Bryan Strawser

You are here: Home / 2004 / Archives for July 2004

Archives for July 2004

Retirement

by ·

Tim, the writer at CPT Patti is retiring from blogging now that his wife has returned from her fourteen months in Baghdad:

Finally, I’m going to borrow a phrase from Naomi Judd and “Resign as general manager of the universe.”

Patti and I have fourteen months of stressful separation to overcome. We have a home and a relationship to rebuild, and we have immeasurable thanks to return to Him, by whose hand Patti has returned safe and whole. There is much on which I need to focus. Moreover, I need to be fully present in the real world. So…I’m pulling up the stakes in cyberspace and replanting my feet squarely in The America I Live In.

I’m grateful to those of you with whom I’ve walked the last fourteen months. Many wrote to encourage, some wrote to praise and others wrote to politely challenge. Some shared photos, others joy, and a few, tragedy. You filled the vast loneliness of a tiny apartment, and some of us formed an odd little 21st century family, brought together by a common event.

Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for sharing with me. I wish you well. I wish you joy.

CPT Patti was one of my daily reads in my tour around the blogosphere. Tim will be missed.

Farewell – and I’m glad that you’re both together again.

Heroes

by ·

From today’s New York Times:

Of the 33 passengers on the plane who were not hijackers, at least 10, and two crew members, spoke to people on the ground. At least five of the calls included discussion of the World Trade Center. At 9:57, about seven minutes before the end, one of the passengers ended her conversation saying: “Everyone’s running up to first class. I’ve got to go. Bye.”

The report indicates that Mr. Jarrah, at the controls of United 93, did what many airline pilots have fantasized about since the hijackings: tried to maneuver the plane sharply, rolling and pitching, to keep control of the cockpit. It apparently did not work; the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

The report does not clarify whether the hijackers’ goal for Flight 93 was the White House or the Capitol, but indicates that the hijackers tuned a cockpit radio to the frequency of a navigation beacon at National Airport, just across the Potomac River from the capital, erasing any doubt about the region of their intended destination.

At three seconds after 10 a.m., Mr. Jarrah is heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: “Is that it? Shall we finish it off?”

But another hijacker responds: “No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off.”

The voice recorder captured sounds of continued fighting, and Mr. Jarrah pitched the plane up and then down. A passenger is heard to say, “In the cockpit. If we don’t we’ll die!”

Then a passenger yelled “Roll it!” Some aviation experts have speculated that this was a reference to a food cart, being used as a battering ram.

Mr. Jarrah “stopped the violent maneuvers” at 10:01:00, according to the report, and said, “Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!”

“He then asked another hijacker in the cockpit, `Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?’ to which the other replied, `Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.’ ”

Eighty seconds later, a hijacker is heard to say, “Pull it down! Pull it down!”

“The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them,” according to the report, which seems to indicate that the hijackers themselves crashed the plane. “With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes’ flying time from Washington, D.C,” according to the report.

Respecting the Cock

by ·

Last week, before heading next door for eight hours of interviewing candidates, I was hanging out at a local Panera Bread sipping some fine coffee and taking advantage of their free WiFi – skimming the news and doing some work.

Coffee, of course, causes one to eventually have to visit the facilities. So I wandered down the hall and took my place at the urinal.

After a moment, an older man came in who appeared to be in his seventies. He was wearing a ballcap.

Out of the corner of my eye I notice that prior to approaching the urinal he removed his ballcap. He did his business – and then after stepping back from the urinal (I was now washing my hands) he placed his cap back on.

He must have noticed me looking at him rather oddly – after all, who removes their ballcap in this day and age inside a restroom – so he turns to me and says, “You gotta respect the cock”. And then he walks out.

I haven’t laughed so hard for weeks.

