Laura Novak
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Goosed

9/11/2011

 
Picture
In 1966, the nefarious SMIRK organization, headed by the cave-dwelling Green Goose, hired two agents, Ali and Bo Bo, to kill an American spy hot on the trail of the Goose’s weapon of genocide.

I try to imagine myself clutching my six year-old knees and laughing in delight as this news was delivered from our black-and-white television set. Fred Flintstone was the special agent hired by our prehistoric government to take out the Green Goose. Fred was thrilled to become “a spy…a double zero guy.” He lured Wilma onto a pterodactyl-powered airliner to pursue his bellicose opponent in far off Eur-rock.

“I wish we were already there Fred. I feel a little nervous,” Wilma fretted in First Class.

“Nonsense, honey, there isn’t a safer place in the world than right here,” Fred chortled.

From a few rows back, Ali seethed, “Let ‘em have it” as he hurled a machete into the forward cabin, nearly scalping Fred before slicing through a curtain marked “PILOT” and coming to rest in the captain’s hat.

In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, I watched this film relic alongside my six-year-old son who was recovering from bilateral leg surgery. It was his 13th surgery, and this time he suffered from horrendous nighttime panic attacks. We were mentally and physically depleted while my husband was stranded close to ground zero. I chose to rely on some humorous family films to prevent reality from penetrating our household.

My son remained oblivious to the unfolding tragedy back East. Laid up in double casts, he was delighted with our laugh fest. Ali is the tiny, dark skinned man, he explained to me. Bobo was the big guy wearing the Fez. I was mortified by Hannah-Barbera’s prescience but mimiced my son’s spontaneous laughter. Before he returned to school, I lied blatantly, telling him that two bombs had exploded in New York City. Then to overcompensate, I waxed about the beauty and magic in our world until my child interrupted me by pointing to the TV: Fred Flintstone had captured the evil Green Goose inside a torture chamber. The deadly missile was aimed into space where the warmonger would explode.

“What a terrible way to go” Fred lamented just before the credit roll.

By day, my son attended school in a wheelchair. By night, he was tortured by demons in surgical scrubs holding him down under his surgical gas mask. One day after school, he met me with a “this just in” voice to say that two planes had crashed in New York City. He saw no relationship to my earlier lie and I refused to connect the dots for him. His psychic world was damaged enough. The word in the playground was about some bad Middle Eastern guys, “like the ones in Indiana Jones,” he punctuated.

After school, I would heave my child onto the daybed to return to Hollywood as soothsayer. Four men wearing Fez hats chased Indie. One Arab leaned in close to our American hero, a heartbeat away from death, and said “My soul is prepared, how is yours?” My son was spellbound while I chewed my cuticles. “The brotherhood has been prepared to do anything to keep the covenant safe,” another Arab told Mr. Jones.

The film concluded, uncannily, in a cave hugged by inhospitable mountains. The final scenes were cluttered with bad guys in Nazi hats and turbans. There was even a man wearing a turban under a red fez - the proverbial cherry on top - holding a machine gun to Jones’ back. Again, the American hero won. Not just because he chose the real Grail but, as the wizened knight points out, because he found “illumination.”

Our repertoire of Hollywood hysteria was beginning to run thin. I still hid the newspapers and kept news sources turned off because our nights were a hellhole of anger and panic. By day, we laughed uproariously as Sonny Bono purchased a clumsy bomb from the airport drug store to tote on board the Lunar Shuttle. I recalled Airplane II as a laugh-riot in the '70s. How could I not remember the impotent, bomb-clutching Bono as he threatened to blow the flight to smithereens before Ted Striker, handsome American hero, and other passengers, closed in on him? The relevance was mercifully lost on my child, as it was in an earlier scene when an elderly lady was grabbed at gunpoint from the x-ray machine while four bazooka-toting guerillas in flack jackets and army fatigues breezed through. On the verge of a primal scream myself, I emitted an audible gasp when a young boy took control of the computer console at the lunar shuttle command center and forced a plane to crash. 

My husband returned home and my son eventually walked again. On this anniversary, I am busy analyzing my former taste in humor. Why was it we we have always been collectively ready to laugh at the loser, the impotent, the swarthy guy who chose the wrong Grail? I am tripped up by the hypocrisy that made this okay. When anniversaries warrant it, we still embrace the rhetoric of standing united, but just look at the script we ourselves wrote, repeatedly, across so many decades.

Really, though, I digress when what I need to do is rewind last night’s video. This is the Bill Murray spy farce where some aged sleuths try to re-ignite the Cold War in spite of the loser who works for Blockbuster Video.

“New weapons, new poisons!” the British spy chief exults. “Happy days…happy days.”


Gabi Coatsworth link
9/11/2011 04:22:35 am

I'm amazed and shocked that you remember all these films etc so clearly - only because it shows how ingrained our outlook can become just from watching a screen. Well done for realising it and writing about it.

Laura Novak link
9/11/2011 04:28:08 am

Gabi, it is SO nice to see you here. Thank you for joining us. You are such a phenomenal writer, I need to get your new blog into my roll.

I made notes of course at the time and played with the essay roughly then. It was so traumatic, I just never placed it anywhere.

