...by getting on an airplane.

I'm flying from SFO down to LAX this morning. I expect that I'll cheat death and whatever perverse form of Allah our enemies worship once again. More posting later.

[Update at 11 AM PDT]

Landed safely and am back home, as expected.

Up yours, Islamonazis...

My boss was due to get on a plane SFO to LAX on September 10 2001, they diverted them off the runway due to a bomb scare. In the end he got his luggage back and decided it would be easier to fly on the 6.30am flight on 9-11-2001. Needless to say that by that time the airspace in CA was locked down tight with the rest of the country.

Both my boss and co-worker lost friends in the attack, either on the planes or in the buildings and ultimately a month later my company got shut down as a direct result. Looking back, its been a pretty busy 2 years but I fear the real affects are still some way off.

I flew back to Dallas from Baltimore BWI yesterday afternoon. Upon entering the airport with my rental SUV I was waved over for vehicle inspection. The trooper asked me to open the hatch but I didn't even know how to do that. The airport was calm but you could feel the atmosphere of anticipating the next day and pick up quiet conversations about 9/11. In retrospect, I wish I had booked for Thursday, as a token to our lost brothers and sisters.

I was a mile from the Pentagon when it was hit that September morning two years ago. I have published elsewhere my experiences there as well as my drive back home across a shocked and angry country; I won't detail them here. I have been reading some of the memorials and postings of other folks and mine is this: I see that Americans are more worried about the economy now than another terrorist attack. Some commentators think this is bad, that we are losing our focus on the war on terror. I disagree: we win by growing our economy. And getting on a commercial airliner helps. Yes enduring the screeners is miserable and I don't like it, but continuing to travel is a wonderful way to say "Up yours!" to terrorists. Since nuking them is right out, we can help defeat 'em with laughter and a healthy bank account.
I live in Mojave, California, and as I type this I can see from where I sit a (large number) of stored airplanes, mostly Boeing products, painted with many different airliner logos. They weren't here two years ago. While the airport appreciates the rent revenue, we'd much rather use that land for other things, such as expanding our nascent spaceport.
So part of my 9/11 memorial is to urge people to take a trip on a scheduled airline and get those planes back in the air where they belong, making money, strengthening the economy and showing those skulking hatefilled cowards that we are not afraid of them.