    Holy Rick Santorum, Batman!

    No two ways about it, Rick Santorum had a good night. Not only did he sweep Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri but he also got off the best line of the ...

    Read More

  • “We the Rich…”

    We the Rich...

    Few would argue the fact that Citizens United has been a major player in the Republican primary...and many if not most would concede that none of it has been healthy ...

    Read More

  • A Romney Victory Is Ensured With Trump’s Endorsement ()

    A Romney Victory Is Ensured With Trump's Endorsement ()

    As if you needed another reason to not vote Romney. Celebrity business magnate Donald Trump endorsed Mitt Romney for president Thursday, telling reporters he will not mount an independent campaign if ...

    Read More

  • Why I Love Newt Gingrich

    Why I Love Newt Gingrich

    In a perfect world, the Republican contest to find a nominee to face Barack Obama would go on forever...or at least until August. You cannot attach a number to the ...

    Read More

  • Republican Cannibalism

    Republican Cannibalism

    I suspect there are a ton of conservatives secretly agreeing with Begala and while it's too early in the game for Dems to get cocky, it's difficult to not smile ...

    Read More

  • Romney Hood

    Romney Hood

    One of our readers sent me an email with an idea for an illustration - Mitt Romney as Romney Hood. I thought it was brilliant and came up with the ...

    Read More

  • Why Do People Take an Instant Dislike To Newt Gingrich?

    Why Do People Take an Instant Dislike To Newt Gingrich?

    Quotes don't get much better than this one by Bob Dole. "Why do people take such an instant dislike to me?" asked a perplexed Gingrich, to whom Dole bluntly ...

    Read More

  • Gingrich Takes A Thrashing

    Gingrich Takes A Thrashing

    After the beating Gingrich took last night, it's hard to imagine under what scenario he can make a comeback.  Florida is going to Romney and for Gingrich to regain the ...

    Read More

  • SOTU

    SOTU

    There's a lot out there on the President's SOTU, so I'll keep my thoughts short and sweet. The speech did what it had to do which was target liberals and independents ...

    Read More

  • Just Another GOP Debate

    Just Another GOP Debate

    The highlights from last night's debate. - Newt Gingrich can't wait to become president so he can revisit the early 60s and overthrow Castro in Cuba. War, baby, war. - Santorum, who ...

    Read More

  • No More Mister Nice Guy for Mitt Romney

    No More Mister Nice Guy for Mitt Romney

    It appears that the South Carolina verdict is forcing Romney to start taking Gingrich seriously. “We’re not choosing a talk show host, we’re choosing a leader,” Romney said, saying that their ...

    Read More

  • Mike Huckabee Solidifies His Birther Creds

    Mike Huckabee Solidifies His Birther Creds

    Mike Huckabee offers advice to Mitt Romney concerning his unreleased tax returns. Let him [Romney] make this challenge: "I'll release my tax returns when Barack Obama releases his college transcripts and ...

    Read More

  • Late Night Political Humor

    Late Night Political Humor

    Via Political Humor... "Mitt Romney is coming under fire because even though he is a multimillionaire, he only paid 15 percent in taxes. That's not a tax, that's barely a tip." ...

    Read More

  • The Last Word On Jon Huntsman

    The Last Word On Jon Huntsman

    Good line. My guess is that after Romney fails to beat Obama in the general, Huntsman will be back in 2016.  The most electable guy in the field and he could ...

    Read More

  • Does Romney Urinate Straight Down His Leg?

    Does Romney Urinate Straight Down His Leg?

    I found this pretty funny...and accurate. It comes from a reader over at Balloon Juice. So, let’s review. The contenders for the GOP nomination are A vulture capitalist who believes that any ...

    Read More

  • The Constitution – Libertarian’s False Idol

    The Constitution - Libertarian's False Idol

    Lively little debate going on at one of last week's posts with Libertarianism put under the microscope. ocLiberal: I know I am in sketchy territory here, (start the indignant shouting now) but ...

