It's That Day Again. Is It Becoming Too 'Normal' a Day?
Doesn't feel like 14 years have passed, does it? I think I'm starting to understand how the Greatest Generation used to feel when December 7 would come and go on the calendar with barely a mention of the date's significance. On the one hand, life has to go on. We can't live in fear. Our foes want us paralyzed and overwhelmed by the horrific brutality of their actions. In 2011, the date fell on a Sunday, and the NFL played games. Today . . . barring some terrible interruption from the bastards in al-Qaeda or ISIS -- the kids will go off to school. We'll all go to work. High-school football games will be played tonight. For millions of Americans, everything will seem pretty normal. In some ways, that's pretty remarkable, and a testament to our men and women in uniform, our intelligence agencies, law enforcement, and everyone else with a hand in the tough, endless work of keeping Americans safe. Some members of the Millennial generation may have clear memories of that day, but many were too young to have really understood what was going on. We are as far from that Tuesday morning as Reagan's "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" was from September 2001. And yet, it feels like we're still processing the lessons of that day. For many of us, the brutal lesson of 9/11 was that we spent our lives walking around believing that unimaginable nightmarish horrors like skyscrapers disappearing in a cloud of smoke don't just happen . . . and then one day, they did. Suddenly the unthinkable isn't so unthinkable. And in that autumn, for many of us, the question was whether the future held even worse terrors to come. A chemical attack next time? Biological? A mushroom cloud on the horizon one day? By and large, those worse terrors haven't arrived -- although assorted malevolent forces like the anthrax mailer, the Boston Marathon bombers, and the Fort Hood shooter certainly tried. So have we, as a country, been spending the past 14 years waiting for another shoe to drop that never will? Or will it come some day, feeling even worse when it arrives because we let go of that late-2001 dread? As of this writing, all is quiet on the Western front. Well, mostly. A criminal complaint filed in federal court alleges that Joshua Ryne Goldberg, a 20-year-old living with his parents near Jacksonville, posed as an Australian jihadist and encouraged an attack in Kansas City on Friday — the 14th anniversary of Sept. 11. He was charged with distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction. "Hopefully there will be some jihad on the anniversary of 9/11," Goldberg reportedly told an FBI informant in a direct message. AusWitness found the "perfect place" — the Kansas City 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb, an annual event during which "343 Firefighters will embark on a 110 story climb to the top of the Town Pavilion high rise in downtown Kansas City in remembrance of the 343 firefighters killed on 9-11-2001." AusWitness: "Be careful . . . When you go there to place the bomb, make sure the bomb is VERY well hidden." CHS: "Where do you think would be best near the fire fighters or the crowd?" AusWitness: "Good thinking . . . put the backpack near the crowd." AusWitness's further advice for the pressure-cooker bomb: use "metal and nails" and "dip the screws and other shrapnel in rat poison before putting them in." Those hit by them "will be more likely to die." And have you heard about these shootings on Arizona's highways? The search for a suspect in a string of Phoenix freeway shootings has taken on a frenzied pace, with a panicked public flooding a police hotline with tips. Police confirmed one of these reports as a shooting, raising to 11 the number of vehicles struck on Phoenix-area freeways since Aug. 29. Eight were hit by bullets and three by projectiles such as BBs and pellets. One girl's face was cut by glass as a bullet shattered her window . . . The shootings haven't fit any obvious pattern. Most happened on Interstate 10, a main route through Phoenix. Bullets have been fired at various times of the day, striking a seemingly random assortment of vehicles, from an empty bus to tractor-trailers to pickup trucks, cars and SUVs. Meanwhile, overseas . . . There is a growing belief within the US government that the Islamic State militant group is making and using crude chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria, a US official has told the BBC. The US has identified at least four occasions on both sides of the Iraq-Syria border where IS has used mustard agents, the official said. The official said the chemical was being used in powder form. A BBC team on the Turkey-Syria border has seen evidence backing these claims. The US believes the group has a cell dedicated to building these weapons. "They're using mustard," the individual said of IS. "We know they are." The US military said tests on IS mortar fragments from fighting in Iraq showed traces of chemical arms. Also: "The footage was apparently taken in the aftermath of a chemical attack. When it was shown to the UN Security Council it reportedly moved delegates to tears, and is just one of more than 60 incidents in which toxic agents are alleged to have been deployed." We live in a world where chemical weapons get used dozens of times and it's a mid-level story. Bobby Jindal Takes on the 'Narcissist and Egomaniac' As you probably guessed, I like Bobby Jindal. I'm not exactly thrilled when I see a Brown University, Rhodes Scholar, secretary-of-the-state's-health-system-at-24, president-of-the-Louisiana-university-system-at-28, congressman-turned-two-term-governor-who-helped-rebuild-the-state-after-Katrina bright guy reduced to declaring, "I think it's pretty outrageous for [Donald Trump] to be attacking anybody's appearance when he looks like he has a squirrel sitting on his head." I'd like the Republican primary presidential debate to be more than a "yo momma" contest. But the Republican-primary electorate has spoken. One guy burst into the race and declared that Jeb Bush is low energy, that Rand Paul's too short, that Rick Perry is not very smart and is wearing glasses to hide it, that Lindsey Graham's a stiff and lightweight, John McCain's a dummy, and most recently, that Carly Fiorina doesn't have the face to be president and that Ben Carson is just an "okay doctor." (Oh, and Jonah's "dumb as a rock" and Michelle Malkin was "born stupid."*) And somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 percent of the Republican-primary electorate -- both nationally and in those key states -- loves it. Or at least prefers it to all of the other options. To some of us, the Trump style isn't strong or brash or "telling it like it is." It's crude and obnoxious and beneath the office of the presidency. If you think Obama has been bad for the presidency -- too partisan, too eager to troll the opposition, too irresponsible with his rhetoric (i.e., Iranian hardliners who chant "Death to America!" are "making common cause with the Republican caucus"), too dismissive of his critics and eager to use his office to demonize those who disagree -- then the way to fix it is to elect someone who will serve in that office with a higher standard and more mature temperament, not to elect our version of that style. Since Trump appeared on the scene, his fans have insisted he's simply refusing to be "politically correct" -- as if decorum, propriety, manners, or basic respect for others were some sort of Leftist trap. Anyway, I think I understand the cathartic thrill the Trump fans feel when their man starts dismissing his opponents with mockery . . . because that's the way I felt when I heard Jindal make his case against Trump: Donald Trump is for Donald Trump. He believes in nothing other than himself. He's not a liberal, he's not a moderate, and he's not a conservative. He's not a Republican, Democrat, or Independent. He's not for anything or against anything. Issues and policies and ideals are not important to him. He's for Donald. Donald Trump is a narcissist and an egomaniac. That may sound like a serious charge to make, but it is also something that everyone knows to be true, and he knows it too, and he celebrates it. He told us the other day that he's likes Kanye West, why? "Because Kanye loves Trump." He may be an entertaining narcissist, but he is one nonetheless. Like all narcissists, Donald Trump is insecure and weak, and afraid of being exposed. And that's why he is constantly telling us how big and how rich and how great he is, and how insignificant everyone else is. We've all met people like Trump, and we know that only a very weak and small person needs to constantly tell us how strong and powerful he is. Donald Trump believes that he is the answer to every question. Donald Trump is not a serious person. It's all a solo act, it's all just a show, and the joke is on us. He's laughing all the way to the bank, or to the polling location. P.T. Barnum was never more right . . . The conservative cause deserves more than a power-hungry shark who eats whatever is in front of him . . . because sooner or later, we will be his next meal. Will this make much of a difference in the campaign? Perhaps, perhaps not. Jindal, in the low single digits in just about every poll, doesn't have much to lose. He might as well call it as he sees it and let the chips fall where they may. *This doesn't even make sense as an insult, as newborn babies are all pretty much the same in terms of measurable intelligence. We're all born "stupid." ADDENDA: The pop-culture podcast is back after a hiatus; upon our return, Mickey and I discuss whether it's harder to be a football fan in an era of scandals and suspensions -- 26 NFL players start Week One suspended by the league -- my newfound appreciation for Disney's quirky animated series, Gravity Falls, now featuring the voice of Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons; the legacy of the recently departed horror-movie master Wes Craven; and other news. Don't forget . . . 
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