Some miscellaneous thoughts and ruminations:
Anyone else find the timing of Sarah Palin's first network interview interesting, and her canned responses depressing? It's the seventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and the GOP has nominated a candidate for Vice-President of the United States who doesn't know what the Bush Doctrine is. She's had the benefit of preparation by the Republican Party's groomers and experts, and she still looked like a moose caught in the headlights of an approaching Peterbilt. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Over at Rod Dreher's blog, he posted an article called "9/11 And The Country We Lost." He spoke mainly of the spirit of community that was evident in the days immediately following the attacks. One of the commenters, David J. White, posted this in response:
When I saw the headline of your post, "9/11 and the country we lost," my initial expectation of what I was about to read was completely different from what you actually posted. I expected you to write about the country we lost because of 9/11: the country where we didn't have to take off our shoes at the airport, where we could take a drink onto an airplane without causing an incident, where I could fly with just a carry-on bag because no one had a hissy fit if I happened to have disposable razor in it, where we didn't have to worry about being banned from flying just because we might have a name similiar to a suspected terrorist. A country had a proud tradition of, for the most part, not torturing prisoners and not invading countries that hadn't done anything to us. That is the country I miss.
Amen.