Everyone should feel free to write their own feelings about that day. The topic is wide open. Remembrance is the mood of the day for me.

lilly lily
9/11/2011 04:29:44 am

Kids always have fears. My youngest told me years later that he had nitemares featuring the Blue Meanies from the Beatles "Yellow Submarine."

Looking at it from his perspective as a little kid I can see why.

Pointing out that Chris Christie of N.J. is another of the Koch brothers tools. Mother Jones has tapes from a secret meeting where Christie brags about what he did in New Jersey. A secret Koch Bros Confab that was taped.

Brad Friedman wrote the article.

So they have a long list of confederates willing and able to wreck havoc.

KMR
9/11/2011 04:34:02 am

Hi Laura,
In 1966 I was graduating form high school; older than you, but I remember The Flintstones well.
Watching a comedy is such a good idea, as Norman Cousins helped us learn.

Hopefully today your son is a strong young man with his health issues far behind him. I see you said, "he walked again." GOOD.
I hope his panic attacks are gone as well. I had them along with some medical issues 15 years ago. Until they are experienced, it's hard to believe how desperately a panic attack can make death feel so close at hand.

As for your question about why we have been collectively ready to laugh at a loser; I think it is because that makes us feel, often erroneously, as though we are winners.

lilly lily
9/11/2011 04:48:04 am

As far as 9-11.

I am occassionaly pre-cognitive, and was at the Hoover Damn the day before. They weren't on terror alert that day, but I had premonitions of terrorism, though I thought it would be the Hoover Dam. Possibly because they had been on some sort a alert before we got there.

Gambling in Vegas the next nite I met a man from New Zealand, and we racketed around the Casinos and I went to bed when I was 2000 ahead.

The next morning I got a call at my hotel from my gambling aquaintance, and he said, turn on your T.V.. I had gone to sleep with the T.V. on, so only needed to turn up the volume.

All of Vegas was in shock. They closed down some places fearing an attack. Huge flags were unfurled everywhere you looked. People hung out at the giant screens in the Casinos.

Everyone was stuck in Vegas, and my aquaintance offered to drive me to L.A. because he had a hired car. I would have had to get to S.F. to a friends, and then up to Seattle. So decided to wait it out in Vegas.

Big mistake. I lost a bundle trying to win a Mercedes convertable to drive back home.

The odd thing was I had stopped in a cafe the day before. The featured piano entertainer asked me what he should play, and I chose "Autumn in New York". He proceeded to play and sing all the New York songs that he knew. I felt very homesick to miss the gorgeous East coast September weather in hot Vegas.

I would have been in N.Y. if I wasn't stuck in Vegas.

Knew a number of young men who died that day in the towers.

I used to eat at the Windows on the World, but I never did after the first bombing in the basement.

I was sure it would be attacked again.

eclecticsandra
9/11/2011 04:48:08 am

I once read a book about how the Nazis used cartoons to build anti-Semitism. We should be very careful about the images our children develop about enemies. I was a bit surprised to watch the depiction of Indians in Disney's Peter Pan.

However, as a group we can laugh at ourselves. One night in the 70's watching a publicly Marx brothers movie, we were treated to dancing by "the darkies." It was so exaggerated that the audience (mostly students) started laughing. It seemed to indicate that we were accepting that people used to feel that way. Maybe we shouldn't have laughed.

Karen
9/11/2011 05:16:59 am

Lovely post, Laura. My eldest daughter was 7 and we were living in idyllic Yosemite Park at the time, with a brother and sister of mine both in NYC. It was a terrible balancing act for most parents I imagine, most Americans as well. So sad to think how this tragic event changed their dreams in some way forever.

V-A
9/11/2011 05:21:20 am

What I took from your post was what it means to be a good mother in this difficult world, and how lucky your son is to have you. I wasn't even thinking of 911 until I read the comments.

I was living in San Diego when the twin towers fell. I had eaten at Windows on the World twice; had feared their elevators. While the event was vivid to me, the tragedy wasn't. I couldn't FEEL it. Some of that is living in my southern California bubble, but some of it was because the entire event was so massive and confusing. Nothing the media said about 911 came close to the void I felt.

Whatever happened, it just felt like another event that wasn't what I was told it was. And the people who died just seemed like pawns in a game I didn't understand.



lilly lily
9/11/2011 05:42:34 am

The one little vignet I always loved was when some of the workers clearing the sit and looking for bodies, saw a large group of migrating monarch butteflies, that landed on the debree and flew off, and whispered "SOULS".

FrostyAK
9/11/2011 05:56:37 am

Hollywood has been preparing us for the current atrocities since the 1950's. Sometimes I even look at my favorite comedies (Dennis the Menace, Mrs Doubtfire, Forrest Gump), with a jaded eye. Media has been ratcheting up the violence, sex, and hatred for most of our lifetimes. The current Saturday morning cartoons are but a small symptom of what is wrong with the world.

Then came realistic violent video games, many rated for adults only. If those are in the house, even elementary school kids are often found playing them. The military is now recruiting using violent video games to capture their prey (warm bodies to throw at the 'enemy'). 80 of those warm bodies were seriously wounded in Afghanistan yesterday.

