Hopefully these aren't fighting words, but - can we please get over ourselves a little about 9/11?

Ray Nagin, unsurprisingly, said some things a little carelessly. (Being pressed on why NOLA isn't back up and running yet, he said, basically, New York's had five years and they haven't managed to fix a hole in the ground. Cue outrage.)

But now Russert is all "Can you answer this? Do you feel sorry for the families who lost people on 9/11?" The fuck?

Nagin needs to think before he speaks, for sure. And he was doing his best to put it in context, that it wasn't a slap at 9/11 or NYC, but just a [really stupid] way of illustrating how long and complicated a job it is to deal with catastrophic events. That conversation, definitely, was an appropriate line of questioning. But that? "So, to confirm for the American people, by 'hole in the ground', did you or did you not mean 'Osama Uber Alles' ?

I remember that day vividly, from hearing air sirens and watching people stream up 16th street away from the White House to watching the smoke from the Pentagon from my rooftop and waiting for the next strike to hit.

But I'm beyond over any insufficiently reverent reference to the events of that day being treated as apostasy.

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But I'm beyond over any insufficiently reverent reference to the events of that day being treated as apostasy.

It wasn't even about "That Day" -- it was about all the political stupidness that has followed.

Me, I'm still pissed off that people continue to equate the two events. Both tragic, sure, but one nearly destroyed an entire region. I mean, really.

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It wasn't even about "That Day" -- it was about all the political stupidness that has followed.

Exactly. Apparently even that is off limits to critical examination.

Me, I'm still pissed off that people continue to equate the two events. Both tragic, sure, but one nearly destroyed an entire region. I mean, really.

And not only that, was entirely within our power to prevent, or at least alleviate. For all the Federal gov very clearly did wrong in the years leading up to 9/11, their culpability in Katrina is far greater, and clearer.

The original Nagin interview in question is on 60 Minutes tonight, FYI.

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And not only that, was entirely within our power to prevent, or at least alleviate.

Yeah, I heard someone on some One Year Later thing recently talking about how Katrina was not actually a natural disaster, but a failure of the Army Corps of Engineers or whoever. Ugh.

Fuck. I've got to get a move on so I can shower and go to the glasses store before I meet a friend at the movies, but I just don't want to.

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Oy, brenda.

I am aggravated this morning, thanks to my neighbor who woke me up -- specifically, on purpose -- at 2:30 in the morning. BAH.

When is the funeral?

Fall resolution: watch Scrubs.

Jesse--about Scrubs. Scott and I caught episodes of season 5, here and there, during the regular TV season and fell pretty hard for it. We bought the DVDs for the first three seasons (all that had been released at the time) and fell even harder. It's quirky. The humor is frequently sexual (which—when so frequently used on other comedies, tends to bore me, but Scrubs does it right). It's snarky, and yet it's just full of heart.

NBC didn't air reruns for most of this summer (until this past week). And when we caught the two (season 5 re-runs) they just aired, we liked them, but didn't love them the way we love the first 3 seasons.

Maybe it was just the episodes we caught (one was sort of a clever homage to * The Wizard of Oz) *, or maybe it was our mood, but I felt like they were trying too hard to accomplish the right blend of quirk/snark/heart stuff they used to do, naturally. That said, I still adore it. If/since Comedy Central is going to re-run it, definitely give it a shot. So so cute. Just remember, Dr. Cox is mine.

Which reminds me that I have the DVDs for The Office S1, which I still haven't watched. That's another fascinating series that I didn't bother to try, even though it ran directly after My Name is Earl ... I guess the directorial styles of the two shows are so different that I didn't want to try warpping my brain from one to the other unprepared.

I think they're a weird mix too Theo, even though I like both shows (and actually adore The Office). My guess is that NBC has so little to offer right now, that the programmers just went, "Hey, we actually have two decent sitcoms. Put 'em on Thursdays. Together. Remember when we were Must See TV? Yeah. That was cool."

I was saying to Scott that I'd love to see the line-up go: Earl; Scrubs; The Office; [some show], between 8 and 10 on Thursday nights. I think Scrubs would make the transition from Earl to The Office less jarring. I have no idea what (if anything) they could schedule fourth, though.

Season 2 of The Office has it all over season 1, for what it's worth. It's where the show really finds its own way (apart from the original UK series, I mean) and own voice.

My Name is Earl is a really cute show. I started watching it because Cashmere was so enthusiastic about it.

Best. Soundtrack. On. Television. Bar. None.

Currently? Because if we can count old series, I'm going to mention Freaks and Geeks. It's funny how music matters so much in television. Even the theme songs to Earl, The Office, and Scrubs get me in mood. The Office's theme always makes me feel like I'm riding the rails to Scranton, PA.

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Well, aren't the policies that prevent resilting of the flood plain partially responsible for loss of the barrier islands which are the natural defense against things like hurricane and tsunami style waves?

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Also in the running for Best TV Soundtrack Ever: WKRP. ::sigh::

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....And now that I've blasphemed against 9/11, helicopters have been circling around my neighborhood for the past half hour. ...here come the Men in Black....

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...here come the Men in Black....

Maybe you'll luck out and they'll make you forget all of W's time in office.

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Last week, an unnamed family was at a beach, in Maine. The day before, the adult family members had engaged in a political discussion during which the adult female may or may not have declared the Vice President, "The First Evil."

The male revived this discussion, while on the beach, saying, "I don't think he's the First Evil."

The female may or may not have replied, "Well, then he's the second. He's definitely one of the first ten evils, and I will brook no further argument on that, because it's a Known Fact."

A black helicopter came, seemingly, out of nowhere, and spent the next several minutes circling overhead.

I've heard.

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