| Wednesday,
September 12, 2001 We find silliness
in many places too. I received many polite inquiries for ways to make
contact with Major Russell and forwarded them on to him. Then I got this:
Am checking out report/message you posted on Jeremy
Glick, passenger on flight 93. Who is Tom? Who is Art Russell Major? Do
you know how to get hold of either? Can you confirm accuracy of the info
in message? DO you know where the victim lived, what he did? Anything?
THanks much. You can reach me by email or at number below. Thanks.
Maria Puente USA TODAY/LIFE Features/Arts/Culture
703-276-6521 mpuente@usatoday.com
"Journalism is the ability to meet the
challenge of filling space."
Rebecca West
I don't think this needs much comment, or that
you need to be given a copy of my less than enthusiastic response. Having
been a reporter with deadlines and pressure I can understand stress, but I
think I always managed to remain polite and to at least pretend respect
for potential sources. Apparently USA TODAY does not operate that way.
Sorry to be so petty but I confess I was more
than mildly irritated. Now we can get to serious mail.
Subject: Becoming the enemy
Someone, somewhere told Muslim fundamentalists that
it was ok to kill civilians for a cause that they clearly saw/see as
righteous. Today, we tell ourselves that it is ok to kill civilians for a
cause that is clearly righteous. Terrorism needs to be stopped, but we can
not succumb to their level and kill Muslim/Arab/innocent civilians who are
in the way. If we do that, we have learned our lessons well and the people
who have done this have won. They've destroyed America and the tolerance
and freedom for which it is supposed to stand.
Sarah Chapman
This is a common and sensible sentiment. At the
same time something must be done.
One possibility is no longer possible: if this
morning Kabul and Baghdad were smoking ruins and a new flight was coming
to bounce the rubble, it would have been irrational horror: but it would
have made it very clear that it is in the interests of every state to
suppress the enemies of the United States. Machiavelli said it is better
to be feared than to be admired or loved, and there is much to that.
It is too late for that. What we must not do is
NOTHING. We cannot drag this on for years while we carefully investigate.
Clinton muddied the waters enormously with his precipitate attacks on
silly targets in Afghanistan and Sudan. If you are going to make it
painful for those who harbor our nations enemies it must be painful. We
did more to the Serbian people than so far has been done to those who
shelter bin Laden.
Was it bin Laden? Literally who cares? He wanted
to do it. He tried before. He did the embassies. He is certainly a
credible suspect, he is certainly an enemy of the United States, he
certainly considers himself in a war with us.
From The President of the United States to the
Council of Afghanistan,
Greetings.
You are known to be host to bin Laden. Within 24
hours you will deliver him and all those in his compound to the US Embassy
in Khaboul. They will be bound and in chains. We expect at least 24
persons.
If this is not done we expect you to provide safe
passage for all US citizens in Afghanistan to the border. Fortyeight hours
later I will ask the Congress for a declaration of war.
Dealing with the Palestinian authorities ought to
be similar regarding accessories before and after the fact.
Jerry
We met long ago in Phoenix and I doubt you would
remember me. We are both veterans who have seen something of war and we
need to make sure our fellow countrymen understand what war is about.
My personal feelings are to destroy any who even
sympathize with the terrorists, but that is the wrong thing to do. I have
seen and heard people trying to use the terrorist acts to justify
curtailing American liberties and freedoms, and That is the wrong thing to
do. If we curtail one freedom or liberty in deference to
"security" the terrorists have won.
We must locate those responsible, those who provided
active support, and those who provided monetary support and bring them to
the bar of justice. Since this was an undeclared act of war, the
protection of the Constitution does not apply to those who participated in
such an act. This include the drug cartels which supply most of the money
to the terrorists. All governments in the world should be advised that any
support, active or passive, to terrorists, terrorist organizations, and
terrorist monetary interests constitute an undeclared act of war against
the United States of America and will be dealt with accordingly. No
participant must be allowed to go unpunished.
We need to determine who, what , when, and how; then
we need to act. Let us remember that the Constitution of the United States
is our most precious promise to our children.
In the words of a mutual acquaintance, now passed
away: You can do nothing to a Free man except kill him.
Freedom and Right:
Tom Williams, Jr.
And truly free men die hard.
Dear Dr. Pournelle,
Obviously we are not all just a bunch of fans of
your computer suavy, but of your writing in general. Truly, as we have
gone through the last 24 hours I have found it extremely hard to not lash
out in anger.
I commented yesterday that it is a good thing that
these terrorists have not been able to crash the internet structure. I
suspect the "damage" to our infrastructure is going to take a
long time to correct. Clearly we need to take a much more proactive steps
in our security. Although it is somewhat comforting to see a list of
thwarted bin Laden sponsored actions before, we missed this one. As Skilly
says "we only need to win once". How do we maintain the economic
engine in place while changing our security? Can we keep the fundamental
system we have in place, or do we have to change? Who are are Jefferson's,
Franklin's, Washington's et al in this day and age to have a vision of
what we can become while maintaining the best of what we have?
On a more pragmatic note. How do we shut down bin
Laden and other terrorist groups financing? Although there will always be
fanatics they will have a much harder time being effective if they don't
have access to $25,000 cash to pay for flight lessons, or millions to buy
AK-47's, or to train, equip, provide 3C to multiple cells across the
world. Do we have an Bury's out there who can ferret out the flow of money
and shut down the supply?
"The truly great thing is not to lose your
nerve".
God bless us all,
Doug Lewis
Whether we wish to be Republic or Empire we must
inform Afghanistan that they have about 24 hours to deliver bin Laden
bound and chained or we will do what it takes to make them much regret not
doing it.
Then we have to decide if we want to be feared or
admired.
Here's a link you should see, is the CoDominium
coming to pass?
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/doc/HotNews.html#4402
Here's the interesting quote, section "Putin,
Bush Come Out In Favor Of Expanding Joint Anti-Terrorist Activities"
Today in a telephone conversation, the Russian and
US Presidents stressed the necessity to expand global cooperation aimed at
fighting international terrorism. According to the Russian presidential
press service, George Bush also thanked Vladimir Putin, who had been the
first to react to the tragedy in the USA. Additionally, the leaders of the
two countries came to the conclusion that yesterday's terrorist attack was
one more event pushing Russia and the USA closer to each other.
-Jon Nials jnials@ nials.org
Indeed.
The people investigating the WTC/Pentagon assaults
are using "intercepted conversations" as leads. One casualty of
this event will be any possibility of limiting or eliminating the NSA's
Echelon program.
Now, I'm not necessarily a rabid opponent of Echelon
anyway. I would like to see it have Congressional oversight and specific
guidelines like no spying on calls where one or both parties are in the
US. But the people who want to shut down Echelon completely have now lost
the battle.
As the American people realize that
"intercepts" generate information leading to the killers, there
will be little public support for giving up or limiting Echelon. Is this a
good thing? Probably not.
Steve Setzer
I want to think on this. Thanks.
Dr. Pournelle,
I agree this was a sophisticated attack.
Here is my reasoning:
1. 3 people per plane (we know this was the case on
at least 2 of the 4 planes) = 12
2. 10-20 support people for each one (about) = 200
people
3. cost to support 200 people to infiltrate and set
up safe houses and pre-spot equipment such as cars, to train pilots, plan,
move people around the world, hire engineers to discuss best method to
destruct buildings, get papers (SSNs, passports, visas, pilot licenses,
drivers licenses, credit cards, credit histories, for the infitrators of
course - to cover their true identities, etc.) over time (5 to 10 years to
set this up) = $500m.
This is a sum of money and effort that only a very
large company/organization or a very wealthy person or a nation-state can
support over time.
I base this loosely on sort-of (vaguely remembered
from Business 1A) rules-of-thumb for large projects, whether military or
corporate. I have probably under-rated the costs since these efforts must
have been carried out clandestinely, which I would believe are much more
expensive than normal above-board corporate costs.
Did I leave anything out? Need I say more?
Sincerely,
Oliver Richter
Well thought out.
