Does anyone realize that the United States was just handed the ultimate Get Out of Jail Free card by the Muslim world yesterday?

On September 11, 2001, I awoke at The Woods at Parkside, a treatment center situated on eleven acres in a quiet neighborhood with a serene view of a golf course.

You mean this bullcrap was all just your classic cry for attention? Is that what you're trying to tell me?!

On 911 I was getting dressed for work and had the TV on as background noise. I walked out of the bathroom tying my tie and saw the World Trade Center smoking like a bad forest fire. I turned the TV up to see what the hell happened. I knew in the back of my mind that this didn't look like an accident but that didn't surface because the next instant I saw the other plane.

I immediately called the school I worked for, I asked the secretary if anyone had been watching TV and seen what had taken place. " Yes" she said. I asked if they were going to cancel school because it was in the middle of the city of Pittsburgh PA and I knew panic would be the first reaction of many. She said"No, school would still be open". I was pissed, how simple minded, I wanted to say something but I knew she was not the problem. I said"see you soon" and hung up.

How did I feel, scared, no, I felt anger. I waited for the bus, got on and saw all the people and their faces, everyone on board knew what had happened. I went to the back where I always sit and sat down. Two guys were in the back and were complaining loudly that this would mean a draft would be the next move of our government and they would be drafting the poor and blacks to do the dirty work. I was incensed more than learning that the school would still be open. I wanted to tell them they were doing the terrorists job for them "you idiots", but I held my tongue and looked out the window.

I got to town and say what I suspected would happen, panic, fear, tears, rage and everyone was walking quickly and looking in the sky as they moved to where they were going.

I got to the school and could see the students streaming out of the door, one of my students saw me and said "Mr. A, school is cancelled, what are you doing here?" I let that go and started to get the kids moving to there cars and bus stops. I kept calm and told them to get home and I would see them next class. I soon got the crowd dispersed. I was pissed that no one in the school had decided to even have a presence at the front door.

After the crowd of students left I went towards my bus stop and ran into a few students that were coming in for later classes. I stopped and talked to each one and let them know to go right home. I hugged many who were crying and upset, calmed them and saw them on their way. I was angry but I kept it well hidden for their and my benefit.

I waited two hours for a bus that would stop, the ones I saw that would take me home were packed to the gills. I started walking towards the bridge that would take me home 5 miles away.

I walked and tried to thumb a ride, no one would stop to offer one, I was angier than ever now. I was a mile from home when my feet started to give out, my work shoes were not made for that amount of travel. I was hot, tired and mad as hell. I had seen what I knew would happen and I should not have been mad but "you know how it is"! I saw a small bar that was open and went in to get a drink and to sit and rest. The only one in there was the bartender who was watching the TV. I ordered the coldest beer he could find and sat and watched with him, we exchanged few words, mostly me or him asking about another drink. We didn't need to talk about anything, we sat and stayed inside our own heads.

I was drinking and thinking. I thought about my reaction to everything, I counted my emotions and looked at each one. The one I still didn't have was fear. I had anger, sadness, grief and was unsure of myself and other people. I felt lighter than air and heavier than a boulder. And I was getting tipsy. I paid for my drinks and left a big tip, he didn't want it but I turned and walked out the door, I had paid him for leaving me alone. Time for home.

As I walked the last mile, I thought of terrorism and the history of terror and violence. I lived it everyday growing up in the neighborhood that was my home for 15 years. I did not like being back there in my mind and I knew that as I walked, the terrorists had grabbed hold of me and I had to shake that hold or I would lose it emotionally.

I have never gotton afraid or fear these monsters. Where I grew up fear could kill you. They know this, this is the first lesson of terror.

Am I still holding anger, yep, but mostly that is for those who now use the fear of the terrorists to implant fear in us.

The greatest and strongest weapon is fear and intimidation. Stand up and make it weak! Do not give them the strength of purpose they seek.

Fearmongers I detest you. No matter were you stand or what you believe, if you use fear and intimidation you are a terrorist. Your tactics to weaken opposition is the same tactic of terrorism.

