The End of the 00s: Decade of Suck, by Regina Schrambling @1:30 PM
Hate to infringe on Rudy's trademark, but of course the memory cached in my cranial sieve is from right after 9/11. I was out traipsing around the city for a Times story on how restaurants were recovering, and on that Sunday I passed the Odeon on West Broadway. Almost every sidewalk table was occupied, with shiny, happy people swigging mimosas in the sun, literally blocks from the reeking fire. The scene made my lead as a sign of hope, and the owner called to thank me for helping business, but as time's gone by, the reality has looked grim. Those blithe brunchers were ingesting incinerated human beings with their OJ. We were all breathing the same thing. The melting-plastic smell blowing in the wind even way uptown masked something worse. READ MORE 8
Some People to Demonstrate in New York City Against Fair Trials and Democracy @9:00 AM
The anti-American group calling itself the Florida Security Council is coming to New York City, to join with the 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America in a demonstration against our legal process! Because they believe we should not be better than people who hate democracy. This is a sad thing. But there are funny things amongst the sad. Are you ready to see their invitation to the demonstration? READ MORE 25
Aww, the Rudy Giuliani excitement is getting incrementally less exciting—because people keep changing their stories. The Daily News earlier was having a source say: "In the next 48 hours he will announce that he will not run for governor, but will run for the Senate." Now it's all "A source familiar with Giuliani's thinking said the failed presidential candidate has been telling people he plans to run against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2010." Tomorrow, it's going to be, like, "Next year, Rudy will take a nap and go out to the deli for a while." @4:01 PM 1
And That's When I Clicked "Close Tab": 9/11 Poetry Edition @2:30 PM
"Smoke billows rolled
As planes shattered glass
Concrete and steel
The trees and the grass
An enemy attack
On the Land of the Free
How could this happen
How could this be"
Amazingly, there are nine more verses to this, but this was about as far as I could go. 13
On A Day Of Somber Reflection, Let's Pause For A Moment Of Laughter @12:25 PM
Oh, why the hell not, there's nothing else on the Internets today but 9/11 stuff anyway. 1
Dramatic, New 9/11 Video Released on 9/11 Eve! @11:57 AM
In non-news, the National September 11 Memorial & Museum has released what can only be described as Shocking New Videos of Planes Hitting Buildings, because now they have a digital museum thingie. Also, kind of fuck you? Never forget? 9/10, a day that will live in infamy? At least they have an annual news peg for Dramatic New Videos, I guess. 7
Obama To Ruin 9/11 With Focus On Community, Change @1:24 PM
"The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry," reports the American Spectator. You should read the whole thing for the full, sickening details, but do be advised that the administration is attempting to transform the day "into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing…. a day of activism, food banks, and community gardens." READ MORE 10
In the Weeds: The Dawn Redwood @4:59 PM
While the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) is not as massive as its California cousin—the giant sequoia—for me, the tree has always possessed an equally mythical allure. Long believed to have gone the way of the dinosaurs—leaving behind only fossilized records of its existence—a wild stand was discovered in a remote region of China in the 1940s, and seeds were brought back to the United States, where it proved particularly adaptable to the primordial climate that still reigns on so much of the East Coast. READ MORE 7
The Obama Infatuation; 9/11 and the Rush to War; the Murder of George Tiller @10:09 AM
- 1. Robert J. Samuelson: "The Obama infatuation is a great unreported story of our time."
- 2. Richard A. Clarke: "Yes, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice may have been surprised by the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — but it was because they had not listened."
- 3. Suspect Held in Kansas Abortion Doctor's Slaying and The Pro-Life Insurrection.
World Trade Center Logos @10:15 AM
The City Room blog had a competition for logos of the forthcoming World Trade Center building! We like this one. We think. The whole thing is, I dunno, somewhere between disturbing and amusing and irritating. Anyway they have a few more years, decades, whatever, to work on the logo before the building gets a foundation. 1