I have so much to say, but will not do so now. My anger is at the boiling point. But I will leave you with this url to peruse, or not. Lots of good articles there.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26475

Actually I have one more thing to say - The Pet Goat.... erroneously referred to as My Pet Goat.

mary
9/11/2011 06:07:41 am

9/11/01 is one of those days that I do remember clearly. I remember that I was watching the today show while paying bills (my husband laughed when I recalled this, because I sure don't pay the bills now.). The planes hit the towers and I felt like it was a bad dream. My dad was working in the city (not the towers) and I got through to his company and he was ok. I live in the DC area and I remember that there were NO planes flying for days, just fighter jets. I have goosebumps as I type. What a horrible day.

What I remember most about 9/11 is that it was the first time when something happened and I would wake up in the mornings following and hope: Oh, maybe that was just a nightmare?

I felt the same after Katrina. I hope not to feel it again.

Ivyfree
9/11/2011 06:08:11 am

Thank you, Frosty AK, for remembering it is THE Pet Goat, and not MY Pet Goat.

I can't think of anything important about that factoid, but it always bugged me when people call it My Pet Goat.

My son was flying to KC that week, and none of us could remember (in the anxiety of the moment) whether he was flying out Monday night, or Tuesday morning. Monday night, as it turned out, and he was stuck in KC. He said he went to the nearest Barnes & Noble, got a latte, and hung around watching their tv... and answering his cell phone because, he explained, every relative he had in the world plus every friend was calling him to make sure he was safely on the ground!

Lily Lily, I don't know how long you were in Vegas, but we arrived there the Sunday after 9/11. We'd planned to fly, but in the end drove. The place was EMPTY.

Rain Perry
9/11/2011 06:18:21 am

Like V-A, I struggled to absorb the events of 9/11. It happened so far away and yet I was so personally affected. everything seemed to have changed. But then I realized it's not so much that things had changed as that I was seeing things as they were. That's healthier, I feel, than the American rose-colored glasses through which we all had been looking.

I wrote a song about it, which I'm making available as a free download today.

http://www.rainperry.com/on-sale/

Btw, I'm a regular reader here and love the intelligent, civil tone in these comments. It reminds me of Bree's blog that way.

Pam Picard link
9/11/2011 06:21:05 am

Really nice piece Laura.

Alexis
9/11/2011 06:24:34 am

O/T-here is "anon2:38" latest post on IM. Hello party people. Wanted to drop in one last time before I get home as I noticed some of you have worried I'd been "chased off", "intimidated", and so on. If you recall I mentioned in my last post I really wanted to concentrate on visiting with the friends and family I came to see on the last leg of my trip and therefore did not think I'd be posting again until I got home. But I decided to post this one last time before getting home since I have some spare time before a dinner out and I wanted to share what little I knew about the "run" as well as a few other things I inadvertently neglected to mention in my last comment. 

There are usually dozens of emails a day flying back and forth from within the small circle of Sarah, Todd, and the remaining staff/handlers/hangers-on. More if Sarah is in the news on a given day, less on the rare occasions the lying sack can keep her yap-trap shut for any length of time. 
The person within this circle who discloses things to me stated (last weekend) that Sarah's handheld was going to blow up--THAT many emails were zipping back and forth. 

6:41 PM

Anonymous said...
I unfortunately cannot say I saw or heard any statements which directly implicate Sarah as having not run at all. However, early in the weekend there was an exchange between Todd and one of the "circle" (yes, it feels lame to say that; I simply can't think of a better way to describe it) whereupon Todd was instructing them to find someone who would go "on the record" and say they ran with Sarah. 

Now all we can gain from that DIRECTLY is the fact Todd realized people might find it difficult to accept that the same woman who was nodding, glassy eyed, and slow moving at the C4P event somehow transformed into a fitness maven less than twelve hours later...able to not only run the race but to complete THIRTEEN MILES in barely two hours. 

I'm venturing off into the land of "just my opinion" here, but I think this hour and forty-five minute time is classic Palin Spin...they embellish past the point of believability. They want to counteract the claims of drug use and poor health...so not only will she run the race, she'll have a better time than the men and women in their twenties! 

I'm not saying she did run or didn't run...but I do know if she had run the whole race (and male no mistake--I do NOT believe it was physically possible for her to complete such a feat) people would have recognized her and there would be a ton of photos from the sidelines and not just questionable photos from the start and finish. 

6:43 PM

Anonymous said...
I stand by my statements that Sarah is alarmingly unhealthy. Her hair is falling out, her skin is sallow, she isn't eating except for binges after days of surviving on coffee and tic tacs. I just do not believe it's possible someone in this shape would have the physical stamina to run such a distance. 

So there's my two cents on the run. 

This is a recent issue--Sarah and Bristol had a blowout on the phone last week...Bristol was telling Sarah her "reality" show might be scrapped before one episode was even aired. (Bristol is SO boring and is testing horribly with preview audiences) Sarah told her to do "whatever it takes" to turn the tide and make the producers and the network believe she could do better. Sarah said they absolutely could not have another "failure" from within the Palin family. 