To all here and in America do not let these terrorists or fear mongers control your lives or our countries leaders.

Do not use there only real weapon against your fellow Americans, they win and we all end up letting Bin Laden win.

Peace of mind for all of us and good will towards your fellow countrymen, even when you disagree, will defeat monsters in the end.

I have discussed 9/11 with many people that believe it was a conspiracy. Most of them think that the U.S. government was complicit in said conspiracy. I am going to take aim at what was some favorite claims by a number of 9/11 conspiracists here on Newsvine.

These claims all go to the structure of the WTC towers. I have seen vague allegations such as "No steel skyscraper in history has ever collapsed from fire," which leads most logical people to the conclusion that the WTC towers must have had something covertly done to them. There are also direct allegations of foul play delivered. One that a few users here on Newsvine particularly cherished was the "Thermite Theory." (This is the name I coined for the idea) This one states "Because the steel beams in the photos appear to have 30 degree breaks in them and some blackening near the breaks that means someone skillfully placed thermite around the WTC towers and then remotely lit them." One that is particularly popular with nearly everyone that believes 9/11 wasn't what our government said it was is the "Bomb Theory." This one is like the minor leagues in baseball. Because people have spent most of their life watching television programming where bombs occasionally detonate, they suddenly think that is what they are seeing on 9/11. This conclusion goes "It fell at nearly free fall speed which PROVES that it was a controlled detonation." You ask how and they respond "Falling at nearly free fall speed shows that the floors above the impact were blown to create weight and the floors below were blown to make sure the building came down." Another popular response is "It's so obvious that this was a controlled demolition I can't believe you sheeple can't see it. The floors above and below the impact floors were obviously detonated in sequence to create a controlled demolition. It's absolutely clear because they fell into their own footprints!" Then there's my absolute favorite for simplicity's sake: "It's clear to anyone with a brain that the towers were blown up. What do you guys think caused the windows to blow out, spewing glass shards and clouds of debris out them? Party favors from the dollar store?"

On the same topic, but slightly different, are the questions about the structure of the plane as compared to the structure of the targets (the two WTC towers and the Pentagon) and what kind of effects the airliner should have caused. Another favorite theory of mine, and I actually like it better than the Bomb Theory and I like the Bomb Theory a lot. This one I have (unoriginally) dubbed the "Where Did The Wings Go? Theory." Under this theory, participants in a debate will argue "If it was really a plane that hit the WTC towers and the Pentagon, why does the hole look nothing like the plane? Where did the wings go?"

All the questions about the collapse and the purported strength of the WTC towers' supports can be satisfactorily explained explained by shoddy workmanship. Louis DiBono was a member of the Gambino crime family of the New York's 5 families of the Italian mafia. DiBono helped to run the construction racket for the Gambino family, which Salvatore "Sammy The Bull" Gravano also worked at to make money for the Gambinos. It has come out in the last few years that through a rigged bidding process that DiBono's company received the $1.7 million contract to fireproof the WTC towers' support beams, etc. People like DiBono make money for crime organizations in construction in a very certain way. They cut corners everywhere. First they intimidate their competitors for construction bids and then bid the project higher than it should cost, netting themselves extra money. Then, they don't buy the amount of materials needed to complete the job. They short it by approximately 25% and then do the job with what's left. They control the unions, which they call out on strike to extort more money out of the job, demanding a payoff before they go back to work. This payoff goes directly to an associate of the crime organization. Finally, they use workers that are not exactly the most skilled at their jobs. Thus, this led to the WTC towers' fireproofing being completed by sub par workers with fewer materials than were required to do an adequate job. What was observed in an audit of DiBono's work later was that his workers had applied the fireproofing material to areas that were rusted. Not wanting to take the time (and money) required to clean the surfaces of the rust and prepare them for the fireproofing material they just applied it. Because of the rusting, nearly all of it started to peel off. DiBono was brought back later on another contract to fix the fireproofing job. DiBono happily accepted the contract and then fleeced the Port Authority by doing absolutely nothing to rectify the situation. The Port Authority, long suspected to be corrupted by bribery from La Cosa Nostra in New York City, did nothing to call attention to the situation or fix it.

