God’s Grace and 9/11 (UPDATED)

UPDATE: It is with some alarm, with lots of surprise but with firmness and resoluteness that I do two things this morning.  Confess that I published this post from Fr. D. without fully reading it... and announce that as of this moment, Fr. D. has published his last guest post at Brutally Honest.  I'm an open-minded guy who will listen to perspectives that I don't agree with... however... there are limits to that oppenness and Fr. D. with this post has breached those limits.  To suggest that 9/11 was an inside job, to suggest that the American government was somehow complicit in the atrocities, and to do so on my blog as a guest blogger is to cross a line one cannot simply step back over.  

Carry on.

-Rick

By Fr. D.

Trinity 12

2 Corinthians 3:4–9
St. Mark 7:31–39

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Today is the twelfth Sunday after Trinity, the second Sunday in our mid–Trinity season summary on the Grace of God. As it happens, it falls this year squarely on the tenth anniversary on the horrific events of the 9/11 attacks on World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Thus we find our minds unavoidably divided between two ideas today, one the message of God for our lives, and the other the message of evil men who have total disregard for our lives.

The enormity of the 9/11 event seemed to overwhelm us. There had not been a direct attack on the continental United States since the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, and it shocked all of us that someone, we knew not who, had made a brazen daylight attack on both New York and Washington. We had no idea how much more was coming, but our sense of security was crushed. A number of years earlier, the US had abandoned the Cold War practice of having jet fighters constantly at the ready, ready to scramble at the appearance of any menace coming over the horizon. Consequently, we were totally unprepared to put up any aircraft quickly to respond to other threats that might be coming, and to search for Flight 93 which had disappeared and was feared heading for Washington. Our confidence in our own military might was just about zero at that point; our defenses had been completely breached and we knew that the enemy had gotten through. Americans were afraid of what might be coming.

But there was indeed a great turning of the nation to God. It was truly amazing to behold, and, as St. Paul says in the Epistle lesson for today, 2 Corinthians 3:4-5 4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; It was a strong indication that the American nation remembered its Christian roots, and houses of worship were packed. There was a sense of re–awakening of religious faith in America, enough so that we could almost look at 9/11 as having been a good thing because of this re–awakening, although at extremely high cost. Regrettably, it was short lived; within a few months, the new religious fervor seemed to wear thin and people went back to their old ways. But we see, that when people are jogged by something that awakens their conscience, those who know and recall the Christian faith are drawn back into the ways of faith even by great catastrophes.

All of us have our own recollections of what we were doing when we first learned of what was happening in New York and Washington. It was a Tuesday morning, so for most of us, it involved whatever our Tuesday morning routines were in 2001, only to be interrupted by news that would change our world forever. Our lives would never be quite the same afterwards as they had been before 9/11. For the many who were directly involved in fire fighting and rescue efforts, they were called upon to perform absolutely heroically that day. Many died in their efforts. It is only by the grace of Christ that these are able to make the choice to put their own lives at risk in order to assist others. The response of the natural man is to protect himself first and let others fend for themselves, and only with the aid of Jesus Christ do fire fighters and rescuers put themselves at risk to save others; 1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

When the 9/11 itself was over, there followed, of course, several more days of fire fighting and rescue efforts, and then a massive clean up and repair effort. As the time went by, the tensions of the day began to subside, little bit by little bit. But the big questions of How did it happen? Who did it? Why did it happen? all remained to be answered. This led us in the period, continuing right up to the present day, that I think of as the Great Cover–Up. This event had literally thousands and thousands of witnesses, each with some bit of evidence to contribute. The official report simply ignores the evidence of most of those witnesses and leaves unaddressed a lengthy list of questions. It says to the American people, “trust us, this is what you should believe if you know what is good for you.” What foolishness! To think that Americans would ever accept such instructions is really foolhardy, and they have not. There is strong evidence that points to an inside job, indicating that the lease holder of the World Trade Center had to have been at least complicit in the destruction of the buildings. This suggests that the US Government was also involved to allow the Pentagon attack to happen.

One may ask what role has grace played in post–9/11 America on the national level? It seems to me that grace has played a two sided role in the nation in recent years. It has allowed the nation to restore a sense of normality, so that everyday life goes on much as before. This is important if people are to live without the enormous stress of impending disaster. It is very hard on people to live thinking that they may be at war at any moment, and since we have no clearly identified enemy (who is al-Qaeda, anyway?), we need not live ready to go to all out war. On the other side, grace has enabled the questions of what, why, who to remain active. These are important questions for justice that many of us think has not been done and still needs to be attended to for justice to be served. Without grace, these ends might have only been served by violence, but there has been little or no violence that I know of in this regard.