Dear Friends:
This morning, on the radio, I heard a report from
Keith Olbermann on KFWB radio. He was standing on or near the Western
Expressway in Manhattan, reporting that there was a spontaneous crowd of
50 or so New Yorkers who were APPLAUDING every time an EMS, Fire, or
Police vehicle went by. Proof, I hope, that even New Yorkers, whatever
their reputation, are at root human, and respond well in a crisis.
Last night, it was eerily quiet in Glendale, where I
live. The silence was never as heavy as when the sound of a lone
jet-powered aircraft made slow turns overhead--I realized, then, just how
profoundly things had changed, not from someTHING but the lack, the lack
of the undercurrent of commerce and transit which accompanies everyday
life, under normal circumstances. I wondered if the jets were fighters, or
if there was an emergency flight going somewhere.
This morning, the radio confirmed: The jets I heard
were F-15s and -16s. In a day of first times, this was another first: The
first Combat Air Patrol (CAP) I've ever heard over our city, at least that
I can recall.
Here, now, the PA from the gas station across the
street is yammering, the construction on the Pasadena Blue Line has
resumed, cars and trucks pass my window. Within the hour I'm sure I'll
hear Station 31 screaming toward an emergency--a "regular"
emergency--and I suspect the firemen will be saying a silent prayer that
they do not face a hundred million pounds of rubble, strewn with bodies.
Something like normality has returned.
I'm going out on my porch, here at work, and lose
myself in writing for a few hours. The idea of blissful productivity again
appeals, particularly compared to the constant repetition of nothing new
which has overtaken the news media. I suggest you do the same, if you have
not yet. No one can forget what has happened--it will be a cast across the
nation, for as callously preoccupied as we often are, we are
compassionate, when we remember to be--but everyone should let it slip
their minds, for an hour, here and there.
* * *
Attached you will find a note from my father's
website, after a few thoughts of mine. (Wall Street Journal called him
this morning to talk about it. Actually, they called me, and I passed on
the message.) See www.jerrypournelle.com for more, possibly the WSJ
tomorrow.
I can think of no more of a comment than:
--Heroes come in all places, sizes, and ages. --This
tactic will never work again, because people will realize their lives are
probably forfeit anyway, and this method will be known. --We are in debt
to these people, just as we are to the many emergency personnel who gave
of their lives so freely.
--Alex Pournelle, alexp @earthlink.net
(Forwarded message follows.
It may not be over.
Doug Lewis said >it is a good thing that these
terrorists have not been able to crash the internet structure
There may be additional damage that we haven't seen
yet. My wife got called into work (at her minor branch office of a
Canadian subsidiary of a fortune 100 company) at 5AM this morning. All
communication between the Toronto or Montreal offices and the Tulsa office
who is their main information supplier fell off the air suddenly early
Wednesday morning. The Vancouver and Calgary offices still had a
connection, but are vastly smaller than the two other offices.
The lines from Montreal and Toronto pass thru lower
Manhattan on their way to Tulsa. When that area went dark, the switching
equipment fell cleanly over to battery power. So cleanly that nobody
realized that they were involved in the disaster. Most of a day later,
when nobody was coping with the beeping of batteries getting low, that
switching station fell out of the circuit. There is no ETA yet for when
they will be able to route around the dead zone.
Don't assume that there aren't other vital links
still running on batteries in some abandoned basement.
Greg Goss ( mailto:gossg@
mindlink.com )
At 1:41 p.m. Pacific Time CNN finally broke the
'exclusive' story of Jeremy Glick, essentially as related by Tom in your
mail yesterday. A demonstration of why and how the self-styled 'experts'
demanding that we need to know everything RIGHT NOW are full of it. Things
take time to develop and coordinate.
Greg Hemsath
I love that exclusive. Actually I have forwarded
about 40 requests now. It was not my story to give out. My thanks to Major
Russell for sending it to me.
THE LOGIC OF EMPIRE
This is said well, and describes one possible --
even probable -- course of action. It may be the right way to go.
Certainly it will resonate with the feelings of many here.
