Time Immortal

Jay Currie has been busy, and deserves a ton of credit for breaking this story. Assists, as I understand it, go to Dr. Dawg and The Black Rod.

Briefly, what has transpired is this. Yesterday, Jay broke the story of Liberal Party of Canada candidate Lesley Hughes, who had for years been publishing Twin Towers conspiracy theories of an anti-Semitic nature on the internet. In one such writing, she asserted that Jewish businesses vacated the World Trade Centre in the days prior to the 2001 attacks.

(The “Jews were Warned!” meme is a fairly common one in the circles of those who insist that the most devastating act of Islamic terror perpetrated yet in North America was, in fact, an inside job or the work of the Israeli Mossad.)

Not twenty-four hours later, after initially defending his candidate and refusing to take action, Stephane Dion asked for, and received, her resignation from the electoral race in the Manitoba riding of Kildonan-St. Paul. This was a story that emerged, and was carried, almost entirely in the blogosphere — the mainstream media has been struggling to play catch-up.

And in a somewhat ironic twist, the Liberal Party’s “Team BC” website yesterday ran a story about an NDP candidate who is also a “troother” (e.g. a 9/11 conspiracy theorist), one Bev Collins by name.

Methinks that Jay has opened himself a rather large can of worms here. If you ever needed to see a quick demonstration of the power of the blogs, O Reader, look no further than this example.

Also: very sweet…I haven’t used the “Conspiracy nonsense” category in a while!

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

How the folks at one of the leading left-wing websites opted to remember the World Trade Centre attacks.

Compare that with how various conservative blogs marked the day.

I don’t usually agree with the man himself, but I respect his right to his opinion.

And I support his fight against the Truther jagoff who has elected to sue him, apparently because he expressed contempt for those who abuse the memory of the World Trade Centre attacks in service of an anti-Jewish/anti-American/anti-human ideological (and then conspiracy-driven) agenda.

As the Shaidle says: the blogosphere must remain free.

Seven years ago today, nineteen Islamic men commandeered four large passenger aircraft. Two of them were flown into the tallest towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. One was flown into the Pentagon. And one was retaken by its passengers, who rallied and overcame their hijackers…only to crash in a field in Pennsylvania. Roughly three thousand people died on a September Tuesday back in 2001.

This was a shattering act of Terrorism…and should have been proof positive that all those many violent things we see on the news, which transpire almost daily in many other parts of the world, can and will happen here unless we are vigilant. Our freedom, in the West, is not something which is without cost, nor is it something which simply endures on its own merits. It was bought in blood, and its ongoing cost is also blood. Because “freedom” is not “free.”

Seven years and one day ago, as David Warren so ably notes, was “the last day in history in which such an event was inconceivable.

The cost — which extends to blood on the fields of Afghanistan and Iraq, and in several other countries infrequently mentioned in the news, and to the lesser investments in blood and money by U.S. allies — may seem, by now, out of all proportion to the benefit conferred. This is a hard reality of democratic politics. For if the politicians are successful in restraining a mortal enemy, we assume the threat must have been overstated. Ditto, if serious threats remain, but are concealed from us because they are kept far away.“

Vigilance. What does this word mean? To read a dictionary, one sees that it means “watchfulness,” and this is a good starting point. But more than that, it should mean — for us who so depend on it to ensure our ongoing freedom — also that we remember what has transpired before. We should remember that just because the bully has not yet succeeded in giving us another bloody nose does not mean that he does not lurk nearby still, waiting for us to drop our guard but a little so as to give us a black eye to match.

No, we shouldn’t be paranoid about terrorism either. But we must be honest, at least: it happened, once, that Muslim terrorists were able to slaughter thousands of people on this continent. It is still possible that they might do so again, if we give them the opening they are looking for.

Update: As much as the above is not comedic in any way, shape, or form, I have to share Dale Price’s priceless warning to would-be commentators:

This is a “Truther”-[sic]-free zone. You try to peddle your fraudulent wares here — on this of all days — and I’ll boot your ass out so fast you’ll red-shift.

I don’t have a comment form on my posts anymore, although the good Reader is of course free — and encouraged — to offer his or her thoughts via the contact form (I have a very good track record of re-posting what I receive). That said, Trutherism is somewhat less likely to be re-posted.

For a Few Updates More: Welcome, Steynians!