This is something I wanted to mention before, something that might have supporting evidence waiting to be located. When Sarah was initially on that meteoric crest of media exposure, she was on the cover of multiple weekly magazines. There was one magazine which put Sarah on the cover and multiple family photos were used in the story. One of Sarah's people sent an email to the editor requesting the removal of one photo, saying they hadn't meant to send it. The photo was from a shoot featuring Sarah, Todd, Piper, and Trig. The only difference between the photo which was requested to be pulled from the article and the other photos from the same shoot? Trig's ears were visible in the pulled photo. I was not around for this and only heard about it well after the fact...but I heard Sarah absolutely freaked out when it was realized this photo would possibly be published in a major weekly. There was also an email sent to the same five people who seem to be "in on it" during the first week of May 2008 by Sarah from her blackberry. In it she says if any of the recipients of the message see photos of Trig being taken, make sure he has a blanket or hat to cover his "ear". She said ear, singular and not earS, plural. 

It could be argued the reason for this request as well as the freak-out over the inclusion of an "ear picture" in a magazine was simply that she was vain and didn't want everyone to see this "imperfection". But given how much Sarah loves to play victim, I think this shows t

KMR
9/11/2011 06:25:46 am

@ eclecticsandra, Some might well be skeptical but I have no reason to doubt that the Nazi's used cartoon characters to build anti-Semitism.
T.V. cartoon characters and or real live characters also, too, send messages across to children and adults, unconsciously, all the time. Look at the success of commercials (and Lady Gaga for that matter - see previous thread) to know that marketing IS "programming" us for all it's worth. I think Hitler was right on that score.

Thumbs up Frosty and Ivyfree ... and everyone.

Barbara Alfaro link
9/11/2011 06:40:08 am

A great post, Laura. How perfectly you capture how we sometimes use humor as a shield. I think sometimes that is a very okay way to deal with the horrific.

Tom link
9/11/2011 07:31:10 am

Nothing's real until it's personal.

AkPetMom
9/11/2011 07:38:16 am

Everything I learned from television came from Trey Parker and Matt Stone; creators of SouthPark and Team America. If it's been worth talking about, they covered it.

Laura Novak link
9/11/2011 09:07:31 am

Thank you everyone. What a horrendous day it was. And how important it is to remember that we can draw cultural, religious and political lessons from it. Not all of them good or pretty.

And yes, V-A, our first thoughts were to protect our children as best we could. How could we make such a horrendous story mesh in their minds.

And finally, I shouldn't have to say this, but evidently I need to. Rude remarks directed at other comments won't be tolerated here. If something has disappeared, it's because I am catching up and don't like what I see.

Thank you to all of you for making this such a great place to spend time (for me anyway!)

Laura Novak link
9/11/2011 09:12:17 am

Palinoia: If you are reading this, please check your email!!!

Sassy
9/11/2011 09:35:19 am

Just wanted to say thank you for not allowing rude comments. Love the civility.

We all know exactly where we were and who called us to tell us to turn on the television RIGHT NOW that day. Seeing the horror of the second plane hitting was downright unimaginable.

I cannot watch this over and over and over again. Cannot allow violence to be watched on my television, nor can I allow "games" that include violence.

Sending cyberhugs to all your readers!

FrostyAK
9/11/2011 09:56:42 am

They called the 9/11 first responders heroes, made a big hoopla about it. Then this is how so many of them were treated for the next 10 years.

http://www.readersupportednews.org/news-section2/332-141/7201-first-responders-health-care-an-insult-to-heroism

FrostyAK
9/11/2011 11:08:19 am

@Rain Perry - thanks for the treat of your song. It's tough to BE awake, but it's better than the alternatives.

OzMud link
9/11/2011 11:19:25 am

Laura - your post took me back to my son's first surgery (age 5) and although he never suffered panic attacks or nightmares, he did begin to have horrid temper tantrums when his father (his hero) would leave for or come home from work. Then again just before doctor appointments (he loved his pediatrician) and hospital check-ups.

It took us a while to catch it - dad was a chiropractor and wore white clinic jackets. We boxed them all and I made colourful replacements. The tantrums stopped. We took coloured clinic jackets with us to all his medical appointments for the next couple of years. When he was old enough to put his fears into words we talked it through.

I always thought it was a huge mistake to not allow moms or dads to be holding their child's hand while anesthesia set in prior to surgery. I hope western medicine has grown up since those days...

Thank you for this post. Made me call my kid :)

Up
9/11/2011 11:51:21 am

Oz, they have. I was able to go into the surgery suite for my kids' surgeries. (Nothing major, thankfully.)

Ottoline
9/11/2011 12:51:59 pm

Re laughing at the loser: my boys were watching a comedy in which a loser fat man keeps getting hurt. He was pushed so he fell (sat down) atop a fire. My little boy (too young then for a really good vocabulary), looked at me and said "Mommie -- I feel poor for him." I was thrilled.

I believe I watched "Babe" (about the piggie) 35 times at least. You then see things you never saw the first 10 times. Sly jokes of the production people, like the sheep-pooping scene is woven in about 4 more times, even though it's front and center only once. Some racist dialogue.

