9/11+5

Earl's right. No snark today...or at least, I promise to try hard. Even though I am enraged at those who are trying to make political capital from a day of national remembrance. Or even worse, espousing inflammatory conspiracy theories, in my opinion as much a part of the problem as any extremist Imam's hate-speech, as the stalwarts of FrontPage Mag managed today. Today should be about respect and remembering, not recriminations from either side of the partisan divide. Tomorrow is soon enough for the latter, dontcha think?

Instead, I will point you towards the BBC's excellent "Five Years On" collection of reports and articles. Make sure you check out their "the aftermath in statistics" page - graphs showing the rise in anti-Moslem hate crimes, the $50bn a year rise in defense spending and the falling mentions of Osama in news stories.

I'm also going to make special mention of the report on how my native land, Scotland, has marked the occasion.

Firefighters and police officers who died in the 9/11 attacks on New York have been remembered at a memorial service in Glasgow.
Tributes were paid at Old Cathcart Parish Church to 343 firefighters and 37 Port Authority Police Officers who lost their lives.

Charity volunteers from Glasgow the Caring City project also attended.

The group has provided holidays in Scotland to about 50 children who lost their fathers in the attack.

Lastly, the BBC, like FrontPage, has assembled a cast of stalwarts to assess the differences in the world now that we are five years on. Compare and contrast to your heart's content. I'm taking the rest of the day off from blogging - back tomorrow.