Reflecting On This Decade

Wow! I cannot believe it! This decade flew by fast. Gees, when you get older, time flies faster. The 2000’s or “The Oughts” whatever you want to call it is heading down to Memory Lane. What an eventful and turbulent decade it has been. 2000 felt like yesterday for me. Who could remember when some people thought that the year 2000 marked the end of the world in 1999? Nothing serious really happened. 2001 marked the start of the Third Millenium. Together, we witnessed events from 9/11 Terrorist Attacks, Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina, Virginia Tech Massacre, Hurricane Ike, and now the Global Recession.

Let us see what happened between 2000-2009.

2000
-The world marks the start of than “Y2K”, which at the time there was fear of the “Y2K” Bug.
-Elian Gonzalez is seized by federal agents.
-Air France Concorde crashes claiming a total of 113 lives.
-Russian submarine Kursk explodes and sinks claiming 118 lives.
-Stock market drops.
-Election is in turmoil in Florida and ends up in the Supreme Court. George W. Bush wins over Al Gore.

2001
-Tropical Storm Allison floods out Texas, Louisiana, Carolinas, and Pennsylvania. It claims a total of 40 lives from Texas to Maine.
-Clear Lake mother, Andrea Yates drowns five of her own children in the bath tub.
-September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack in New York, Arlington, and Shanksville. The attack levels the World Trade Center and leaves the Pentagon burning. 3,000 people died in the terrorist attack as it unfolded on live television.
-America goes to war in Afghanistan in response to 9/11.
-Enron files for the largest ever bankruptcy in US history.
-American Airlines Flight 587 crashes in Queens while taking off from Kennedy International Airport.

2002
-Robert Steinhauser kills 17 people at Gutenberg-Gymnasium in Erfurt,Germany, before committing suicide.
-China Airlines Flight 611 crashes in the Taiwan Strait with all 225 people dead.
-WorldComm files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
-World marks the first anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks.
-A Bali night club is bombed and claims 202 lives.

2003
-Space Shuttle Columbia explodes mid-air over Texas. It was landing in Florida when it disintegrated with all seven crews on board.
-America invades Iraq.
-String of tornado outbreaks plague the South and Midwest.
-Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh is assassinated.
-Concorde makes its last flight before being retired.
-Bam, Iran is hit by an earthquake that claims a total of 27,000 lives.

2004
-Bombs explode in Madrid trains claiming 191 lives.
-Muslim terrorists take a Beslan elementary school hostage in a three day siege. It ends in a bloodbath that claims 350 lives, including about 180 children.
-Hurricane Charley, Francis, Ivan, and Jeanne ravage Florida within a 6 week period.
-Indian Ocean Tsunami of December 26, 2004. A strong 9.2 earthquake strikes off the coast of Sumatra Island of Indonesia. A tsunami ensues that affects all of Indian Ocean basin and claims at least 250,000 lives.

2005
-Jeffrey Weise opens fire at Red Lake High School claming 9 lives before committing suicide.
-Pope John Paul II dies and Joseph Ratzinger becomes Pope Benedict XVI.
-Hurricane Katrina makes landfall on Louisiana and Mississippi on August 29, 2005. The storm surge floods out and levels coastal Mississippi and causes levees to breach in the New Orleans area. It leaves the New Orleans area flooded for months and claims more than 2,500 lives.
-2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season is the most active on record and broke many records with the most storms, most hurricanes, most intense, and most costliest ever recorded.

2006
-Israel attacks Lebanon.
-Mumbai train system is attacked by strings of bombing that claims a total of 209 lives on July 11, 2006
-String of school shootings in Quebec, Colorado, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
-The population of America reaches the 300 million mark.
-Saddam Hussein is executed for crimes against humanity.

2007
-Comet McNaught is the brightest comet in 40 years.
-Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom are brutally tortured and murdered by Lamaricus Davidson, Letalvis Cobbins, George Thomas, Vanessa Coleman, and Eric Boyd.
-Seung-Hui Cho opens fire with two pistols at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. A dormitory, West Ambler-Johnson Hall and a classroom building, Norris Hall are attacked. The massacre claims 32 lives and injures 25 in what is the deadliest single day mass shooting in America.
-The I-35W Bridge over Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapses claiming a total of 13 lives.
-World learns about the Missouri MySpace suicide when 13 year old Megan Meier commits suicide after being harassed by Lori Drew and company.
-Start of the recession.

