[Aozenee]

I guess that the usual thread posters are waking up late today.

[viagsjicguara]

On cue...

http://apolyton.net/showthread.php/1...1-Rememberance

[forotis]

Politics.

[Pete789]

Of the people in my group I think only my manager was with the firm in 2001. Apparently they evacuated Lower Manhattan on foot that day.

EDIT: I guess technically his manager is also in our group, and was also with us in 2001, but I hardly ever talk to him.

[spiveker]

Speaking of large holes in the ground, can someone explain why rebuilding has taken this long? I would have thought it could have been completed years ago.

Money.

Weeks before 9/11 the owners of the land, the Port Authority of NY and NJ (PA), gave a $1 billion lease to a local developer, Larry Silverstein. After the attacks, there was a long battle between that developer and the insurance companies about the size of the payoff. Afterwards, the issue became what was to be built on the site. Since Mr. Silverstein signed the lease expecting to make money off the office space that was then demolished, he wanted to have a rebuilding plan that would be profitable to him, while the PA had political considerations about what was going to be built where. For a long time they have argued about the amount of public subsidies that will go into building the 3 other office towers on the site besides the hideous Freedom Tower, an argument made worse by the declining economy and the lower need for millions of square feet of office space.

[ImmimiFruff]

And it's "one world trade center" now, not "freedom tower" (thank god)

[Zhgpavye]

He's already got one client taking half the space in one wtc...

[Allbrunette]

The war in afghanistan basically routed Al Qaeda years ago, and the Taliban are only interested in Afghanistan. I'd say it's a bit low.

We're still rooting out the Taliban on the theory that if we let them take over again, Al Qaeda will just come back.

[Faumpiggueria]

But they were primarily based there because the Taliban gave them a haven.

[tyclislavaify]

I doubt that Al Qaeda is doing better today than it was 10 years ago.

[ClapekDodki]

It's far better to be on alert, the way we were through all the Bush years, ever vigilant, looking around us wherever we went for...suspicious stuff of an unspecified nature. I tell you, those color-coded alerts really saved our asses.

[Dr. Shon Thomson]

It isn't the only thing, guynemer.

Federal government extorting the states, child porn getting you stuffed on the sex offender list, unlimited economic regulation, and the inability of congress to have even the slightest grain of control over the military are probably even better places to start. Oh, and let's not forget government replacing criminal offenses with tax offenses, which changes the burden of proof over to guilty until proven innocent.

[IteseFrusty]

We totally lost our minds on 9-11, and we haven't recovered our sanity since. Our current state of perpetual war is highly dangerous to our Constitutional rights.

Sorry, but what makes you think we were "sane" prior to 9/11?

Blaming 9/11 for our current condition is a convenient excuse for all the structural and societal problems we have in this society, none of which were caused by 9/11. I would agree that 9/11 might have brought out the symptoms of our commons disease faster than otherwise, but it isn't the cause of it at all.

[galaktiusman]

Not referring to that. I'm talking about how the federal government is no longer subject to enumerated economic powers. I also forgot to mention how we seem to be using the supreme court as a convenient way of avoiding amending the constitution.

And pray tell what were these supposed past "enumerated economic powers"?

Since when is there a singular way to read the Constitution? Claiming that there is just one way to interpret that text is about as valid as claiming there is only one way to interpret the New Testament. The great proliferation of Christian sects is solid empirical evidence of the wrongness of such a claim.

[mQb0aVZe]

That I have logged on to Poly on the morning of September 11 and not seen a "9/11 never forget" thread. I had stuff to do this morning. I'm glad Slowwy posted it.

[cepAceryTem]

"Unlimited economic regulation"?

Please, now there is some of the hyperbole that is responsible for the mess we are in.

I think that entire post demonstrates that HC hasn't a clue what he's talking about. I wonder where he's getting his information from.