This is my old New York neighborhood. I lived about a half mile from the WTC and frequently cut through there and used the sight of the Twin Towers to figure out which way was home when I was elsewhere in NYC.

That whole day (hard to believe that it was 14 years ago!) was very surreal to me. Even the conductor on our train going home that day (I was on one of the first trains to leave Penn Station at 4:00 PM that afternoon) announcing, with his voice cracking, that it was going to be a crowded train and if we were alive we should thank God, seemed very surreal. It was the quietest train ride I have ever been on; even today's quiet cars are noisier.

However, reality hit me the next morning when I arrived at my commuter parking lot to take my usual 5:00 am train into the city.

Normally, I was among the first of 2 or 3 cars in the lot. However, on the morning of Sept 12 there were several cars from the night before. I counted them - there were 26 cars whose drivers did not come home that night. Twenty-six people who I may have nodded good morning to, or together we gripped about NJ transit running late again. Twenty-six people who did nothing wrong but go to work that morning.

I know myself and several co-workers all said the same thing about our commute after that - we were looking for familiar faces for the next couple of months since commuting patterns were radically changed we didn't know if those commuter acquaintances were simply commuting on a different route, lost their jobs, or were killed.

The best response to the "Coexist" bumper sticker crowd is Yea, I'd love to co-exist. But it is kind of hard to coexist when others are trying to make it so you don't "exist."

And now Obama wants us to take in 10,000 "refugees" from that godforsaken part of the world. Does he really want another Boston Marathon bombing or another 9-11?

Amy, I always took out-of-town visitors to the WTC and would stop at the Sbarro's in the lower level for a slice or 2 before going up to the observation deck. My out-of-town friends would get a kick out of sitting at the tables near the front windows people watching while eating pizza.

The Pentagon was burning. About a mile away, in our Crystal City office, we heard a rumor that Foggy Bottom had been hit as well. Phone lines were jammed, and I couldn't even call my wife. Going home was out of the question. Route 1 South was jammed, and the Metro trains were filled beyond capacity.

I remember walking outside, looking into the sky, and feeling very, very vulnerable.

The Coexist thing is easier to understand if you think of the crescent C as Pacman, and the others as ghosts.

Because if Islam gets the upper hand, they won't have a ghost of a chance.

Exactly: "it is kind of hard to coexist when others are trying to make it so you don't 'exist.'"

This is the point of Islam. We westerners don't want to believe that, and Muslims either don't know their texts and speak out of wishful thinking or participate in an Islamically encouraged form of lying, taquiyyah, in order to spread their religion.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/quran/011-taqiyya.htm

#NeverForget pic.twitter.com/NzeXtx0V5R

— Texas A&M Football (@Ag_swagfootball) September 11, 2014

Key part starts about 58 seconds in:

We seek peaceful coexistence

Eloquent, sober comments. Thanks,Amy. Am increasingly pessimistic about the future.

Our linemen came back in saying there were a lot of parties in certain neighborhoods and did not go back out to them.

The smart thing to do is cut a nuke deal with Iran, right?

"God willing, there will be no such thing as a Zionist regime in 25 years. Until then, struggling, heroic and jihadi morale will leave no moment of serenity for Zionists," said Grand Poobah Khamenei today.

Old RPM Daddy;

I'm surprised that they didn't shut down the DC Metro on 9-11.

All of NYC's subways, busses, tunnels, bridges, etc. were shut down. Later, they opened the bridges to Brooklyn for pedestrians to walk across.

Cabbies, no doubt for self-preservation since many are from the Middle East, also left the streets. So, weirdly, I was able to walk down the middle of 5th and 7th Avenues without any worries of being hit by cars since all traffic came to a stand still.

That reminds me, I had better buy a praying mat before Juckner's policies drive the demand up.

@Charles: I'm surprised that they didn't shut down the DC Metro on 9-11.

They may have, for just a little while. I don't really remember. I do remember riding it south late that afternoon, though.

But the Yellow and Blue Lines, which are the lines that stop at the Pentagon, would have been the only way out for some people. Also, bad as the strike on the Pentagon was, it took place in a less crowded area, and was on a smaller scale, than the World Trade Center strikes. Maybe that was why the Metro stayed open.

This story from the other day was pretty cool..

Last Known Living 9/11 Search & Rescue Dog Honored With Dream Day

What the world would look like if we'd followed John's advice.

That's a nice dream Gog. Let me know when you come back to reality.

As long as it's not your reality I'm sure we'll all be fine, Ben.

I'm good with that Gog. The atheist inspired genocides of the 21 century are nothing to be proud of. The millions dead in China and Russia get swept under the rug because they are inconvenient and don't fit the narrative.

