The Hundred Days

Fifty years of world war. Ten years of slumber. And now, America awakes

The fire at ground zero burned for exactly 100 days, finally going out on Dec. 19. But not before it forged a new America. The old America made its final appearance just hours before the planes hit, when the Sept. 11 New York Times featured a rather wistful portrait of American terrorist Bill Ayers. A former member of the Weather Underground who claimed credit for a string of bombings (including the Pentagon in 1972), Ayers was reminiscing with the Times reporter about the various romances of his revolutionary days, especially his "love affair with explosives." "Even today," wrote the Times, "he...

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