Ok...racists...fuck off. It's getting old. So you don't like Black people, you don't get along with Jewish people. It's the 21st fucking century. There is nothing wrong with them, you're the ones who are screwed up and wrong. DEAL WITH IT. Be a normal respectable human like the rest of us. You'd be surprised what you can learn from forigen cultures too, some of that stuff is good, you should get on it. Use that part of your brain that lets you have a heart. It's there for a specific purpose. USE IT.

You moody bipolar whiny overly emotional crybabies. I have zero, I repeat zero sympathy for you. So what if it's cloudy out? It's not a reason to be sad and whiny. If you really hate the world and your life that much, do us all a favor and kill yourself. Matter of fact, do it on national TV. It'll make TV fun for us all again, because frankly no one really gives a shit which celebrity is fat and what a bum from Nebraska is doin on a tropical island. We really don't care. We, as a people like the ambient noise that this shit creates.

The people who refuse to talk to others because of their political affiliation need to be beaten in the back of the head with a sharpened basbeball bat dipped in Arsneic. So I don't like republicans...BIG FUCKING DEAL. In the course of our friend,realtion, or family ship, it's not goint to matter as much as you all think it will who I support. Unless of course the next president decides to put us all on a rocket to Neptune...you shouldn't care what bureaucratic blowhard signs a bill that will give a 90 year old medication to get laid. If you don't want to talk to someone because they have a different political opnion then yours, or if you want to dislike that person I want you to find the nearest gabage disposer, shove your leg in it and turn it on.

All of you oeverly hyped up, stressed out people are annoying. So you can't afford to get more bling on your hummer...I hope you and your hummer go rolling down a hill in a big ball of flame. There are people in the gulf section of America who don'ty even have a home. Yes, thats right, America. Not Iraq, not South Africa, AMERICA. Helping others is indeed nice, but we need to help us right now. Sitting on our asses and disscussing things in committees...surprise...gets jack shit done. So put the pen down, stop gassing up your BMW and roll up your sleeves and do something.

If you have a job, or a title, you need to fufill said position and lead with a stong, firm, but respectful hand. You need people on your said and a diplomatic soloution to 95% of the problems you could face. If you can't do this you need to be tossed into a vat of sulfuric acid in front of your family.

Oh, and we live in a day in age where we have cell phones, regualr phones, email, IM, text messaging, snail mail, smoke signals, and cans with string. So when it comes to contacting someone...if you don't want to talk to someone, simply say that. Don't leave them hanging. It really makes you look like a complete and utter idiot. The "to busy excuse" doesn't fly any more either. AS noted just a few short words ago, we have many forms of communication nowadays. USE THEM.

This being said, Fuck all.