Let us pray that the American people will turn more strongly toward the Lord, that they may be filled with His grace, for their benefit and that of the whole world. This is a strange weekend, but let us keep the grace of Christ Jesus upper most in our hearts, now and evermore.

+ In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Comments

[Ann Barnhardt]

The leaseholder of the buildings was complicit in their destruction? Father Jackass needs to lay off the truther garbage, and confess his sin of accusing a man of murdering 3000 people before he DARES to say another Mass. This is utterly despicable. What a horrific post. Nice knowin' ya, Brutally Honest, but methinks I'll not darken your door any longer.

Ann Barnhardt
Lone Tree, CO

[Father D]

It is a great honor to be visited by Miss Barnhardt, the new prophet who speaks the words that no one else will say (often for good reasons).

It is indeed interesting that Ann Barnhard, who in so many cases distrusts the US government and its various agencies, is apparently willing to believe fully the words of the rushed cover-up that was associated with 9/11. This includes the great haste to destroy all of the evidence at the site before there could be the extensive analysis of the materials in the debris pile, the haste to export the steel to China to have it melted down, thus forever destroying any possibility of doing testing on it, the willful refusal to take the testimony of countless witnesses in the development of the final report, the testimony of numerous experts in demolition from around the world, etc, etc. No, none of this matters. It is, apparently according to according to Miss Barnhard, just the way the government report said it was, contradictions and omissions not withstanding.

I do know what I am talking about. Long before I became a priest, I was a PhD Mechanical Engineer, and I have studied a number of the reports on the WTC collapse at some length. I have no way of knowing why the towers were brought down, but I can say with confidence that the once person who had to be involved is the person who controlled the towers, the lease holder. Undoubtedly there were many others as well.

Miss Barnhardt, as you know so well, speaking the truth is not always popular. I am, however, surprised that you, of all people, are quite so firm in your support of the US government on this one.

[Rick]

Father D, as owner of this blog and as someone who affords you the privilege of posting here as a guest blogger, I need to quickly step in and first distance myself from your apparent assertions that 9/11 was an inside job. I find that to be a complete load of crap. More than that, it's just bullshit frankly. I'm seriously surprised that you decided to go down this road.

Am I to understand that you think Bush and his administration was complicit in these horrific acts?

Seriously?

If so, please understand that your time here at Brutally Honest is now over...you've just put up your last post.

[bob sykes]

One can only hope that the psychopath who calls himself Fr. D. is not a Catholic priest. He is every bit as bad as the homosexual priests who assaulted all those altar boys.

[Mike R]

Rick,

Thank you for kicking this asshole off your blog.

[Bernie]

Father in all due respects, you are a nut case. How dare you put the blame on President Bush and our government. Are you so PC that you will not say that the islamic religion is a evil cult. Read there book and see the passages of hating Jews and Christians. Read how it is ok to lie to a unbeliever. Read how there god contradicts all that Almighty God has Said in the Old and New Testament. This is a false religion. You have lose all credibility as a sane person.

[Ann Barnhardt]

Bravo, Rick. You did the right thing. Unpleasant business, but it had to be done. Think how different our culture would be if Christians had never stopped admonishing the sinner 50 years ago. Fraternal correction needs a comeback, in a big way!!

Have a great week-
Ann Barnhardt
Lone Tree, CO

[Amazed]

Thank you, Mr. BD, for your caretaking. I, too, hope Fr. D will confess his sanctimony before God and his bretheren, and repents, before he gives sacrement again. If not, it would truly be a crime against God.

[RandomThoughts]

...grace has enabled the questions of what, why, who to remain active...

"Grace" in your case, Father D., is apparently equivalent to neurotic paranoia. How dare you assign to God the disgusting conspiracy theory you promote.

I am reminded that certain priests once asserted the earth was flat too. I'll try not to hold your asininity and theirs against the Catholic church as a whole.

[Charlie]

Rick, you run a great blog, always interesting, challenging, informative. You've made a difficult but wise decision here and I salute you for it. The 9/11 deniers have sown confusion among the weak-minded about a set of facts that are crystal clear: there is a global and continuing threat to the west by Islamic extremists, who were alone responsible for the attacks of 9/11. Period. Keep up the good work.

