• For a dose of strange beauty on this strange, ugly day: the most amazing photo of Saturn.
• The eccentric geek who gave the world the wonderful Project Gutenberg.
• Airport “security” from a Muslim woman’s perspective.
• It takes guts to say this these days: “Addiction is not a disease of the brain.”
• “Socioeconomic collapse and preparedness timing.” From a guy who’s been living it.
• Fourteen thousand rounds missing? I wonder why they even bother to report this? From what I’ve heard over the years from National Guardsmen, Army reservists, and other part-time military folk, this is just par for the course. Back in the Clinton gun-banning days, this much regularly disappeared out of armories and into the hands of militiamen without so much as a whisper.
• When I first heard Mel Gibson was going to star in a movie about Judah Maccabee, I reacted like most everybody else. WTF? Isn’t that sort of like Alec Baldwin playing Ron Paul? Only after C^2 emailed me about it, did I realize that the very idea of a movie about Judah Maccabee could be an excellent freedomista notion, and Braveheart might be a pretty effective guy to play him.
• I dunno. Maybe this has some excellent commercial or scientific purposes. But doesn’t this sound like a gigantic government-funded boondoggle in the making to you?
• I stole this one from Joel. Hey, Michael Dean! How come you didn’t tell me about it? This is too good to miss. A radio ad from Citizens Against Too Much Freedom.
• From Jim B. in a recent comment section: Four labs. :-)

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I wasn’t going to mark today. The tragedy for the 3,000 and their families and friends is beyond unspeakable. But we have to speak of it — ceaselessly — because the horror was delivered with such drama. And with such convenience for those who crave to rule.

We don’t hold week-long “all mourning all the time” media events for the 100,000 who die in the U.S. each year from the effects of prescription drugs. Or the tens of thousands killed in pointless political wars.

Why are we supposed to believe that those are lesser tragedies? Did those victims somehow suffer less? Are their families any less bereaved?

You and I know why our eyes and ears have been assaulted all week with repetitions of scenes and sorrows sane people want to put behind them. Oh no, we can’t mourn the day, pursue the murderers, then wake up and build freedom. No, we must remain in the thrall of fear so we’ll cling to those who pretend to protect us.

You and I know that the biggest tragedy of September 11, 2001 was the theft of our freedom by American politicians. And we knew that was going to happen from the first second we realized that it wasn’t some bozo in a Cessna that hit the first WTC tower.

Anyway, I didn’t even plan to say that much. But as I kept my eye on what others were saying this week, I came across a lot that is worth saying about those horrors that Our Rulers love so well.

I’m leaving out opinion pieces that just list freedoms we’ve lost in the last 10 years. You already have those memorized. Here are just a few of the best words. Please feel free to add your own links in the comments.

• “10 Years Later: Did America Overreact to 9-11?”
• “How America Has Underperformed Since 9-11.”
• “Sneak-and-Peek” — what the creepy “anti-terrorism” search powers of the Un-Patriot Act are actually being used for.
• “Tear Down the Freedom Tower.”
• A two-parter from NPR (both print and sound): “Under Suspicion at the Mall of America” and “Mall Counterterrorism Files ID Mostly Minorities.” Because, you know, “If You See Something, Say Something,” especially if your donut money depends on spotting “terrorists” in mid-America.
• “Brokedown Palace.”

An American dies from the actions of his own government.

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