2008
-Super Tuesday Tornado Outbreak claims a total of 57 lives in 24 states that were holding election primary.
-Tropical Cyclone Nargis slams into Burma, claiming 146,000 lives. The world offered help, but the ruling junta denies it.
-A strong earthquake hits Sichuan province of China claiming 80,000 lives.
-Michael Phelps wins 8 gold medals in swimming events at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
-Hurricane Ike makes landfall on the Upper Texas Coast. It leaves 50 people dead and $24 billion of damage, making it the third costliest after Katrina and Andrew.
-Lehman Brothers collapses, which symbolizes the start of the financial crisis.
-World’s stock market drop on “Bloody Monday”.
-Bernard Madoff’s pyramid scheme is revealed due to the recession.

2009
-US Airways Flight 1549 crashes into the Hudson River in New York. All 155 people on board survived.
-Black Friday Wildfires in southern Australia claim a total of 173 lives.
-String of mass shootings in America and Europe.
-Air France Flight 447 mysteriously crashes in the middle of the Atlantic.
-America switches off analog and goes all digital for television broadcast.
-Samoa gets hit by tsunami that claims 189 lives.
-Nadil Hasan attacks Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas, claiming 14 lives.

So many news events in this decade. We witnessed an d remembered them well. So many to remember and know. Some dates and days we will never forget as long as we live. We will remember them to the day we die. In some cases, they changed the world as we know it. Here is what I think are the top events for this decade.

Top 10 News Events of the Decade:
1.) September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
2.) Indian Ocean Tsunami
3.) Hurricane Katrina
4.) Hurricane Ike
5.) Tropical Cyclone Nargis
6.) Sichuan Earthquake
7.) Virginia Tech Massacre
8.) Fort Hood Attack
9.) Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster
10.) Financial Meltdown

Notice most of them are disasters, either man natural or man made.

This decade saw some people that we just all love to hate. Thankfully, some have passed on. They will not be missed for sure when their time is up.

Worst People of the Decade:
1.) Osama bin Laden-9/11. Need I say more.
2.) Lori Drew-Evil and worthless mom from Hell who harassed Megan Meier to suicide.
3.) John Walker Lindh-American Taliban. Should be burned for being a traitor.
4.) Casey Anthony-Stupid and self-absorbed mother that killed Caylee Anthony.
5.) Fred Phelps-Funeral picketing and severely repressed gay man. The real “fag enabler” is you and come out of the closet and deal with it.
6.) Seung-Hui Cho-Mute boy that massacred 32 people in cold blood.
7.) Bernard Madoff-Psychopath who ran a Ponzi scheme.
8.) Michael Crook-Soldier bashing, America hating, and victim bashing scumbag who admires Fred Phelps. Proof why inbreeding is dangerous.
9.) Anyone Who Blames America For 9/11-Just as bad as the terrorists themselves.
10.) Paris Hilton-Trust fund whore and skank.

This decade also saw good people we grew to love. They did many good and/or heroic deeds. Some have passed on and will be missed. This was a tough one to decide.

Best People of the Decade:
1.) American Soldiers-Our finest men who protect America and maintain our freedoms and way of life. God bless them all!
2.) New York Firefighters and Police on September 11, 2001-They bravely entered the burning World Trade Center to help people evacuate, to only find themselves victims of the horrible terrorist attack.
3.) Pope John Paul II-One of the greatest pope of all times. He help bring down Communism in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union.
4.) Sully Sullenberger-Airline captain that landed in the Hudson River and everyone lived to tell about stories of survival and courage.
5.) Iranian Dissidents-Rose and stood up against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Mullahs following the 2009 Iranian Election.
6.) Byrd and Melanie Billings-A wealthy couple that adopted 16 special needs children, whose lives were cut short by murder.
7.) Aung San Suu Kyi-Burmese dissident who is putting fear to the military junta.
8.) Pat Tillman-A professional football player who turned down multi-million dollar contracts to serve for America. Tragically, his life was cut short.
9.) Susan Boyles-Shows that nothing is too late in life.
10.) Steve Fossett-Adventurer who flew around the world non-stop in an airplane and balloon.
11.) Vince Young-Led Texas Longhorns to glory in the 2005 college football season.
12.) Michael Phelps-Won 8 gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Time to pop the champagne bottle for the new year! Cheers for a better year and decade. Happy New Years to all!

