Before

The summer of 2001 was spent searching for Chandra Levy, mourning Mr. Belvedere, and pardoning Microsoft. But on the second Tuesday of September, a mere twenty months after widespread wisecracks the world might end on Y2K, the world did.

Now it's almost impossible to put yourself in a September 10th mindset. I've been reading through The New York Times from the morning of the attacks to see what was happening the day everything changed. (Note: Some links require TimesSelect password.)

+Senator Joe Biden attacks President Bush on Missile Defense
"Mr. Biden has fastened onto missile defense as the centerpiece of his critique of Bush foreign policy. In part, that is because the system is almost the sole focus of the administration's foreign policy... 'Are we willing to end four decades of arms control agreements, and go it alone, a kind of bully nation, sometimes a little wrongheaded, but ready to make unilateral decisions in what we perceive to be our self-interest?' Mr. Biden said in his speech at the National Press Club."

+Taliban Suicide Bombers Target Deposed Afghan Leaders
"If the would-be assassins were indeed Arabs, as the United Front asserted, the fact would lend credibility to those who contend that foreigners, including Osama bin Laden, are playing an ever bigger decision-making role among the Taliban."

+The Lasting Effects of Bullying
"A new Australian study has found that adolescents who are bullied, especially girls, are more likely to develop emotional problems."

+Michael Jordan to Unretire (Again)?
"Jordan is either getting ready to return to the N.B.A. at the age of 38 or he is setting up the sports world for a letdown of legendary proportion. Either way, the drama builds. Speaking with three reporters, Jordan said he was less than 10 days away from a news conference in Washington announcing his decision."

+UN Lifts Arms Ban on Yugoslavia
"The United Nations Security Council acted unanimously to end the arms embargo against Yugoslavia, the last remaining international sanction imposed in 1998 in an effort to stop the Serbian campaign against Albanians in Kosovo."

+Broncos Win Game, Lose Receiver
"The New York Giants did not upset the festive Denver atmosphere as the Broncos christened their noisy new home with a loud and thorough 31-20 rout. The game's outcome seem to hinge on a gruesome injury to Denver's Pro Bowl wide receiver Ed McCaffrey, who broke his lower left leg early in the third quarter."

+Disco Near Auschwitz to Close
"The owner of a building now used as a disco but once a tannery where Nazis sorted the luggage and clothes of Jews at Auschwitz said he would not renew the club's lease when it expires in November."

+U.S. Blacklists Paramilitaries in Colombia
"Being put on the State Department list of terrorist groups means that financial support for the organization is illegal. The action also makes it easier for the United States to seize assets, an important factor because investigators here estimate that the paramilitary groups have hundreds of millions of dollars in foreign bank accounts."

+Thomas Friedman on Terror in Israel
"You drive south...and there is another long concrete wall blocking snipers from hitting Gilo, but also sealing in Gilo. There are Hebrew posters all over this wall that read: 'The New Middle East.' Some Israeli coffee shops now have security guards at the door to deter suicide bombers."

+New York Teacher Charged in 1971 Highjacking
"Thirty years after a black-power revolutionary hijacked a jetliner from Ontario to Cuba and disappeared, Canadian and federal authorities matched the fingerprints he left on a can of ginger ale in the airplane with those of a teacher in Westchester County and charged the teacher with the crime yesterday."