    Read More

  • Gingrich’s Delusional Politics

    Gingrich's Delusional Politics

    In the contest to determine the winner of the Far-Right Politics gold medal, rack up a few more points for Newt Gingrich. “I think an intelligent conservative wants the right federal ...

    Read More

  • Late Night Political Humor

    Late Night Political Humor

    Via Political Humor... "Congratulations to Mitt Romney. He won the New Hampshire primary last night. See, this is proof that even the multimillionaire son of a multimillionaire can beat the odds ...

    Read More

  • What Do North Korea and Indiana Have In Common?

    What Do North Korea and Indiana Have In Common?

    Story 1: North Korea punishing those who 'didn't display enough sadness over Kim Jong Il's death' North Korean authorities are reportedly punishing citizens who did not display enough sadness over the death ...

    Read More

9/11

9/11 World Trade Center  http://mariopiperni.com/

.

NYT

The day dawned different and stayed that way. Traffic was thin and sidewalks quiet. The stock exchange didn’t open, nor the airports, the schools, Broadway. People loaded up on bottled water, batteries, canoes. The law enforcement presence was intense: men with machine guns, gunboats circling the harbor.

Downtown, fires burned, smoke plumed. The odor stood.

It was a city humbled and scared, where the possibilities of destruction had been recalibrated. It was Sept. 12, 2001. The day after.

___

To receive email notifications of new posts from MarioPiperniDotCom, click on Subscribe.

.

Comments

  1. Jovial says:

    A horrible day created by cowards on innocent people. People from so different countries that had decided to have a new life in New York. To share in the progress of this nation and put America front and center in the world.

    Although some three thousand people died that day, it was the brutality on innocence that disturbed me most. This is another remembrance that will stay close as we never knew what invasion was on our soil before. America invades elsewhere and I wonder if the feeling is the same elsewhere.

  2. SJCAlumni1979 says:

    September 11, 2001 was a horrible day. It was also a day that showed the world what kind of people, we, the American people, are. Some left their homes immediately to go to New York to help. Some huddle at home and prayed for all those affected by the horror. Almost all gave something — money, water, food –to help the victims and the helpers. We stood tall that September as citizens of the greatest country in the world. We were proud to be Americans. We served. We rallied. We supported.
    Today I remember those who lost loved ones and pray that God comforts them.

  3. Larry says:

    …and for a few days, we were simply Americans. No Political or Ideological differences.

    Simply the “Americans” that made this Country the best and brightest in then world.

  4. Larry says:

    @mario – nice “9 1,11″ shadow effect. Subtle. Shows a degree of talent.

  5. janine says:

    @mario — beautiful and touching artwork in honor of this day

    @Larry

    you said “and for a few days, we were simply Americans. No Political or Ideological differences.” Wonderfully put. We should still strive to be that way

    I heard President Obama say much the same thing this morning in his speech at the Pentagon. He went on to say that we should remember what brought us together as Americans and perhaps this can be the legacy of 9/11 and how we can best honor those who lost their lives.

  6. Larry says:

    @janine – Admirable words. Admirable thoughts. Admirable intentions. No matter the source.

    “….is not about Republicans and Democrats. And while George Bush, while he kept us safe, he really did at least from Islamic terror, there were also some other things that he did that were really not so good that we’re paying for today. Let’s stop those things. Let’s stop arguing about the Republicans and the Democrats. Let’s stop tearing George Bush apart or putting him on a pedestal. Let’s stop doing the same thing to Barack Obama. Let’s talk about the principles that built this nation. Let’s talk about the principles that when they’re rediscovered and applied every day by individuals in this country, we will then know who to vote for and who to give our power to in Washington because we’ll know and they’ll know.”

    “On 9/12 no one in the government had to tell us what to do. We just did it. We went and we found a place to give blood. We went and we gave money. We gathered together. We gathered our family around. We prayed. We were the people that our grandparents were and nobody had to tell us.”

