I was this close to banishing you

Twelve in12

Reading
The Game of Kings ~ Dorothy Dunnett
Pride and Prejudice ~ Jane Austen
Sentimental Education ~ Gustave Flaubert

Finished
Mirror, Mirror ~ Gregory Macguire
Witchling ~ Yasmine Galenorn
Changeling ~ Yasmine Galenorn
Something Wicked ~ Catherine Mulvany
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ~ J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows ~ J.K. Rowling
Myst: Book of Atrus ~ Rand Miller, Robyn Miller and David Wingrove

I made pasta tonight! Not like boiled water and dumped it in. But from scratch with flour and water. For a first attempt, it wasn’t half bad. I’m able to freeze what I couldn’t cook. My biggest problem was my inability to roll the dough thin enough and evenly. Pasta dough is very elastic and hard to get to stay rolled out. So its not great for my hands and wrists. So now of course, I want a pasta machine so I can make my own pasta all the time. Think about it. Homemade pasta, homemade sauce, and homemade garlic bread. And to be honest, the wine is usually from my uncle so that’s homemade too! So yummy!!

I went on Amazon (always dangerous for me) and started looking up reviews on various pasta makers. There are always cheaper models that work just as good as the wicked expensive ones. So I was reading through some reviews. Then I decided to look through my recommendations list. Its not like I have any money to do so, but its fun to see whats on there. On the list was a book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions And Distortions recommended to me since I have the orginal report. Now I don’t know completely why cause I’ve never dealt with it, but 9/11 and those events are a touchy subject with me. I try to keep an open mind and a cool head, but mostly just have to bite my tongue. I know there are conspiracy theories out there. I don’t know whats really true and what’s a lie. Maybe Bush did allow it to happen, though I don’t completely believe that. Maybe there is a huge government cover-up, but maybe the terrorists really did get this one through. I don’t really know for sure, and right now, no one really knows for sure. So this book caught my attention.

When reading product reviews, I often look at both the best reviews and the worst reviews. There’s always going to be people who didn’t like something. Its a way to find out a product’s weaknesses. It may be something that won’t bother you, but it might be. I had read the product description on the book and it seemed like your typical “Bush planned 9/11” theory. So I checked out the good reviews. There were the usual empty praises and strong agreements with the book. Nothing that really helped. I started reading the 1-star reviews. The main complaint was the author’s lack of intelligence. The main point to prove this was his argument against how the WTC buildings fell. One of the 5-star reviewers even attacked them on it.

One big sticking point to the 1-stars seems to be the steel – “softening” vs “melting” issue. Even if the WTC steel only “softened” (a ridiculous claim on its face, it was basically a paper fire on a few floors), would you have expected a total, symmetrical, pyroclastically explosive 10-to-20-second collapse (depending on building) into its own footprint from a building whose support beams were simply beginning to soften or buckle? Is ‘softening’ consistent with total, nearly instantaneous absolutely symmetrical failure?

A paper fire huh? That got my haunches raised. Thankfully someone with a brain responded well.

The author claims that the towers should not have fallen, becaue jet fuel burns at 1200 degrees, but steel melts at 1800. Therefore, he claims, the towers should have been able to withstand the heat. Look on PBS.org for their special on how the towers fell. They clearly explain that while the steel did not melt, it did get hot enough to become plastic, and to start to warp. This was enough to cause at least one floor to collapse, which in turn caused all of them to go. There were some other details there, like the fact that entire floors were flooded with burning jet fuel within seconds, that make it unsurprising that the towers fell the way they did.

I could rant and rave and scream, but I don’t need my blood pressure to get that high. But that doesn’t mean my blood isn’t boiling in my skin. When Sarah and I were in Canada, she almost got me going again. I said something about how crowded I thought the highway was for 11 o’clock on a Monday night, compared to US highways I’ve been on that late. Sarah said it was because they have a healthier economy than us. Then she muttered “Thank you New York City.” She said something else about Bush using it for his little war, but I really don’t know what it was. The blood was rushing through my ears and I was fighting the urge to dump her from the car. I don’t know if Bush planned it or not. I don’t know if he completely used it to advance his need for war or what. But NYC wasn’t the only place the planes hit that day. And the City was not the only place affected that day. The passengers on those planes were not all from NYC.

I think what angers me the most is how people are forgetting the truths we do know from that day. Two planes carrying passengers from all over crashing into the WTC, causing them to fall. Another plane, though taken back by the passengers, crashed into a field in Pennsylvania. Another plane crashed into the Pentagon. And anyone who would like to tell me the Pentagon plane was a fake can bite me. A friend of mine watched that plane as it hit the Pentagon from her office window. So just bite me.

It angers me that even Newfie, 1500 miles away in St John’s seems to remember it better than Sarah who was 300 miles away. Its in those moments when Sarah shows her redneck, back-water, ignorant, close-minded ways of looking at things. It really, really angers me. It angers me that she will never change. She’s as stubborn as I am, but nothing anyone can say will change her mind. And there are more people out there like her. Who only seem to remember 9/11 happening in NYC. Who seem to blame New Yorkers for not only the war in Iraq, but 9/11 as well.

I don’t understand how people can actually believe that every New Yorker could have wanted this. I don’t think there is a single person in that city who wasn’t affected that day. Who didn’t lose someone, a friend or a family member or a co-worker or whoever. And the city was also not the only place affected. The entire country, the entire world was affected that day. What happened in the days following also changed the world, and we can debate those forever. But that day, that tragedy was hor

rible. Whatever happened after it, that day was still horrid. All Sarah can see is what happened afterwards. She doesn’t seem to care about what happened that day. Mostly because in her eyes it has only made her life harder. The borders have become harder to cross (although we had NO problems whatsoever), gas prices have gone up and our economy is crashing. Now I don’t think gas prices would have stayed the same had the towers not fallen. And no one can say what our economy would be doing. The borders have become stricter, but not impossible if you’re intelligent. And I’m not sure how that’s really such a bad thing.

I’m starting to rant and rave and talk in circles. But it all just annoys me. And to be honest, it annoys me that it annoys me. I’m not sure exactly why it still makes me so unbelievable mad after all this time. If you get me really going, I start to thinking about erecting a mile-high, mile thick wall around America. Force this country to become self-sufficient and screw the rest of the world. Every soldier home right now. Immigration is still okay, but there’s that mile thick wall and plenty of things to go through before you’re allowed in. Even for our citizens. No more easy in, easy out. That or pull a Toby.

TOBY: Kill them all. Yeah.

BOY: All the Islamic Extremists?

TOBY: No, no. I mean everyone. You’re all bothering me. I want to be left alone. Clearly, the only way that’s gonna happen is to be alone. So I’m sorry, but I’m gonna have to let you all go. [pause] Except the Yankees and the Knicks… and the Yankees and the Knicks are gonna need someone to play, so keep the Red Sox and the Lakers… and the Laker girls, and The Palm, and we’ll need to keep the people who work at The Palm. That’s it though. The Yankees, the Red Sox, the Knicks, the Lakers, the Laker girls, and anyone who works at The Palm. Sports, Laker girls, and a well-prepared steak. That’s all I need… Sometimes, I like to mix it up with Italian… and Chinese. All right, you can all stay, but don’t bug me. You’re on probation. Don’t forget. I was this close to banishing you.