September 11 Thought: What If They Gave A War And Everybody Came?

As a child born three years to the day after the A-bombing of Hiroshima, I actually asked myself that question once in a while over the years, not as an hypothetical extreme, but as a real possibility. So, I believe, did most American kids who did literal duck-and-cover drills in our elementary school classrooms before we were old enough to understand what we were covering ourselves from.

As the years passed and the details of the consequences of even the smallest nuclear war were filled in for us... anyone else remember a made-for-TV movie titled "The Day After"? ... at least a few teens like me came to see what it meant for the world, especially the part of it divided into "the free world" and "the Commies," if that scenario were ever realized. The weapons to destroy literally all humankind existed; "we" had them; "they" had them... and every time the US and the USSR fought a proxy war, I wondered if it was to be our last encounter.

Fast-forward 25 or more years. Some actual reduction of tension was achieved, to a point at which many of us held some hope that the Cold War need not become hot, at least not right away. Some weapons reductions were actually performed, although both sides still had enough nukes to destroy the "civilized" world several times over. Most of us learned to live with the conflict. Uneasily. Looking over our shoulders every day...

... Except the likes of Ronald Reagan, John Bolton, Dick Cheney, and... Osama bin Laden and his ilk, including Bush Junior. Every nation had its share of nut-jobs willing at least in theory to blow us all to kingdom come in an ultimate ideologically triggered and driven war. I actually knew Americans in the 1980s who would say, out loud, the Russians have these weapons so we have to have more of them. You talk about people unclear on the concept...

Fortunately, I knew damned few ordinary American citizens... and "damned" those few truly were... who actually thought Armageddon was a good idea. As long as those held no leadership positions, there was still some hope that humankind would not be vaporized en masse. But then some of them, not in any real sense power brokers but still determined to have their way, discovered terrorism, and then some opponents of those people discovered they could use the terrorists for their own purposes in projecting the classic "fear, uncertainty and doubt" (FUD) onto understandably concerned and occasionally terrified ordinary individuals, to achieve the effect of their great ultimate ideological battle without having the raw political power to order the necessary ultimate engagement of forces.

Most people, even so, thought it was a crack-brained idea actually to do those things. But "most people" don't always control the disposition of real-world forces... and then there are the utterly crazy people who sometimes do.

We've managed to survive 14 years from Osama bin Laden's attempt at, and of course George W. Bush's collusion in, provoking their respective worlds into indulging in some sort of ultimate engagement of forces. I probably won't live another 14 years, but many of you will.

Can you... please, I urge you... stave off the crazies for at least another 14 years? What with ISIS and all, Armageddon kinda nervous about the direction of things...

Misread Of The Day

... occurred when I glanced at this headline...

American al-Qaeda leaders killed in U.S. counterterror strikes

... and misread it as follows:

American al-Qaeda leaders killed in U.S. COUNTERTENOR strikes

Actually, I think we should try it. Take three of the free world's finest countertenors (i.e., adult male altos) and turn them loose on an Al Qaeda cell...

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AFTERWORD: Well, that turned out not only to be not humorous, but actually to be tragic: apparently the drone also killed two additional people at the site, one of them American, neither of them Al Qaeda. My thoughts are with the families. And despite my initial joking, I find the entire episode, as now revealed, anything but funny. [/sigh]

UPDATE: Obama apologizes for the American drone strike which killed "[a]n American aid worker and another man held hostage by Al Qaeda". Apparently the CIA had no intelligence (there's a temptation to end the sentence right there) indicating these hostages were present, and thus went forward with the strike.

Tuesday Cat Porting; Chris Hedges Interviews Lynne Stewart

We are headed out in this awful weather to take our kitty Esther to... get this... an ophthalmologist. The problem with going to a high-priced veterinarian is that they feel free to refer to high-priced specialists located far from home. But it's Stella's kitty and Stella's decision. I'm along for the ride to comfort the cat, and of course Stella.

Lynne Stewart

While I'm gone (most of the day), please read Chris Hedges's article/interview of famous civil liberties/rights activist lawyer Lynne Stewart, who is just recently out of jail after four years of a ten-year prison sentence, released because she has terminal breast cancer. Bluntly speaking, she was imprisoned for doing her job, defending her client in the face of impossible odds and in the face of the PATRIOT Act. She failed to win her case in 1995, but after the infamous 9/11/2001 that was not good enough for John Ashcroft, George W. Bush and their unsavory crew when they came into office: Stewart's client was "Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian Muslim known as 'the Blind Sheikh,' who was convicted in October of that year for alleged involvement in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center."

Stewart's crime, in short, was mounting a vigorous defense of Abdel Rahman when the government was determined to put him away for life... which they did. Stewart was sentenced to 28 months. When Barack Obama was elected president, "a federal appeals court under the Barack Obama administration demanded that the district judge reconsider her sentence. She was handed a new sentence by Koeltl—10 years." Message received: the right to trial by jury no longer extends to everyone, and if our government dislikes the accused, they have no problem taking revenge on his attorney. In this case, the government even used taped conversations between Stewart and Rahman as evidence against Stewart, a practice now legal but previously considered a blatant violation of attorney-client privilege.

This is a story to make you despair for the legitimacy of the judicial system in America. And when the courts become a tool of the executive, there is no more separation of powers... and we have no nation as our founders conceived it.

[Muslim] Terrorist Hijacker Redirected To Different Airport, Foiled By [Orthodox Christian] Security Team

No big deal, right? Happens all the time, right? OK... now SWAP THE TWO BRACKETED DESCRIPTIONS IN THE SUBJECT ABOVE. THAT'S WHAT REALLY HAPPENED. The obvious point: "bad guys" are not always Muslim; Christians are not always "good guys." This should surprise no sensible American... but the operative word is "sensible."

FBI Raids 2 Upscale Houston Homes, 1 Bryan, TX Apartment Re Purchase Of Chemicals For Making Gas

Ooooh, terra-ism in my very own neighborhood? Well, maybe. I'm trying to reserve judgment, but these incidents, one only perhaps 15-20 blocks from Our House ("next door" by Houston standards), are just too weird for words.

From the Houston Chronicle:

A federal law enforcement search of homes in upscale Houston neighborhoods Friday was prompted by the ordering of chemicals that could be used in the manufacture of some type of gas, according to an official.

Agents wearing Hazmat-type gear raided two homes in Houston and a third home in Bryan at about 9 a.m. [yesterday.]

The law enforcement source, who asked not to be identified, said the chemicals were not the type used in the manufacture of a traditional explosive.

The intent was "to make some sort of gas ... like tear gas or nerve gas," the source said.

The official said it was not known if any gas was ever produced or recovered.

...

The documents in the case were sealed, so there's not a lot of information. Apparently no one was arrested. All the news that the Comical saw fit to print seems to be from neighborhood gossip and the property tax rolls. The two Houston homes are owned by a local artist, and the apartment in Bryan is the residence of her son. I'm trying to figure out, presuming this is a put-up deal, just who benefits politically.

This has been your unofficial "be scared, be very scared" alert for the morning.