FRI 14 SEP 2001

Fundies Will Be Fundies
In a blatant display of ignorant intolerance that exceeds even his usual ludicrous standards, Jerry Falwell has said that Tuesday's terrorist attack was God's vengeance on a nation that tolerates gays, feminists, abortionists, pagans, and the ACLU.

Uh, right.

Never mind that the Taliban and other extremists of their ilk are just as dedicated to suppressing homosexuals, subjugating women, eliminating reproductive choices, eradicating "infidels" and restricting civil liberties as good ol' Jerry himself. If Falwell was truly consistent in his beliefs, he'd be cheering right now. But ideologues are so often oblivious to their own irony....

Generation Gap
Our IT consulant Mark, who's 25 years old, remarked on Tuesday while we were watching the terrible events play out that he was "just barely still draft age."

Trying to be reassuring, I said, "Don't worry. They'll probably take the younger kids first if we go to war."

His reaction wasn't what I expected. "Are you saying I'm too old?" he asked. "I'll sign up if I have to!"

Slightly taken aback, I said, "No, I'm sure you're not too old. You'd be great."

But I was still really surprised. It was almost like talking to someone from my dad's generation. Most people my age would have been worried about the possibility of being shipped off to war. Mark was ready to go fight voluntarily.

Times change....

Thought for the Day
"The first casualty of war is Truth."
-- Benjamin Franklin

Strangely Prophetic Album Cover

An album cover by a group called "Coup."
It was published on the Web on July 19th, 2001.
(Thanks to Doyce!)

Update
Added Rubble and Rage to Explositions.

Nostradamus Hoax
This quote, or something similar, is being circulated around the internet, attributed to the 16th-century prophet Nostradamus:

Vivid. Evocative. Frightening. Fake.

The first clue is that it's attributed to "Nostradamus - 1654." Nostradamus died in 1566, so he must have been particularly excited about this revelation to proclaim it 88 years after his death. The second clue is that there's no textual reference -- Nostradamus divided and numbered his "prophecies" into chapters ("centuries") and verses ("quatrains"). Like the GWB "Village Idiot" hoax circulated awhile back, this quote has no century or quatrain reference -- and indeed, a search of Nostradamus' actual writings yields no such verse, although a few scattered phrases (e.g., "great king of terror") have apparently been appropriated from the originals.

Thought for the Day
"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living."
-- Edward Arlington Robinson

The Ultimate in Reality Television

This is no movie. This is real.

Thought for the Day
"Of course you know, this means war!"
-- Bugs Bunny

State of Shock
That's the only way I can describe my current state of mind after today's horrific events. I still can't quite wrap my mind around it: the World Trade Center towers are gone, reduced to smoking heaps of rubble; the Pentagon is on fire. I see news clips on CNN of a jumbo jet smashing into the WTC and exploding into billowing flames, and it looks like a clip from an action movie big on special effects, when in fact it's the ultimate in reality television. But none of it seems quite real, at least not yet.

The newspeople keep talking about reactions of anger and outrage, but the emotion I feel most strongly at this point is sadness. Sadness for the people who simply went to work in the morning and had their offices turn into death traps. Sadness for the passengers of the hijacked planes who just wanted to fly somewhere and instead got rammed into a building. Sadness for the firefighters and rescue workers who died trying to help others. Sadness for those whose friends or relatives perished in the tragedy.

I'm also saddened by the impressions of America that some countries seem to have developed, impressions that would spur them to commit acts of terrorism on this magnitude. And I'm saddened that recent US foreign policy has in many ways served to bolster those impressions.

The question now is, what next? War, yes, but in what form? Will the US lob a nuke at somebody, or just bomb them to bits with conventional weapons? Who will it be? And what about civil liberties? Will security checkpoints start going up everywhere? Travel across state lines restricted? National curfews?

Time for the aluminum foil deflector beanie....

Thought for the Day
"A girl and a boy bump into each other -- surely an accident. A girl and a boy bump and her handkerchief drops -- surely another accident. But when a girl gives a boy a dead squid -- that has to mean something."
-- S. Morgenstern

How Do They Answer Their Phone?

Thanks to Karin!

Random Links
Anarchy. Pierced navels. Feline enemas. Interesting world, isn't it?

Dubya the Post Turtle
Not long ago there were a couple of old farmers sitting around the country store down the road. The talk turned to politics, and one of the farmers said, "Ya know, that President Bush we got now ain't nothin' but a post turtle."

"'Post turtle'? What the hell's that?" asked the other.

"Well," explained the first farmer, "when you're walkin' down a road, and you see a turtle sittin' up on a fence post, that's a 'post turtle.' You know he don't belong there, he didn't get there by himself, and he ain't gonna do much of anything useful while he's up there."

Thought for the Day
"The sages put great stock in saying that every ending is truly a beginning, or every beginning an ending, or insisting that there are no endings or beginnings, or remarking that there is nothing new, and we are doomed to endlessly repeat ourselves. Or have I said all this before?"
-- Captain Ebenezum