In an article inspired by “What does Ray Nagin, Diane Downs and Richard Reid have in common?”, I decided to write what Lori Drew, Osama bin Laden, and Adolf Hitler have in common. If you are thinking that I am lumping all of them together, which they all have been subjected too, especially with Lori Drew. You are wrong. Well, no one is going to argue that Drew, Bin Laden, and Hitler are the most reviled figures in history and are rightfully regarded as public enemies. Let’s review who they are and their evil misdeeds.

Lori Drew, husband Curt, daughter Sarah, and Ashley Grills harassed a girl to suicide by using MySpace in Fall of 2006. Bin Laden masterminded the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks on the East Coast of America in 2001. Hitler was the leader of Nazis Germany from 1933 to 1945, which started World War II and Holocaust.

On the surface, what they did are dramatically different. One girl died from suicide after being mentally tortured; 3,000 people died on live television and many more could die from the toxic dust and smoke; 30 million died in genocide and left Eurasia in shambles. Beyond that, Drew, Bin Laden, and Hitler have a lot in common. What is it? They feel that they are being victimized and persecuted by imagined enemies. They are addicted to victimhood and maintain that feeling to assert dominance and control other people, by bullying, mass murder, terrorism, or genocide. They always see themselves as victims and blame the victim for their problems.

Recall the Secret Service study they conducted on school shooters after the Columbine Massacre. There was no one clear profile of a so called typical profile of a school shooter. However, they found that 71 percent of school shooters felt a sense of persecution. Few of them were actually bullied, contrary to popular beliefs. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold saw themselves as victims, when in fact they were bullies themselves with a laundry list of discipline problems and brushes with the law. Quite frankly, after the Columbine Massacre, I took great offense at the way the media portrayed Harris and Klebold as victims of bullying. This is the same mantra used after Columbine, 9/11, Seung-Hui Cho, Steven Kazmierczak, and Nidal Hasan. The media plays “blame the victim” game because the attackers were tormented. All the victims killed had no connection to the perpetrators.

One can say that Harris and Klebold were bullies because bullies bully because they feel they are being bullied themselves and have to lash out. They bully to feel “good” about themselves. Yes, it is generally true that bullies do not have any lack of self-esteem. They have high self-esteem, but having high self-esteem does not translate into success. In fact, high self-esteem is dangerous because people do not have to will to change. They are happy and content with their life as it is. People with higher self-esteem are more likely to be addicted to alcohol and drugs and commit crime. Ask any person who remembers the bully, chances are they will say they ended up as either drug addicts, in prison, or dead.

Lori Drew posed as “Josh Evans” to see if Megan Meier was talking bad about Sarah after Megan allegedly called Sarah a “ugly Lesbian”. Drew was motivated by protecting her daughter from bullies. The Drews were described as over involved and pushy parents, especially in regards with Sarah, which made people feel resentful. The Drews are a classic “helicopter parent”. Also, Lori Drew was described as sociable and clingy to a point of annoying. She was considered an outcast in her neighborhood. Drew wanted to snoop and teach Megan a lesson for not being friends and bullying Sarah. Drew scapegoated her for all problems in life because Sarah was not happy and was no longer a friend. Compounding it, Drew was upset that Megan was losing weight faster than Sarah and she bad mouthed her for that. Drew viewed herself and family as being repeatedly victimized by Megan. The Drews and Ashley Grills would later send ugly messages that called her “fat” and “whore” to Meier and she committed suicide on October 16, 2006. The case would be revealed a year later by Steve Pokin, which would make her one of the most hated persons in years.

The Megan Meier case is reminiscent of Gertrude Baniszewski, who was enraged after Sylvia Likens accused her daughter Paula and Stephanie of being prostitutes. Baniszewski felt the sense that Likens was persecuting her and her family and she needed to stop it at all cost. Baniszewski got her children and neighborhood children to torture Likens to death to teach her a lesson. Also, she wanted to protect her and her daughter’s reputation and tried to portray themselves as “virtuous” and “clean” and attended a fundamentalist church. In reality, Stephanie and Gertrude were sexually promiscuous and had a child out of wedlock. Baniszewski was often subjected to abuse at her live-in boyfriend and constantly felt victimized over and over and Likens pushed her over the edge. Baniszewski thought torturing Likens would be an act of redemption.

Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al-Qaeda, was behind the horrid September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks in New York, Arlington, and Shanksville. Four airplanes were hijacked by terrorists and they attacked the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a failed one near Shanksville. The attack leveled the World Trade Center and left the Pentagon burning. 3,000 people died in the terrorist attack on live television, mostly from the collapse of the towers. Bin Laden was partly motivated by how Saudi Arabia allowed America to use the land to attack Iraq in the Persian Gulf War of 1990. He blames America for that, despite the fact that the Saudi Royal Family allowed and they could of denied that access to America. Bin Laden sees America and the West as being oppressive to Muslims and supporting Israel. He views Muslims as victims of “Western Imperialism” and “Islamophobia”. Bin Laden sees Palestinians being oppressed and victimized by the Jews, who are helped by America. This is despite the fact that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is more political than religious.

Bin Laden believes that suicide bombers are courageous and should be employed to teach America and the West a lesson. Also, Bin Laden encourages that Muslims protect fellow Muslims from America and the West by engaging in Jihad or “Holy War”. Also, where Bin Laden is from, they have a revenge culture because the climate is desert, which is dry. Dry climate makes bodies decay less and people are more likely to remember.

Adolf Hitler took advantage of Germans’ desperation from the Great Depression. It was after World War I and the Treaty of Versailles imposed harsh punishment on Germany. They had to pay huge reparations. They had to print a lot of money, which led to hyperinflation during the Great Depression. Hitler blamed Jews for all of Germany’s problems from hyperinflation to Treaty of Versailles. Hitler saw Jews as backstabbers and traitors out to destroy the Germans. He viewed Germans and Germany as victims of “Jewish” control and it had to be stopped. Hitler believed that Jews “raped” Germany during and after World War I. Hitler is voted in the 1933 election and rose to power on the guise of “hope” and “change”.

Hitler wanted to protect the Germans from the Jews by passing laws that discriminated against Jews. Hitler wanted to teach Jews a lesson in every way possible. By the time World War II starts, Jews were rounded up and sent off to death camps to be killed. Hitler also went after Slavs, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witness, and disabled people because he saw them as undesirable. In the end, 30 million people died and Eurasia was left a total mess with 80 million killed in World War II. Nearly 70 percent of the European Jews were wiped out.

Many genocidal maniacs are paranoid and obsessed with protecting people. They use their persecution complex to impose their tyranny on the people. Joseph Stalin was another paranoid psychopath like Hitler. He went after anyone who were enemies of the state. Stalin viewed the state and himself as being victimized by dissidents. He had those infamous show trials, caused famines that killed 7 million Ukrainians, and many untold number of people would be sent off to Gulags in Siberia to a life time of hard labor and death.

Another example of a dictator with a sense of constant victimization is Saddam Hussein. He believed in protecting the Arab people from the Persians. Hussein viewed Arabs as victims of “Persian” cultural imperialism. He invaded Iran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution because he was afraid of Shiites would spread their influence, which he saw it as Persian cultural imperialism. The 1980 Iran-Iraq War had Arabs of all religious background, Muslim and Christian, because they saw Persians as the common enemy worthy of destruction. When Hussein was executed in late 2006, his last words were “Down with Persians”, a testament to his hatred towards Persians.

Cult leaders are often paranoid and use that paranoia to maintain control on their followers. Cult leaders feel victimized. Jim Jones, Charles Manson, and Fred Phelps come to mind. Jones was an avowed communist and Stalinist and felt that the CIA was spying on him and People’s Temple. They would later flee to Guyana to establish Jonestown. Than Congressman Leo Ryan came to investigate that followers were held against their will. Jone’s men attack Ryan’s convoy and from their 909 people die from mass suicide and murder. Manson was paranoid about a race war called “Helter Skelter”. Manson’s cult went on a brutal killing spree that killed actress Sharon Tate and LaBianca couple in 1969. Phelps is the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church. They are notorious for picketing funerals and hating homosexuals. He always talks about how his so-called church is being persecuted and that picketing funerals is a way to stop the persecution. Phelps is clearly a closeted homosexual with serious issues of self hate. It is probable that Phelps might have illegitimate children because Shirley Phelps-Roper has an illegitimate son named Samuel.

