Noonan Alert: Noonan Could Have Prevented 9/11, But Didn't

Peggy's back with a piece entitled Janet Jackson and the Frog. Honest.

It's a busy day at HQ, so we can't devote the time we would like to this; you'll just have to read Peggy's column to learn her thoughts on the Tit that Stopped the World.

But here is one item. She begins her essay on cultural decadence with a remembrance of the taping of a Michael Jackson TV special on Sept. 8, 2001--the one with very special guests Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Marlon Brando and Whitney Houston.

Later, as we got into a cab, we said nothing. It was odd to go from such sound to such silence. But we were both pondering.

It wasn't that any individual moment during the evening was so stunningly bizarre. (Mr. Brando, for instance, was only as bizarre as Brando is.) It was that taken as a whole the night yielded an unmistakable sense of decay and disorder. "I feel like we just witnessed the end of our culture," I said.

"We are," he said. "It's a freak show now. The whole thing, it's just a freak show."

Two-and-a-half days later came 9/11 and the ending of a world. When my friend and I talked again he said, "Remember that night? You could see it coming then."

One more time.

An observant person could have foretold the hijacking of four planes, the damage to the Pentagon and the destruction of the Trade Centers through the admittedly schlocky performance of Michael & Friends.

Which begs a question.

If Peggy saw it coming....