[tim aka The Godless Heathen]

OK, seriously, who here would’a thought the Father would get kicked off before me?

Man, I guess the Truthers are everywhere even amongst those that should know better. Boggles the mind.

A sad day here, Rick, that’s gott’a suck to have to do that.

And Barnhardt reads this blog!?!?! I’m floored. Love you Ann. If your ever in western NY and want to go shooting…or it’s ‘bring a heathen to church day‘…call me.

[Mark]

Thank you, Rick, for standing up for the truth, and not mumbling the multi-culti mantra of 'We all have a right to our opinions.' This so-called "Fr." D (have you ascertained that he is actually a priest? Seems odd that a man of G-d would spout such venomous lies) displays the worst of intellectual fallacies - stating that that which has happened could not have happened...and hiding behind academic credentials to do so. Well, I'm thankful to see the back of his sort; G-d forgives, but I will not forgive such evil.

[Locutisprime]

Well, here we go again. I seemed to have missed most of it. Every now and then, I seem to miss a few posts and bingo! Looks like I got the tale end of this one too. Tuned in a few minutes ago and saw 12 responses and thought "Damn! This must be a good one!"

And I was right.

i saw the thread this morning and didn't have time to read it.

Having now read the 'reviews?' I believe you made the right decision Rick.

[chuck aka xtnyoda]

Did he present that message to a congregation?

Wow. just. wow.

[Father D]

In Defense of Seeking the Truth Regarding 9/11

To Rick, Ann, and all of the others who have commented, I have to say, that I am astounded at your ability to read things that I did not say, and your certainty about things that you cannot possibly know. This gives a new meaning to the term, “blind certainty.”

I did not say that the muzlims were not involved. I did not say that the Bush and his administration were involved. I really only pointed the finger at one person, the person who controlled the physical property of the Twin Towers. He had just recently obtained his long term lease for $15 million, and insured himself such that at the end of it all, he reaped a return of $7 billion. By most standards, that is enough of a gain to warrant some suspicion right there.

My real concern, however, is the physical evidence that was ignored. Let me begin by saying that in addition to being a priest, I have a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and have many years experience in practice as a Registered Professional Engineer in two states. I do not approach technical matters in ignorance.

The buildings were certainly still standing 20 minutes or more after the initial impacts, so there is no question that it was the initial impact that took them down. The common argument is that it was the intense heat of burning jet fuel and building contents that brought them down. This simply wont wash. While it is true that steel weakens at elevated temperatures, it does not weaken that much at the temperatures of fires of this sort. It is the common experience of fire fighters the world over that STEEL FRAME BUILDINGS DO NOT FAIL IN FIRES. They just don’t. There is evidence from all over the world, from major fires every where, many much more intense than the WTC, that show that steel frame buildings do not fail in fires. Ann Barnhardt has particularly taken me to task on this point in her blog this morning, but she is simply misinformed. That is not surprising; she is a trader, not an engineer.

There should be major concern about the huge rush to remove all of the debris from the site, preventing a proper study of the site to determine what was actually there and a reconstruction of the event. There was a massive rush to remove all the steel, sending it to China to be melted down, thus forever removing any possibility of examining the physical members that had supported the towers. There were reports of molten metal at the lower sub-basement levels, but these were quickly removed or hidden from inspection so that this information could not be taken into account. There were independent analyses that found materials suggestive of the use of thermite and/or thermate, but this information was never was never addressed in the final report. There were hundreds of eyewitness accounts and video recordings that have been made available that contain apparent information, yet none of it has been addressed in the final report. The hot jet engine found on the sidewalk beside the WTC appears to be a plant because it is from the wrong manufacturer, not the brand of engine used in either of the planes involved. The airframes of the two planes involved are still listed as being in service with the airlines, but nobody can explain that. There are a host of unanswered questions.

On the purely technical side, let’s talk about the fact that the towers fell straight down. The tower design was based on an extremely massive central structural core that contained the elevators and other services, and a series of structural column around the outside, including again heavily reinforced corners. If you think that the structural collapse began with the damage due to the aircraft, you must concede that this damage was entirely on one side of the building; the aircraft could not possibly cut through the structural core of the building. That would introduce an asymmetry into the situation. The upper floors should begin to tilt toward the weakened side. Do you see that in any of the photographs? I do not. Why do they not slide to the side? Why does the tower fall straight down? It falls straight down because damage due to the aircraft is not the crippling factor leading to collapse of the tower.

