You know that cold unreal feeling you get, the sense of blood slowing down in your veins, while invisible needles prickle your skin.  It HAD to be an accident, didn’t it?  But how does a highly trained airline pilot fail to miss an entire building, one of the tallest in the world?

And then it happened again.

I stayed on the phone that day, an appliance I generally despise, with Ted and with my mother, now 1000 miles away…on a day when you really need a hug from your mom.  We watched the coverage expand to include the Pentagon, and finally a field in Pennsylvania.  

To this day I cannot read or watch anything to do with that last flight.  The selflessness of the passengers, knowing they were never getting out of that situation alive.  I still cannot make myself go through that again, though I would someday like to visit that field.

I likewise cannot look at the images, the people choosing a falling death over a burning one, the cops, the firefighters, the regular everyday citizens who all stood up and did whatever needed doing for the living and the dead.  The pain is still there, like a poorly healed wound.  Pick at it and it begins to bleed again.

So, yeah, I’m still angry.  We were blooded, hard, and we blooded back.  Which is the only thing the people who did the blooding would understand.  They’re not interested in diplomacy, trade agreements, anything that would better the lives of their people…they just want more blood.  They still get it, in dribs and drabs, from our military on the ground in their countries, but they pay and pay hard for the privelege, and eventually, they will run out of coin.  

So, remember what they did, and remember the fallen.

Others:

• Remembering Not to Forget 9/11

I have nothing to add, his actions speak with more beauty and emotion than any mere words I might be able to conjure.

The short story, a science teacher from a not-so-wealthy school, wants to get his kids interested in science. His idea, take an issue even kids are aware of (the rising cost of fuel), and instead of preaching of the evils of Exxon or thumping for corn Ethanol, he introduced the kids to an alternative to both: Bio-Diesel from Algae. And to prove it works, one of the kids got his dad to donate a diesel VW van for an experiment that involves using the fuel the class made to drive to the Sears Tower and back.

He used a creative way to call attention to an issue, and instead of just prostelizing, he showed the kids how to use science and creativity to find a solution to a problem through the sweat of their own brow.

We need more teachers like this.

Mr. Losh, you sir, are our hero of the day.

20-year old Samuel Huffman pulled 82-year old Marguerite Jones from train tracks at a Lodi crossing mere moments before she would have been struck and killed by an oncoming train.

According to Jones, she was crossing the Union Pacific railroad tracks on Locust Street when her motorized wheelchair tipped over, causing her to fall onto the tracks.

Ok, where were the hey-stupid-a-train-is-coming barricade arms?  Did Granny drive around them?  Did Granny have a deathwish?  Whatever the case, Hero Boy, with his nards of Damascus steel, snatched her from the Wheels of Doom with about three feet to spare:

The train passed so close that the engineer believed it had struck them, and stopped the train. A Lodi police lieutenant was nearby and witnessed the near-miss, and authorities said the train missed Samuel and Marguerite by three feet.

Good on ya, boy.

With an out-of-control car bearing down, Joseph Richardson grabbed his 4-year-old daughter and held her up out of harm’s way.

It was his last act — and one that apparently saved his daughter’s life.

Richardson, a 39-year-old father of three, was killed Monday evening by the car, driven by a man who police say was drunk.

All honor to your memory, sir.  May Vallhalla welcome you with open arms.

Paramedics say the infant, believed to be only 12 hours old, was sleeping quietly amidst the trash. She was breathing and her umbilical cord was still attached.

Officials believe she had been in the trash bin most of the night. Her core body temperature was 87.5 degrees and would have not survived much longer.

The mother, found in a nearby apartment, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.  And, one hopes, will soon have her baby-making apparatus removed through the nearest available orifice.

A West Palm Beach man pulled out a gun in an argument with two supermarket managers, who then whipped out their own guns, police said Tuesday.

The man fired into the store and at one of the managers, but no one was injured, police said.

I would like to point out, for the benefit of the PSH-ers out there, that neither of the properly-licensed individuals fired a single shot.

Grant fired three shots into the store, which had several customers inside, according to authorities.

Hernandez yelled at Grant to drop the gun.

Instead, Grant got behind a car and pointed his gun. He shot again, this time at Hernandez, police said.

Hernandez did not return fire, police said.

But he would have been well within his rights to do so.  I suppose the “fear for your life” feeling kind of subsides a bit when your opponent has a demonstrated inability to strike the capacious exterior of a cow byre.

Kieta is typically at work on Mondays but had taken the day off from his job with the federal government. So he was home when a man entered his Eastside residence in the 3100 block of Richardt Avenue about 9 a.m.

“We have a little poodle-like dog. It was barking and barking,” Kieta said. “I opened the door and just ran into him.”

Kieta, 49, who is legally blind, said he was the Kentucky high school wrestling champ for the 145-pound division in 1976. He used his skills and other self-defense tactics learned from his father to subdue the intruder.

“I had him pinned in the laundry room and just kept pummeling,” Kieta said, describing the pounding he gave the 25-year-old arrested by police.

Kieta punched, kicked and grappled until the suspect became disoriented. Kieta said he grabbed him by the belt and dragged him into the kitchen. Kieta then found a kitchen knife and held it at the man’s throat.

Now there’s a story you just don’t want to be telling in stir.  Man, you got your arse handed to you by a blind dude! Yep, you’d be the belle of the ball after that tale.

A Valley mother threw her three children out a window and into the arms of a rescuer in an early-morning apartment fire that destroyed four units.

The man not only caught the kids, but did so whilst holding his own 6 month old child.

Very well done, ma’am and sir.