Can we put the 9/11 conspiracy to bed now?

I've occasionally encountered people who, for reasons I haven't really figured out yet, are convinced that there's some vast conspiracy behind the 9/11 attacks.
Today, Osama bin Laden ended all doubt. In his most recently-released tape, he took sole and full responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
Sole responsibility.
Sole.
Responsibility.
He also took responsibility right after the attacks, but some people didn't listen. Then he released the actual tapes the hijackers made before the attacks declaring what they were going to do. But some people didn't listen.
I've heard people claim no plane hit the Pentagon. Well, I was working at Crystal City at the time and I saw it go in. Another reporter I know was blown back off the lawn by the impact as it went over head. So, a plane hit the pentagon. And it was a jetliner.
And I'm not honest when I say I don't know why people believe in the conspiracy theories. I know why. Bush.
All that's happened since seems to have been orchestrated to give a lot of power to one man, upsetting the checks and balances system of the country. Well, it may have benefited Bush, but in the last couple years we've seen how big a backlash such an attempt at a power grab in our country will cause. In truth, there's no conspiracy needed to explain what happened post-9/11, with the Patriot Act, and the embracing of Nazi Herman Goering's philosophy of control by the Right ("Voice or no voice, controlling the people is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are under attack, and then label the pacifists as unpatriotic.")
The answer as to how things seem to fall into place so smoothly for Bush was simple: Opportunism.
We know from Richard Baer and others who worked on counter-terrorism that from day one, the intention was to spin the attack into a war against Iraq. In all likelihood, they were going to try and pull us into this war anyway, but they didn't know how to do it.
Osama bin Laden gave them the reason they were looking for.
The irony, of course, and of no surprise to people who know a modicum of history, is that bin Laden's so-called attempt to "save" the Middle East from western influence has led to the largest bloom of western influence in the middle east since the Crusaders took Jerusalem.
By declaring himself the enemy and attacking when and how he did, he empowered his worst enemy to galactic proportions.
Apparently, Sun Tzu isn't translated into Arabic.

Hoping for my breakout

Maybe it's a silly hope, but I don't think so.
Lately I've been really putting in a lot of work on my writing. Last night I sat a bit and tried to make sense of all that I've been doing...and try to get a better feel of what, exactly, I'm hoping to achieve.
My primary project at the moment is a couple of short stories that I have been invited to submit for an Anthology novel based off the Rifts role-playing game. After that, I'm going to start pounding out a full-blown novel.
On top of that I've just submitted another game book to them, have one already in review that I need to do some rewriting on, and I'm cleaning up Dragon Diaries for submission to WOTC, which is looking for non-D&D contemporary fantasy novels this cycle.
In between all that I try to sandwich in plenty of quality time with my son and Rae....and some recreation as well.
Why?
I think I'm hoping for my breakout moment. I'm 34. I'd hoped to have been published as an author by now. Rae always laughs when I say that, reminding me I've been published thousands of times over more than the last decade as a reporter. It's true, my name's on a LOT of by-lines, and there's no lacking in my clip portfolio. But it's different from seeing your name on the spine of a book.
That's what I want. That's the hurdle I've not yet been able to clear.
When I was young and just starting out as a writer (after converting from my dreams of being a fighter pilot/astronaut...don't laugh, I actually had a seat at the naval academy waiting for me), I first wanted to be a reporter on a mainstream metropolitan city desk. I got that at the Detroit News, and even helped launch their Livingston County Bureau, which was a pretty good success.
It took awhile. I worked at two smaller papers over about four years after college to get that position (although I'd interned at the news throughout college, so I was kind of doing it then too).
Then, I wanted to work in D.C., on Capitol Hill. I got that. I got to rub elbows with the likes of Hillary Clinton, John McCain, etc. I got to bust a plan by Donald Rumsfeld to privatize the Army Corps of Engineers, got to travel the country. It was a good gig for a while, and almost all I was looking for. But I got bored, started to get itchy, and it started showing in my work. My vision had moved on.
I wrote a novel immediately after that, but I haven't been able to sell it yet. So, while waiting, I freelanced for a cigar magazine. I'd always wanted to freelance like that. It was good money, really easy work and the silliest, lightest hours you've ever seen (I worked about eight weeks worth in one year and made the same as when I worked full-time). But there were no benefits and it was feast or famine...and after hitting a long stretch of famine I went back to work.
The RPG book was another dream. Two are in pre-production. So that goal is just a matter of time.
But still, my Holy Grail, the published novel, is not quite here yet. It's the one thing, the only thing, that I haven't been able to put a check mark by. I'm bound and determined to do it.
I want my son to grow up having known of me being nothing but a novelist. Ultimately, it's what I'd like to do for the entirety of my living.
Some have suggested I do erotica, as that's what a lot of sci-fi writers do at the very beginning of their career (you'd be surprised..some very famous Hugo-winners wrote smut under an assumed name), but I haven't been enthusiastic about that idea.
So, I soldier on...putting in basically a double workday sometimes, as I come home from work to put in several hours of writing and research. I know rae gets tired of the only view of me being from peering over a computer screen, but she understands what drives me (though she laments my Type A personality).
I'm going to get there. There will come a day when that goal is in the "done" column, and I'm writing books regularly.
I wonder, however, what I'll target then. I've got at least three good ideas for some screenplays....