I just heard a report on NPR from one of the triage sites in NY that the walking wounded are being ignored and those that are close to death. That’s horrible, but I imagine they have to with as many wounded they must have and the limited resources they’re working with. I also heard that some territories in the Middle East or having celebrations. Will this plunge the world into war again, like Pearl Harbor? I couldn’t imagine having to go through something like this, and I hope I never have to.
Blog
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WTC IV
I was able to get a hold of a friend of mine from North Jersey. She and her family are fine, but she used to work in the World Trade Center. She told me that she doesn’t know if all the people she used to work with got out. She said she had spoken to some but not all. For her sake, I hope they did. My God, I just feel like crying. The World freakin’ Trade center isn’t there anymore. It just isn’t there. After the first bombing back in ’93 I thought it was indestructible.
Back in ’93, I had strep throat and a really bad fever. The fever was around 102. I had these really bad dreams. In one of them, a large structure had exploded. The next day I was in my doctor’s office, and they announced over the radio that the World Trade Center had been bombed. I was so delirious with a fever, I thought I was responsible.
No dream last night. Just a nightmare this morning.
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WTC III
I just had a sick feeling come over me. I have a friend who I love a lot that lives in New York City. She kind of disappeared a few weeks ago. When I say disappeared, I mean I tried to call her and her number was disconnected, and I haven’t gotten an e-mail from her in a while. If my memory serves me correctly, she worked somewhere near the World Trade Centers. But the last we talked, she was getting a job out of the city. I e-mailed her at the last address I had for her but haven’t heard anything back yet. I pray to God she’s ok.
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WTC II
You know I’ve never cried over anything I’ve seen on the news before, but when I watched the World Trade Center buildings collapse I felt like busting out into tears.
I have a brother who works in D.C. I panicked for what seemed like hours until I heard from my parents that he was ok.
My wife went to the store and I didn’t know about it. I must have left about 15 messages on the answering machine at home.
Both my dad, who is 72, and my mother-in-law, who is 63, both said the same thing. That this was Pearl Harbor all over again.
I live nowhere near NY or D.C. but I still can’t help feeling nervous. I’m at work right now, probably risking my job to do this, but I think it’s necessary. Here in Charlotte, NC, they’re evacuating the First Union/Wachovia building and most of downtown. I wish they would let us go. I want to be with my family. More later.
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WTC I
In the 32 years that I’ve been alive, there have been some holy shit moments. The Challenger explosion. The World Trade Center bombing. The Oklahoma City bombing. Columbine. And now this. Luckily, I have no family in New York, so I’ve been spared as far as I know.
My heart goes out to the families of the victims. More commentary later.
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The West Memphis 3
Ever hear of the Robin Hood Hills Murders? How about the West Memphis 3? Me neither until I saw a documentary on HBO the other night called Paradise Lost. To my goth readers, you probably already know all the details. To my other readers, if I have any, please read on.
I’m a little sketchy on all the details and names since it’s been a few days since I saw the movie, but I will provide links to other sites that can do this much better justice than I can.
I believe it was in 1993 that three children were brutally raped, tortured, mutilated, and eventually murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. West Memphis is one of those towns in the deep south you think doesn’t really exist anymore. They’re for the most part, fundamentalist Christians to the point of zealotry. They cried out for a quick arrest to be made. Eventually, they arrested 3 teens. One, their alleged leader, goes by the name of Damien Echols. Damien Echols is kind of like someone I know. He dressed in black, listened to heavy metal, and studied alternate religions. In fundamentalist towns, people like this are seen as devil worshipers. One of his friends, whose last name I believe is Misskelley, I could have the spelling wrong on that, has the IQ of a nerf ball. He was allegedly held under police questioning for 12 hours, even though only I believe an hour and a half of tape exists. He confessed to being part of the murders, even though his testimony contradicts some of the facts of the crime scene. After his conviction and subsequent life sentence, Damien Echols was then tried, convicted, and sentenced to death for these murders. The third teen, whose name escapes me right now, was also sentenced to life after his trial.
The thing is the police so bungled their case against Echols I don’t think they would have gotten a conviction in any other state that isn’t predominantly a backwoods, bible thumping, inbred, white trash state like Arkansas. Evidence was mishandled. Leads were not followed up on. One of the prosecution’s star witnesses who professed to be an expert on the occult received his degree from a mail-order college.
Damien Echols didn’t help his own case, though. He wasn’t always Damien. He allegedly took the name Damien after the Catholic priest Father Damien who helped the lepers in Hawaii before succumbing to the disease himself. But, as my wife pointed out, there’s also Damien from the Omen trilogy and Father Damien in the Exorcist movies who banished the demon in I and then was possessed by the demon in III. According to the movie, he might have been a follower of Alistair Crowley and Anton LaVey, two self-admitted Satanists. But on the other hand, I have read the works of Crowley and LaVey. Does this make me a Satanist? Hell no. (Pun intended) Reading those books made me even stronger in my faith in Christ and God. I think what sealed Damien’s fate was that he admitted to believing in Wicca. To those who don’t know, Wicca is a belief in mother earth instead of God and is also known as white magic. To the fundamentalist redneck hicks of West Memphis, he might as well as said that he was a satanist.
Also, one of the victim’s step-father has an air of suspicion swirling around him. His wife died under mysterious circumstances. Some of the victims had bite marks and the step-father had all his teeth removed, stating either they fell out, the dentist, removed them, or he lost them in a fight. He is also a gem cutter, which requires surgeon-like precision, which is what the county coroner said was required in order to inflict such wounds. And one of the victim’s biological father believes that the WM3 are innocent.