When Roger Morse inspected the WTC towers, he found the following results (screenshot of report at right). He inspected 7 floors in total, some in Tower 1 and some in Tower 2. The total number of visible joists parallel to decking was 103 and of those 103, 48 had exposed metal. That means 47% of the joists parallel to decking that Morse examined had exposed metal. Morse found 40 visible joists that were perpendicular to the decking. Of those 40, 20 of them had exposed metal. That is a rate of 50% of joists without fire protection. That examination only encompassed 7 floors. One must wonder what an extensive inspection would have yielded.

Two forms outlining Salvatore Gravano's knowledge that DiBono was working at the World Trade Center towers and that he was also killed there is pictured at right, confirming the notion that DiBono was indeed responsible for the fireproofing of the WTC towers.

The shoddy fireproofing job explains why the WTC towers collapsed as quickly as they did. When the airliners crashed into the respective towers, the fireproofing protection was negligible at best given that the job's aim was not to actually fireproof the WTC towers but rather to enrich various members of the Gambino family. When the fires started, which was almost immediately, they had immediate access to the raw metal of the support columns. So from the time that they started burning onward, the heat was being directly applied to the center support columns which were heating up. This allowed the fire to weaken the center support columns far more quickly than if they had been ensconced in the fire protection material. This also answers the "no steel skyscraper collapsed because of fire before" question as well.

Further structural deficiencies haunted the WTC towers on 9/11. The only vertical support columns in the entire buildings were the center vertical support columns in the center of the buildings. This was done to make more money in rent because the extra square footage gained from eliminating any support columns in the offices ran into the hundreds of thousands. There were just the metal beams running outward to the skin of the building and then the metal beams running upward near the outer skin from the sides of each floor. A huge concrete slab was put down on the horizontal beams and it was the beams on the outside of the perimeter that were responsible for preventing the horizontal beams from sagging and bowing outward from the weight of the concrete and the added weight of everything in every office sitting on the concrete. As the fires raged through the center column and burned upwards they started cooking the place where the horizontal beams were joined to the center column and the beams themselves as the fires burned through the drop ceilings and upward into the areas where the electrical work, plumbing and exposed horizontal beams for the next floor up were located. The progressive weakening of the center and horizontal supports finally finished the buildings off when the horizontal supports bent, ripped off the center support column, fell onto the next floor and then took the center support column down with them. Even the lower floors that hadn't sustained much damage couldn't be counted on for support because there were no support columns connecting the floors, just the thinner metal attached to the outside perimeter of the concrete. Thus, when the floors started to fall they gathered momentum and broke through the lower floors with less damage because they were designed to draw their strength from the center support column and each floor was designed to stand independent of any other floors. So when the weight of higher floors came down on the lower floors, their linkage to the center support column (never meant to bear such weight) broke and allowed the floors to be ripped right off of the center column.

With regard to what broke the windows, it was the air on the floor being ejected out the weakest point (the windows) to make room for the debris that was falling down overhead.

In regards to the thoughts that it was not an airliner that hit the WTC towers, to the right you will find some very clear pictures of the second plane. Furthermore, the shape that was left at the impact point is shaped like the fuselage because the parts connected to the fuselage were not connected strongly enough to the fuselage to cause their own independent holes. For example, the wings were likely sheared off by the contact with the building and were pulled into the hole behind the fuselage. Those that insist the hole must look like the object that entered the hole are using Wile E. Coyote physics. The building was stronger than those parts of the plane so they made no holes of their own.

It's 5:30 AM on September 11, 2001. I groggily get out of bed, take the traditional morning pee, and go to the kitchen to eat some Honey Nut Cheerios. I notice the TV is on, but I don't pay attention to it--gotta get ready for school.