I thought about this last night quite a bit, as I'm
sure every American has, and after the initial emotional reaction as a
former United States Marine and U.S. Army Ranger, I decided that I don't
advocate immediate attack on Kabul-- tempting though it may be. The
problem is that there are more terrorists than just those working under
Bin-Laden, so simply tracking him down, if he is indeed behind this as our
intelligence would seem to indicate, will really not solve the long-term
problem. In fact, it will probably just trigger more terrorist attacks if
we kill or capture him. I have a better idea...
The President of the United States of America issues
the following statement to the world press: "Henceforth, any
terrorist attack on any U.N. or NATO member nation will trigger the
immediate and simultaneous punitive bombing of the capital cities of every
nation known to the U.N. to harbor terrorists and their supporting
infrastructures. This will include, but not be limited to: Afghanistan,
Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Libya. Any attempt at
retaliation by the terrorists or the nations harboring them will result in
the immediate and complete destruction of the entire military and
industrial infrastructure of the originating country, as well as possible
land invasion and enforced occupation by U.N. and/or NATO forces. From
this date forward, any further loss of life on the scale of the New York
attack inside the borders of any U.N. or NATO member nation due to
terrorist activity, will result in massive retaliation on the civilian
population centers of the country or countries from which the terrorists
originated. Potential use of nuclear weapons in the execution of this
mandate will not be excluded. Furthermore, the city of Kabul will come
under immediate, round-the-clock bombarment. This bombardment will
continue until such a time as the Taliban government either chooses to
turn over the party or parties responsible for the attack of 11 September
2001, or they are exterminated."
Note that any group or nation caught taking
advantage of such a policy in order to cause us to attack their enemies
will be summarily exterminated.
The problem is that we ARE at war, and we'd better
pull our collective heads out of our collective pampered asses and realize
it. As has been stated by several of the pundits and politicians, this is
not a mere criminal act, and hauling a couple of dozen people into court
and convicting them of 15,000 counts of murder-1 is not going to solve the
problem. The fact that these people operate from multiple countries,
instead of being neatly packaged in one nation like Germany or Japan,
ready for demonization and digestion, is irrelevant. Unless we make it
very clear that this kind of act will be met with immediate and
overwhelming force, and make it too dangerous for nations and governments
to harbor terrorists, it *will* happen again. And again. And again.
We are an empire--THE empire of the modern world, in
fact--and we'd better start acting like it or everything we value will
come down around our ears. These terrorists are an infestation; they are
rebels against order and progress. The only way to deal with rebels is to
burn them out with fire, to purge them utterly, completely, and without
any twinge of mercy. This means the adoption of extreme and harsh
measures. It means wiping them from the face of the earth, and removing
any future potential threat. Their wives, mothers, fathers, grandparents,
children, and pet dogs must all die with them. It must be made crystal
clear to even the most dense of potential terrorists that the price you
pay for terrorist attacks against the United States is far, far too high.
The other option is to let them kill more American civilians. American
civilians who are grandparents, mothers, fathers, wives, and children...
How many have to die before we will do what is necessary, however
distasteful "civilized" people may find it? I'm sure that
Churchill and Roosevelt found it distasteful to order the mass
firebombings of German and Japanese population centers. No less so did
Truman find it distasteful to order the nuclear death of a quarter of a
million people. But they did what they knew had to be done. Now, it is our
generation's turn to make those harsh decisions. Yes, it may sound brutal
to attack and wipe out population centers just to get at a few terrorists
and their supporters, but is the alternative more palatable? Is it
acceptable to see Americans die by the thousands, but unacceptable for
those harboring our enemies?
We have played word games and tried to reason with
unreasonable people long enough. These people are no different from the
Nazis of 60 years ago; they will not see reason, because they are not
committing reasonable acts. The only option is to bomb them back to the
Stone Age, march into their headquarters killing everything that opposes
us, and hang the ringleaders in the public square. Anything less will NOT
get the message across, as WWII proved to us. We have become weak, have
forgotten the law of the jungle, and we'd best address this for what it
is, before it's too late: "a clear and present danger to the national
security of the United States of America." The barbarians are
charging over the Seventh Hill. We can either fight them, or die.
I am a citizen and a former soldier of the most
powerful nation-state--indeed, the most powerful empire--that has ever
existed on the face of the planet Earth. I WILL NOT LIVE IN FEAR. The
strength is ours. We must be feared before we can be respected.
I just hope that the President has come to the same
conclusion.
JTMauney jtmauney@swbell.net
Do note that there are consequences to these
actions. To begin with, we will trade liberty for security. That is a
consequence of our desire to make everyone in the world Friends Of The
American People, a title that Rome explicitly gave -- or imposed -- when
the Republic adopted the policy of "to protect the weak and make
humble the proud" and to extend friendship through the known
world.
Hamilcar Barca made his son Hannibal swear never
to be a Friend of Rome. I would expect similar actions.
I do not say we must do nothing. Far from it. I
would go so far as to humiliate those dancing in the streets over this. I
wouldn't kill them, but I would see they wished they had not done it. And
I have nothing against an ultimatum to Kabul: bin Laden, alive and bound,
or else.
But understand, if we want to mind other people's
business all over the world, we WILL make enemies, and we WILL have to
trade liberty for security. This isn't speculation. It's what will happen.
I mourn the republic, which I think is finished.
If we are to be an empire then we should BE an empire. Do your enemies no
SMALL injuries. Do not WOUND the king. That is, I suspect the future.
It is a better future than doing nothing. But I
think there is no compromise and that attempts at compromise will be
fatal.
Note that empires always end with emperor
worship: even when much of it is cynical. Note also that empire and
Christianity are not incompatible.
On Heroes:
To view the entire article, go to http://a188.g.akamaitech.net/f/188/920/1m/www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19050-2001Sep12.html
Passengers' Actions May Have Helped Curb Tragedy
By Charles Lane
As United Airlines Flight 93 entered its last
desperate moments aloft, there was terror and violence on board –
but also heroism.
Minutes before the giant airliner smashed into a
field southeast of Pittsburgh, passenger Jeremy Glick used a cell phone to
call his wife at home in New Jersey and told her that he and several other
people on board had come up with a plan to resist the terrorists who had
hijacked the plane, according to Glick's brother-in-law, Douglas B.
Hurwitt.
"They were going to stop whoever it was from
doing whatever it was they'd planned," Hurwitt said. "He knew
that stopping them was going to end all of their lives. But that was my
brother-in-law. He was a take-charge guy."
Anticipating his own death, Glick, who celebrated
his 31st birthday on Sept. 3, told his wife, Lyzbeth, that he hoped she
would have a good life and would take care of their 3-month old baby girl,
Hurwitt said.
Glick explained to his wife that the plane had been
taken over by three Middle Eastern men wearing red headbands. The
terrorists, wielding knives and brandishing a red box they claimed
contained a bomb, ordered the passengers, pilots and flight attendants
toward the rear of the plane, then took over the cockpit.
The story of Glick's words adds to the account of
passenger resistance already given by another passenger's mother on NBC's
"Today" show this morning. Alice Hoglan of California says her
son, Mark Bingham, also spoke of a plan to tackle the hijackers in a
last-minute cell phone call to her.
Flight 93 was the only one of four hijacked planes
that did not smash into a major target on the ground, and some officials
are already saying that the actions of people on board may have prevented
an even greater tragedy.
Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha, the ranking Democrat
on the Congressional Defense Appropriations Committee, said at the crash
site that he believes a struggle took place in the plane's cockpit and
that the plane was headed for a significant target in Washington, D.C.
"There had to have been a struggle and someone
heroically kept the plane from heading to Washington," he said.
They sold their lives. And we have the White
House.
Dr. Pournelle,
One aspect of the attacks which has not received due
attention is that our airport security measures worked perfectly. The
mutants boarded the planes with tickets, valid ID and no weapons worth the
name. Their plan was based entirely on the premise that Americans have,
collectively, been brainwashed to believe that criminal action, no matter
how violent, disgusting, or outrageous, should never be opposed. Jeremy
Glick and some other brave souls provided a counter-example. Is it
possible for our population to learn from it?
