The Week Football Stopped

In case you haven't heard, today marks the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in rural Pennsylvania. To mark the occasion, I put together the following stunning display of multimedia.

[Note: For liability issues, I'm assuming, I'm not allowed to post anything here other than text and links. As such, you're going to have to click on the links in this post to peep the videos at YouTube and Google Video. If I ever get a chance to stop by the actual XXL offices, I'm going to have to steal something on general principle. Fuckers.]

Kaboom!

When 9/11 happened, I was a few weeks into my junior year of college, out in Chicken Switch, MO. I had a 7:30 AM statistics course on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which was always difficult to get. It was taught by this manly-looking lesbian broad who was the coach of either the softball or the volleyball team. Shit, maybe even both of them.

I mostly slept through it that day.

Afterwards, I had a finance class which began at 9:00. The older Asian fellow who taught it would keep CNBC on the projector in between classes so that he could check out the ticker. As I walked in that day, I noticed that the north tower of the World Trade Center was on fire. A plane had crashed into it.

Right at 9:00, not too long before the second plane hit, he turned the TV off and began jabbering on about whatever the fuck it was he used to talk about. Fortunately, I think he did let us go early that day.

Peep: 9/11 First Plane [YouTube]

It wasn't until I got back to my room, right around the time the south tower was collapsing, that I realized what was going on here. The US was under attack!

There's plenty of video footage of the second plane slamming into the south tower. A few of them are really impressive in an, I realize I'm not supposed to be amused by this sort of thing, kind of way. However, there aren't nearly as many videos of the first plane slamming into the north tower.

CNN managed to secure the above video from a guy who just so happened to be standing near the World Trade Center and pointing a camera at it right when 9/11 was about to happen. Hmm...

Kevin Cosgrove Calls 911

Kevin Cosgrove, one of the many "little Eichmanns" ethered in the attacks, was in the south tower when it collapsed. Why would he remain in the south tower after a jumbo jet, filled with, um... jet fuel had already crashed into the north tower? I guess it takes a certain level of dedication to have the kind of job where you work in an actual office building.

I wouldn't know.

Peep: Kevin Cosgrove - A 9/11 Story [YouTube]

The second plane had smacked into the south tower when Kevin Cosgrove made this frantic 911 call. You're going to want to watch this video all the way to the end.

Bush atop the Rubble

Fortunately, President Bush was on the job. Sort of. He'd spent the past several months prior to 9/11 ignoring CIA briefings on bin Laden and clearing brush on his ranch down in Crawford, Texas, and he spent the morning of the attacks at a black elementary school in Florida reading My Pet Goat.

Even his daddy, Bush 41, was left with no other choice than to give W a vote of no confidence in the days following the attacks.

Peep: President Bush on September 14, 2001 [YouTube]

It was the Friday after the attacks when President Bush Mengele stood atop the rubble, hugged some curiously old-looking firefighter (probably an actor) and informed the world that the US was about to go slap the shit out of which ever towel heads were responsible for this mess. I know I felt suddenly assured.

"New York, New York"

Probably the best thing to come of the attacks for me, on a personal level, was this, the video for the first single from Ryan Adams' semi-major label debut Gold, arguably the best album evar. Fuck a Blueprint.

Peep: Ryan Adams - "New York, New York" [YouTube]

Granted, it's not a rap video, but I don't recall there ever being very many rap videos that explicitly referenced the events of 9/11. I thought about digging up the footage from TRL where distraught young viewers called in wanting to know Ja Rule's thoughts on the issue, but MTV must have it all destroyed.

Why should your average black person give a shit about 9/11 anyway?

In fact, Ryan Adams' video for "New York, New York" was shot on the Friday before September 11th. As far as I know, he had no idea that the towers so prominently featured in the clip would crumble to the earth in a mere matter of days.

Alex Jones Predicts 9/11

Alex Jones, meanwhile, knew what was up way the fuck back on July 25th, when he warned viewers of his, um, ridonkulous drivel that the US government was about to blow shit up and blame it on bin Laden.

Peep: Alex Jones warns about attacks before 911 [Google Video]

Only thing is. how do we know the above footage actually took place on July 25, 2001? For all we know, he could have shot it some time this year and just stamped that date on it. He is, after all, wearing the same shirt. How many shirts do you still wear today that you were wearing back in 2001?

Admittedly, I've got like four.

Loose Change

But that's the thing: In times like these, you can never be 100 percent certain what to believe.

The mainstream media, which is controlled by the goverment, which is of course occupied by Israel, began blaming this all on Islamic fundamentalists almost immediately after the attacks, but how do we know this shit wasn't really planned and executing by PNAC thugs in the White House and the Pentagon?

Peep: Loose Change 2nd Edition Recut [Google Video]

Granted, some of what's claimed in the infamous "Loose Change" video, above, has already been revealed to be bullshit, but you know what - a lot of shit claimed by our government since 9/11 has been revealed to be bullshit as well.

Dedicated to those who lost their lives September 11, 2001, and those who worked to save them. And to the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin.