This Jerry Falwell report is painfully repulsive, and fosters the same hatred that led to the WTC and Pentagon destruction.

Today's Word for the Day:

Jingoistic: defined as,

"Extreme nationalism characterized especially by a belligerent foreign policy; chauvinistic patriotism."

Nick Currie provides a moving, detailed account on WTC. He also has other poignant, thought-provoking things to say:

"If the Islamic world has, since the 1970s, entered a regrettable phase of fundamentalism in which it destroys difference (in the form of the Taleban blowing up Buddhist treasures, or Iranian leaders menacing the lives of British authors) this is because it has moved from being simply 'un-American' to being 'anti-American'. And this is partly because America has, in the last three decades, become inescapable. If you don't go to it, it will come to you. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Islam has had to bear the burden of being the crucible of all difference, the harbinger of all dissent against the American model. Ironically, by becoming 'that which is not the US', the Islamic world has forgotten its true identity. By becoming antithetical to the US rather than merely different from it, it has become America's harder, darker shadow.

I'm not against globalism, quite the contrary, I revel in my ability to travel and experience other ways of life. What I reject, though, is the assumption that globalism has to be Americanism, that the American Way is the only correct one, that the American president (whether we can elect him or not, and, in the current case, whether the American people elect him or not) represents 'freedom', and that there is only one definition of justice, happiness and progress, which is the American one."

Nick also makes this observation:

"Amongst the horrified reactions to Tuesday's events was an American commercial pilot who said 'I don't know how we can defeat these people, if they're prepared to spend $40,000, not to become pilots and earn lots of money, but to fly a plane into a building and die. How will we ever understand people who think like that?'"

Ignorant pilot - I wish people could take a moment to analyze things in an objective manner; it certainly would help answer a lot of questions.

Speaking of ignorance, here are two quotes I find relevant:

"Its failings notwithstanding, there is much to be said in favor of journalism in that by giving us the opinion of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community."
- Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

"The confidence of ignorance will always overcome indecision of knowledge."
- Anonymous

I wish I had a "I [heart] NY" T-shirt right now.