James Utt
Amen, amen, amen. I have said for years that at the
least every off duty policeman and every combat branch military officer
should carry sidearms at all times. Let the terrorist understand that there
may be an armed citizen aboard.
Instead:
Politicians in Ireland are proposing a National
Register of knives, and "strict licensing of knives capable of
inflicting serious harm." [full story below]
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=9&si=489311&issue_id=5017
IRISH INDEPENDENT
Tuesday. August 7, 2001.
"Knife control laws to be tightened"
THE Government is to review the Firearms and
Offensive Weapons Act in light of the alarming spiral in violent crime.
Justice Minister John O'Donoghue is to order the
review following submissions on a National Register of Weapons by a group
of backbench TDs.
Indeed.
And, sigh,
Dear Jerry,
Clearly you have a lot to say. Trouble is you’re
saying it in a terribly unorganized and unattractive format. As a writer,
surely you appreciate the importance of quality presentation in addition
to quality content. In short, your website look & feel is in dire need
of help. A minimal investment in a more professional website layout would
work wonders on the accessibility of the content housed therein.
Sincerely,
-Norman Esq.
Does this mean you will not be subscribing?
And here is another view:
The Thousand Year War
Steve Stirling
>but we can not succumb to their level and
kill Muslim/Arab/innocent civilians who are in the way. If we do that, we
have learned our lessons well and the people who have done this have won.
They've destroyed America and the tolerance and freedom for which it is
supposed to stand.
Sarah Chapman
-- this is a profoundly silly statement, and I can
scarcely imagine Curtis LeMay's response. What on earth does Ms. Chapman
think happened at Hiroshima, or the firebomb raids on the Japanese and
German cities, where the fires turned into hurricanes and hundreds of
thousands burned?
To paraphrase a Chinese leader, war is not a tea
party. It is not so mild, so reasonable, so civilized as that.
The proximate enemy is organizations like Bin
Laden's, and governments such as those of Afghanistan and Iraq; but this
is simply a battle in a war 1400 years old, against a civilization, and
against many of its peoples. (Not all; the Turks are on our side, for
instance; but most.)
Earlier battles include Charles Martel's victory at
Tours, the Reconquista -- Sant'Iago and at 'em! -- the Crusades (including
the Norman-led one which retook Sicily and southern Italy for the West)
Lepanto, the sieges of Vienna, Prince Eugene's campaigns down the Danube,
Catherine the great's crushing of the Crimean Khanate, the Middle Eastern
campaigns of WWI, and the Israeli War of Independence.
The same enemy that struck New York is at work
slaughtering Hindu civilians in Kashmir and blowing up apartment buildings
in Moscow.
To win this war, we must break them to our will.
That is going to require a lot of blood, and not only of combatants. It
means dealing heavy blows and being ready to endure heavy blows.
Deus lo Vult.
Deus lo Vult! God Wills It! was the battle cry of
the First Crusade. William of Normandy, son of the Conqueror. And The
Douglas flung the heart of Robert the Bruce into the fray, shouting
"Lead on, Brave Heart!"
They were interesting times, those. And some
great tales. Lepanto. Don John of Austria has set his people free!
But does that war continue now?
And along those lines
Jerry,
One aspect not, to my knowledge, discussed thus far:
the source of the funding required to pull off this sort of garbage.
I think that we've all seen the following: a
low-brow dope wins the lottery, invests in hundreds of polyester
pants-suits, pinky rings and pimpmobiles. This gent is then deeply
offended because people don't take him "serious."
Most wealthy nations have earned their money through
hard work in research, manufacturing, value-added intellectual property,
etc. Some, peopled mostly by retrograde morons, make their dough by
sitting on a site of valuable natural resources. These people have not
earned their money, and they have no idea of the responsibilities of great
wealth. These folks, FKA "natives," are now funding terrorist
acts, the idiot third-worlder's vision of a new gold neck chain or X-TRA
D-LUX wide motor home.
