What Did We Learn On the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11

• Try other days when you want to join the "mile high" club.  At least, that was the twitter rumor for the various alerts.

• That when football's opening day coincides with 9/11, the US Air Force sends A-10s for the flyovers since the F-15's and F-16's might have other things to do.  Maybe I am wrong to infer this, but the A-10's over the game in Baltimore were an unusual sight.  Maybe they just wanted a slower flyover?

• Football is once again very much like war.  We like to think we can predict outcomes (and some folks do pretty well at that), but we play the games rather than just simulate since the underdog often wins.  In war as well, the favorite often loses.

• More people complained about 9/11 coverage this year.  And that is what makes democracy great--the ability to complain without consequences.  Sure, we can be spoiled--other folks have much worse problems, even in this nasty economic period.  But the ability to complain without much repression is really the American way and that of the other democracies.  I certainly hope that democracy sprouts in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and elsewhere, even if it has short term costs for the foreign policies of other places.  But I am also realistic that not all regime change really  change the nature of the political system.  Sometimes, it is just about replacing one dude with another.  Time will tell if the changes of 2011 will significantly improve the lives of the folks who fought for them.