Here we are again. 4 years past now. 4 years and a lot has changed, but in many ways, a lot has not. 4 years I’ve been doing emails and rants and speeches with responses ranging from people telling me it's best to forget to people thankful that I still among those who care to remember. I do not dwell on this day, I merely seek to remind those who seem to have forgotten.
I won't stop doing these, and i'll tell you why. First of all, I am a creature of habit. I'm loyal to many things. And to me, this day is sacred. I feel it is important for people to remember and reflect. It shouldn't be shunned, avoided or forgotten. To many people, the day means many things. I don't plan what I write when I do these. This comes out of whatever is in my head, my heart, whatever. This is pure and raw. Laugh if you chose, cry if you chose, but all I ask when you see these is that you read, listen and think about it.
The day September 11th 2001 was much like the day today is supposed to be...weather wise anyway. Clear, warm, beautiful. Indian summer some call it.
If you've ever been to the World Trade Center site, or Ground Zero as it is now known, you'll see a variety of things. In an odd way, nothing has changed. Tourists flock to the site at the corner of Liberty and Church Streets and take pictures. Street peddlers offer various knockoff knickknacks that are overpriced. Businessmen and women rush to work and jab on their cell phones. New York City at its most normal.
Step a few feet more and you encounter a tall steel gate that appears to go on forever. Imagine if you will that this gate was not there. You find yourself in the heart of it. The spot where 2,749 people were lost. Right now, it seems to be a construction site. But if you move up a bit to the corner of Church and Vesey, You'll see what remains of a concrete stairwell, maybe 15 or 16 stairs left, battered and broken but still standing. Still standing after facing unimaginable heat, immense pressure from the tons and tons of steel that lay upon it. But still, it stands.
It stands as a solemn reminder of that day. Of the pain and of the heroism and of the hope. People, scared, terrified ran down those stairs and into the relative safety of the streets. People, scared, terrified ran up those stairs to get others out. These stairs may be gone in time, removed to move on with the rebuilding process, but these stairs will mean something, to me at least. Running to achieve the dream that is living your life to the fullest.
Running is something else that brings the day closer to home for me. Last September, I competed in my first Tunnel to Towers run. The run is in honor of Firefighter Stephen Siller. Stephen was a husband and father of 5. On September 11th, Stephen had just gotten off duty when he heard the news. He then ran from the through the Brooklyn Battery tunnel to the towers. He wasn't seen again. The run retraces his steps and benefits many children’s charities that Stephen supported and was a part of.
As you continue along Vesey Street, you’ll walk up a set of newly created steps along a walkway that is alongside the newly rebuilt World Trade Building 7. It is a very quiet area, something difficult to find among all the tourists and construction. If you stop about midway on this staircase, you will have a clear, unobstructed view of pretty much the entire site.
It's at this spot that it hits me. How much we have lost. Lost over the senseless teachings of a madman. But after the anger, I remember the hours and days following. The courage and hope and overwhelming will to not let this beat us. And it is then I feel an overwhelming sense of pride and hope. There was a spot on the West Side Highway, a little north of the site, where thousands of regular people camped out throughout the recovery process. They cheered and high fived every rescue worker who left that site. The spot was named "Point Thank You."
When I think of things like that, and the overwhelming generosity following that day, I get a sense of pride unlike any other. Pride in my city, pride in my country.
Those of you who know me at least a little, know how much I am looking forward to taking the written exam for the New York City Fire Department next year, and working for the department. Every firehouse in New York City has thier own indvidual logo, each one meaning something different, from an inside joke to something that honors a fallen member, every house has something different. These logos are displayed on everything from the sides of the trucks, to the Patches that the members wear on their gear.
There is a firehouse here on Staten Island, Ladder Company 79/Battalion 22. Their Patch features a bald eagle on it. The reason the eagle is a symbol for this nation, and perhaps that firehouse is that it is the bird least afraid of a storm, the bird strong enough to soar through and above it.
It is that kind of determination and courage that makes life good for all of us again. And it is with the word courage that I will end this rant. John Wayne once said, "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway."

I'm beyond exhuasted and i've written 3 Banner articles in the past week, so why am I writing now? Becasue I need to fill up time while i'm waiting to be appointed next FEMA boss. People seem to be either happy with the way the government is handiling the situation or blasting them. I'm not thrilled with the way people are being treated down there. Ya really gotta wonder what the deal is when we can send shitloads of aid to anywhere in the world but when parts of our own country get flooded, the government moesys in a week later with the help. But it's ok, because Micheal Brown is in charge of FEMA. Whats that? He got removed? Oh...well, i'm sure he's taking it well. Oh...he's drinking Margaritas you say? Hm...wonder what the people in Biloxi are drinking...oh thats right...NOTHING! because they died waiting for lard ass to get crews down there.

I remember seeing a story somwehere about a couple from New Mexico who drove to New Orleans with their swamp boat to rescue people. Then of course there is the New York contingent of FDNY and NYPD who went down there with "The Spirit of Louisiana", a rig donated by their residents after 9/11. This type of help in the fire service is commonly reffered to as mutual aid. In times like this, this is the best mutual aid imaginable.

Another good thing to come out of this is the shockingly excellent news coverage. As Jon Stewart said... "it's amazing to see that these people have legs." Be it Geraldo Rivera tearing up while holding a baby, Shepard Smith essentially telling Sean Hannity to fuck himself, Anderson Cooper giving a senator an ass whipping of a speech or my personal favorite, Channel 2's Lou Young helping people out of the water, the fact that the press is helping out more then certain other agencies is nothing short of amazing.

It's going to take years, perhaps even decades, but I have no doubt in my mind that New Orleans and the gulf coast will rise once again with a spirit only the United States of America can muster. And i'll gladly take a vacation down there.(I'll take a vacation damn near anywhere at this point.)

Lance Armstrong. People need to lay the fuck off the man. Someone tried suing him today cause he wouldn't help them open a bike shop. Then the steroid allegations. Listen to me, everyone. The man is amazing. He beat an illness in a way that no one else could. He did the unimaginable and won that race 7 times. 7 times. You know how hard it is to win it once? or even win a stage of it? 90% of the earths population couldn't do it and hes done it 7 times. He's been scrutinized and tested more times then I can count and people still send accusations his way. "He's doping." "He is using performance enhancing drugs." Fuck you. Admit that the man is great and is doing great things worldwide and be graceful in defeat you whiny stuck up fucktards. I'm fucking sick of it. Leave him alone.