There is a lot of discussion about the speed with which the buildings fell. If we drop a box to the floor, it fall with what are called “free fall conditions,” which is to say in the influence of gravity only. The time to fall depends only on the height of the fall and the value of the acceleration of gravity, h = (½) g t2 , where the symbols have the obvious meanings.

If we now interpose a “floor” of thickness T halfway above the actual floor, the problem is more complicated. The time to fall to the interposed floor is t1 , the time required to break the floor is t2, and the time to fall on down to the actual floor is t3. Then we have these relations:
h1 = (½) g t12
T = f(T)
h3 = (½) g t32
h = t1+f(T)+t3
T, the thickness of the interposed floor is not difficult to determine at all, but f(T) may be pretty difficult to determine accurately. What is known with certainty is that f(T) > 0 for all T>0. This simple mathematical model assumes that the entire falling assembly comes to rest each time a new floor is reached, pausing until that floor gives way. It can be argued that this is not the case, but it cannot be argued that the mass does not slow down. How much does it slow down?

The equations of this simple model pose some difficulty in solution, particularly because of the unknown nature of some of the functions involved. Even so, the model can be explored to some profit. Suppose that a time of fall of t = 8.3 seconds is assumed, with g = 32.174 ft/s2. This means that we are talking about a total fall of 1108 ft, in the ball park of the WTC towers without trying to match exact figures. Because we have assumed that the interposed extra floor is at the mid-level, this means that the fall times above and below (beginning from rest in each case) will be the same. As a first approximation, assume that we know nothing at all about T and f(T), the floor thickness and floor breaking time, and set them both to zero. When we do that the calculated results are

t1 = t3 =5.8689 sec, for a total fall time of t13 = 11.7379 sec. The free fall time is t = 8.3 sec

Thus, interposing just one floor, bringing the falling mass to rest one time, extends the time of fall substantially, something over three seconds. If we extend the calculation by assuming a floor thickness of 6 feet and a breaking time of 0.1 seconds, the total fall time is only slightly modified to t13 = 11.8062 sec. I leave it to anyone who may be interested to consider interposing more floors.

If you want to make the argument that the load does not stop but only slows down slightly, you must get into the momentum exchange arguments that are too complicated to present here. Once again, however, you cannot avoid the conclusion that the time to collapse should be substantially longer than the free fall time.

Ann Barnhardt observes that breaking steel beams make loud noises. In this she is quite correct. I have broken a fair number of beams in the laboratory, and they often release quite a bit of strain energy in acoustic form when they finally break. What they do not do, however, is emit bursts of light as can be seen in a number of photographs taken during the WTC event. They go bang, they often throw bits of steel, but they do not send out burst of flame and light that look like the firing of a pyrotechnic squib. In truth, while they are loud, they do not sound like bombs unless they are materials like cast iron. Steel, which is the building material, is a ductile material and it yields rather quietly up to extremely high strain rates. Only at the very last moment do you hear it when it finally goes, and that is not like a bomb.

There is a question about how the building could be prepared for a demolition. It is reported that a month or two prior to 9/11, the entire building was closed for some sort of “general maintenance.” All tenants were barred from the building for a period of several days while this was going on. This would have been an ideal time of a team of demolition experts, with good advance planning to come in and set the charges that would be needed to bring the building down. They had unrestricted access to the entire building, including elevator shafts, maintenance shafts, etc. for several days with detail building plans which had been pre-marked for charge locations. Not a difficult job for a motivated, professional demolition team.

It would not be necessary to locate the charges at the precise points where the planes would impact the buildings. The planes were simply a cover story; the demolition charges would do the real work. There would be no need to interconnect everything by wire. Short wires, with batteries, and radio firing controls would do the job. The usual way to demolish a building is from the bottom up, but a number of well known demolition experts around the world have testified that, on occasion, for good reasons, they have taken buildings down from the top to the bottom as was done with the WTC.

It is really not difficult to understand why muzlims, our sworn enemies, would rejoice and take full credit for a terror attack, even if they only played a bit part in it. It serves their purposes, it makes them look big in their own eyes, and they were mightily pleased with the result. That certainly does not mean that they did this on their own. Look how completely primitive those people are. Do you really think that they could organize and execute an attack such as this? I think they might drive two airplanes into a couple of our skyscrapers, but I do not think that is what brought the skyscrapers down. I thing that they were bit players, happy to step forward and take all of the curtain calls. They are that simple.

