I didn’t think it would be appropriate to put up an image that might be disturbing to some without fairwarning. If you click through to a private page you will see a 1979 ad for Pakistan Airlines that is very ominous. Decide for yourself if it was intentional or unintentionally prophetic.
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If you are a blogger, you undoubtedly have been in an internal tug of war about whether or not to write something commemorating September 11, 2001. It is such a difficult subject for several reasons.
Hasn’t everything that needs to be said been said already?
Can we possibly add any fragment of new insight into a subject as vast as this one is?
Are people tired of hearing about it?
Let us answer the last question first. 9/11 is this generation’s Pearl Harbor. Our parents or grandparents remember the fallen of December 7, 1941 because it was etched in their minds. We also know what happened on that date but its level of importance is perhaps lost on us. Our excuse: we weren’t alive then. We were not alive to experience it. We don’t have the emotional attachment. We do know that the attack on Pearl Harbor was enormously significant in that it brought the United States into World War II.
The memory of 9/11/2001 is something we can never escape in our lifetime. You know where you were and what you were thinking. You remember praying for total strangers and running your personal rolodex through your mind to account for everyone you knew. You remember the firefighters. You remember the innocent people who plunged to their deaths to escape the inevitability of the flames. You will never forget the collapse of World Trade Center II and then, about a half hour later, World Trade Center I. You remember your own shock and the distress of others around you.
People want to move on and who can blame them? But this is something that changed our lives and is still changing our lives. I offer no new insight. Everything has been said already. But if my life is changing, I want to know why. I want to know what we’re doing to prevent another al-Qaeda attack. I want to know why our government will not release private videos showing American Airlines flight 77 maneuvering into the Pentagon. I want to know that the innocent and the brave did not die in vain. I want to know that you and I are safe within the context of our everyday life. I want the facts and the truth. I want to know what we are doing today to assure that two generations from now 9/11/2001 will be a significant event but a distant memory.
Bloggers note: My brother Phil has included on his blog today one of the most compelling first person accounts of 9/11 that you may ever read. Go to PDreport.blogspot.com.
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John Smeaton is back at his post. The world should feel a bit safer now. Smeaton, as you may recall, popped a terrorist in the nose after crashing through the airport terminal window at Glasgow Intl Airport and became a world folk hero. (Click here to get caught up - >> Smeaton ) I know will I feel a bit safer since I will be flying through there on Friday, August 11th. Whew.
Mon 30 Jul 2007 
John Smeaton is given a hero’s welcome at Ibrox on Saturday
Picture: Robert Perry
Warning to all would-be terrorists: John Smeaton is back on duty today
MARTYN MCLAUGHLIN (mmclaughlin@scotsman.com)
EVEN superheroes need their time off, but as of today Scottish travellers can again breathe a sigh of relief.
Four weeks after an eventful cigarette break propelled him into the bosom of a worldwide internet fanbase, via the front page of the Wall Street Journal and praise in the House of Commons, John Smeaton will at last return to work.
Come 2pm today, Mr Smeaton will step back into the breach in his position as a senior ramp assistant at Glasgow Airport, with CNN – the US-based news channel that aired one of his first interviews – even sending a crew back to Scotland to document his return to Airway Handling Ltd.
In the month that has passed since the baggage handler helped overpower a suspect in the foiled terror attack on the Renfrewshire hub last month, Mr Smeaton’s life has changed beyond recognition.
From the moment his adrenalin- fuelled Glaswegian patois was broadcast across rolling news channels, Mr Smeaton’s uncompromising recount of his actions won him an army of admirers. His blunt remarks rang true with viewers, particularly when he stated: “This is Glasgow – we’ll just set aboot ye,” and chided one alleged bomber thus: “You’re nae hitting the polis mate, there’s nae chance.”
A website, visited by 500,000 people in its first 48 hours, paid an affectionate – albeit increasingly parodic – tribute. Mr Smeaton was, at one point, hailed as the man so hard that he makes even onions cry.
Visitors to the site even raised £2,100 from people pledging to buy Mr Smeaton a congratulatory pint. He has since donated half the money to Erskine, the charity which cares for injured military veterans, and will use the rest to fund a night out for other people involved in thwarting the bombing attempt.
As the media clamour increased, Mr Smeaton has, however, found it difficult to cope with all that has happened to him. Diagnosed by his GP as suffering from stress, he has said he cannot stop thinking “of that guy covered in flames with his skin hanging off”.
His unexpected fame, has brought benefits, however. He seldom has had to put his hand in his pocket while in a public house, and he has been signed up by the tabloid press to tell his story.
In recent weeks, Mr Smeaton has even had the opportunity to meet Billy Connolly, during which the comedian rebuffed Mr Smeaton’s claims that he was the baggage handler’s hero, insisting that the reverse was true.
Even now that he is returning to work, however, Mr Smeaton, who lives with his parents in Erskine, Renfrewshire, can still expect high-profile company. Next month, he will be invited to an official reception in Glasgow hosted by the First Minister, Alex Salmond.
The folk hero is, furthermore, tipped for a place on the New Year’s Honours List.
John Smeaton returns to work!
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I know that all of my liberal friends including my brother will get great joy from reading this post.
I am a Republican. There, I’ve said it. I have voted for Gerald Ford and every Republican contender since including both terms of George Walker Bush (the shame). Its not that I don’t believe in the ideal of the Republican Party, its just I don’t believe in the people running it anymore. Ron Paul interests me as a Presidential candidate but my friend Andy and brother Phil tell me he is irrelevant.
I write this brief note today because I really do not believe anything, I mean everything that comes out of the White House. I can honestly say that in the past, I have always had a healthy skepticism but now its just plain disbelief. The story that the White House foisted on us recently is case in point.
Al Qaeda is at it’s strongest since 9/11.
The backup for this, the empirical evidence for this claim is Michael Chertoff’s “gut feeling.” I used to play blackjack with a gut feeling AND lost. Our government is operating on instinct now? Not good. Not good at all.
Mr Gut Feeling:
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