A simple solution would be as follows: all natural
resources, world-wide, should be taken over by the civilized nations. I'd
imagine that we'd see no more filthy-sheet wearing jackasses slitting the
throats of sheep in the halls of the Ritz hotel and setting fires to cook
them.
More importantly, these same folks would have barely
adequate (if any) resources on which to feed themselves, much less funds
to support the sort of actions we've just seen--financed 100% by our
cowardice in paying whatever prices stupes demand for our civilization's
lifeblood, rather than just taking the goods.
It may be also helpful to bring to mind France's
longstanding policy of encouraging, supporting, and harboring
terrorists--the good Ayatollah K. being one prime example. We Americans
saved their lives, people, society, and country during the last major war.
The pay back and thank you is the Frenchmen's fervent encouragement of the
obvious enemies of civilization.
David M. Rose drose@ azstarnet.com
NATO invades. Suez again. I doubt it...
And on a different subject, from an old friend:
Dear Jerry Pournelle,
My husband Barry Gold [Cal Tech graduate; JEP]
always volunteers for the safety committee. He's currently working at Sun
Microsystems, in a 7 story office building. Before that, it was at
Platinum (another software firm), at a building over twice as tall.
He says Los Angeles Fire Dept guidelines call for
clearing a private commercial building in half an hour because it takes an
hour to burn through a fire-resistant door. A floor should be cleared in 2
minutes (including checking all known handicapped people) and verifying
all offices and bathrooms are clear. Fire drills are held once a month.
Our friend Rita Prince Winston says she's never seen
similar drills conducted at the LA bus company's software division where
she works. She also reports hearing a WTC refugee saying it took 45
minutes to walk down from the 78th floor.
If the WTC towers could have been cleared within
half an hour, then virtually everyone would have gotten out before the
towers collapsed -- except for those caught in the immediate impact &
fire.
I've read (on rec.org.sca) that an evacuation test
of the WTC following the 1993 bombing attempt cleared HALF the people
there in THREE HOURS. I think one lesson we can learn from this is to
require more stringent safety standards. If we don't have the technology
to safely evacuate buildings over a certain height, then they shouldn't be
allowed to operate.
--Lee Gold
I have not thought about this before. I will have
to. Thank you.
And another point of some importance:
Hi Jerry,
No doubt you and the readers are hearing that the
hit to the casualty insurance companies will amount to some 20 billion
dollars. I wish to point out that this might be a case where Congress
should in fact treat the insurance as an Act of War so that the insurer
here becomes the USA. I think that it is now a bit unreasonable to expect
shareholders to foot the bill for terror which results from our
mostly-correct foreign policy. Insurers have a War Clause, but so far,
this one may hit them privately due to the fine print.
One problem here is there is just so much capital
available, and if tall buildings are to become targets, we will exhaust
that risk-money pool. Getting insurance from the remaining companies, if
indeed some fail after this, will be quite expensive or impossible for
major office building owners. Disclaimer: While I worked in the 1970's to
design pension guarantees for one company, I have no connection at all to
the industry, and am retired.
Lastly, who will want to build a "Statement -
Skyscraper" ever again? I think we will see many more rural offices
surrounded by really tall trees. Do you recall the big move during the
1980's for Wall Street firms to go to New Jersey, and how New York gave
them incentives to stay put?
Bruce Kebbekus
Also one I have not considered. Thank you.
And close the day with these:
From: Ken Burnside
Subject: Nature of the Conflict
I am firmly of the opinion that we will want and
need every willing back, every strong hand in friendship, every erg and
dyne of support we can get.
This is not a conflict that calls for a measured,
careful response.
This is a conflict that calls for an overwhelming,
careful response, and an continued commitment.
The enemy has billed this as a war of cultural
annihilation. Either they remove us, or we will remove them.
They have defined the goals of the conflict. The
enemy is just as vulnerable to these objectives as we are. More so, in
fact. The enemy builds his force on ignorance, on the Big Lie.
The enemy's greatest fear is that the prosperity of
the West will seduce the generation after this one. That the memories of
old blood feuds will fade when presented with McDonald's and computers and
cheap cell phones. Every call they make to recruit is against the
decadence of the West destroying their way of life.
