You can paint a turd pink...

... it doesn't mean it'll taste like cotton candy.

The fact remains that although Governor Palin defies the conventional wisdom of what a conservative is "supposed" to look like, she still tows the Republican ideological line. So yes, Senator Obama had it right: a pig can wear lipstick, but it's still a pig.

By the way, isn't it funny how Senator McCain can use the same expression in reference to Senator Clinton (in the primaries re: HillaryCare) and come away from it clean? Anyway, no being petty. Not on this day.

Today is the 7th anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon, World Trade Center, and downing of United Airlines Flight 93. Two years ago I wrote at length over the matter but last year I said nothing. Let it not be said that I didn't mind the day and take a moment for pause and reflection, like I did today.

It's funny how time sometimes dims the past or exaggerates it... but not that day. I was 17 years old... and I can still remember everything as if today were September 12, 2001.

Sleep didn't come to me that night but for one hour. I remember being glued to CNN and MSNBC... while speculation ran wild as to who did it, why, and what the response was going to be. Journalism didn't exist that evening... it was all speculation and opinionizing. It laid the groundwork for the current standards of journalism on television.

There were many seeds sown on that day... seeds of hatred, seeds of anger, seeds of distrust, seeds of... practically everything. And those fruits have come to bear different results since that day. Sown were the seeds of two wars - three if one counts the War on Terror - and all two (or three) are still being fought to this day. Sown were the seeds of manipulation by those in power, preying upon the fears of the public that somewhere, somehow, terrorism was going to hit again at any given moment. There were people putting duct tape around their windows and door... trying to protect themselves.

Sadly, they had already been infected. Infected with fear, these people were driven to do any and everything that the government suggested to keep themselves safe from the spectre of terror.

We are told that the greatest remedy to terror, to tyranny, is freedom.

Where is our remedy?