9/11: Bizarro World Editions

Well, it wouldn't be a real anniversary of 9/11 without hearing from the wacko contingent. So now we turn to this sophmoric blog post by a self-described "laid-off blogger" who asks the question:

How does a plane crash harmlessly into the farmland of Pennsylvania after some apparent "struggle" in the cockpit?

Wowwww... I'd never thought of that! We'll ignore the clumsy and imprudent use of the word harmless for a incident with 44 fatalities. Has this guy ever been on a plane? He should look out the window the next time and he'll see a lot of uninhabited land.

There is a lot of other stuff in his piece which might sound brilliant when posited in a barber shop full of unemployed and retired pontificators who think Bush is still President, or in a bar full of, shall we say, overly exuberant people on Friday night around 11:45pm. But it is wisest to never publish this material, and this example is a good reminder. The problem is that what happened on flight 93 is so well-documented at this point. The Black Box is public. And one could find many other examples of good material, and a good starting point would be here (1), to use as ammunition against those who for one reason or another fail to grasp that some people hate America due to their own belief systems. Our difficulty or our failure to understand or relate to these belief systems is hardly a basis for belief more compelling than hard evidence. It is always a good idea to have such information at hand if you're optimistic and believe as I do that we still may find cures for both cancer and "trutherism".

Near the end, an attempt is made to persuade his readers that it doesn't really matter what happened, let's just enjoy life and be grateful for what we have, yada yada yada. So it really doesn't matter, I guess, whether or not some shadow conspiracy inside the U.S. Government offed its own citizens and the war against Islamic extremists is completely farcical. Just give us some good ol' fashioned construction jobs and a couple cases of beer and we're set to sail.

His concluding paragraph throws a bone to those "that feel they deserve more answers and in-fact deserve the truth" by stating that the truth should be provided to them. He may as well have said that an explanation should be given to the "truthers" which satisfies their own criteria for an acceptable narrative of events. I'm not sure why they'd need that, and I don't know who he thinks could deliver it to them. They've thrown out the 9/11 Commission Report and the many articles debunking their theories. If they are so smart, they should just be content with their own Bizarro World version of events. Back in post-9/11 2001, before the rotten egg of "trutherism" was even being incubated, I personally talked to a liberal guy who claimed that he knew 9/11 was going to happen. And I worked with a conservative guy who actually said that if he had been in New York City on 9/11, "things would have gone down differently." What—would you have reached up and grabbed the planes, bringing them safely to the ground with your bare hands? So the history of 9/11 Bizarro cartoons go back to 9/12. Last thing I knew, both these geniuses were unemployed.

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Notes:

1 - 01/03/2019: I replaced a dead link with a better written debunking of the "truther" position with regard to the 9/11 attacks. The author, Jay Chambers, presents the case patiently as it has been done many times. Hopefully people will abandon their fantasies in favor of what is likely, however uncomfortable it makes them feel. We are at war.

2 - 01/03/2019: I did find a link to debunking material on Popular Mechanics's site. Why they don't update dead links to redirect to new locations is beyond me, but they are one of many "glossy" companies who fail at this.

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