TomPaine.com Stories

9/11 and the Bottom Line

Numerous ideas have emerged for the cause of 9/11 and the loss of so many lives: failed mid-east policies, the US was not prepared, no warning from the intelligence community, etc. One aspect that has not been fully…

Toward a More Perfect Union


The profile image of a neatly dressed young New York
businessman giving his reaction to the first 9/11
attack on the World Trade Center is permanently
trapped in the world mind. Hunching forward, he frames
the lower left…

Did Gary Condit have anything to do with the
disappearance of Chandra Levy? The tax cuts, the
education bill, social security, the rising costs of
prescription drugs, whatever happened to all these
issues that had us on the edge of our seats? The…

Swallowing, looking up, I nearly drove off of the road. I was nowhere near Manhattan on that day, although that was where I was supposed to be. I happened to be in Boston going to work and I was numb. The dust was settling and I felt my Freedoms…

"September 11 - the death knell of mankind! Civilization at a complete
dead end! Let's just not kid ourselves that THEY (the terrorists and
their accomplices) are wild beasts in human form while we are white and
fluffy. ""September 11"" took place…

"Toward A More Perfect Union"

I strongly believe 9/11 was a wake up call for all
Americans. This showed us how lucky we are to live in
a country that gives us the freedom to have the the
Bill of Rights and a Constitution. We have greatly
learned to…

While the political class fights over the mechanics of Homeland Security, few have had the courage to ask - why are we now calling ourselves a Homeland?

With the new Department of Homeland Security poised to devour most of the Executive Branch as we…

Toward A More Perfect Union


First, democratic principle was destroyed in the 2000 fuzzy election which shoved George Bush into the White House. If a Democrat were president, we might've gotten some real political and economic reform. Bush Baby was…

Western wealth without western values--that's what half a century of
American demand for Mideast oil has bestowed upon the region. We've paid for
all that oil once in cash, and once now in American lives--3,033 of them
last September 11th. Unless we…

Toward a More Perfect Union: Lessons Learned - Or Not

Events of September 11, 2001, were not the result of an imperfect union. They were caused by imperfect people whose goal is to destroy our confidence in who we are, and what we do. The…

Our wake up call from the 9/11 attacks was belated.
Only now do we ponder the full extent of threats to
freedom. Yes, we were indeed assaulted by heinous
terrorists. Yet our government has since finished
where Bin Laden left off.

The Department of…

"9-11 Submission","A Day Unlike Any Other

It was the best of days, it was the worst of days. It was a day which dawned
under a brilliant blue sky, so bright and clear that it stretched to the
heavens, it was a day which ended with a setting sun…

Toward A More Perfect Union: Lessons Learned - Or Not - Since 9/11


How will September 11, 2001 be remembered in the years to come? As the beginning of the end? As one more day that woke us up for a while until we drifted back to sleep? Or could it…

When the World Trade Center fell to two kamikaze jet liner impacts, we were told that ""Everything is different."" I say nothing is different, especially our inability to acknowledge or learn from our mistakes. We proclaim our support for Ariel…

Toward a More Perfect Union: Lessons Not Learned since 9/11


Callously deleting from memory failed states like hungry Afghanistan and its demonic Taliban, the world's sole superpower rhapsodized a new millennium with renewed declarations to lead but…

Toward a More Perfect Union: Failure to Ask the Right Question and to Answer It

The well coordinated terrorist attacks of 9/11/01 occurred because a group of men hated the United States enough to give their lives to hurt us. Following the attacks,…

If 9/11 was a wake-up call, why are we as a nation still asleep and dreaming
that the fear industry (Homeland Security, Airport Security, Militarized
Security, invading poor countries in the name of our Security) will
protect us? Why does much of the…

"Agenda Interrupted "

Important or Not?

What happen to the issues of social security and Tax
Bill?Are they not important now? Were they ever
important enough to want to come back and mend them?

The problem about social security to me is an…

"Toward a More Perfect Union","Living in Rome
Living in Rome, you could be forgiven
For forgetting your country is at war.
You could be forgiven for believing
That while you might be inconvenienced by that war,
Most likely you wont,
And that while…

On 9/11 when the smoke cleared our eyes were
opened to the frightening truth. We are vulnerable as
a country as any. This nation is no where near
invincible, and now we live in fear of a future
attack. The people responsible for these actions not…