My last employment before I retired from full–time engineering was a position at a federal government laboratory. It taught me to fear and distrust the federal government more than any rattle snake, and I should add that I am from Texas. I was afforded the opportunity to see the government in action, up close and personal, and it was not a pretty sight. One of the things that I learned is that all of the federal laboratories are for sale, that is to say, when a contact is given to one of these labs, the end result is specified in the contract. The purpose of the “research” is to justify the pre–conceived statement at the beginning of the contract. They never fail to meet that contractual obligation, even when it requires falsifying data, ignoring facts, or whatever else may be involved. The labs are for sale.

The investigation of the WTC collapse was given to NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, once our premier government lab. I did not work at NIST, but I had occasion to visit NIST several times during the WTC investigation, and I discussed it with them They were having some difficulty getting the required results because the models and the data simply did not support that. They simply had to edit the input further so that the right results could be obtained. I recall seeing a piece of the WTC facade sitting in one of the buildings, and when I asked what testing they were doing on it they said, “nothing, it was just for photographs.” Eventually they did get the required result, although there are huge numbers of unanswered questions remaining in their report. NIST knows where their bread is buttered.

I am an old man, and my life experience indicates to me that for at least the last forty years, perhaps more, the standard mode of communication from the US government to the people has been to lie about most things. I do not want to suggest that they lie about everything, but I do not hesitate to say that I think that they lie about many things. Our administrations and our congresses have long seen themselves as a privileged class, a class given superior wisdom and the authority to rule over us because they know and understand things that are simply beyond our simple minds. The government agencies are home to countless people who look with contemp on ordinary Americans, the people they see as under their supervision in one form or another. We now have rule by oligarchy, and which party the oligarchy is flying is only a superficial difference.

If you are able to read everything that I have written here, and still go on your merry way undisturbed and fully believing in the US government, you had better pinch your arm to see if you are still alive. You seem to have reached the peace that passes all understanding.

I will not be posting anything more on this blog. God be with you, now and always.

Fr. D+

[Ann Barnhardt]

Fr. D., give it up and for the love of God man, and CONFESS YOUR SIN. You accused an innocent man of mass murder and scandalized your parishioners. You MUST confess your sin before offering Mass again.

The "squibs" you claim you saw were the exothermic chemical explosions caused by the molten aluminum from the planes interacting with gypsum and/or rust, creating a thermite reaction, which releases light as a byproduct. Chemistry much, Fr. D? Miss "that day" at engineering Ph.D. school?

Rick, if you email me and would like it, I have a great 13 page PDF that outlines all of the chemistry involved. You can post it if you like. It is a great reference for we the sane.

Muslims fly planes into buildings. Buildings burn, and fall down.

Larry Silverstein had nothing to do with it.

[allyHM]

Jolly good show, Rick. I can tell that you were dealing with the same outrage at the "truther" monster rearing its ugly head again that I was last night on FB. Had to delete a friend and remove myself from a group because of "truther" BS. My respect and agreement, sir.

[RandomThoughts]

I am an old man,

Tempting as it is to blame your obsessive conspiracy meanderings upon that, I will forbear.

If you are able to read everything that I have written here, and still go on your merry way undisturbed and fully believing in the US government, you had better pinch your arm to see if you are still alive. You seem to have reached the peace that passes all understanding. (bolding mine)

I'll forgive you the insanity of your 9/11 beliefs, but I am completely offended by the way you misuse scripture.

The "peace that passes all understanding" is a direct reference to Jesus filling our hearts and minds with God's peace ("And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus," Phillipians 4:7). That you sarcastically twist that scripture to mock the intellect of others says VOLUMES about the kind of person you really are.

God help those who look to you for any kind of spiritual leadership. God forgive you for the misuse of His Word, and your own arrogance. I'm sure He will if you but ask; I'm not God, and I want nothing more to do with you.

[Rick]

I've put up a follow-on post...

[hbeachrealist]

9/11 was an inside job. Fr. D is correct. World Trade Center 7 didn't just blow itself up. The US government has not shown us the video of what hit the Pentagon. Flight 93 just left a big hole in the ground; thus it was shot down. There were no dead bodies, no luggage, and only fragments of a plane; no large pieces.