I'm so mad I want to SCREEEEEEEEEAM...

Paul Murdoch Architects from LA submitted the winning design for the memorial of flight 93 that crashed near Shanksville, PA on 9/11. The winning design was selected from over 1000 submissions by a jury panel of noted designers, family members, first responders and community leaders.

The site is shown in the picture on the left. Below is an extract from a statement from the designers on their design:

We chose an embrace, a mile long, through 40 memorial groves of trees found in western Pennsylvania. We chose a gesture heroic in scale, fitting for the acts of the passengers and crew of United Flight 93, and appropriate as a national memorial; a national embrace encircling that field, oriented to the sacred ground, the final resting place of 40 heroes. Their names will be inscribed along the flight path where they chose to make a difference.

I read in the paper the other day, and since then in more detail on the web, that one of the family members along with other detractors of the design are contending that the original crescent shape of red maple trees around the crash site evoked a widely accepted Muslim symbol, and that a planned tower looks like an "Islamic sundial" that would cast a shadow signaling the start of Muslims' afternoon prayers.....and that further more the Islamic red crescent shape is oriented purposely to point east towards Mecca.

I will not dignify all the blithering idiots on the web who have chosen to "unite" against this "defilement" by pointing you to their urls. But I did read some of it and I can't even begin to describe to you how angry it makes me every time I think about it. They promote drivel like this and then wonder why everyone in the world hates the US.

...AARRRGGGGGGGGGGHHH@&^#@(.......

So I guess the new moon that I see every month must obviously be an Islamic moon....how did I ever miss that before? And I-90 that runs East must obviously be an Islamic highway....we ought to tear it down and re-build it in some other direction. Don't these ignorant idiots understand that creating this kind of Islamophobia is playing right into the hands of the terrorist minority?

We all have a responsibility to speak up whenever we hear this kind of irresponsible fear-mongering. The sad part is that most likely someone you know really well believes in this conspiracy theory....well, don't let it slide....educate them on the truth.

I can't seem to stop that screaming voice inside my head....it's going to take a while....

“I don’t know who advised the president” .....but his analysis is “subprime.”

Our president....er my president....heaven help us....is quoted to have said at a news conference on May 2 about India's burgeoning middle class:

“When you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food, and so demand is high, and that causes the price to go up.”

What a bloody stupid thing to say....

It's obviously outraged everyone in India and other developing countries. Read the rest of this story in the NY Times. There are a number of wonderful lines in it. My favorite is in the title of this post.

What's your favorite?

no end in sight

That's the name of a great documentary I watched at home a couple of days ago. It's about "Iraq's descent into chaos - the inside story from the ultimate insiders". I particularly enjoyed it because I had just finished reading a fabulous book about Iraq called Defeat by Jonathan Steele whom I also had the pleasure of meeting over dinner at a good friend's house. This is a must read and will give you a very objective and articulate analysis from a senior correspondent of the Guardian newspaper who's covered international issues including the middle east for over 40 years.

Reading the book and watching the movie really makes you sick to the stomach. How could so few muck things up on such a grand scale? It leaves you frustrated, angry, sad and annoyed and wondering how we're ever going to fix it. Annoyed me so much that I had to start a new blog to share my irritation :)