Many so-called civil rights leaders, like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are very paranoid of racism and bigotry against Blacks and are addicted to victimhood. Victimhood becomes part of them. Any slighting that Blacks are subjected too will put them in the spotlight. In many ways, Jackson and Sharpton are addicted to victimhood. They feel that Blacks are denied equal access whether it is education or a job. In reality, Jackson and Sharpton are racists themselves and have expressed bigotry. Jackson called New York “Hymie Town” because of its largest Jewish population. Jackson is part of another underlying problem, anti-Semitism. A sad irony because Jews helped Blacks in the Civil Rights Movement.

What does this all mean? Feeling the sense of persecution and victim blaming are recurring theme among evil people. Does paranoia and feeling the sense of persecution lead to evil and violence. Not always. It is healthy to have some paranoia. It makes us human. It is common that we are all paranoid to some extent. We don’t like it when people talk bad about us. Who does? Of course we do not get so consumed with it to a point that it drives us to feel victimized. We all have felt victimized at some point. There are other factors as well to consider. Paranoid is a sign of a personality disorder, which is the hallmark of a psychopath.

The constant state of paranoia and feeling victimized day in day out and it becomes part of them. That is unhealthy and dangerous. Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Jim Jones, and Lori Drew come to mind. Also, their paranoia was mixed with anti-social, narcissism, and deviance, which is a dangerous mix. Hitler, Stalin, Jones, and Drew are considered psychopaths. However, feeling victimized and psychopathy need not to be the case. Bin Laden who lacks any psychopathic behavior is very focused on one thing. A psychopath usually lacks focus, which would be a bad thing for terrorist, especially in an organized one like Al-Qaeda.

Being paranoid and feeling victimized are not a bad thing in healthy doses. For some, being paranoid and feeling victimized is an addiction that can turn deadly. The very thing they fear and hate becomes them. Just look at Adolf Hitler, Osama bin Laden, Jim Jones, Eric Harris/Dylan Klebold, Jesse Jackson, and Lori Drew. They constantly felt victimized and needed to protect the very thing they feared and hated. It became them. In some cases, it turned deadly.

Death Penalty Sought For ‘9/11 Mastermind’
Sky News
10:37pm UK, Friday November 13, 2009
Huw Borland

The US Attorney General has promised to seek the death penalty against an alleged architect of the September 11 terror attacks and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that Mohammed, 44, will face a death penalty trial in federal court in New York for allegedly masterminding the 2001 attacks.

In addition to felling the twin towers, he claims to have personally beheaded US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 with his “blessed right hand” and to have helped in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people.

Sky News-Death Penalty Sought For ‘9/11 Mastermind’

Anyone involved in the horrid 9/11 Terrorist Attack should of been shot on sight. This will be a media circus like OJ Simpson trial in 1995. More stupidity and incompetence from the Obama Administration. Anyone who doesn’t think that the 9/11 Masterminds shouldn’t be tried in a military court should get a MRI and x-ray on their head. You are so fucking naive and clueless. The left is just as dangerous as Muslims terrorists and need to be eradicated.

Asteroid passes just 8,700miles from Earth – with only 15 hours warning
The Daily Mail
By Claire Bates
Last updated at 10:01 AM on 11th November 2009

Although no one noticed at the time, the Earth was almost hit by an asteroid last Friday.

The previously undiscovered asteroid came within 8,700 miles of Earth but astronomers noticed it only 15 hours before it made its closest approach.

Its orbit brought it 30 times nearer than the Moon, which is 250,000 miles away.

The Daily Mail-Asteroid passes just 8,700miles from Earth – with only 15 hours warning

Another close call.

Astronomers believe the object, called 2009 VA, would have almost completely burned up while entering Earth’s atmosphere, causing a brilliant fireball in the sky but no major damage to the surface.

Could of been another Tunguska Impact of 1908.

Columbine killer’s mom: ‘No inkling’ son suicidal
By KRISTEN WYATT (AP) – 2 days ago

DENVER — The mother of Columbine killer Dylan Klebold says she has been studying suicide in the decade since the high school massacre but had no idea her son was suicidal until she read his journals after his death.

Susan Klebold’s essay in next month’s issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, is the most detailed response yet from any of the parents of Columbine killers Dylan Klebold or Eric Harris. The teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher in the 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School in suburban Denver. Twenty-one people were injured before Klebold and Harris killed themselves.

The parents have repeatedly declined to talk about the massacre. They gave depositions in a lawsuit filed by families of the victims, but a judge in 2007 sealed them for 20 years after the lawsuit was settled out of court.

