HOW ARE WE DOING 20 YEARS AFTER 9/11/2001?

Tomorrow is 20 years after 9/11/01, when terrorists traumatized the USA.  My wife Pearl sometimes woke up in the middle of the night to watch TV.  On that morning, she nudged me soon after American Airlines 11 flew into the North Tower of the 110-story World Trade Center.  I awoke at around 2AM Hawaii time to then see United Airlines 175 hit the South Tower.

What a trauma for us, as immediately coming to mind was an incredible dinner we had in a restaurant called Cellar in the Sky, located inside Windows of the World at the top of the North Tower.  A very private space with 35 seats, it had a prix fixe menu hand-written on a ceramic page, and featured a guitarist.  We recalled another couple trying to sneak out the menu and being caught.  Our waiter gave us ours, and we kept it until....don't know what happened to it.

There was once a time in our history when life-changing events brought our country together.  Witness the Civil War, where we finally became a country.  Sure, there remains racial disparity, but we became united for World War II, where victory led to our greatness.  No question we are now the global leader in military strength, economic process and social freedom.  (About that COVID-19 death amount, this is up today to 675,497, putting our pandemic at the top.)

One of the miracles of 9/11 is that anything of this nature did not happen again.  Not one serious terrorist act in 20 years.  Our intelligence has made a similar aerial attack today more difficult, but what about something terrible for Super Bowl Sunday, or a Presidential Inauguration or during the First Day of Congress or nuclear power plant or national grid?

Now that we are out of Afghanistan and the Middle East, perhaps the fear of these incidents might wane even further, for us not being there should soothe their hatred.  The Talaban, Al-Qaeda, Islamic Jihad Movement, Al-Shabaab, Ansar al-Islam, Islamic State of Iraq and others will fight among themselves and be too-preoccupied internally.  Then, too, after Russia and the USA got booted out, China is vainly making an attempt to be economically useful.  Let's see how they do.

Freedom was a goal, but I gather the more important issue of oil is no longer a problem.  We went there to stabilize this commodity, and you could say our presence there was successful, for the price of petroleum approached $150/barrel in 2008, and during past few years has been less than half.

Will we need to go back when oil doubles in price?

However, the more recent Korean, Vietnam and Afghanistan Wars were either stalemates or losses.  While communism was checked, our country is today more divided than since the Civil War.  The January 6 fiasco shows how fragile democracy can be.

So last night I watched United 93, rated 90/83 by Rotten Tomatoes.  Gripping.  Visceral. Brought back horrible memories.  

The Council on Foreign Relations recommended seven films to watch, including United 93.  The San Francisco Chronicle suggested six, including United 93, and also included Windows of the World, a second film I had recorded, but got too sleepy to watch.   Wikipedia lists 64 films and documentaries linked to 09/11/2001.

I read on Wednesday that Enya had passed away at the age of 60.  Did not bother to report this.  Good thing, for on Friday, today, turns out this was one of those celebrity internet death hoaxes.  Originally from Ireland, her Orinoco Flow a third of a century ago was at the forefront of New Age Music, known as Soundscape on Music Channel and Meditation Music by Alexa.

There have been scores of these fake news blips.  Among the more viral include:

• In that fateful year 2001, when Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake were dating, two Dallas DJ's, as a joke claimed a car accident took their lives.

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  This is before social media, but Bob Hope was prematurely killed when a pre-written obituary was accidentally published by Associated Press, and announced by the U.S. House of Representatives.  He lived to the age of 100.
• Abe Vigoda of Barney Miller fame first was reported dead in 1982 at the age of 60, then again five years later.  He really did pass away in 2016 at the age of 94.

• 
  Bloomberg published a 17-page obituary of Steve Jobs three years before his death in 2008, and rattled the stock market.
• Nick Jonas died twice in 2009, one after his heart stopped after a lap dance in a Dallas strip club.  The youngest of the three Jonas Brothers, he is married to Priyanka Chopra and will turn 29 next week.
• Taylor Swift, also in 2009, passed away twice, one in a fatal car accident, then months later from an allergic reaction to sleeping pills.  She's fine.

• 
  Justin Bieber in around that same period committed suicide, was shot in a nightclub and died of an overdose.  He is alive and well at 27.
• Eddie Murphy also suffered through two false reports of his death.  In 2012 he was supposedly killed in a snowboard accident.  Five years later, when his brother, older brother Charlie, also a comedian died, Eddie was mistakenly mentioned as losing a battle with leukemia.  He remains a healthy 60.

Two joyous animal videos to end your week:

Showed how different dogs are from cats.

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Super Typhoon Chanthu will slightly weaken to a Category 2 and crash into Taiwan later today.  The project path will be east of Taipei, then skirting by Shanghai towards South Korea:

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