Lilly lily: with your pre-cognition, what do you see ahead for babygate, for Obama, for our economy?

V ictoria link
9/11/2011 02:23:33 pm

9-11 was obviously terrible. But I feel that the US - formerly addicted to fictional fear found in movies - became addicted to real fear. The Bush administration fanned that fear with false reports of WMD in Iraq, and by ratcheting up the terror threat whenever it wanted to distract the public.

FDR was extraordinarily perceptive when he said that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Fear stoppers the truth.

We have a choice. We can choose to be afraid, or we can choose not to be. We may not have the power to make that choice all the time, but we can make it often enough to make a difference.

jeff
9/11/2011 03:12:58 pm

@Laura,

It's the memories of all of the personal things particular to each of us that makes the events of 9/11/01 so deeply etched into our minds and hearts. I have read and heard so many personal stories of individuals and their experiences, and I am always touched by the rawness of emotions, regardless of their proximity to NYC and ground zero.

I was on my way to the office when my wife called to tell me about the first plane that hit the tower. A few minutes later, she called me again and told me she had seen the 2nd plane hit. It was all so surreal. Once in the office, we set up a television in the conference room in our suite, and people just stood and watched, mesmerized, usually saying nothing and just shaking their heads or holding their hand over their mouths in shocked awe. Many cried silent tears. After an hour or so, after it became evident that no work would be accomplished that day, I left to go home to be with my wife. She had just arrived home after dropping off our son, who was in the first grade at that time, at his elementary school. She had just gone on disability from her job after a recurrence of breast cancer.

I remember us talking about how we were going to discuss the attacks with our son. Originally, we decided to keep the television on "kid's channels" until we could decide the best way to talk to him about it. Finally, a couple of days later, one of our son's classmates told him about a "plane crash" that had happened, and we were able to sit down and discuss it in a way that wouldn't traumatize him.

Kids are pretty resilient, and often do not take bad news like we expect they might since they are unable to understand all of the implications of such a tragic event. We adults have our own limitations too.

After 9/11, my wife wouldn't let me or my son walk by without giving us a hug or kiss, although that wasn't much of a change from before. What was different was that there was always a tear streaming down her cheek as she did so. Also, she began inviting our son to sleep with us again, which came along with watching HIS cartoon DVDs until we fell asleep. If we were too tired to put him back into his own bed, the real fun began because our son had a unique way of shifting during his sleep. He turned clockwise throughout the night. If you had his head in your ribs at a particular moment, you knew that in a couple of hours, his feet would be in the same place, and next your underarms were at risk. A couple of months of sleeping with him again was all we could handle, as neither of us were getting any "good sleep" with that arrangement.

My wife passed away the following spring, and her passing brought my son and me closer together, and once again, I let the "helicopter boy" sleep with me for awhile, as long as he did his spinning sleep on the other side of a row of pillows I put in the middle of the bed to protect my tender and very ticklish ribs.

On the 2nd anniversary of 9/11, I lost my dad to pancreatic cancer. Although he had retired, he was helping my brother run his landscaping and lawncare business. In giving my brother a sideways compliment, he said that he'd never worked so hard for such little pay, and always laughed as he said it. My Dad never slowed down, working hard up until the end of his life. Hard work was all he ever knew, and complaining about work being hard was out of the question. If he heard a complaint from my brother or me when we were younger, he'd say if work wasn't hard, you'd have to pay somebody to let you do it. His enthusiasm for getting things done was infectious, and knowing that you'd get a heartfelt "attaboy" from my dad made doing any job, no matter how strenuous, worth the effort because he could make you feel like a million dollars.

The Friday afternoon before he passed away, I received a call from a friend who was an intern in oncology at the time. He said he'd run into my Dad as he was coming into the hospital, having some respiratory problems. After an MRI had been run, the mass was found, and they were trying to admit him. He was breathing easier by then, and told them that he had "some grass to cut" and didn't have time to take off at that very moment. Finally, they convinced him and just a few days later, on 9/11/03, he was gone.

There are a million other details related to my own 9/11 experiences that are minute but still vivid, and I'll spare readers the details. But the things that I learned from my wife--- to love unconditionally, and my from my dad--- to be honest, work hard, and give the credit for success to others, will always be with me and I'm doing all I can each day to pass these lessons along to my son.

Today, give someone you love a hug and tell them that you love them. Then do it again tomorrow and the next day and the next...

CA Guy
9/11/2011 03:56:54 pm

What a lovely and poignant post, Laura. It hits home on so many levels, not the least of which is how much we can anesthetize ourselves to the violence, the racism and the hatred and find it flowering in all the cracks of society.

In my dream alternate universe The Pet Goat is not read, the guys with "their hair on fire" are heard, the planes do not crash and the perps are stopped at the terminals.

Ten years later in that alternate universe there would be no mourning for our dead, the dead of Iraq, the dead of Afghanistan. In that universe the Fred Flintstone story would still get a double-edged laugh, but not the kind that sends shivers up your spine.

