We Have Met the Enemy, Again

Wall Street Journal ^ | August 23, 2007 | DANIEL HENNINGER

[neverdem]

What the Deutsche Bank building tells us about what's wrong with America.

Even in these times, an August dimmed with miners trapped in Utah and China, Mexico's hurricane and the final body pulled from below the Minnesota bridge, the story of two New York firemen dying in a dead building was just too much.

Since September 11, when so many died across the street from the Deutsche Bank building in lower Manhattan, a great deal of effort has been made to ensure that no more people die in the U.S. from anything remotely connected to that day. Nearly six years after, we in New York have become used on any given morning to finding additional police on subway platforms (as yesterday) or seeing fleets of police cars in front of large commercial buildings. The purpose is to show presence, and deter terror.

So when it emerged that all the sirens one was hearing last Saturday afternoon in Manhattan were because the empty building known as 130 Liberty Street had caught fire, and that two firemen had died on the 14th floor when their bottled air ran out, one was dumbstruck. Then angry.

[neverdem]

This is nothing short of crazy.

[DB]

I think the author missed the central point of why this stuff happens.

We’re too wealthy.

We’re so wealthy that we think we can afford to indulge in this costly idiocy. If we were poorer that building would already be gone along with endless other bureaucratic make work.

And the truth of the matter is we can't afford it. We are getting poorer daily as we expend our limited resources that produces nothing. The same goes for the bridge that fell down in Minnisota. Millions were spent on environmental impact reports and other bureacratic money pits none of which made the brige safer or stronger.

[The Duke]

The inmates will now escort you back to your cell.

[nathanbedford]

Is this the system you want your health care to become?

As far as I know, the only potential candidate addressing this phenomenon in America today is Newt Gingrich who comments that it now takes about 20 years to build one new runway to the Atlanta airport while he recalls the we won World War II in four years.

[DB]

No, it isn’t.

Newt’s a smart guy. I wish he didn’t have all the baggage he’s carrying...

[nathanbedford]

Me too.

[raybbr]

You surely recall what the 9/11 Commission said about the problems that led to that day, and before that the Bremer commission's report on terrorism predicting that the U.S. was at risk for precisely the same reasons--an American system engulfed in proceduralism and legalism. And loving it. That's right, loving it. Our public officials and the attendant factions and community groups are so far gone into their never-never lands of crossing "t's" and dotting "i's" that they barely know how to bring an issue to resolution. In their world, it's never over. Process is life.

I have come to loathe politicians. All of them.

[Anita1]

Actually - Newt couldn’t be carrying anymore baggage than the present pubs who are running!

[DB]

That’s not saying much...

[the invisib1e hand]

enough about db.

Henninger knocks three runs in with this.

His execution isn't quite as flawless as usual, but the message is true. NY is too in busy killing itself to remove this building, which is a danger to everyone nearby. Leaving it up, like most politically easy things, is beyond irresponsible.

[Leisler]

On the other hand, NY is building all Islamic public schools.

[Leisler]

NY city and state. They can not rebuild the World Trade center and they can not tear down Deutchebank building.

[aruanan]

What the Deutsche Bank building tells us about what's wrong with America

Danny boy, calm down. Grow up. Accidents happen. Their incidence may be reduced but they cannot entirely be avoided. There will never be a time when everything is perfectly safe or perfectly just or perfectly sane. We don't live in that kind of world.

The same fire that warms you can be the same fire that burns you to death. The same knife that can be used to heal you is the same knife that can be used to cut your throat and rob you. The same car that carries you to work can be the same car that winds up 6 inches thick and oozing your life's blood after you fail to see the dump truck and the stop sign at the cross street because you were too busy looking up a number on your cell phone.

The world you want and, apparently, expect the government to provide for you exists inside your head and the heads of socialist utopians and other 6-year-olds.

And, Danny, do something about that clunker of a sentence you led off with.

[jwparkerjr]

Until we learn to separate the baggage from the ideas and contributions a Newt has to offer an ailing nation we are doomed to a continued slide down hill. The degree to which Newt is reprehensible to a large segment of our population has not bearing on the problems he points out. I too wish he had less baggage, but I question the idea of depriving the country of good he could do based solely on his personal life.

[the invisib1e hand]

On the other hand, NY is building all Islamic public schools.

That would be some sinister irony, wouldn't it, if it happens?

[neverdem]

What the Deutsche Bank building tells us about what's wrong with America.

Lawyers and lawsuits are making us stupid.

Pro-Hezbollah Group Will Demonstrate in Brussels on 9/11

Another Vietnam?

Syriacus comment on the "Mack" Owens "Maroons Rush In" thread prompted me to link Task Force Smith.

Emergency Conditions, Emergency Measures This is an excellent, minus one typo that I caught, account of the how the Army reacted in the two months after the start of the Korean War, courtesy of syriacus.

From time to time, I’ll ping on noteworthy articles about politics, foreign and military affairs. FReepmail me if you want on or off my list.

[gondramB]

>>I think the author missed the central point of why this stuff happens.<<

Somebody said its the price we pay for being rich, free and having beautiful half naked women who drive cars all at the same time.

[Squantos]

Sort of a guard rail on the grand canyon has not allowed evolution thang ?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks ND.

[nathanbedford]

have a look here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1886307/posts