1 "Iran, which is both hostile to the U.S. and openly supports jihad (albeit of the Khomeinist variety)"

Dr. S.,
The Islamic Republic of Iran is not merely hostile, it has in fact on several occasions perpetrated ACTS OF WAR against the United States. Indeed, they openly say that they see themselves as being at war with the U.S.

2 The anniversary of the Challenger explosion was yesterday.  How is this relevant?  Well I did not see it.  I was at work that morning and had HS in the Afternoon.  My mom was worried I'd be uspet.  Well, no, I said rockets are dangerous it happens.  But I noted that those who saw it live were very affected and emotional about it.  9-11 I had the day off and was watching from start to finish.  So I wonder if that's part of the reason I'm so affected and some seem to shrug it off.  I witnessed the live event.  Anyone think that's valid?

3 And if nuclear weapons in the hands of the Iranian Mullahs isn't every bit as dangerous as the Luftwaffe, I don't know what is.

Exactly.  And if the mullahs develop the capacity to inflict the damage of Hitler then I take it Bell's fully in favor of us doing everything to the mullahs that we did to Hitler.  But my guess is he isn't.

4  
I have given some thought(actually, it wasn't worth much) to what David Bell said. He reminds me in no small part of the fools in Byzanthium and Persia who probably gave little mind to a group of riders who came out of the Arabian peninsula in 625 A.D.

We all know how that turned out for Persia and Byzanthium. Millions dead and enslaved, looting, rapine and slaughter not previously seen in history. The jihad had arrived, and it still flows and ebbs, and the collective memory of the World subsides along with the jihad, only to have to be learned again in a dirth of blood and death.

As for the danger, there has been no time in human history where the actual destruction of the World hangs in the balance, perhaps on nothing more than the whim of madmen. Hitler never had the bomb. He would, of course, have used it, but the point is moot. The danger is greater now than it ever has been, and yet the fools fiddle. So it has been before, and others have stepped into the breach. So we shall again.

5 Howie, you're right. Even though I'm in SoCal, I watched 9/11 live, since I got frantic calls immediately after the first plane, trying to ascertain if my big brother was alive (NY lines jammed, and my brother worked near the top). So I saw the second strike live, and spent most of the day assuming my brother was dead (he was late and lived).  It severely affected me.  But as I drove around town the next week, I saw hardly any american flags. When I went to the midwest a couple months later, people still had flags all over their cars.  9/11 never really touched the west coast, since all the dramatic events were over before most people were even awake.

Think about this. On 9/11/1, my wife had to go to all of her law school classes. The teachers forced her to sit through lectures, and even called on students like normal (if you were absent, you had your grade docked). What kind of fucked up professors decide they are going to hold a normal Civil Procedure class on that day? California lawyers, that's who.

6 Actually - and regrettably - he's sorta/kinda right by my view. A direct line from that enlightnment crap can be drawn through romanticism and to modern leftism.

Yup: I'm an Age of Reason kind of guy. Bach over Brahms any day.

7 Two points need to be made here:

One, patriotism has been on the decline on both the East(not so much in the SE) and West Coasts for quite some time. Large numbers of illegal and legal immigrants with little or no education, legal immigrants and citizens educated in foreign and domestic colleges with liberal and leftist agendas, and activist judges able and willing to disrupt the republican political process are responsible. When traveling in the East and West, I rarely see instances of patriotism in the classical sense. When I travel in rural areas of the South and Midwest, however, I see tremendous support for our troops, our nation, and our ideals.

The second point is easily made as well. Two schools of thought came out of the Enlightenment. One school, the English school, personified by John Locke, believed in a limited government restrained by the people in the form of a Republic, with laws that spelled out what the state could and could not do. The other school, what I call the French school,  personified by Rousseau, awards the state the power to force its citizens to act in a certain way. Namely, the state is given the power to enforce the utopian ideals of equlity and fraternity. This led to the totalitarian states that later formed in Europe, and is still widely influencial in the current European system in Brussels.

As in most things, the enlightenment was both good and bad. The French model led to the Leftist systems we still see today. Why it has continued to influence so much after all its failures is beyond me, but it appeals to the worst in humanity, so perhaps that is the explanation.

As for me, I much prefer Mozart.
 

8

You can't over-react to 9-11. I watched it for 2 1/2 days with only about 2 hours of sleep.  I was for nuking whoever did it, and I still think we might have been better off using a couple to make the point.  Nobody should entertain the idea that they can do this kind of thing, and not get a mile wide crater for their gravesite.

Having said that, I am very convinced that we are in a two front war that is of existential proprotions, and we are sleepwalking through it.

We need to cause hope and joy in our friends, and abject, paralyzing fear in our enemies.  Then we induce our enemies to become our friends, because of the advantages. That's my idea of a good foriegn policy.

Anyway, I'm sorry I've been in 'lurker mode' but it's a busy time back here.  

USA, all the way!

9 OVER REACTED! BULLSHIT! We have under reacted. The entire muslim world should be held responsible for 9/11. Remember those animals cheering in the streets. 9/11 was directly caused by Islam. A cowardly religion that feeds on this type behavior. Look around the entire world today. What is the cause of the wars and bombing going on. ISLAM IS THE CAUSE. When a religion it teaches that killing innocent people will get you into heaven I say that religion must be purged from this earth. OUTLAW ISLAM. Its' believers stink.