bman

Have you ever suddenly realized something about the way somebody speaks that instantly irks you so badly that you can never listen to that person again? I'm having one of those 'moments'.

With all the Media's attention now focused heavily on various candidates from both sides of the aisle it's inevitable that you're going to hear soundbites and interviews from all these tools even when you don't want to. With that being said I would like to point out to Rudy Guiliani that he uses 2 phrases so frequently to prefix most ANY sentence that he has pissed me off and I no longer listen to anything he says even in passing.

1.) "At the end of the day...."
2.) "The reality is.... "

Grrr!

I think the biggest change in my life was a more acute understanding of just how blissfully ignorant the majority of Americans are. I know that sounds harsh, but in the hours and days following 9/11, I struggled to deal with the consistent strong emotions being expressed - especially the repeated phrase "I can't believe (or never believed) it could happen here!"

Anyone who has spent an hour of their lives contemplating the basic tools and knowledge available to evildoers knows that the only reason we are not besieged with terrorist assaults is because the terrorists (for some reason) have chosen not to.

We're not preventing anything; any fool with $1,000 and half a brain could bring down a large aircraft at any one of several key airports. The materials needed to construct rudimentary explosive devices are there for the taking. Most schools still have virtually no protection against any sort of organized suicide attack. I'm not a terrorist, yet I can see how easy these things are to accomplish - how much simpler the picture must be to someone who does this for a "living!"

More importantly, the steps taken to "protect" us since 9/11 have done so much to further empower and embolden those in authority over us, while providing no real security benefits to the vast majority of citizens.

I'm sorry to spoil the mood, but the sadness in my heart today is for my country, for how clueless and unaware we have become, and for the freedoms we have lost. Freedoms lost primarily because we, as a people, refuse to recognize that the world will always be a violent and uncivilized place, where strong men seek power, wealth, and position through the use of violence.

We used to know these things. More of us used to plan, train, and live accordingly. It's good to be in the company of a select few who still do.