After we punish the enemy with bombs, with bullets,
we must salt the soil that the twisted tree of intolerance and fanaticism
takes root in. We must change the hearts and minds of the young.
We salt them with small computers. With internet
access. With a telephone in every village. With juvenile novels and
encyclopedias translated into Arabic. With teachers who speak their
language, and who teach them to use these tools to answer questions for
themselves. Yes, some of those teachers will be killed. They are soldiers
in this war as much as anyone who takes on a beret or a gun, and we can
make martyrs of them for the world.
No tyrant can long survive with an informed and
educated populace.
The organizations they declaim as the mouthpieces of
the US shall be USED as the mouthpieces of the west. We tell their
children that there is a life beyond substistence farming and blood feuds.
We tell their wives and daughters that there is a life where they are
valued as individuals and people in their own right, not as chattel.
We give them the tools of bilateral communication,
rather than unilateral indoctrination. We give them the internet. We
declare a great work, of making sure that every corner of this globe has
access to fast internet access. Not just the US. Not just Europe. The
world.
They will see pornography sites. They will also see
sites discussing engineering, and simple improvements to agriculture. The
curiousity of children will be piqued, and their questions answered. With
each question asked, and each answer given, we slowly wean them away from
the culture of intolerance.
They'll be able to ask questions without censure or
censoring, and get answers they might not otherwise have.
I would sooner carpet bomb with game boys and
Pokemon, and an Arabic translation of Monopoly, than FAEs and nuclear
explosives. The adults are beyond our reach. The young MUST be reached so
that 20 years from now, the thought of piloting a captured airliner into
an office building full if innocent bystanders meets with universal
horror.
I fear, in the haste for vengeance, that the nature
of this conflict will be forgotten. Make no bones about it -- this is a
culture war. It can only end with a declaration on the order of Cartago
Delendo Est.
We cannot win this war with bombs or bullets,
although we can accelerate its prosecution by those means. We can only win
this war through a generational conflict; we must win the war in the
hearts and minds of the children growing up in the Middle East now.
Winning that longer war will be costlier and less
immediately gratifying than cluster bombs and Fuel Air Explosives, and
"killing the bastards and everyone that helped them."
It can, however, be a profitable war.
If you are an author, or someone who creates media,
contact your publisher about translating your works into Arabic. Someone
in the DoD is in charge of outbound propaganda; we should find who that
person is, and give them the munitions to win this war.
Bin-Ladin has declared this a culture war.
Let's show him what a culture war TRULY looks like.
Let's send in Shakespeare. And Heinlein. And Harlequin Romances, Pokemon
and The Simpsons.
Ken Burnside, Game Designer | "Give a man a
relativistic rock and he will burnside@ chorus.net | shatter a planet
today. Teach him to do the http://www.adastragames.com | math himself, and
he will shatter planets AOL IM: AdAstraGames | for the rest of his
life." - M. Llaneza
And
This was sent to me by my boss. Probably his way of
reminding us of just what kind of Country we have....
This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth
sharing.
America: The Good Neighbor.
Widespread but only partial news coverage was given
recently to a remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon
Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text
of his trenchant remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the
most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and
Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in
billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these
countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the
United States.
When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it
was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted
and swindled on the streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the
United States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59 American
communities were flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped
billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those
countries are writing about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
I'd like to see just one of those countries that is
gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar build its own
airplane. Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the
Boeing Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why
don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except Russia fly
American Planes? Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a
man or woman on the moon?
You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get
radios. You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles. You
talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not once,
but several times - and safely home again.
You talk about scandals, and the Americans put
theirs right in the store window for everybody to look at. Even their
draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on our streets,
and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting
American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
When the railways of France, Germany and India were
breaking down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the
Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned
them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced
to the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when
someone else raced to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was
outside help even during the San Francisco earthquake.
Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one
Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will
come out of this thing with their flag high. And when they do, they are
entitled to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating over their
present troubles. I hope Canada is not one of those."
"Stand proud, America!"
--------------------------------- mroberts@clearwater-research.com
Origin of this below.
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