It’s been almost 12 years since that awful day. On Friday, construction workers in New York City, finally topped off the new One World Trade Center or ‘Freedom Tower’ with a spire making it 1,776 feet tall, symbolizing the year America was born. By adding the spire, One World Trade Center became the 3rd tallest building in the world, and the biggest in the western hemisphere.

Awesome. Beautiful.

Here’s a really great closeup video of the Spire being put atop the Freedom Tower.

It’s taken a long time to get to this point. Ground was actually broken on the site on July 4, 2004, but construction got bogged down in disputes between owners, business interests and politicians. And of course there was this travesty controversy. There’s also been the drum-beat concerns by the pacifists that rebuilding the World Trade Center at “Ground Zero,” might make for a tempting terrorist target.

Eff the terrorists.

“We are not going to just build low in the face of a war against terror,” then-Gov. George Pataki said in 2006.

If it had been left up to me to decide, I would have rebuilt the Twin Towers in the same spot, even taller. But it wasn’t my decision. On Friday, Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son died after responding to the attacks, watched from his office at the nearby 9/11 Tribute Center, which he co-founded, as workers secured the spire.

“The building looks spectacular .… I’m looking forward to the day when the cranes come down and they light the spire at night,” he told the Associated Press. “It’s supposed to be a very moving experience.”

The Port Authority said the LED-powered light would be activated in the next few months and the tower is scheduled to open next year. Looking back at all we’ve been through as a country since 9/11, this is long soooo overdue. Suck it Al-Qaeda.

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Great Weekend Blog Reading Links!

Teach at Pirate’s Cove is blogging about “Immigration Bill Mandates Biometric Information On All Adult Americans.” It’s a great post. Go check it out.

The Other McCain has up a bunch of great blog posts including this one by Smitty: “#JayCarneyExcuses Don’t Make Me Give You The Full Jessup Again.” 🙂

ST at Sister Toldjah has up a post on “Feel Good story of the day: One World Trade Center makes it to 1776 feet (VIDEO).” And yeah, it’s awesome.

Professor Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has up a terrific post today on “IRS anti-Tea Party scandal gets real — senior IRS officials aware of targeting.”

Gay Patriot is asking “Has Benghazi Scandal Finally Broken Through?” We’ve been waiting for this.

Have you been to Acting School with Nick Searcy? You need to go now! Don’t forget to “Subscribe” because it’s awesome. 🙂

Emily at NakedDC has a blog post up on “The immigration bill is actually recording your selfies, America.”

Dana at The First Street Journal has up a really good post called “The Test.” I like it a lot — go read it.

Crush over at Blackfive has a terrific post up called “Expendable.” Make sure you read the comments, too.

Jammie at Jammie Wearing Fools has up a great post on “Transparency! Obama Administration Helps Hide Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Financial Records.”

This Ain’t Hell has a bunch of great posts up today but I like this one by Doc Bailey called “Ethan McCord: Karma’s a Bitch.”

As always, Michelle Obama’s Mirror has up a terrific blog post called “Ted Cruz’n on “Raw Brain Power”. The pictures…. 🙂

Instapundit has a lot of good blog reading up at his blog hub including this video on “Profits in Space! Entrepreneurs Are Scanning the Cosmos for Big Money.”

American Power also has up a great blog post on “MSNBC D-Bags Talk Impeachment on #Benghazi Scandal.” They have the video too.

Dan Riehl has a blog post up at Riehl World View on “House Republicans announce hearing on IRS targeting conservative groups.” That didn’t take long.

Three Sure Things of Life has up a post called “How Do You Take Your Crow?” Check out the comments.

Mary Katherine Ham has a blog post up at Hot Air on “10 crazy things the IRS asked Tea Party groups.” Don’t Tread On Me.

and finally, Drew at AoSHQ has up a blog post “Holy Crap: HHS Secretary Sebilus Is Extorting Money From Health Care Industry To Promote ObamaCare.”

Have a great weekend!