9/11 Jokes
 

I had this, jotted down, as an idea for a thread... but I can't remember what the angle was.

If you were going to start a really clever, really insightful thread called "9/11 Jokes" what would it be about?

You bastard! I lost my sense of humor in a field in Pennsylvania.

I don't think there were any. It was such a massively overwhelming event there was nothing funny about it, even in retrospect.

I guess, I still don't see why folks think 9/11 is different from other tragedies. How many kids die of starvation every day? How many people die in government sanctioned bombings? How many die from storms or disease... It just seems to me that media and government worked very hard to make our reactions to it disproportionate, to keep our eyes on the screens and our bombs in the air.

that's what I say...

Guys, why not just go the extra step and become Truthers?

First attack on American soil? The alteration of the skyline of New York Fuckin' City? People leaping from the 100th floor? No, that isn't tragic at all! Because it was all faked!



Media and government acting in unison? From whose workbench? Give me the number of the fax machine that gave them their daily talking points, and then tell me who used it.

The reason the response was what it was, is because that was and is the character of the people. When media and government are in unison, it's because the people are in unison. But 7 short years later, nobody can recall that time; we have wiped it from our memories. When W. had a 91% approval rating. When people flew a flag proudly and haters didn't feel ironic about it. It's a period of history that simply we do not acknowledge because we were not ready for a post-9/11 world.

And that is why it'll happen again.

Why does it have to be conspiracy? Why can't the media drive for the big story and the government drive to "solve" big problems both push in the same direction? Over-reaction is why terrorists do what they do. bin Laden types get big press and new recruits. That is why it will happen again.

First attack on American soil? Leave Pancho Villa out of this.

The alteration of the skyline of New York Fuckin' City? We have fires every day.

People leaping from the 100th floor? No, that isn't tragic at all! It was tragic, nobody here is denying that. Unfortunately, bad things happen every day, this time it happened to Americans instead of Japanese, Germans, or Iraqis.

And if the fourth plane managed hit the White House, it would be "just another building", right? Why all the tragedy?

Well it wasn't just Pancho Villa, and it wasn't just a fire, it was an extremely major loss that had massive repercussions for all Westerners' ways of lives.

It also shattered the feeling of invincibility that most American's had prior to that day.

So, in the context of this discussion, you're saying that people's reaction to 9/11 was a self-fulfilling prophecy?

So far these jokes suck.

ya know what goes without saying?

mimes.

that's what

Okay, I'll go first.

"It's a bird!"
"It's a plane!"
"It's.... Oh shit, it IS a plane!"

Yes, I am a horrible American.

9/11 jokes are like Holocaust jokes - they're in really, really bad taste.

Apparently, there are some.

Mass incineration of innocent people is only funny when it happens to someone else in another country.

I've heard a couple over the years.
None funny enough for me to remember, but they're out there sure enough.

It's not quite the same for Brits though, as it did happen in someone else's country. In fact the only "joke" I am aware of about the 7 July Tube bombing in London was read on here. I didn't find it funny, but that's more to do with the awful stereotyping rather than the subject matter. Well, maybe the subject matter, I rode the Tube every day after all and those streets were in my home town.

Thus this thread was created to explore this. I think it's an excellent thread topic, makes people think about why it's okay to make jokes about John Denver the day after his death, but not other tragedies.

We got over it last time.


Only because we allowed it to.

We were not feeling invincible during Vietnam but instead of laying down we took a shot at the moon. I've never seen America as invincible, but I've always seen her as resilient.

That's such crap. I can't believe you're taking this line. I'm furious. Start with the loss of 251 stories of the most prime office space in the country and the devastation of the travel and airline industries. "We allowed it to," I don't think so. In fact "we" prevented the destruction of the White House because passengers onboard Flight 93 were not content to sit back and let their fate be decided for them. That's the attitude you find elsewhere in the world. In most of it, actually.

You want a culture that reacts to that with "Oh well, these things happen!" You want to tell people "Get over it!" And yet you want a culture that makes itself, if not the rest of the world, safe for freedom and democracy. This culture does not and can not exist. The Jacksonian vibrancy of the American people, which made the country what it is, also informs its reaction. When we are hit, the instinct is to react with killing blows. We are the ones that take back Flight 93. Meet that with pride, not cynicism.

What UT said. Total load of bullshit.

Pearl Harbor, who gives a crap. Right?

resiliency allows us to reassemble the airline business, and redistribute the office space and financial industry's infrastructure.

but for the most part, the people allowed the government to use the media to shape our expectation of what personal liberty we enjoy ....because of the reaction we had to the invasion.

It's ok for them to pull you out of line at the airport or a sporting event and pat you down. It makes sense to us because we see the scary potential results of NOT allowing it to happen. If it was 1991 and you were treated that way in an airport, you'd have been irate.....

in fear, we sacrifice our freedom.
to feel safe, we submit to authority
we're too busy working to see it
we'd rather watch TV than hear it

I understand your point but the reality is that many of the freedoms we enjoy allowed us to be vulnerable. Many of our freedoms are our source of weakness. Unless you live where you have the real threat of death and destruction you can't understand the need for heightened security actions. I don't like it either but it is a new fact of life. Life after the attacks on 9/11 in this country will never be the same and that is a fact we will all just have to get use to living with.

I think it's quite the opposite... you notice the pat-down at the airport because it's a change. The restrictions on your freedom that have been there all along? Not noticed.

You could skip the airport pat-down by going there nude, but you'd be arrested. Why? You haven't done anything to anyone else. Other people are offended, but they don't have a right not to be offended.

