Bookworm Room

The murderous frenzy unleashed on 9/11 is an awkward size.  Had it been smaller — a handful of people, or even a hundred people, killed at a mall or a hotel — we would have noted it as a tragedy powered by a crazy person (or two) in thrall to bad ideas.  We would have [...]

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I wrote a post about Rick Rescorla some years ago. He was one of the true heroes of 9/11 — his foresight, quick-thinking and heroism enabled him to save almost 3000 lives on that terrible day, although he gave up his own in the process. Today, the Daily Mail, a British paper that is a [...]

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The problem with an assault and a tragedy that is the magnitude of 9/11, and that now lives nine years away in our memories, is that, as a writer, I become more and more at a loss of words with each passing year. It seems to me, therefore, that the best I can do is [...]

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One of the most frightening things about a nanny state is the way in which it saps each citizen’s ability to care for him or herself.  While others may have been hurling imprecations at President Bush in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, I reserved my bile for a nanny state that left thousands of people [...]

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