It was 20 years ago today...

[denise]

This place was so happening even I stumbled upon it. Miss it and the many courageous interesting intelligent well spoken insightful yet still incredibly hilarious inhabitants. Present company excluded as you are still here. So anyway where were you then and where are you now?

[Kurt]

Still in NYC.

Been through 911 and COVID in NYC. 20 years between smelling corpses rotting for a portion of time here.

The difference is COVID was worse but it happened slow so no one gave a shit. They also didnt think it would hit them, but it did.

911 made everyone crap themselves and they thought it could happen to anyone.

9/11 was dramatic but COVID was worse.

[denise]

so are you saying that lab leaks are a bigger threat than terrorism?

[Kurt]

so are you saying that lab leaks are a bigger threat than terrorism?

Heh....leaks. I assume you are joking.

But yes. Global pandemics are a bigger threat than global terrorism.

9/11 + Do Nothing = Better Off in Long Run.

COVID + Do Nothing = Brings Us To Here.

Its a tough pill to swallow: Having a violent act done to your country and not doing anything but it would have been the better option.....or we could have focused only on intel and getting Al Q and OBL, but we didnt so given the chouce of what was done and doing nothing, nothing is the better choice.
Not in hindsight either but foresight.

[denise]

Having been here and having edumacated myself as much as is humanly possible I certainly don't see the response to 911 as simple justice or even quid pro quo. That being said I also don't see this pandemic as the result of a bat soup recipe gone awry.

[ReptilianKittenEater]

20 years ago...just moved sown to Niagara Region and started a job about a couple h=of hundred metres away from one of the international bridges. That day walked down to the bridge at lunch at was amazed to see no planes or traffic on the bridge. Read a copy of WMDP v 4 a couple of weeks later and found this fun place.

20 years later still living in Niagara Region.

[denise]

Yes I remember that as well having lived all of my life in the shadow of what was the world's busiest airport this is the song that came to mind at the time...America Sandman.

Funny the more things change.

[denise]

Kurt I know how much you believe in the infallibility of simple human stupidity so we may have a point of agreement there but if you would like to argue that I'm game.

[seektravelinfo]

Still in NYC.

Been through 911 and COVID in NYC. 20 years between smelling corpses rotting for a portion of time here.

The difference is COVID was worse but it happened slow so no one gave a shit. They also didnt think it would hit them, but it did.

911 made everyone crap themselves and they thought it could happen to anyone.

9/11 was dramatic but COVID was worse.

I was in NYC last January. The vibe of the destructiveness and sadness of the pandemic was palpable, as well as a determination to carry on, as fulfilled by service industry workers who are heroic in keeping the city going. When I saw the memorial fountains situated on the sites of the former WTC I was struck by their strange & menacing beauty and power as a work of architectural public art, and it struck me as how resonate it was of Covid.

[vagabond]

Haven't been since right before COVID. Is it truly as somber as that? I wasn't trying to be too pessimistic about the place in my 'NYC f'd' thread but there seems to be some serious challenges, not only for NYC, but the rest of the nation with climate resilience going forward. Drought and fires here in the West Coast, extreme weather variability on the East. I think the Mississippi river valley, one of the poorest parts of the country, is definitely screwed. Maybe we set off the Yellowstone Caldera and just finish it. :P

Speaking for myself, and for a few friends, I know more people that have done some life re-evaluation during COVID than during 9/11, I assume because this has had a direct impact on everyone more so than the actual 9/11 attacks (only later would that come into play). Looking back in 20 years of post-9/11 is a bit strange and I'm sure after time passes when COVID has become more normalized this past year and half (and longer) will be 'interesting' as well. 2016-2020 just seemed like one long slog of bullshit.

I forget if I dropped this on another thread but this twitter thread had some reminders of the craziness in those first years after 9/11:

https://twitter.com/ExileGrimm/status/1436340416513810434

And yeah, this place was a bit nuts around that time. I think I stopped lurking right around then.

[Tarkan]

Having been here and having edumacated myself as much as is humanly possible I certainly don't see the response to 911 as simple justice or even quid pro quo. That being said I also don't see this pandemic as the result of a bat soup recipe gone awry.

Julian Assange made the call in 2011 or 2012. Iraq and Afghanistan were not about winning or making America and the world safer, they were about fleecing the American and European taxpayers for as long as possible. If a “strategy” appears incomprehensible, then the best way to figure out motive is to look at the outcomes.

Biden was right to call it quits, he just royally fucked up the execution because the Sec of Defense thought it was more important to have a 2 month stand down to root out white supremacy than to plan for an orderly exit that allowed for the safe exit of any Americans and SIVs that wanted to leave.

Reading the Afghanistan Papers, the whole thing was a shit show from the beginning.

[el3so]

Think I was lurking back then, internet still being a new thing. The office came with an ashtray. Times change.

[ROB]

Biden was right to call it quits

Look at Tarkan riding Biden's cock. Fucking commie.

[Ozymandias]

This place was so happening even I stumbled upon it. Miss it and the many courageous interesting intelligent well spoken insightful yet still incredibly hilarious inhabitants. Present company excluded as you are still here. So anyway where were you then and where are you now?

Ha, back in September 2001 I was 16 years old and just gearing up to go for my undergraduate university entrance interviews! Had never left Europe at that stage. In fact, I would not leave Europe for another five years, at which point I moved to Khartoum, Sudan.

But anyways, today I'm in Tunis as most of you already know, busy writing the Bradt Travel Guide to Tunisia (1st Edition) and filming my adventures for my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScafidiTravels

[snaark]

20 years ago I was working in a Blockbuster Video store (seriously). Fortunately I developed other skills in the meantime. I'm currently pursuing a lucrative and hopefully long-lasting career as a designer of internal combustion engines.