In that universe maybe even Gabby Giffords isn't shot. It is a nice dream. It is a wistful contrast to the sad nightmare that 9/11 wrought in our universe. Perhaps the saddest part is the fear that crept in and deadened the souls of so many. And the evil that some used from that day to create even more evil. Does it take ten years to wake up from a nightmare? It feels like it will be even longer.

mistah charley, ph.d.
9/11/2011 11:45:43 pm

I'd say that 9/11 "worked" in the way that was hoped for by the people who planned it, but despite its intensity it was NOT a turning point. Its function was not to CHANGE the course of history, but rather to intensify and "burn in" the course of history we already had.

Rather like, in the reality series "Sarah Palin's Alaska" - it's Piper's birthday, and at the celebration her sister Willow pushes Piper's face into the birthday cake. This event iconicizes an already pervasive family dynamic.

lilly lily
9/12/2011 12:49:13 am

As far as pre cognition, I usually see tragedy (air crashes, automobile accidents, family things) and it disturbed me. I supress it as much as possible. Did join a parasychology group in NYC. But they sold their beautiful town house and moved their immense library to Long Island. Eileen Garrets home. She was a psychic. Did get tested by someone from Duke.

As far as 9-11. I heard from one womans sister who worked for the Port Authority that they were all told to leave, and one poor soul went back to turn off her computer and was never seen again. So much for being careful.

In a major event, leave, and to the hell with being careful and turning off your computer.

A bit like Lots wife looking back and being turned into a pillar of salt.

I don't know what will happen to Sarah Palin. I don't have a choice in what I end up knowing in advance. That is what I call it. Knowing. Sometimes it isn't even knowing, simply avoiding something, taking a different route and later finding out what it was you avoided.

Personally I think it is some primitive 6th sense some have. Many people block it out.

The Parasychological Instite did collect data on what people knew in advance.

The one in Princeton shut down a few years ago.

lilly lily
9/12/2011 01:05:33 am

As for Vegas. They immediatly laid off workers as no one could come in by plane. People bought used cars as all the hired cars were snapped up. The Casinos reduced the hotel fees a bit as a courtesy for those trapped in Vegas.

The road to Hoover dam was blocked off and the NY, NY casino was closed. (I'm not sure what it was as I didn't go there).

They wanted blood, but so many people volunteered that they couldn't accept the donations by that afternoon.

What I do recall was the calibre of the reportage. Faux news has such sub standard people. At least then, reporters had gravitas. They actually were reporters first as well as personalities and good looking.

lilly lily
9/12/2011 01:10:54 am

Peter Jennings reported on air for 17 hours straight.

Now there was a fine man and an excellent reporter.

Ottoline
9/12/2011 01:19:34 am

Please go here to "reccomend" my comment in the Washington Post re the Hoax. Thanks to Grasshopper commenting on AKM's good post today that led me to the WashPo article on the Trudeau/McG effort.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/doonesburys-satirical-comic-strip-tease-with-mcginniss-and-palin-excerpts/2011/09/09/gIQABAXVLK_allComments.html?ctab=all_#weighIn

Laura Novak link
9/12/2011 01:43:44 am

Well done, Ottoline! WaPo no less. Solid comment. Interesting article!!

@CaGuy, thank you for that great comment. You articulated what I could not have. Great addition to the post.

@Jeff, no fair with YOUR comment. Can't start the day in tears, but that's what your story requires. Your tales of your dad are amazing. And so true to their generation. Thank you for sharing that and about your wife and son

@Tom, I was not addressing you re: the rude comment. It was someone else. A Reminder: There is absolutely NO place in these comments for people to disparage or ridicule one another. Rudeness won't be tolerated.

That said, Tom, many of your comments are landing in spam for some reason. Mine do too, for what it's worth. This last comment of yours I left unpublished. If you'd like to take off that last part, I'd be glad to publish it.

Mary Jane
9/12/2011 02:41:17 am

Laura, I appreciate your maturity, a trait lacking at most other blogs.

Do you all remember the banned looney toons episodes from the 20s ->

I am trying to darndest to collect all of them. The talk of cartoon propaganda made me think of this.

Allie
9/12/2011 02:55:57 am

I feel honored by those who have shared their personal tragedies here and I am reminded of my belief that one hasn't really lived until he or she has found that place inside where your compassion for your fellow human beings resides. Some never find it and live their whole lives incomplete no matter how much material wealth they may have. Through the years, I have learned how to recognize those who are on that path and carry their compassion with them everywhere they go. This blog is blessed by their presence (no offense intended to the non-believers.)

1) Christina Green was one of the 50 9/11/01 babies, who died in January when Gabby Giffords was shot.

2) Paul Simon singing "Sounds of Silence" felt like its first 50 years were a practice run for the day it was actually meant to be sung, if that makes any sense.

3) I used to work with a surgeon whose wife was a flight attendant for the LA-NY and LA-Boston and return runs. She had the day off.

4) Kids don't know how to express their stress, so they often do it with anger.

5) I've only got five lives left -- I've come close to buying it four times. The first time was when I was a little kid in the hospital. My earliest memory is crying my eyes out while being in a dark room except for the light coming in from the window in the door and seeing a nurse come to the window and then walk away without coming in the room...many times.

