Is it me, or are there a lot of documentaries and specials about the subject airing on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, etc. these days? There's something sort of unsettling to me about that. Sort of cheapens it when they treat it like Shark Week.

same way last year and the year before and it will be this way for years to come

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Its still unsettling, I can't watch really any of it.

It been said that the collector personality is a reaction to the feeling of lack of control in the world around them.
I started collecting full on shortly after 9/11
Who knows, its a good time to think about what matter most to you.

Maybe these days it's those who recycle the past that are forced to remember it.

The commercial spin on that incident irks me. I keep seeing this TV ad for a set of commemorative silver coins based around 9/11 and the monument. This doesn't strike me as something to commemorate. Let's have a set for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (heads and tails!) while we're at it.

i really liked what we did with ground zero after 9/11... we showed the world that after a major disaster, we are able to rebuild ourselves to be stronger than before and move forward. we proved ourselves once again after hurricane katrina

We are a nation that has become transfixed with reality tv and "realtime" events.
It's seem like the annual tribute to me but I think the commercials are poring in a lot more especially due to the election year.

Start reading Baudrillard.

I think it's important to hold some tributes to it, but at the level it's been on TV it's more about ratings than respect. That said, I'd rather have a ton than none. Why aren't there many Pearl Harbor tributes though? I KNOW why, that generation has faded, but it's sad. Outside of showing the crap movie there isn't that much.

The amount may cheapen it, but I feel it's better than none.

This was meant to be in purple, right?

this just made me shoot dr. pepper through my nose!

A grand statement on our Government's priorities and ideals.

Well said Rhino. Don't mess with the USA or we'll rebuild bigger and better...

And owe more money.

And invade the wrong country for no reason, commit war crimes, violate the Geneva convention, whinge like a 5 year old when Russia retaliates against Georgian aggression by following precedents set by the USA in Iraq (except Russia had real reasons to invade), etc etc etc.

911 is a joke

Simulacra...Is it just me or is his writing style just too difficult to read through?

It's so sad but I agree. Somehow higher powers have turned it into this cash cow/fear thing. I'm not sure if it's true but I have heard that 9/11 is now trade marked, so whoever did that is seeing some serious money. I also found it really weird how graphic the images they showed at RNC. Fear, be scared, unless we elect McCain we're all fucked. Don't worry though, once he's in office he'll finally admit to owning that box that makes stuff magically appear. That's how we'll catch the terrorists. Blah!

A date or a series of numbers trademarked?
Nahhh, someone is having some fun with you...

Don't remember 9/11 as what the government and media has made it.
Remember it for what exactly happened that day.
RIP to all those that have died and respect to all the heroes that were helping to look for survivors.

Maybe in your town...

Didn't some toy company do that, making the little bombs a DIY platform? Maybe they are planning on some 9/11 DIY planes.

9/11 should not be commemorated it should be remembered as a tragic day that showed invicible america how frail things can be and how people in general, not only americans, can come together during a tragedy. I don't need cutesy marketing silver 20 dollar "bills" that have a 9 and a 11 in the corner because it adds up to 20 bucks, leave it to corporate america to make money on a tragedy that coincedently happened to corporate buildings. If we do need "change" its not someone in the white house that is going to make it happen, its going to take the whole population to start thinking differently and being active in what goes on. A president is simply propaganda: the housing market, jobs, energy prices, economy, wars, bla bla bla are not decided by him as much as people want to hope so they can just elect someone and solve everything, they are direct factors of decisions the general population make, given some of those are based on false claims nobody bothered to research (like WMD's that made EVERYONE want to go to war here) or not knowing how things work at all (like adjustable rate mortgages that crashed the housing market).

As far as the japanese bombings, we just dropped those and got out without some rebuilding plans or exit strategy and they as people came together and rebuilt into the amazing country they are today, maybe we should just peace out of iraq and their people can come together in their time of tragedy.

end rant.

We had a thread about these a while back:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=3741
Uh, I think you should read up a bit on that subject...

yeah, you should definately read up more on the bombings of japan (not saying that i'm an expert or that i've read up enough on the subject), but i see it as a terrible event that ended an even more terrible war

I said the japanese bombings were a tragedy, I was mentioning it as one of the most amazing examples of people to come together and rebuild.

It is, but regarding this:
See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Japan

Some relevant points:

- The Allied forces occupied Japan for seven years.
- In the initial phases they established a system of food distribution that cost nearly one million dollars a day.
- Major changes to Japan's existing system of government were imposed by MacArthur.