Full Article

The Harrises and Klebolds have been silent since April 20, 1999. Now, Susan Klebold speaks out. Eric Harris is a psychopath, while Dylan Klebold is a conflicted avoidant. I have an extensive article about the Columbine Massacre.

High School Massacre

Harris and Klebold are evil like Fred Phelps, Lori Drew, Gertrude Baniszewski, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Adolf Hitler.

Philippines Declares ‘State of Calamity’ as Typhoon Approaches
By Aaron Sheldrick and Francisco Alcuaz Jr.
Bloomberg

Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) — The Philippines declared a national “state of calamity” as Typhoon Parma headed for Luzon, where recovery efforts continue six days after Tropical Storm Ketsana devastated Manila and its surroundings, leaving 293 people dead.

Authorities began moving people from provinces north and southeast of Manila into shelters, Philippine Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro said in an interview on ABS-CBN television. The nationwide state of calamity gives the government the power to peg the price of basic goods.

Parma’s eye was 254 kilometers (158 miles) northeast of the city of Daet on Luzon at 2 p.m. Manila time today, the U.S. Navy Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The typhoon is forecast to make landfall after 8 a.m. tomorrow.

Full Article

Time for everyone in the Philippines to brace for Typhoon Parma. It will be a huge mess on top of all the heavy rain from Typhoon Ketsana. The Pacific has not been a great place with earthquakes, tsuamis, and typhoons. Keep you posted.

Villages ‘wiped out’ by tsunami after Samoa quake: report
Tue Sep 29, 7:11 pm ET
Yahoo News

APIA (AFP) – A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 struck off the South Pacific island nation of Samoa on Tuesday, wiping out villages and killing 19 people in the region, reports said.

At least 14 people were reported to have died in American Samoa, and five in Samoa as enormous waves battered the island states, with one witness saying the wall of water had been up to 30 feet (nine metres) high.

One local journalist told AFP entire villages had been wiped out in Samoa on the worst-hit south and southwest coasts in an area where thousands of people live.

Full Article

Right up to 100 people died in the tsunami in American Samoa. I expect the death toll to rise. I am very sorry for anyone who lost loved ones in the tsunami. In 2004, Indian Ocean was hit by a tsunami that started with one of the strongest earthquake off the coast of Indonesian island of Sumatra. 300,000 people died throughout the Indian Ocean in Thailand, India, Burma, and Somalia. I will keep you up to date on this unfolding disaster.

I cannot believe it. It has been one year to the day that Ike ravaged our area. We were all battering down the hatches and preparing for Ike’s onslaught. The rain and wind came crashing in. It would get worse through the night. The wind lashing violently and creating storm surge that would flatten Bolivar Peninsula. The rain and wind continue into the morning. Power was out for many. Many suffered property damage. To make matters worse, some lost loved ones. Ike would be the most costliest hurricane besides Katrina and Andrew.

Eight years ago today, the unthinkable happened right in front of our eyes.
A day that felt like yesterday.
Nineteen terrorists from Al-Qaeda were bent on massive destruction and death on America.
Hijacked airplanes crash into the World Trade Center, Pentagon, and a field near Shanksville.
American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.
All cameras were trained to the burning North Tower.
Than suddenly, the South Tower is attacked by United Airlines Flight 175.
It became apparent a terrorist attack happened.
People trapped above the crash zone in the North Tower jumped out of desperation.
To make matters worse, American Airlines Flight 77 was hijacked and crashed into the Pentagon.
As the Pentagon burns, the South Tower crashes to the ground in a massive cloud of toxic dust and smoke.
Meanwhile on United Airlines Flight 93, passengers fight back.
The terrorists fail and crash it near Shanksville.
The North Tower crashes to the ground and all is caught on live camera.
The whole world saw the terrorist attack unfold in front of our own eyes.
Whether we were waking up, going to school, work, or going to sleep.
The whole world was in shock and in a state of mourning.
3,000 people died on this fateful day.
The World Trade Center wiped out into oblivion.
Never forget September 11, 2001, a day that will live in infamy.

September 10, 2001.
Do you remember that day?
A Monday that would be unremarkable.
The World Trade Center stands proud in New York.
The Pentagon, the center of American might.
Hurricane Erin was off shore.
Chandra Levy and shark attacks dominated the headlines.
Michael Jordan was considering returning to the NBA.
The news largely trite.
A day that would be the last day of innocence.
All that would change.
The next day, Tuesday, would be a day of infamy and sadness so great.