Now that the smoke has cleared for 22 years let’s look back at 9/11 as a guide to the future. After all, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” (Winston Churchill)

I’m reminded by an aerial photo of a hay field mowed to say “never forget.” Never forget what? As I listened to my friend sing the great song he wrote on that day, I have to think it is more of a feeling (with several people teary-eyed and standing, as if it were the National Anthem) than a recalling of actual events.

If we are to take Churchill’s advice we need to go beyond feelings. The most important part to remember is what is forgotten. The terrorists. Where did they go? In those days following 9/11 nearly the entire world was united (as depicted on the news anyway) in shock and sympathy for the victims. It was comfortable to know who the bad guys were. Osama bin Laden confessed on TV. Now the jihadist villains are nowhere to be seen.

Ron Paul, you know that weirdo who reads and understands the Constitution, proposed Letters of Marque and Reprisal be used to go after those bad guys. So simple, a reward for bounty hunters. Do you think a band of retired special forces personnel could have brought bin Laden and his band to justice for less than a trillion dollars?

A destination would end the spending. The Cold War ended and the war industry needed new bad guys. The Iraq war was fought against Saddam Hussein, a sworn enemy of Al Qaeda and bin Laden. We were allied with the terrorists. Afghanistan was obviously a protracted childish lashing-out at a strange culture with no goal or plan.

Boeing and Raytheon make excellent products for civilized life. But their politicians are anxious for campaign money and comply when needed for extra profits. The politicians and war industry are like the parasitic wasp larvae I found on a caterpillar ( https://youtube.com/shorts/Yo4ifqPYzHo?si=4hQIqqB71r3Fbits ). The larvae suck the life out of the caterpillar at a rate that keeps the caterpillar alive long enough for the wasps to mature. We are the caterpillar.

The waters are muddied further by information gathered over the years since 9/11. Architects & Engineers For 9/11 Truth, with about 2,300 members, have published over 100 peer reviewed papers describing a demolition scenario on 9/11. Dan Rather appears to get it right on that day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_cJU95ugFU.

There has never been a fire in a high rise that brought a progressive collapse except only three on 9/11. Steel framed high rises have been successfully designed for that resistance for 100 years. Just these inconsistencies are the tip of the iceberg in the 9/11 story.

The Patriot Act was passed so quickly that one has to wonder if it was on the desk that morning. It is still in effect and allows the government to search anyone’s home, work, or computer without a warrant. We are herded like cattle through airports in obvious violation of Amendment Four (warrantless searches). The tears should be for the death of this constitutional republic. The “oh I’ve got nothing to hide” meme works fine until the bad guys are in power.

If we are to accept the terrorists versus U.S. citizens version, Osama bin Laden won in a big way and our own government turned out to be the real enemy through its response to the attacks. Trillions of dollars were flushed away with the lives of thousands of servicemen and hundreds of thousands of civilians.

Barack Obama found that George W. Bush’s hiding of the flag-draped coffins couldn’t conceal the carnage, so he promised that drone warfare would limit losses of the lives of U.S. servicemen while maintaining profits for the war industry. Then the Muslim terrorist threat was discovered to be a paper tiger, so on to the next threat. This one, Russian expansion in Europe, is even more dubious (details of that process to be revealed in a future column). But the American people, raised on video games and John Wayne, fell for that one too. Destruction of a country and its people in Eastern Europe does the same thing as the drones. It continues the deadly war machine trade as we enjoy a secure and peaceful existence here. Every state has the presence of so-called defense contractors. It’s easy to see they are represented better than any pro-lifers.

The truth is impossible to know but we do know what they tell us and that is bad enough. If we align our country with any foreign power, the enemies in and of that country become ours as well. That’s what 9/11 was all about as the alleged terrorists resented U.S. air bases in Saudi Arabia. After 22 years our government still conceals the 28 pages of the 9/11 Commission Report that may hold the real story.

I like to hear local news on the radio each morning. If not near the radio, I can listen on my telephone. On that website is a notice: “Stand with Ukraine. Save peace in the world!” To that, Peter Hitchens would reply, “Is there any point in public debate in a society where hardly anyone has been taught how to think, while millions have been taught what to think?”

Senator Joni Ernst supports the billions of our dollars being sent to perpetuate the slaughter in Ukraine. We received an email from her yesterday saying she is going to “drain the swamp.” She is the swamp.

1. Pfizer stock peaked at $59 at the end of 2021and is now $36. (Look for a new surge in COVID cases.)
2. According to the World Health Organization there were 29 million to 45 million cases of Influenza annually between 2016 and 2020 but no COVID. 2020 to 2021 had 0.0038 million Flu cases. However, there were 32 million COVID cases that year.

Well it’s Labor Day and I’m laboring at this column while visiting with family. Labor Day was founded in 1882 by a union carpenter to celebrate labor with a day off from labor. Our middle kid, who we are visiting today was born on Labor Day and he knows how to work. He’s not in a union. His pay is decided by him and the customer. What a concept.

I note this because of the increased flight from unionized schools lately. Pay is not determined by an agreement between the customer and the teacher. Teachers are even priced out of their jobs by union contracts as they grow to perfect their skill which would otherwise improve the overall quality of education. This alone can explain the concern of ‘mama-bear like parents’ who have sought alternatives to declining school systems.

I’m being careful here because teachers rightly feel a sense of brotherhood and might take my criticism of unions personally. I have known many teachers and except for my English teacher in the 12^th grade, they are all caring individuals. They don’t enter teaching with the idea of sticking it to taxpayers and parents. They have a genuine concern for students and their preparation for the future.

Union contracts were negotiated in good faith on both sides. But with those negotiations being between groups rather than individuals, excellent candidates are not paid well enough and poor teachers don’t have to change careers. It’s a theme that has become a major factor in the decline of a broad cross section of human society.

I came across an old friend at the fair a couple of years ago. He has had lots of terrible health challenges. He looked up from his lunch and said, “If it weren’t for Medicare, I’d be dead.”

I can understand why he would be glad to be alive. I am too. But there is so much more to the story.

While Richard Nixon is mostly famous for the Watergate break in, his impact on the United States is felt today in higher medical costs because of his decoupling of gold from the dollar and wage and price controls.

With the value of our currency subject to arbitrary change to fund Medicare, politicians can claim to be helping seniors with medical expenses, but with other peoples’ money and without their consent. That eliminates any market restraints on cost for a vast majority represented by anyone over 65.

An even bigger factor is wage and price controls. Nixon instituted them as an attempt to control inflation. To attract or retain good workers without being allowed to raise wages, medical benefits were offered through insurance group plans. As in all students and teachers being treated as a group, all patients and healthcare providers were then treated as non-individuals. Poor lifestyles are essentially rewarded when careful people have the same insurance costs.

The failure to achieve ultimate efficiency in these two sectors should be a lesson for those who think the force of government can work better than a strict enforcement of individual rights, working with human nature rather than against it.