Before the pat-down, you were still subject to marginally constitutional requirements in order to fly. Very few people objected. Penn Jillette used to carry a business card-sized bill of rights, engraved in bronze, in his shirt pocket when going through airport security. When asked to remove whatever metallic object was causing the metal detector to go off, he would take out the bronze card, hand it over, and say something like "I'm giving up my rights in order to get on this airplane."

The loss and gain of rights changes over time, but it's nice to remember that we gain rights without noticing. There was a time when it was considered obscene to air the sound of a toilet flush over the radio. There was a time when it was illegal to brew your own beer. You still can't hunt or fish in many places without a license. Gun rights? There's a tough one.

The pat-down is minor to me in comparison.

plus.....you like it. perv

Hmmm.

We don't have "rights" like you do.
We had to have a passport to fly to NI, despite it being part of the UK, pre 9/11.
We had the Blitz, the Troubles and the Lockerbie bombing to deal with, way before merkins got scared.

We don't have a "Get over it" culture as we're far to the left of the US. But we do have a "Get on with things!" culture, especially as regards to unnatural disasters. You want to hurt us? Fuck you - join the queue. We were a target pre-Claudius, and out last conqueror was William the Bastard. We were here when you rose, we will be here when you fall.

Oh, we will be here as well. I doubt we will fall. But since we have not had to endure much of the strife at home like you guy have over many years, we will have to get use to changes in the way things are done and compromise to remain safe.

I don't think that very many people have a problem with measures that would actually make us safer.

Of course they do. Nobody has a fuckin' clue what keeps us safer, including you.

Imagine if Bush came on television on 9/10/2001, and said that due to remarkable intelligence received about threats to the country, we would be searching every single non-American air passenger for the next month as well as every Islamic American, immediately stopping all overseas flights for a week, invading an as-yet unnamed country in the Middle East, creating a new Homeland Security agency and developing coordinated intelligence between CIA, FBI and Military.

You woulda screamed bloody murder, along with everybody else: Chimpy and his evil minions are LYING COCKSUCKERS! Bent on creating a horrific story in order to build their own new focus of executive power!

Yes. And I say the same now.

Well Pie, ask him for a swig of his koolaid and see if you still feel the same way in a little while...

I am glad you agree. Many of the actions taken have made us safer. Good to see us agree. :D

There is no doubt in my mind that people like you exist. And that is ok. The rest of us will do the work.

Think through your fury and hit the God-damn enemy next time. If it makes you feel better, your miss-use of the focused bravery of the passengers of Flight 93 makes me furious. The culture you describe is cowering in the back of the plane waiting for someone else to do something. The culture I'm trying to describe acknowleges the tragedy, but doesn't delude itself that it was the worst event ever. It gets back up and gets back to work on America. Fortunately, most Americans have done just that.

Read what these firefighters and EMTs have to say. THEY were there.
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/evid...xplosions.html

Are you suggesting bombs were planted?

An easy explanation would be that the steel reached its breaking limit. When steel or any metal breaks, it does sounds like an explosion. The samples I heard were much smaller than at the WTC so I can easily see how an entire floor of damn high strength steel could sound like a bomb. Obviously I wasn't there but that seems much more reasonable than bombs being planted within the building.

Conspiracy Theory from a 9.11 conspiracy theory website. There is no evidence that the posters were actually firefighters who were there.

I wonder how many times this subject has been discussed.

We did. And we still are. Anywhere, anytime.

Thank God we don't have big brother in OUR life.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig9/cooper1.html

And I will lawfully resist you and your type to the best of my abilities.

I'm pretty sure we are having different arguments. I'll leave you to yours.

It was a much more traumatic event, worldwide, than the numbers will look like to future historians. It's been topped in casualties and property damage but not in historical importance, before.

We've been attacked before and probably will be again, but we'll survive and endure. I just regret our response was mismanaged and sidetracked.

I don't think our inital response was mismanaged that poorly nor was it incorrect, but we were completely sidetracked by Iraq. That was a fiasco. To late for that. It is our tarbaby for the foreseable future.

I suspect that it's not: taking my shoes off, or jamming 3 oz toiletries into a 1 qt ziploc.

:lol2: you are funny as hell. Of course you don't get any of this.

I don't get it? I don't get it.

I agree it was correct, but I think the White House should have listened to the Pentagon's assessment of what was needed in men and materiel, instead of Rumsfeld's plan to use a minimal force (and Afghan war lords) to chase the scumbags across the border into Pakistan. I'm convinced that was a huge mistake that has cost us dearly, and will for years to come.

You're wrong. As usual.

At this point I am not sure how we can recover from it in a military sense. And I see that the Paki's are taking a turn away from the issue as things with India heat up. In fact, the radical elements in their government may have been attempting to provoke this crisis between their countries in an effor to take some of the heat off the Western front. Who knows?

"A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?" - Joshua, Wargames

Mike Yon said the only way we can recover in Afghanistan is to rebuild, and greatly expand, their infrastructure so the people have an alternative to kissing the taliban's ass to survive. He gave a reasoned argument that sounded logical, but like most people I don't know for sure, just haven't heard any better suggestions.

That alone makes it more logical than anything else we've seen. Forcing Western democracy and free markets isn't going to create a good impression unless the population wants Western democracy and free markets. They have to be allowed to choose, or at least be under the impression that they have a choice.

Showing them how to grow alternative crops to opium poppies won't work unless they have a market to sell them and a road to get there.

Q: How long does it take to reach the ground from 107 stories up?
A: The rest of your life

Way to make the scene, sull! Welcome.

So far. Not funny.