I don’t know whether Damien Echols committed these murders or not. Only seven people know, as my wife put it, the victims, the accused, and God. And God’s not talking right now. Anyway, my point is that the West Memphis 3 deserve a retrial. And the only way they are going to get a fair trial is to take it out of Arkansas. In order for a fair trial it must be taken to a religiously neutral or mixed state. Otherwise, it’s just another case in which their only crime was being “different”.
I mean no disrespect to the victims. My condolences go out to their families.
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Columbine Families Sue Video Game Manufacturers
I read this article today about some of the families of the Columbine shooting victims are suing video game manufacturers. They are singling out the popular game “Doom” specifically. As usual, I will preface this by saying again my heart goes out to the victims’ families. Not a day goes by where I don’t pray for them. But I think their latest efforts are misguided. Suing the video game manufacturers for the billions they’re asking for just seems a little too much to me.
The video games are not to blame. To me, the blame lies squarely on the parents of Harris and Klebold. For those of you who may not know in Doom, you are a “space marine” and you go around shooting aliens with big guns and the aliens bleed red blood.
It is a pretty violent game. I’ve played it a few times myself. This is not a game for kids or teens. When I first played it, the game was clearly rated “M” for mature. Meaning, only 17+ should play the game. If I caught my son playing this game, he’d be grounded until his wedding day. The game did not make these kids killers. Egomania and inattentive parents did. If they should sue anybody it should be the parents, which they already did and won, or the retailers who sold them this game, or whoever bought it for them.
I hate to say this but suing the video game manufacturers looks like some ambulance chasing lawyer whispered into their ears. It looks very opportunistic.
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Suspected School Bombing Plot
I came across an AP article on Thursday about a 14-year-old boy in Georgia who was discovered to have who had several guns, Nazi posters, $4,900 in cash, and bomb recipes in his room in relation to a suspected bomb threat against his middle school. 10 other homes of students were raided as well. Now the media is labeling them as “goths” but I guess that’s par for the course these days. Now the article goes on as the AP interviewed the boy’s father. He tried to defend his son by stating the following…
The boy’s father told The Associated Press on Thursday that the handguns belong to his son-in-law, who is visiting from Illinois. The pistols were stashed in his son’s room to keep them away from younger children, he said. “He is not a violent kid,” the father said. The boy pulled bomb-making recipes off the Internet only to demonstrate to his father how easily teens could find such instructions online, the father said. As for the drawing of Adolf Hitler seized from the boy’s room, the father said his son once wrote a school report on Adolf Hitler and got a good grade for it. He said his son claimed the $4,900 belonged to a friend.
Now, I’ve been a victim of extreme coincidence, but this sounds so far-fetched. Even to me. It sounds like the father is trying to cover his own ass for either not knowing that this was going on or, he was encouraging this behavior. The guns, the bomb instructions, Nazi paraphernalia, it all fits together too nicely. And the old “He’s holding the $5,000 for a friend” routine is a classic case of “Not my child” syndrome. Unfortunately, this just another case of parents who have no involvement in their children’s lives. With all the recent outbreaks of school violence, I fear another tragedy might happen this 20th. For the love of God, I hope I’m wrong.
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More on Dale Earnhardt
An update to a previous post.
Thank God, the Florida legislature has enacted a law stating that any outside party wishing to view autopsy photos must gain clearance through a judge. Hopefully, this will keep Dale Earnhardt’s autopsy photos out of the hands of internet death merchants.
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The Dale Earnhardt Controversy
Ok, I’m not the biggest race fan in the world. As a matter of fact, I don’t see what the attraction is of watching cars turn left for 3 hours. But when you live in the south, NASCAR is a way of life.
2 1/2 weeks ago, Dale Earnhardt was killed in a crash at the Daytona 500. Now, as you all know, I live in North Carolina. I live a stone’s throw from where Earnhardt lived and grew up. And I’ve heard nothing but good things about the man. I couldn’t help but get swept up in the outpouring of emotion from the local community. I even put the graphic you see above on the front page of my site. But now the media is at it again, and in my “favorite” city in the country. The Orlando Sentinel wants access to the autopsy photos of Dale Earnhardt for their own investigative purposes.
They claim that they would not print these photos for public viewing. Now, there are many things wrong with this situation. First of all, you know that if they are granted access, some copy boy or other unscrupulous employees would get their hands on the photos and sell them to the highest bidder. Then they would be splashed all over the internet. And would be eaten up by the same people who rent the “Faces of Death” movies and worship Charles Manson. Secondly, where was the Orlando Rag when drivers like Davey Allison, Adam Petty, and Kenny Erwin were killed? Also, the family of Dale Earnhardt hasn’t even had time to grieve yet because of the media vultures in Orlando. How would you like it if one of your family member’s autopsy photos were printed for the world to see?
This is a case of making the news instead of reporting it. And in their arrogance, the Orlando Rag has printed an article defending their actions and listing what other newspapers support them. Two of the papers mentioned are in Miami and Tampa. And we all know the journalistic integrity of those three cities. Especially after the election fiasco. For me personally, this gives me just one more reason to hate the state of Florida. As Bugs Bunny once said, “South America, take her away.” So do me a favor, please. Go to the Orlando Sentinel website and give them what for.