9-11 Urban Legacy: Cities of Bollards

“It used to be that D.C. architecture consisted of graceful Georgetown mansions, neoclassical federal buildings — and, of course, the monuments. When the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts was founded in 1910 to guide Washington’s architectural development, it reviewed designs such as those of the Lincoln Memorial and the Federal Triangle. Over the seven years I’ve served on the commission, however, an increasing amount of time is spent discussing security-improvement projects: screening facilities, hardened gatehouses, Delta barriers, perimeter fences, and seemingly endless rows of bollards. We used to mock an earlier generation that peppered the U.S. capital with Civil War generals on horseback; now I wonder what future generations will make of our architectural legacy of crash-resistant walls and blast-proof glass.”

— Wittold Rybczynski, Meyerson professor of urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania.

Read more:

“The Blast-Proof City,” Wittold Rybczynski, Foreign Policy

“We Built DC Into an Urban Fortress After 9/11. And January 6 Proved It Was Penetrable.” Jane Recker, Washingtonian

“I Came, Eyesore, I Conquered,” Witold Rybczynski, Slate

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Trump Prepares National Emergency Declaration

After temporarily freeing the 800,000 hostages and temporarily reopening the federal government after six weeks of shutdown, President Donald Trump is said to be preparing a Declaration of National Emergency in case Congress doesn’t give him $5.7 billion for his border wall by Valentine’s Day. He’ll declare an emergency because of the grave threat of invasion by savage caravans of duct-tape-wielding rapists at the US-Mexico border. Funding for the wall will come from Mexico Trump’s daddy Deutsche Bank Russian oligarchs the loose change under the Pentagon‘s couch cushions, and money slated for 50 disaster relief projects including some in Texas and Florida, states that voted for Trump in 2016. The man is a political genius.

More:

“Legal and practical hurdles would await Trump emergency declaration,” Wesley Morgan, Politico

“A ‘National Emergency’ Is Not An Option To Save Trump From Failure,” Elie Mystal, Above the Law

“The US border situation isn’t a national emergency, Pentagon officials tell Congress,” Heather Timmons, Quartz

Updates:

“‘I want him to declare an emergency’: Eric Trump urges his father to use executive power to build a border wall,” Timothy Bella, Washington Post

“Trump: ‘Good Chance’ I’ll Declare National Emergency for Border Wall,” Daily Beast

“Trump teases national emergency declaration could come during SOTU,” John T. Bennett, Roll Call

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Self-Defense

Illustrator Mark Fiore has summarized the recent National Rifle Association annual meeting:

Boo! No Trick or Treat for Sex Offenders.

Lights out for registered sex offenders this weekend. They’re forbidden from displaying Halloween decorations, keeping the porch light on, or handing out candy to neighborhood trick-or-treaters.

Police in Maryland, California, Texas, Long Island, Louisiana,  Georgia,  Indiana, and elsewhere will spend Halloween night ignoring the riotous hordes of drunks careening down streets and sidewalks, the gangs of teenage arsonists, and other seasonal threats in order to babysit former offenders. Of course, it’s worth it if it keeps our children out of danger.

But it doesn’t. Why? Because there is no evidence of a threat.

 A comprehensive study released last year shows that when it comes to nonfamilial sex crimes against children, Halloween is just another day. “These findings raise questions about the wisdom of diverting law enforcement resources to attend to a problem that does not appear to exist,” conclude the researchers.

The real Halloween threat to kids? Getting hit by cars.

 

 

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Mice With Human Brains!

 

Christine O’Donnell, Delaware Republican Senate candidate, meat-eater, and recovering witch, is also a scientific expert. In 2007 she reported on genetic engineering on Fox News:

“American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains.”

Where the heck did that come from? Michael Fumento presents this hypothesis:

Christine O’Donnell Foils Commie Invasion!

Thank God Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell used her secret classified knowledge to stave off a Chinese Communist attack on the USA the last time she ran for the U.S. Senate, back in 2006. We don’t know exactly how she discovered that the heathen hordes were poised to pounce, but she did. How can we be sure? Because the candidate said so, and she never lies.

That was 2006, and China’s “carefully thought out and strategic plan to take over America” never materialized. How did Christine O’Donnell avert the Asian invasion? Was it … witchcraft?

Whatever. A grateful nation thanks you, Ms. O’Donnell.

 

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Sharron Angle Defends USA From Muslim Invasion!

“… we’re talking about a militant terrorist situation, which I believe it isn’t a widespread thing, but it is enough that we need to address, and we have been addressing it.”

“My thoughts are these, first of all, Dearborn, Michigan, and Frankford, Texas are on American soil, and under constitutional law. Not Sharia law. And I don’t know how that happened in the United States. It seems to me there is something fundamentally wrong with allowing a foreign system of law to even take hold in any municipality or government situation in our United States.”
— Sharron Angle, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate.

Patriotic Poster

Uncle Sam doesn’t like scaredy-cats. Salon’s Andrew Leonard found this patriotic poster floating around the Web.

 Update: Now a Tee Shirt. Is this a great country, or what?

 

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Refudiate

 Get the big picture:

“A Mosque Maligned,” Robert Wright, New York Times.

“Protesting the mosque: A post Founding Fathers America,” Jonathan Hayden, Open Salon.

 

Image (based on a WWI poster) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

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Terrorist Bomber Babies!

Pregnant terrorists are infiltrating America to give birth to baby bombers, reports Congressman Louie Gohmert (R, TX-1). Mr. Gohmert, ranking Republican on the subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, announced this on the House floor: