Peerless (and 3 million others) remember 9/11

A brief apology for not writing in almost a week (more on that next time). With that out of the way, lets discuss today's comedy of errors.

As if Mondays aren't bad enough on their own merit.  Peerless awoke to news of a Health Emergency concerning Swine Flu in Mexico and 8 students in NYC coming down with it from a trip to Cancun over their Spring Break.  With the various government agencies all verklempt over what to do and how to do it, it made for an interesting morning, if not just outright depressing.

Then, around 10:15, myself and the rest of the trading floor are told to evacuate the building IMMEDIATELY as there is an emergency situation developing.  Everyone rushes out of the building to see a 747 Buzzing the Statue of Liberty and being trailed by 2 F-16 fighter jets.  The first buzzword people think of is Hijacking.  Many of the people I work with are 9/11 survivors and just the thought of a repeat attack has many trembling.  

It turns out the 747 was being used for an Air Force promotional film and, in fact, was one of the planes that comprise Air Force 1.  Furthermore, the wizards at the FAA didn't tell the NYC government that they were going to be filming a promotional video so everyone from normal people to the Police had no idea what was happening.  So, many people were needlessly evacuated from office buildings downtown and the Stock market even took a brief hit because of the panic.  

You really just have to love the FAA and Homeland Security.  Since 9/11, people have been told to report anything that seems suspicious.  While this thought might not occur to government bureaucrats, the sight of a 747 flying 200 feet over lower manhattan in the general vicinity of the statue of liberty would tend to freak out about 99.99% of the population.

At least Homeland Security is consistent.  They fail to warn us of actual terror attacks as well as events that are staged.  It is totally ok to close down an airport because someone accidentally went through a metal detector without removing their shoes but not enough to warn people about a civilian airliner that will be flying close enough to hit a building as part of a photo op.

On a more mundane note, we went back to work about 30 min after the evacuation and the market was rather boring.  Then again, it was going to be hard to top the events that had took place that morning.  Perhaps if Jack Bauer from "24" showed up and started mumbling about "getting CTU on the phone" it could have gotten better.

Peerless can't wait to see the NY Post tomorrow.