[Austin-ghetto-list] Atop the Ruins

[jaxon41]

Bill Groneman, a history-nut like me who's also a captain of the NYCFD with
20 years' service, told a mutual friend here in Austin this a few days ago.
While Bill & his fellow firemen were picking body parts out of the rumble, a
group of fully decked out Arabs climbed  atop the rubble, posing and giving
grins, victory signs & fists-to-the-sky while others in the group snapped
photos to send to the folks back home.  The firemen stopped their labors and
took after them with baseball bats, but NYC cops stopped them before any
kneecaps were busted.  Did any of you see this incident reported on CNN/FOX
et al?  I didn't but BG's got no reason to lie about it.  He also said that
the 300 firemen who raced to the scene and died in the collapse were all
high-ranking guys in the department.

Can you imagine what would have been the fate of American tourists who tried
to pull a stunt like that in Their country under similar conditions??

Myself, I've always thought that the lyrics to Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin'
Down" captured the hopes & aspirations of Our Generation.  But Marvin, it
takes two to tango, and these extremists don't seem to wanna dance without
stomping on our toes real bad.

Like you Connie, I'm pessimistic about our prospects for winning any kind of
holy war.  Unless we're willing to exterminate MILLIONS of people, down to
the last squalling infant.  Thank goodness we aren't.  What I'm worried
about is the extremism of these Muslim fanatics spreading like poison to
other, more moderate believers.  SOLIDARITY, we must stand together against
the Infidels!  The pope used to launch holy wars, and you know what all Good
Catholics were expected/obliged to do.  Islam may be a religion of peace &
love but--like most other religions--it can be pretty easily adjusted to the
goals of hate & war-mongers.  This isn't a new twist; it predates the
Crusades and has been with us ever since in that part of the world.

I don't know who wrote it, but George Dubya's address to Congress will rank
as one of the alltime greatest delivered to Americans in a time of stress.
It called for reasonable treatment of Muslims among us and stated very well
our nation's long fight against the Forces of Darkness.  It said this attack
has made it too late to talk about pedantic points of who's guilty; action
is now required.  Sure: Oil.  But there's more to it than that, as the prez
made clear.  Germany hasn't much oil, but if they'd launched the WTC attack,
I suspect the speech would have been pretty similar.  Madness is maddness,
whether Adolf is the mastermind or some guy named Osama.

This war is gonna be a tough one to win & I'm depressed about it.  jaxon