BIGGER BLOGGER

In this case, Popular Mechanics Vs Rosie O'Donnell,

Recently, Rosie O’Donnell, a co-host of ABC talk show The View, made comments on the show that renewed controversy over the collapse of World Trade Center 7.

While saying she didn’t know what to believe about the U.S. government’s involvement in the attacks of Sept. 11, she said, “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.”

I wonder if Rosie knows how steel is made? Seems to me that there's a bit of fire involved - but maybe all that is just part of the Mossad/Bush/Halliburton conspiracy? PM continues:

...Towers 1 and 7 were approximately 300 ft. apart, and pictures like the ones here and here offer a clear visual of how small that distance is for structures that large. After further studies, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) told PM that debris from the 110-floor North Tower hit WTC7 with the force of a volcanic eruption. Nearly a quarter of the building was carved away over the bottom 10 stories on its south face, and significant damage was visible up to the 18th floor (see p. 24 of this report).

The unusual design of WTC7 is also crucial to the discussion, in that key columns supported extreme loads—as much as 2000 sq. ft. of floor area for each floor—as the building straddled an electrical substation. “What our preliminary analysis has shown is that if you take out just one column on one of the lower floors,” NIST lead investigator Shyam Sunder told PM, “it could cause a vertical progression of collapse so that the entire section comes down.” The tower wasn’t hit by a plane, but it was severely wounded by the collapse of the North Tower. Which is when the fires started...

..Demolition experts tell PM that wiring a building the size of WTC7 for clandestine demolition would present insurmountable logistical challenges. That issue aside, there’s a clear-cut engineering explanation for why the building fell the way it did. Trusses on the fifth and seventh floors of the building were designed to transfer loads from one set of columns to another; with the south face heavily damaged, the other columns were likely overtaxed. In engineering terms, the “progressive collapse” began on the eastern side, when weakened columns failed from the damage and fire. The entire building fell in on itself as the slumping east side dragged down the west side in a diagonal pattern. Still, damage to the Verizon Building (see p. 21 of this report), directly west of WTC7, and to Fiterman Hall (see here) directly north, show that it was hardly an orderly collapse.

This is what we contend with - people who believe things which are not just false, but laughably false. To even for a moment believe that anything other than two planes flown by terrorists did the damage, one has to be both amazingly ignorant as well as entirely hate-filled towards the United States of America. Now, not all our leftwing critics believe there was some sort of nefarious, American/Isreali plot to carry out 9/11...but a lot of them do, and even the lefties who are not full-blown into conspiracy theories will say that there are "questions" about what happened.

When we have people who can't see things which are plain as a pikestaff, it is no surprise that we're having a great deal of difficulty with more sublte and nuanced things, such as what the real conditions in Iraq are. It is a very difficult task we've set ourselves: fighting a war while a large segment of our population is awash in lies, ignorance and vitriol.

Ah, well - no one ever said that life was supposed to be easy, or fair.

Some people have a clear understanding of what is at stake:

Upon consultation with its rabbinic leadership, Agudath Israel of America issued the following statement:

Since September 11, 2001, the United States has been involved in a war against forces of evil and terror. These forces pose a grave danger not only to the United States and its allies in the Western World, but also to our Jewish brethren in Israel and across the globe.America’s efforts in Iraq have been part of this larger battle. While, in retrospect, the planning and execution of some of these efforts may have been less than perfect, there have also been significant achievements. The bottom line, at this time, is that the stakes in Iraq remain high, and that there still remains much to be done.

Agudath Israel of America believes that President Bush is entitled to great deference in his ongoing efforts to stabilize the situation in Iraq. Such deference is appropriate both because of the constitutional authority that inheres in the President’s position as Commander in Chief, and also because of the moral authority the President has consistently displayed in leading the battle against international terror.

We feel compelled to express our views at this time because the Union for Reform Judaism, purporting to have arrived at its position through an application of “halachic norms” and “Jewish values,” has publicly proclaimed its opposition to the President’s policies in Iraq. This group is entitled to its own organizational position, but that position is neither a legitimate expression of halachic Judaism nor reflective of authentic Jewish values.

To many on the left, which sadly includes a large number of Jewish Americans, the primary problem - or at least one of the primary problems - of the middle east is Israel. The mantra goes, "If only Israel would..." do this, that or the other thing (usually it is surrender some vital position to their armed enemies), then things wouldn't be as they are. Pardon me for pointing out that a fellow democracy simply can't be the problem when dealing with non-democratic States (ie, the entirety middle east other than Turkey, Iraq and Afghanistan - and please note that none of these three has lately been on fire to fight the Zionist Entity). The problem isn't free people fighting for what is right but, rather, the enslavers of populations who have evil designs upon the world.

Israel's fight is our fight and vice-versa - we are enaged in war to the death with the forces of evil who have hijacked large parts of the Islamic world. If we pull out of Iraq, it won't solve the problem. If we abandon Israel, it won't solve the problem. If we stop buying middle east oil, it won't solve the problem. The only solution to the problem is to physically insert ourselves into the heart of the middle east and force change upon the way of life. We can't win it any other way - and if we don't win it, then eventually we'll find that tens of thousands - perhaps even millions - of Americans will pay the ultimate price for a lack of resolve here in the United States.

Just in case there are some lefties out there still wondering why we on the right have such monumental contempt for the UN - From Publius Pundit via First Things:

In nearly a year, here is a brief list of some of the Human Rights Council's greatest accomplishemnts:

*Successfully condemned one country only, Israel.

*Repeat the above seven more times.

*Voted on June 30, 2006, to review Israeli human rights abuses at every council session.

*While investigating the Israeli-Hezbollah war, it announced that, "the Commission is not entitled, even if it had wished, to construe [its charter] as equally authorizing the investigation of the actions by Hezbollah in Israel." No bias here.

The latest move of the Commission was to stop looking into the human rights situation in Iran...because everything is so swell there, right? And, as is noted later on, Cuba is moving to have the Commission de-fanged altogether...because human rights are so well respected in Cuba.

One doesn't wish to get harsh - and this immediately requires a suppression of the desire to have everyone on the Commission shot at dawn. That done, we are left with the pressing problem of what to do - and my solution, for a couple decades now, has been to scrap the whole useless organization and start again, this time only inviting decent, free nations to participate (we'd still be stuck with France, but you can't have everything).