    Both by Glenn Beck

  7. janine says:

    @Larry

    Can Beck follow through with his stated intentions of stopping tearing Barack Obama apart? we shall have to see

  8. Incredulous says:

    I still think Cheney was behind it all. Sent Bush to some school out of the way… Wonder how much he paid Bin Laden to get this done? Why? Cheney needed a reason to make some millions… FOLLOW THE MONEY!

    FBI Blew Chance to Stop Ringleader [Cheney?]

    A former FBI informant, Elie Assaad, has told ABC News that the agency blew a chance to stop 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta. Assaad says he first became suspicious of Atta in early 2001, when he infiltrated a small mosque outside of Miami. Assaad now says he’s a “million percent positive” the 9/11 attacks could have been stopped if the FBI had pursued his lead on Atta, but that the agency instead told him to focus on two smaller targets whose cases were easier to crack. [Orders from Cheney who was the president in charge, Bush was too ignorant to run this country] “I was right, I was 100 percent right,” Assaad says. When he learned that Atta was a 9/11 hijacker, Assaad says he was “very upset, angry” and that he cried.

  9. Tommy Pane says:

    Beck is just trying to protect the country from those who would distort the principles that made our country great. I believe, as does Beck, that the principles put forward by progressives will destroy this country. Right now there are almost as many repubs as dems espousing those principles, which is why I don’t like either parry.

  10. Larry says:

    @janine – So I guess your response is, “No. We can’t all be “just” Americans for one day.”

  11. Larry says:

    @all of you – I hope you will unleash some of that ridicule, derision and insult you usually reserve for Birthers, Tea Baggers and Astro Turfers on this 9/11 Conspiracy nut case.

  12. Zenith says:

    When I hear anyone praise someone like Beck, I worry for this country. Beck is interested in nothing more than himself and is doing his best to divide the country. When anyone can call the president a racist and claim that he “hates white people”, you are not protecting the country. You are splitting it apart.

  13. janine says:

    @Larry no that wasn’t my response

  14. laurie D. says:

    @Zenith – Amen.

  15. Incredulous says:

    Cheney did not have any problems in having about 4K americans killed in Iraq so why would he worry about a few more at the WTCenter? It was his ticket to becoming a true millionaire. 7-8K Americnas expendable! In the process with the price of the war bankrupted this country and took with him the world economy!

  16. mario says:

    @Larry

    Ty. I’m glad you picked it up. The intent was to have it be subtle. Not always sure my illustrations come across as I intend. Nice to know they sometimes do. Thank you for letting me know.

  17. Larry says:

    I can’t believe you guys are letting Incredulous(appropriate s/n by the way) get away with this conspiracy, nutcase stuff.

    Maybe if he were to also claim to be a “Birther” you would give him what for!!

  18. @Larry, I was like you until I went to a web site for architects and read what they had to say about the two towers plus the #7 building. I was stunned at what they said. They said that the two towers should have swayed, buckled and fallen sideways from the way the airplanes hit. No building, NO BUILDING, does a precision drop from an attack by an airliner. The amount of heat needed would have to greatly exceed the amount of jet fuel on board the two aircraft. I kept reading and found out that according to the architects of the twin towers, that building could not and should not have imploded straight down. That required what is called a “precision drop” and specially placed C4 in amounts that burn hotter than jet fuel. I was totally shocked to keep reading that the steel also by the laws of physics could not and should not have melted in a way that would allow a “straight drop”. Steel that is melting will do so at varying rates depending on it’s location within the building. No way, NO WAY could that steel have melted at identical enough rates to allow the building to go straight down in a “precision drop”. Also, #7 was never hit and yet it went down with a similar display of “dropping” as if it was put into a “precision drop”. I am continuing to investigate this subject before I fully commit to believing it as I am a journalist and I want more than this one web site. But this amount of information by qualified architects and steel workers and builders really flabbergasted me! I will let you know what my continued research turns up.

  19. Larry says:

    I understand it all now. So you think the Government under that nefarious Bush and Cheney murdered 3000 American Citizens so they could build a pipeline across Iraq?

    That explains much. How’s that Tin Foil Cap working for you?? I suggest you practice a little more discretion. When the black helicopters show up, it’ll be too late for you.

    And you actually have the audacity to ridicule “Birthers”? I hate to tell you, but I think the possibility of Obama being born in Kenya are much greater.

    There are all kinds of studies out there about how the WTC Towers collapsed. I suggest you dispense with your paranoid biases and check a few of them out.

    This one looks pretty good. Start here:

    http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/0112/Eagar/eagar-0112.html

  20. @ Larry, as I said, I have not decided whether to believe this site quite yet. I am going to do a ton more investigation before I believe anything like this. I am stunned by what I read but I want more info. It has nothing to do with “tinfoil hat” time. It has to do with painstaking research which I am now going to embark upon. I don’t have any answers. I just know I have to follow this lead and see where it goes. I really can’t do anything else. If Bush and Cheney were willing to commit torture and allow over 4,000 of our troops to die for non-existent WMD, what are they capable of. I really don’t know. I’m going to do my research and see where the information leads.

  21. Larry says:

    @melody – You go for it girl!! Just please don’t complain about “Birthers” anymore. On the loony scale, I think 9-11 Conspiracy nuts rank way higher that Birthers.

    You research your little heart out. That damned Bush and Cheney!!

    Sheesh!!!!! Certified loony tunes.

  22. OK, first of all, there are a lot of sites, far more than I expected. Secondly, I have only looked at the first 8 sites. I’m going to post the links here for you to look at yourselves. The articles are rather powerful. patriotsquestion911.com/engineers.html,
    www6.ae911truth.org/info/51, http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/911architectsfortruth_32509.html, americanbuddhist.net/architects.amp.engineers.911.truth, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxhGFJaLvEc, mnchange.org/more.than.600.architects.say.911.an.inside.job,
    http://www.abodia.com/911/index_0.html

    The main 1st argument I’m seeing is that ALL the towers (including #7) had ALL 15 points for a “precision drop” which include:
    1) Sudden Onset of destruction. (apparently fire would just cause gradual decay.)
    2) Destruction at or near free fall pace. (Fire pace is apparently much slower)
    3) the fall followed the path of greatest resistance. ( apparently a fire caused destruction should fall toward least resistance.)
    4) 20 ton steel columns ejected laterally up to 500 ft away. (apparently fire caused destruction would not have the oomph to shove that much steel that far away with such force.)
    5) Blast waves blew out windows 400 ft away. ( same as #4.)
    6) 118 1st responders report explosions (not rumbles) at onset of fall. (these are people who know the difference between a rumble and an explosion.)
    7) midair pulverization of concrete with outward arching plumes. (apparently concrete cannot be “pulverized” by the kind of fire inside the trade center and would not be pushing outward with that kind of plume if just on fire)
    8 )many eyewitness flowing molton metal in rubble. (apparently it takes much higher temps than jet fuel type fire to turn metal into molton condition like over 4,000 degrees. This fire was only estimated at 1800 degrees.)
    9) rapid expansion and pyroclastic dust clouds of enormous size. (apparently just fire alone could not account for a pyroclastic cloud effect. Think volcanic eruption of the size of a Hiroshima bomb or Mt. St. Helens.)
    10)squibs: explosive ejection below the impact zones. (apparently blasts were seen way below where the planes hit which there is no explanation for.)
    11) total dismemberment of steel core column structures. (apparently there were over 40 of these columns in the center of each of the two big towers and 40 more around the perimeter and simple jet fuel fire could not account for total dismemberment of concrete in both buildings in that short amount of time.)
    12) 1200 ft. diameter symmetrical debris field. (apparently regular fire does not create symmetrical debris fields but rather irregular ones.)
    13) chemical evidence of thermate on steel and dust of rubble. (apparently thermate is the residue chemical composition of thermite after explosion)
    14) FEMA steel analysis: sulfadization, oxidation, and intergranular melting of steel. (apparently these conditions only apply after explosion rather than simple fire)
    15) no precedent for steel frame high rise collapse caused by fire. (apparently nothing in U.S. history gives evidence of any high rise ever collapsing due to fire of any intensity.)