Anonymous on the Global War on Terror

by ·

Former Air Force Officer (and pilot) John Robb writes today about CIA Officer who recently wrote a book Imperial Hubris about the Global War on Terror. Some interesting points:

# Al Qaeda and its ilk represent a national security threat to the US. This is war and it is going to last a long time.
# The tempo of attacks and activity within al Qaeda and other Islamic extremist organizations is increasing.
# Polls in the Islamic world indicate that our policies are opposed by 80-90% of the people (not our way of life). This is the basis of al Qaeda’s support.
# The policies opposed: Our military presence in Saudi Arabia. Our support for appostate regimes in the Islamic world (Egypt and Saudi Arabia). Our unqualified support for Israel. Pressure to maintain low oil prices. Support for regimes that surppress muslims (India and China).
# These policies cannot be debated within the US political system.
# Democracy can’t be exported.
# The solution is to revise our policies to meet the needs of the Islamic world because it is in our interest — or — if we can’t do that, we should be ruthless in our use of military power.
# Our military posture is defensive. It should be aggressive. Our generals have become bureaucrats. To win this militarily, it is going to require a high body count.
# No single official will be faulted in the 9/11 report (and therefore nobody will be fired), despite substantial failures.

There are many good points here. Some of which I agree with – others that I do not necessarily agree with – but eyeopening nonetheless.

I’ve been telling people over the last few weeks two revelations that I’ve had in recent weeks.

The first is that I will likely see suicide bombings here in the United States within my lifetime.

The other, from a speech by Army Chief of Staff General Peter Schoomaker a month or so ago, is that we will likely be at war with Islamic fundamentalists for the rest of our lives.

The world changed on September 11th – and there are some in this country that still doesn’t recognize that…

An Open Letter from Michael Moore

by ·

More blather from Michael Moore in this open letter to Bill Timmins, the President of Alladin Casino.

I understand from the news reports I’ve read that, after Linda Ronstadt, one of America’s greatest singers, dedicated a song to me from your stage on Saturday night, you instructed your security guards to remove her from the Aladdin, which they did.

What country do you live in? Last time I checked, Las Vegas is still in the United States. And in the United States, we have something called “The First Amendment.” This constitutional right gives everyone here the right to say whatever they want to say. All Americans hold this right as sacred. Many of our young people put on a uniform and risk their lives to defend it. My film is all about asking the questions that should have been asked before those brave soldiers were sent into harms way.

Apparantly Mr. Moore has a warped view of the First Amendment – as it exists to protect citizens from restrictions on free speech on the part of the government – thus the reason that the amendment starts off with the phrase “Congress shall make no law…”.

See, it’s pretty simple. It’s Mr. Timmin’s stage. If he doesn’t like what he hears on that stage – and it’s clear that many of his guests didn’t like what they heard – he has every right in the world to toss her off of that stage. And that’s exactly what he did.

And that’s freedom.

Apparently Mr. Moore wants something else…

Golf at Maplegate

by ·

Yesterday, I played golf with a foursome from the real job at Maple Gate Country Club in Bellingham, Massachusetts – up I-495 about thirty miles from my home.

I just started playing golf seriously eleven months ago – so I have many things left to learn. Yesterday, though, was the best day I’ve yet on the course.

From the first hole, I was hitting my driver straight – and at anywhere from 160 – 220 yards – getting good distance for me. I tend to be a soft hitter, you see. Once I get the control down, I’ll worry about the speed of my swing. Control is a bigger factor.

For the first four holes, I was sitting right at par, which is outstanding. And, I had a birdie attempt on a Par-3, which was a first for me. Not a bad start.

On the 15th (a par three), I hooked my shot and ended up far off one side of the elevated green – actually on the fairway of the neighboring hole. A punch shot up through the trees dropped me about five feet from the hole for an easy shot. One of my better shots of the day.

On the 16th (a par five), I dropped my 2nd shot into a bunker just short of the green. My favorite club is my Callaway Forged Wedge with the nice rusted finish. A quick shot out of the sand flew onto the green and about twelve feet from the cup. Unfortunately, I two-putted for a par. But it was the best shot of the day.

Finished at 109 – so I’ve hit the first goal – breaking 110. Had I not shot 11 on the 10th hole and putted a bit better (or made one of my four birdie attempts), I would have broken 100 for the first time.

Now I sit here wishing I had gotten out of bed and walked onto Lakeville Country Club this morning just to play another eighteen. Oh well.