This is an email I sent to Scientific American, a magazine I have subscribed to for many years, about the Skeptic column dealing with 9-11. I got no response.
To Sciam:
I had to laugh a bitter laugh at Mr Shermer’s last column. We have entered Alice in Wonderland when a column called “Skeptic” is not at all skeptical about physical facts. A column that agrees with official explanation absolutely – even though there was no scientific inquiry to produce such explanation.
Sorry friend. A real skeptic would be puzzled by facts that don’t align with common sense. Facts that should at least cause one to ponder.
Such as why:
- for the first time anywhere on the planet, three (not two – have you forgotten WTC 7?) steel framed buildings collapsed into their own footprints due to “fire” even though the fires had already been contained. Thick black smoke indicates an oxygen-poor fire, a relatively cool fire.
- the fire fighters (who should know) were not in anyway worried about the integrity of the building, after all, the steel was certified to withstand 2000 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours.
- people were seen standing in the hole created by the impact of the airplane – indicating that even at the point of impact the fire was not quite an “inferno.”
- the recent Madrid fire – a real inferno – resulted in a burnt out steel structure – no collapse.
- no explanation has been offered as to what caused the massive concrete core of the building to self-pulverize (and self pulverize it did – the huge concrete core above the point of impact turned to dust – instead of falling like monolith)
- there are first hand accounts of blasts being heard
- there was a hot spot under the rubble days after the collapse
- there were seismic recordings indicating blasts immediately preceding collapse
- there was no forensic study of the debris,
- the debris was shipped out of the country with whirlwind efficiency
- no one mentions the fact that the WTC buildings were sold several months before the attack.
- almost no airplane parts were found at the Pentagon
- the film from several security cameras in the Pentagon area covering the approach of the airplane were all confiscated with great efficiency and none have seen the light of day.
- a bunch of the “hijackers” are still alive
- none of the “hijackers” were on the flight manifests
- “fanatical Muslims” visited strip joints just before their martyrdom.
- a group of Israelis were arrested, and then quickly released, after being seen high-fiving and cheering as they watched the towers fall, standing on their van, in New Jersey. The van was from a dubious company, they had several different European passports, they had $4,700 stuffed into a sock.
- after many countries’ security services warned the US, our leaders lied and said they had no warning (These warnings spoke of planes used as weapons, targets would be symbols of American power, some mentioned New York, some mentioned early September – these were foreigners warning us. Surely our own security services must have come up with something too.).
- no planes were able to intercept the airliners even though the ones scrambled from Otis AFB could have (they were airborne early enough, and had they flown at top speed they would have changed history).
- none of our “representatives” cares, or is upset, or thinks it odd, that a military that costs $1.1 billion per day, could not send up a single plane to confront these lumbering airliners
- no heads have rolled as a result of the colossal security failure
- the secret service people allowed GWB to sit in a public location while America was under attack
- GWB sat doing nothing while America was under attack
- the hundreds of pages of the Patriot Act (so Orwellian a name, no?) was pre-written and ready to go, and pushed through congress before the mysterious heat beneath the trade centers had even cooled. (who wrote it, and for what purpose, and under whose authority?)
- the Pennsylvania crash (like the Pentagon crash) resembles no other crash site. The Pennsylvania crash was a barren hole in the ground, again, as in the Pentagon, missing the pieces of the plane.
- so little effort was expended to investigate what happened. (More funding was given to Clinton’s Whitewater probe than 9-11.)
Sorry dude, but you ain’t skeptical. You are a faith-based writer. Government (handlers) right / Facts ignored.
How about changing the name of your column to: “The Current Dogma Speaks,” “Status Quo Rules,” “From the Heavenly Gates of Government Science Come my Reasonable Answers.”
At least it would be honest.
A small book that I worked on with an extraordinary Thai monk, Phra Bhasakorn Bavilai. His approach to explaining karma and the basic framework of Buddhism is new and fresh. He has created quite a stir here in Thailand with his new way of explaining the timeless teachings of Buddhism. Several years ago he wrote up his approach in a Thai book which was quite popular - though it did cause a bit of controversy, as new ideas will. But the content has been vetted at some of the highest levels of Thai Buddhism and academia, and his approach seems to help clear up a lot of concepts for people.