I'm guessing I through a few tantrums.:)

Mrs Gunka
9/12/2011 04:02:40 am

:-) I've been watching cartoons since the early 40's. Of course, they were shown in the movie theaters back then. or in the comic books (10 cents). Most of them did have violence, but the hero always saved the day. Even the beloved Popeye fought to the finish 'cause he ate his spinach! The bully never won. My father-in-law would never eat spinach because he had seen to many calves with Scours (look it up) and my hubby had the same rejection when I first served it for diner. In those days, canned spinach or cooked spinach was much less appealing but it is good for you. Hubby loves raw spinach! I was a frail child so I would hold my nose and eat it because Popeye could knock out the bully!

When cartoons first appeared on our black and white TV's they did not have the "kick" of the colorful ones we had seen on the big screen. But we had grown up with radio and we knew how to use our imagination and we could visualize them in living color. When color TV was introduced they still repeated the old cartoons but opened a new world to cartoonist to come up with more action to keep the little kiddies interested and they added commercials in cartoon characters to sell cerals, vitamins, and toys, toys , toys!

The commercials soon became the standard that caught the kids eyes. So...they had to put more action and violence into the cartoons to keep the little ones entertained. When mom went to the stores she was programmed to buy what the kids saw on TV to keep them happy. We were all controlled by corporate America way back then. Soon electronic games came out and PacMan was eating up all the obstacles in his path....fast forward to day and the video games that have the hero destroying everything in it's path.
We have now 3-4 generations that have grown up on violence. Corporate America has hypnotized us into making us believe we are super humans and we can win against the enemy. Does WW2 come to mind? We were ALL against the enemy. Come 9-11 we had the sympathy of the whole world. They joined us in knocking out the enemy as they too did not want to be attacked, blindsided.

However, the leader, Bin Laden was never caught. We were made to believe he had moved on to Iraq with his loyalist and Iraq had WMD,s and the threat of more attacks were imminent.

We were led into that war by false reasoning. Many of our tired friends were just not that convinced but Mighty Mouse (Bush cabal) was going to attack them. "Either you are with us or you are against us". They used fear to have us follow.

Each year for 10 years, they have used 9-11 to remind us what happened and we need to be afraid it could happen again. It's not the old patriots or politicians putting their lives on the line, but the sons and daughters of real Americans that have faced the enemy..the enemy that wears no uniform...furthering the control of our paranioa...trust no one! These are the kids who have grown up with the videos who have never faced a person coming out of the dark to vaporize them. They can't turn off the game and life is normal again. Life on the front lines goes on and on and mom doesn't have dinner waiting for them. However we have Halliburton men in the mess halls making dinner and rebuilding the structures we demolished with shock and awe. Not a fair trade off, is it.

But if we can show the buildings coming down every September 11th, they can use that fear to keep their real life game going. Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld never looked like Popeye to me, and that is why I never believed a word they said or the games they played!

Little Lulu and Tubby were always my favorite. :-)

lilly lily
9/12/2011 04:09:13 am

At lunch I was reminded of John Farrell who died young on 9-11. A very loving family man with a great sense of humor who married his childhood sweetheart. Hundreds at his memorial, and his children wrote a book dedicated to him.

Some live, some die. Kismet.

Another woman I met in Vegas husband and son worked at the towers. She detested her ex-husband, and they never spoke but she did try to call him if he knew where their son was. His phone was blocked to her calls. Divorces can be so acrimonious that people can't seem to forgive and forget.

Luckily her son had taken the day off to take his daughter to Dooney Park for her birthday.

Palinoia
9/12/2011 04:56:44 am

Laura - sent you an email, thanks for the reply!

With regard to 9/11, I think Laura wrote a great observation here. No matter how awful things are, the innocence of children should be protected whenever possible.

The overwhelming sadness of that day will live on, but with it, will come hope filled stories of the resilience of children and adults alike. We will carry on, and I personally feel like we owe every person who was lost to us on 9/11, our gift of living every day as if it is our last, in their honor and memory. It is what I believe they would want and we all benefit from a life well-lived.

Ivyfree
9/12/2011 05:00:03 am

"one poor soul went back to turn off her computer and was never seen again."

It's a lesson, isn't it? I read a murder mystery once in which the protagonist remarked on how many people are killed because they're afraid of looking stupid. That guy is following you a little too close; cross the street or walk into a shop and wait. You're on a blind date and the guy squicks you out: say, "this isn't working. Don't follow me," and leave. Listen to your instincts! We're so afraid of looking stupid or being embarrassed that we don't remove ourselves from danger.

I'm not bragging, mind. A fire alarm went off in our building one day, and before I left I saved everything on my computer, put my folders in the locked cabinet, shut everything down, and locked the door. When my boss saw what I'd done she raised hell with me. She said I could have died in a fire by the time I got that done, and here I was worried about confidential files.

A lot of the people who survived 9/11 did so because they continued to leave the buildings, especially the second one to be hit- many were told it was all over and they could go back, but continued to leave.

lilly lily
9/12/2011 06:05:44 am

Purdue University did a marvelous job of animation showing exactly what happened and why it had the effect it did. Back in June of 2007. I've seen it, and talked to engineers about it way back.

Personally I'm satisfied that it was the two planes and nothing else needed to be involved. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

I've talked to Tom Kean who headed the investigation during a question and answer session. I think he is an honorable man and did a good job.

Up
9/12/2011 06:10:29 am

Mrs. Gunka reminded me of this: The cartoon character who comes closest to personifying Sarah Palin for me is Gaston, the villian of the 1991 Disney film Beauty and the Beast. Gaston is an egotistical man caught up in his own strength and physical beauty, completely disregards the feeling of others, and uses fear to manipulate others. I can't hear "The Mob Song" without thinking of Palin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkzjFbKlISo

The one good thing to come out of the terrorist attacks on 9/11/01 was a sense of unity among our country's citizens. Since that time too many politicians have worked to divide us, and Palin brought that division to an entirely new level with her hate-filled, pot-stirring speeches.

And yet she continues to speak of our "Founding Fathers" without recognizing the irony of men who worked to bring our country together being held up as an example by the woman who works so hard to tear our country apart. (And ditto for Jesus... that woman is as un-Jesusy as they come.)

search4more
9/12/2011 06:44:15 am

>"But The Rogue has been fact-checked within an inch of its life."

>"One of the fascinating aspects of the coming Rogue whirlwind will be how the MSM handles it. Can they handle the Palinista blowback? Are they so afraid of being called "liberal"? Will they even note the existence of Chapter 19?"

-Andrew Sullivan

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/09/can-the-msm-grow-some.html


Hm. Chapter 19. ...Presumably that's the one about the marathon in Iowa. ;-P ...No just kidding. :-) That sounds interesting doesn't it?

FrostyAK
9/12/2011 06:46:55 am

On 9/11, Alaska style:

http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/alaska-bound-jet-told-transmit-hijack-code-911-says-ex-controller

Other links within the article.

V-A
9/12/2011 07:04:52 am

Artists have always been prescient. Think of Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World. Many animators are artists. WALL-E is brilliant satire, and will always be one of my favorite movies, as is RANGO. The unfettered imagination often speaks truth, which is why the arts matter more than the media does, imo.

Just think of Picasso's Guernica or the poetry that came out of WWI or the novels like Catcher in the Rye which fermented in the trenches of WWII.

And that's what I find in the beauty of the new September Ninth Memorial, in those vast holes of water. More truth than bullshit.

Tom link
9/12/2011 08:09:33 am

When I think of 9/11 and the subsequent years of events and protracted wars I'm reminded of this:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

jeff
9/12/2011 09:36:58 am

@lily lily---

Re Tom Kean and 9/11 commission

The commission was only as effective as they could be, given the lack of cooperation from Bush and Cheney as well George Tenet, Dir of the CIA. Kean himself said that 9/11 was preventable. He was also quoted as saying that the Commission was "set up to fail".

Here's a good article written by Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton, the other co-chair on the commission which appeared in the NY Times in 2008.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02kean.html

Given the fact that Bush and Cheney refused to appear under oath and refused to even appear separately shows that there never was a real commitment to get to the truth and bring it forth for our citizens.

If there is any doubt about how the rest of the world views the US as a "nation of laws", they will send us a message by arresting and trying Cheney, Bush or Rumsfeld for committing war crimes if they should ever enter those countries, which include France, Sweden and Argentina.

If you recall, Rumsfeld, the slimy bastard (sorry, but it's true) sneaked out of Paris in Oct, 2007 when he was tipped off that he was going to be arrested. You can read more here if you are interested:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/world/americas/26iht-rumsfeld.4.8070649.html

This is all just a rehash, just picking at the scabs of old wounds. But there will never be closure for these crimes perpetrated on the American people.

V-A
9/12/2011 10:06:14 am

Thanks, Jeff, for your quick summary of the 911 Commission. All I know is the Warren Commission, and because of that, distrust any official investigation of anything in this country. Too many interests must be protected.

JL
9/12/2011 12:43:02 pm

Well, I'm glad that Levi outed his sister as a liar. According to him, he and Bristol weren't sexually after until after the camping trip, which contradicts Sadie's last blog post completely. I never believed that post anyway, as it read like fiction.

Sunshine1970
9/13/2011 12:20:30 am

@ JL How do we know Levi is telling the truth? We don't. He's lied before and is still holding back a lot of what he knows. As is Sadie.

I don't trust any of 'em (all of 'em!).

lilly lily
9/13/2011 12:51:59 am

Neither do I.

They all have their secrets, and are protecting themselves.

Which is normal.

Of the Johnston-Palin pack, I do think Levi is basically an honest guy.

Oz mudlats is finding some interesting anomalies with the Storm Lake race shots.

Dis Gusted
9/13/2011 04:29:34 am

"Well, I'm glad that Levi outed his sister as a liar. According to him, he and Bristol weren't sexually after until after the camping trip, which contradicts Sadie's last blog post completely"


I don't know what YOU are reading - but Levi confirmed Sadie's story. He said the tent trip was not the first time - they had sex long before that.


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