    This is why I am continuing to investigate all of this. I am stunned by the detail and the knowledge base of those who are saying all this. These are architects, engineers, steel workers, builders…in other words, people who know this field of specialty well. I have to give them some respect for their knowledge base and I will continue to investigate all this if for no other reason than my own peace of mind. I will keep you posted.

  23. @Larry, one last comment for tonight. It does not have to be the U.S. government that did the drops. It has been pointed out that the hijackers had complete freedom around the country before 9-11 and so could have entered both towers days in advance and could have placed plenty of C4 in strategic places with detonator caps and timers capable of being set for days or a month in advance so that they could make sure that they accomplished their mission of making sure the towers fell. We don’t need to blame our government for 9-11. It could still be Al-Qaida and it could be that there were others involved besides those who flew and hijacked. Wonder if those might be the ones who managed the antrax thing? My investigation continues.

  24. walter says:

    And I guess the swine flu, is the governments fault?If so I hope it doesn’t take 8 years to blame them.It was not so bad until Obama made his trips to Mexico,now it is spreading real fast and we won,t have a vac.ready till next mo.How many people will die before it is ready?We can all sit around and dream up any idea we want,and put it out on the net an as sure as the sunshines some one will believe it,and someone will add more to it and so the fire will spread.If all this brain power was put to solving problems,instead of creating them what would happen?Old saying.spend your time wisely and your thought productively.

  25. Larry says:

    @melody – you go right on investigating girl!!

    When you get that one resolved, here’s another one with some high falutin’ sounding facts you may want to check on:

    http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2009/08/02/obama-kenyan-kenyan-birth-certificate-orly-taitz-smoking-gun-obama-not-natural-born-citizen-usurper-mombasa-kenya-birth-certificate/

    And then, we can start working on finding out just exactly who WERE those shooters on the grassy knoll. Oliver Stone may be wanting to talk to you before long!!

    I just find it so typically hypocritical that someone so full of disdain, insult and ridicule for one group of conspiracy nuts (Birthers) could so enthusiastically embrace another group of conspiracy nuts.

    Personally, I kinda look at all conspiracy nuts as being equal in their nuttiness.

  26. @Larry, if you will look back at the posts, I wasn’t the one mocking birthers. I didn’t post until after those comments had been made, so go find someone else to blame! Also, that “Kenyan birth certificate” thing has already been debunked by better experts than me. It is and was a fraudulent document being sold by those trying to make a buck and bring down a president for whatever assinine reason they can think of. I won’t even try to ponder the mind of a seller of fraudulent papers! Try this, the city and state and nation listed on the “birth document” did not even exist at the time of Obama’s birth and the city mentioned was actually a city located in another country in Africa! Do your homework next time!

  27. @walter, I don’t even know what you are flying off the handle about! I have never gotten into posting about swine flu! You must be trying to address someone else, note that I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt.

  28. Larry says:

    @melody – 1. You’re not being truthful about the birther stuff. You have ridiculed the Birthers on numerous occasions.

    2. I don’t believe in EITHER conspiracy so I have no homework to do.

    My earlier message was simply poking fun at you for your belief in the 9-11 conspiracy slop.

  29. I have not made fun of birthers, Larry. I know Janine and many others have. I simply report the facts and the facts are that Barack Obama was born in Hawaii! That is all I state. I also point out when birthers are not being factual and when I can prove their fraud. There is no need for “making fun” of them. Just show where they are mistaken and let the facts speak for themselves.

  30. Larry says:

    okay melody. ;-) ;-) Gotcha there. ;-) ;-) You don’t make fun of birthers. hahahahahahaha…..er….I mean……Got it girl!! ;-) ;-)

  31. Figures that you would respond like a 10 year old boy! No facts, just juvenile slurs! Gotcha!