I've been reading with some interest the various plans for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, without, before now, really having much of a feeling that I had a dog in this hunt. I do know that the plans I've seen have left me pretty lukecold. I was sorta tending toward the stick-it-in-yer-eye, build-it-back-bigger-and-better-than-before school of thought, when, like a flash from the Divine, the One True Solution smacked me like I was Saul heading for Damascus...

We need to mark the site with a reminder to future generations of what happened, and why.

I think a 75 story statue of William Jefferson Clinton anchored firmly at Ground Zero is exactly what we need. It will probably cost less than the presidential library WJC currently envisions, and the base around the statue can serve as a repository for his papers and such. Multimedia kiosks can show video clips of his repeated oaths to track the Al Qaida down after their repeated attacks on US citizens and property here and abroad, along with the documented accounts of Clinton letting Osama slip away.

This feature alone would ensure that no taxpayer funds need be used on the project, as I am certain that the money for this work would be easily raised by private donations, most likely within hours of the announcement of the design.

In another building, visitors will be able to see multimedia presentations of our upcoming war with Iraq, along with those of our first onem a multimedia history of the victory.

Other displays, some of which will be better left for only adults to access, will have clips of such things as the raw video footage of the doomed folk jumping out of the WTC, the Daniel Pearl execution video, and assuming we can ever pry it loose from the government, the audio tapes of the heroes of Flight 93 taking the hijackers down.

Lest We Forget.

Crouched around him will be smaller statues, maybe only 20 or 30 stories high, of Bush 41, who left the job undone, and Colin Powell, the man most responsible for 41's decision to do so. Minor figures, only few stories high, will be the reporters and politicians that put pressure on the senior Bush administration to call off Gulf War I at the exact point of victory. Smaller, merely life-size, statues of the Congressional members that voted against the war will round out the Pantheon of Shame.

Surrounding them all will be a black Viet Nam Memorial styled wall of stone, with the names of all the dead from the WTC, the Cole, and the other terrorist attacks, along with those that have already died, and those that inevitably will, in the coming war to send Saddam and the rest of the Islamofascists to go see Allah. Let each of these dead have a small alcove in the wall with pictures, letters, video clips, and other personal momentos designed to impart to the mind of the visitor the unique personality of each individual.

Atop the encircling wall, at intervals, let there be larger-than-life statues of the special heroes of the conflict - the men of the NYFD and the NYPD, and men like Todd Beamer, one of the men that defeated the terrorists in the first victory of this war, the Battle of Flight 93, whose last words we know of, "Let's Roll," should become the official motto of this coming conflict, to be proudly worn by every single man and woman in uniform. They will be joined in glory and veneration by those whose names we do not yet know, whose heroism is yet to be revealed in the coming months, whose heroism will as surely come to light as day follows night.

The layout itself will be fitting - out on the periphery, manning the barricades, as it were, shedding the blood, are the pawns, both the victims of, and the victors in, the war to liberate the Middle East, while in the center, ultimately untouched, defended by them, will be the knighted fools that made their deaths both heroic and tragic, necessary and inevitable.

The citizens of all America will forever be reminded of not only the valiant, and the innocent dead, but also of the folly of choosing leaders that choose unwisely, requiring once again that the tree of liberty be refreshed by the blood of patriots.

That would be the memorial I would design.

... Link (3 comments) ... Comment

"I have an axe to grind, and plenty of fury to turn the wheel."

Arthur Allen Leff

They can't find an issue to call their own these days that the public gives a damn about.

Quick now - the Democratic leaders are calling a press conference this afternoon to announce their great new plan for the American people. It is....what? What does the Democratic party stand for today? Can they think of anything? Can they define themselves other than by being against whatever the Republicans are for? Would any reporters even show up?

The pity of it all is that there are real issues out there crying out for attention. Ending the compleat failure of the "War On Drugs" would be one. Getting our somnolent, lazy asses up and off this rock and out into space would be another. Revising copyright law to relax the deathgrip the publishing companies are keeping on artists completes the trifecta. Any of those issues alone would be enough to change my vote in a presidential campaign.

Rational regulation on environmental issues, easier approval of new drugs, privatization of many government functions, (start with the Post Office) clueful airline security, solving the "last mile" problem for high speed information access, protection of personal privacy, more R&D funds for universities researching things such as nanotech, I can imagine many issues that are not inherently wedded to to one school of political thought, and are wandering around as orphans, largely ignored by both parties.

Devoid of both creative thinking and charismatic leaders, (Gore? Gephardt? Lieberman? gimme a break) Liberalism, at least as manifested by the Democratic party, is on the ropes.

The DoJ has come out as officially supporting the 2nd Amendment. They're losing the Jewish vote, one of their traditional constituencies, as Bush hangs tough with Israel. Al Freakin' Sharpton is wanting to run for president. I dearly pray that he does, as the totality of his vote will come from the group of people known as Too Stoopid To Have The Franchise, immediately improving the average IQ of the voters for the other candidates. A better outcome would be inevitable.

The public is solidly behind Bush, (approval ratings steady at around 70%) even though the market is tanking, and none of the financial scandals are affecting the Republicans more than the Dems, as the public seems to recall the antics of one William Jefferson Clinton, and thinks just maybe the fine integrity he showed in office might have set the tone for nineties.

"Is there collusion between the auditors and the companies they audit to cook the books?"

"Well, sir, that depends on what the definition of 'is' is".

The real meaning there? It's OK to lie, (under oath) cheat, (on your wife) and steal, (even White House furniture) if you're rich and powerful. That differs from the Enron folks just how?

It's not looking too good for the liberals on the international front, either. Communism is dead, and the Euro socialist utopia is starting to smell like last week's fish, as the economy tanks and they slide further into the backwaters of history.

We ran the Taliban outta Afghanistan without breaking a sweat, and Osama is fertilizer somewhere. After we take down Saddam, and Iran falls of it's own weight, there will be the first real progress toward liberal modernity in the Middle East in centuries. (and if you truly consider yourself aligned with the "liberal" issues such as women's rights, freedom of religion, and freedom of expression, and think those rights should extend to humans that didn't have the happy accident to be born here in the States, then you oughta be marching in the goddam streets demanding that Dubya send in the troops yesterday)

Bush is about to liberate more people from the yoke of oppression than any president since, hmmm... Reagan, finally doing the job that WJC and, to be fair, his daddy, should have done.

The Dems are running on prescription drug benefits for seniors. Could the contrast be any greater?

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment

This is hilarious...

Sample bite from:

www.coldfury.com

"Frodo Baggins of Bagshot Row, Hobbiton, The Shire, Middle Earth, has been called before the International Criminal Court to answer charges of war crimes brought by Sauron the Dark Lord and Saruman the White in a joint filing."

and later on...

"Baggins was responsible for casting the Ring of Power (otherwise known as the One Ring or simply the One) into the fires of Mount Orodruin in Mordor ("Where The Shadows Lie!" according to the Mordor Tourism Board), thereby destroying both the Ring and Sauron's long-standing hope to bring heretofore fractious and inefficient Middle Earth under the central political control of the Dark Tower. Without the Ring, Sauron's legions (defensive in nature and made necessary by the Lords of the West's aggression, according to Barad-Dur spokesmen) of orcs, wolves, trolls, and "evil" Men lost the will to fight and became helpless in the face of the armies of the West. Millions were slaughtered as a direct and immediate consequence of the destruction of the Ring."

When the Europeans realize that to sign the ICC treaty would require the President to seek a Constitutional Amendment allowing foreign judges, not answerable in any manner, however indirect, to the American voters, to have jurisdiction over American citizens, (and this will be hard for them to do, as most of them don't have a Constitution, or a Bill of Rights) and the odds of that amendment getting the needed two-thirds of the States to ratify it are about the same as Osama dancing in a thong in the next Britney video, maybe they'll quit carping about it.

... Link (0 comments) ... Comment