well, 3 years now from 9/11..........and the beginnings of the mega-spurious "war on terror" (and is the world any safer? i haven't noticed if so). i don't really have to rehearse the usual pinko-lily livered-appeasing arguments about this event. i just remember the day; i was at work in my old job, making awards for the already awarded and overly congratulated. or worse, making awards bearing new titles for people in lieu of a proper pay deal or sensible working hours....but (and i'm not joking here) i remember myself and my boss listening to the whole thing as it happened on the radio, and thinking "well, they had it coming". so did my boss.

i remember as well expressing this view to one of our co-workers when he came in from the pub, and he said "where the fuck are you from then?" this struck me as pretty chilling at the time- as if there were lines already drawn. i'm not from new york, or even america; and neither is he. we are both from london. so why should he feel the whole thing was an attack on him, and i didn't? i don't know. i think that sadly the question "where you from, then?" has acquired unpleasant undertones now- when asked by a tabloid journalist, policeman, or immigration officer. the lines have been drawn. incorrectly.

the hijackers were our own. they were not afghani peasants, they were not half starved and illiterate. they were educated here. this was (or is) not an alien threat. london has, and will (i hope) thrive on the influx of people from the rest of the world, we always have. it is not necessary to start interning people, denying them citizenship or human rights. the hijackers understood the power of the image, even if they profess an iconoclastic religion. the two burning, collapsing towers  were as hollywood as you could get. i seem to remember a newsnight report that apparently another target was considered: a nuclear power plant further north. this was dismissed as "too extreme". (i'm sorry if i could find a link to the newsnight story i would put it here). finding that target too extreme tells us something: first, that these people were not remorseless (?) or better, indiscriminate, killers- or not entirely. destroying a nuclear power plant would kill, over time, more than the 3000 in the twin towers, and, physically, have a longer legacy. i think that the main point, apart from trying to create what is apparently called a "proportionate response", was choosing what was most cinematic. people dying slowly of radiation sickness and cancers is nowhere as cinematic. the hijackers knew the culture.

the hijacking, and destruction of the twin towers was an evil act, in the same way many acts of war that target civilians are an evil act. by the way, i notice that the pentagon attack does not recieve so much publicity, is this because in the end it is accepted as a "legitimate" military target? i think it is, if we are going to consider legitimate contexts in which to kill people; which the pentagon was engaged in. it was an evil act: but it should not be dismissed as an act of evil. in the same way that perhaps some elements in the american and britsh administrations really thought they were engaged in a humanitarian act in ridding iraq of saddam, and indiscriminately slaughtering as they went about it.

 an act of evil is something that is simply beyond understanding (and a-historical) and just an act of badness, period. no rhyme or reason. for example: "they" just "they hate our freedoms". that's both an insult to those who were killed, and an insult to those who killed them. it didn't come from nowhere.

i'm boring myself now- so i'll just ask: who feels safer now?

and lastly,  when the IRA were killing civilians in the UK in the '70's and '80's (not that i didn't have sympathy to a certain extent with their cause, though not with the methods), the biggest contributions to their coffers came from the USA. but anyway, they were bombing london, and killing people, but the reaction of the state here to stuff that actually had happened (though illiberal) is nothing compared to the reaction to a supposed threat to this country now. i wonder why, i don't know, i just wonder.

i don't know if london has anything like this: http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,4029,1299449,00.html i know that we have tunnels for the tube, sewers etc. but caves of that size?

"since 1955, for security reasons, it has been an offence to "penetrate into or circulate within" the rest of the network."

security reasons is such a vague justification for a prohibition like that (i know, its one that is used all the time, even more these days). but it seems intuitively correct that the authorities would want to expunge or at least quarantine the subterranean city. whether existing in the mind or in actuality, the other, underground city cannot be efficiently policed.

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/g/gematria.html

i have an idea for an internet project- using the anagram programme. type a search into google, take the title of the first result and anagrammatise(?) it - then put the first or best result from that back into google, and see what you get. the important thing is to regard all results gained thereby as relevant to your initial search, as in belonging to the same area of knowledge- even if they deal with animal husbandry and you initially wanted to know about galoshes (well, probably not too big a step in that case; but any way, try it........) i'm just about to

it really does it! i entered the last sentence there; "lets take "war on terror" as the starting point here, not the alphabet."

and it's working out all the permutations (could take a while though). so an entire book -or blog- could be fed in to see what else was there.....numerical values -therefore efficacy in spelling the name of god-

alright the "traditions" i've been mentioning are kabbalism, but i dont want to get in an argument with madonna about the whole thing- numerical values will be the same: therefore has equivalent "weight"; also words that rhyme do as well. 

well, it was telling me that it would take 100hours to complete- so i stopped it. i'm sure many pearls of wisdom were expunged by this..........not

" Rearranging the letters of 'ethical foreign policy' (remember that one?)gives:

"Fine, logical hypocrite."
"Hypocritic, agile felon."
"Icily perfect hooligan."
"Choleric of genial pity."
"Cool if creepily hating."
"Oily if lethargic ponce."
"Loathing of icily creep." "

and the best words generated are.........."necrophiliac", "herpetology", "lonely heart" and "eye-catching"

this could be seriously addictive.......

some traditions consider anagrams to have the equivalent meaning (or weight, rather) as the original statement or word. this is because every letter has a numerical value, therefore different words or phrases using the same letters would have the same numerical value. so in a certain sense, "Hypocritic, agile felon." has the same value (or weight) as "ethical foreign policy".

it's like a subterranean text, that goes on below and around the authorised (by whom?) one. anagrams create echoes between them. if the layers of echoes become dense enough it becomes a commentary. after all, the mutants -anagrams- were literally made out of the original phrase- it must have been there somehow all along. the fact that all words are made out of the same 26 signs is here irrelevant, lets take "war on terror" as the starting point here, not the alphabet.

http://www.anagramgenius.com/

you can download a free trial version of this software at the link above: it will create anagrams for any english word or phrase......

and it gives you a report like this:

"Rearranging the letters of 'the festival of the supreme being' gives:

"The offensive blighter amputees."
"Loveshaft benefits huge emptier."
"Feverous, feeblish, tempting hate."
"Feeble if the stumpiest hangover."
"Vehement self-hate if super bigot."
"Vehement, beastliest, huge ripoff."
"Feeblish amputees frighten vote."
"I am the vengeful frost-bite sheep."

there were many more, but these were the best........and there is also a list of the longest words generated: "repetitiveness", "reputationless" "genital herpes" and "rogue elephant" amongst many others.

"Rearranging the letters of 'war on terror' gives:

"Wart on error."
"Rear worn rot."
"Rear torn row."
"Want or error."
"Rat own error."
"No wart error."
"Rat or now err."
"Rent roar row." "

fucking great, it is!