Category Archives: September 11th

Thousand-Pound Missile

9/12/2013 – 7:42 pm

I attended a middle-age rite of passage last night as my daughter took me to her high school cafeteria for the mandatory meeting of parents of students taking driver’s education this semester. Seventy-five students (in various states of eye-rolling exasperation at having to be seen with a parent in front of their peers) and parents […]

By floegel | Also posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , | Comments (0)

“Pre-Positioned Weapons of Mass Destruction”

8/25/2011 – 2:44 pm

The tenth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks is a bit more than two weeks away.  People in DC and New York were viscerally reminded of this when an earthquake – unusually strong for the east coast – rattled them Tuesday.  Although human-induced climate change may affect hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts and blizzards, earthquakes remain an […]

By floegel | Also posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary, Toxics | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

Bin Laden Furor: It’s All Theater

5/12/2011 – 1:04 pm

The UK Guardian ran a story Monday about a secret deal between the US and Pakistan, reached in 2001, shortly after Osama bin Laden gave our troops the slip at Tora Bora. (Heckuva job, Rummy!) According to active and retired officials from both nations, if the US got a shot at bin Laden, they were […]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Out of Commission

6/17/2010 – 10:49 am

On May 20, Lee Hamilton and Thomas Kean, leaders of the 9-11 Commission, told a congressional committee that six years after the commission completed its work, the federal government has not taken the steps needed to implement the commission’s recommendations. The next day, President Barack Obama announced the formation of a commission to investigate the […]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary, Oceans, Oil | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Like a Rolling Stone

4/30/2009 – 9:32 am

“May you live in interesting times,” is supposedly an old Chinese curse. I doubt it’s really Chinese, but I’m becoming convinced on the curse bit. I like to keep up with the news, but I’m suffering from sensory overload: a huge economic crisis, what is on the verge of being labeled a global swine flu […]

By floegel | Also posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary, Global Warming, Iraq Invasion | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

A View from the Cave

1/8/2009 – 11:18 am

Just over 29 years ago, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan and a number of Muslims decided they’d had enough interference by western nations in the affairs of Islamic nations and launched what they considered holy war against the invaders. The US, via the CIA helped with money, weapons and training. If you watched “Charlie Wilson’s […]

By floegel | Also posted in Commentary, Iraq Invasion | Tagged , | Comments (0)

M&M Enterprises

5/22/2008 – 8:35 am

When I was a young man, I read (as every young person should) Joseph Heller’s “Catch-22,” a novel about the absurd bureaucracy of war and the misery it wreaks on those caught within it. The most absurd character in the book is Milo Minderbinder, who – at least initially – runs the mess hall. A […]

By floegel | Also posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)