Lennon's song Imagine has been implemented. The best example is Mao's China. No religion, no property. China is a big place. For the majority of Chinese there was no nation because the border was so far away. And how did that turn out? Millions in 'reeducation' camps. Millions died from starvation. People were just cogs in a machine. And when a cog failed or malfunctioned it was thrown away and a new cog took it's place.

For Lennon's Imagine to become a dream mankind must be inherently good. But that isn't the world we live in. A few people are inherently good and a few are inherently evil. But for the vast majority the question doesn't apply. They are neither good nor evil. They just are who they are. So in this world Lennon's dream always turns into a nightmare.

Sam Harris has pointed out that what we need to oppose is dogma, per se, which can be part of EITHER a religious or atheist regime. The difference, IIRC, is that religion is ALWAYS about dogma. Not so with atheism.

https://edge.org/conversation/10-myths-mdash-and-10-truths-mdash-about-atheism

Quote:

"There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable."

Also, Lennon didn't say anything in the song about being FORCED into not having a religion or property. Big difference. It's about how great things could be both for ourselves and others if we CHOSE those paths and simply frowned on those who don't. (Not that either harsh laws against purchasing slaves or simply frowning on the practice has been enough to stop tons of individuals from buying slaves to work as prisoners in the owners' homes in any country I can think of, for one.)

Anyway, as Richard Dawkins said in "The God Delusion," yes, it's a magnificent song and still quite radical, given that often in America (and elsewhere?) people insist on changing the lyrics about religion.

And, from a wise man in the 1970s (also an atheist):

"...Because what I want to do is to cure you of your freedom. I’m convinced that it’s an excess of freedom which has made everybody in the world so miserable. In England, I never have any difficulty persuading people that they are unhappy. The trouble comes when I tell them they are free. Nobody seems to make any comparison between himself and somebody in the same circumstances in a time gone by. This amazes me. I come from a time in there were so little liberty that if a girl wanted to wear nail varnish she had to leave home for good. And if a man wore suede shoes, moral obliquity written in every toe, forty years ago there would have been nothing for him to do but join the Foreign Legion. Now you all wear, do, say, whatever you like, and in England we enjoy the greatest freedom of all: we need never never work. It’s true, when we’ve used the last possible grant for the last possible subject, we can go on to a thing called National Assistance.

"Now, unlike others of my generation , I would be happy for all the people who find themselves in this blissful circumstances if I felt that they were happy, but wherever I look people are not singing, they are shouting, they are not dancing, they are marching, they are not rejoicing, they are complaining. In fact we can safely say that throughout the world protest has become a game any number can play. One weekend in London my landlady got into the wrong march. That will show you what’s going on there. So I must assume that was has made everybody in the world suddenly so angry is the element which has been added to their lives in recent times: their freedom. I know it’s no good in asking you to abide by laws handed down to you by your pastors and your masters and your elders and your betters, it’s too late for that.

"So what I think we need is chains of our own making. Now, however hideous this may be, they will never feel as heavy as limitations placed on us by others..."

Whoops - I should have said "government," not "regime."

For the record, a proper atheist doesn't set up a person in modern times to be worshipped, either - not Lenin, not Mao, not Hussein.

When the State steps in to ban religion, it becomes one itself, and an atheist must deny its authority based on lack of deity.

Just like Christianity and Islam have to accept it's practitioners and it's leaders so to must Atheism accept it's practitioners and it's leaders. Warts and all.

And as for the dogma argument, there is a difference without a distinction. Once you form a nation you will have laws, i.e. dogma. Or are you advocating anarchy as the only good form of governance?

As I said, once you mix Lennon's dream with real live people you end up with a nightmare.

Are you seriously suggesting that traffic laws or laws against violence and robbery are "dogma"?

Rules of behavior (especially those which can result in prison time if broken), per se, and BELIEFS are quite different.

From Merriam-Webster:

Dogma

a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted

a belief or set of beliefs that is taught by a religious organization

Full Definition of DOGMA
1
a : something held as an established opinion; especially : a definite authoritative tenet

b : a code of such tenets

c : a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds
2
: a doctrine or body of doctrines concerning faith or morals formally stated and authoritatively proclaimed by a church

(end)

Yes, of course there have been many societies where church law and legal law were one and the same. But even when there's a separation of church and state - that is, where one doesn't get fined or jailed for shacking up - it's still called dogma to say that one will go to hell for that.

And, just to clarify further: Since when do we call it "a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds" when we're referring to laws against running red lights, violence, or robbery?

In short, dogma is about belief without reason.

Ah, so your rules are good, rational, and the only way right thinking people should act. But those other rules, oh those other rules, they are just baseless superstitions, wild eyed idiocy that no right thinking person should follow.

Good job on giving an example of 'a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted' Lenona.