[ShepherdsDog]

I vuz vundring if I may be renting a polure bear? I am not vanting any seals in my house.

[GreenTiger]

Brenda Brenda:

Gunnair Gunnair:

$1:

Joe O’Connor: Osama bin Laden and American bloodlust

Images are powerful. They shape opinion, and form pictures in our heads that might not be entirely accurate, but often stick.

Picture this: a suicide bomber blows up a restaurant full of Israelis; a jihadist beheads a Westerner with a hunting knife; a jet plane slams into an office tower in downtown New York.

Horrific acts. Jarring. Violent. Bloody. Repugnant.

Our horror is then magnified by the spectacle of Muslim extremists, Palestinian nut jobs, or Taliban trolls, or whomever they may be, rushing into the streets of some far off, dusty place to ululate with joy, fire rifles into the air, Praise Allah, torch American flags and chant that old standby: “Death to America!”

Joyous celebration in the wake of violence is disgusting. It makes us think: how barbaric. It makes us think: we are not like them.

But maybe we are like them, and maybe Osama bin Laden is the reason why.



The devil has brought out the devil in us. Turned back our evolutionary clocks to another time when the public execution or a good old-fashioned lynching was a festive affair. Death as spectacle was the frontier way. It was cheap entertainment for the masses, and it brought people to their feet.

News of bin Laden’s bloody end in the backyard of an American ally brought Americans to their feet. At major league baseball games, in New York city, Washington D.C., and other burghs, a ripple of joy washed over our good neighbours to the south.

People poured into the streets, strangers slapped high fives, climbed utility polls, snapped photos on camera-phones and chanted “U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

It was as though they had just beat terrorism 2-1 in triple overtime. It was, well, weird, and disturbing, and it felt wrong.

“Certainly Osama bin Laden, who lived by the sword, received the world’s form of justice,” Scott Appleby, a historian at Notre Dame, told CNN this week.

“But do we really think that violence, even a justified act of violence, has the capacity to heal the wounds inflicted by violence — or to end the cycle of violence?”

We get it: we don’t live in a Kumbaya world. Bad people with bad intentions abound. And bin Laden ranked as the Commander-in-Chief of wicked deeds. He deserved to die. Really, he deserved to have his head paraded around Times Square on a pike.

But we are better than that, right, unless of course we are not. Osama is dead, and we are different than we once were. And sadly, that might be his lasting victory.

Interesting read.

Especially that last sentence.

Yes, OBLs death should have brought relief and closure to the victims famies and it did that to be sure, but the parties celebrations? More than a bit much.

[GreenTiger]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

I vuz vundring if I may be renting a polure bear? I am not vanting any seals in my house.

Is that the real reason French Canadians beat the life out of seal pups thing they are SEAL pups?

[EyeBrock]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

And you thought he was just a simple jar head.

Nope! He's a man to watch! I think he likes me, thank the Catholic God!

[ShepherdsDog]

Lucifer....or Mary?

[Zipperfish]

DerbyX DerbyX:

PublicAnimalNo9 PublicAnimalNo9:

Should I give a shit?

That depends. Do you have a lower rumbling in your intestines? Do you feel the need to expand your sphincter? If so then the answer is probably yes.

OK that one made me spray my coffee. ZING!

[Choban]

$1:

Interesting read.

Yes, interesting, and wrong. Why? Because, OBL's followers and those involved in their holy "Jihad" will cheer the death of each and everyone of us, and no matter what we do for/give them in the end will never sate their lust for the blood of western infidels, whereas we cheered the death of one of the US's most wanted men who was responsable for the death of 1000's that were doing no more than working for a living.

[andyt]

I think both sides have merit. Of course the first impulse is to cheer that this evil man is dead. And then sober reflection on how he's managed to make us more evil is merited too. But of course not just reflection, but what are we going to do about it, and how can we retain our ideals of justice?

But same thing in WWII. I'm sure people would have cheered if the assassination plot against Hitler had succeeded. And we came out of WWII with even more commitment to justice, once all the killing was over. Seems to me it's the same for OBL.

[Choban]

andyt andyt:

I think both sides have merit. Of course the first impulse is to cheer that this evil man is dead. And then sober reflection on how he's managed to make us more evil is merited too. But of course not just reflection, but what are we going to do about it, and how can we retain our ideals of justice?

But same thing in WWII. I'm sure people would have cheered if the assassination plot against Hitler had succeeded. And we came out of WWII with even more commitment to justice, once all the killing was over. Seems to me it's the same for OBL.

Well said Andy, the only reason to my disagreement with the article is really the fact that the west cheered the death of 1 man, not hordes of his followers. We a society tend to over analyse stuff like this, it's not like there were gun shooting mobs firing 100's of rounds into the air and dragging around effigies of OBL to burn in the streets. I particularily like how he managed to slip the little video game quip in there too.
Reflection is good for our characters, I just feel it's unwarranted in this case

[djakeydd]

http://www.batr.org/wrack/050811.html

[DrCaleb]

lol Thanks for the laugh DJ. Here's one, just for you! (and I said it would happen too!)

http://www.activistpost.com/2011/05/fin ... -hoax.html

[DanSC]

One would think that if bin Laden was alive and free, he'd advertise the fact.

[martin14]

herbie herbie:

He was shot unarmed?????
Well they shoulda kept shooting until he was unlegged and unheaded and unnutted....

Best post on this thread.

[GreenTiger]

True, it wasn't a fair fight, but it was a lot more "fair" than hijacking airplanes and fly them into buildings.

It would have been nice to bring this guy here put him on trial I'm sure the ACLU would be very happy to defend him. This OBL not some guy growing grass in his basement. OBL is never very far from a weapon and I don't care what some some group might calculate the PC level of force might be.

It was a dangerous mission again a dangerous man who admits and is proud of the fact that he kills innocent people.

Is the world coming to the conclusion that OBL was a person with low self esteem who needed to act out his fantasies and needs therapeutic psychotherapy and is entitled to compensation(I am plagerizing Pat Condell).

In a slit second two Navy SEALs made a decision when facing an extremely dangerous man is an extremely dangerous situation. I am pleased that the SEALs (in General Patton's terms) made him die for his cause.

This thing is being analyzed to no the Nth degree. It's over the bastards dead. The only thing that they might have done differently would be bring him back to NY stick a pork chop in his mouth a fireman's axe up his ass and point that ass towards Mecca.

If one thinks that I less than generous to the Holy Warrior they would be correct. I lost people on 9-11 and have been to their funerals.

He is dead. Nobody here thinks OBL was anything other than what he was.

He is dead lets move on and try to make a better world.

We did breach his medical confidentiality by disclosing that he did have massive amounts of Viagra in his mansion. He could raise up his army of psychotics, but that was all he could raise on his own.

[Gunnair]

GreenTiger GreenTiger:

True, it wasn't a fair fight, but it was a lot more "fair" than hijacking airplanes and fly them into buildings.

It would have been nice to bring this guy here put him on trial I'm sure the ACLU would be very happy to defend him. This OBL not some guy growing grass in his basement. OBL is never very far from a weapon and I don't care what some some group might calculate the PC level of force might be.

Try to avoid dumbing the point down to the lowest common denominator here if you possibly can. The point being made by some, and not all of them liberal leftards like you constantly imply, is that the US bypassing international law undermines their ability to call anyone else on. Full stop. If they don't care, then they don't have a say on anyone else breaking the laws. As well, I`ve heard some reasonable arguments for the benefits of trying him in a US court and locking him up for the rest of natural life to rot in a tiny cell with no windows.

He got the easy martyr`s way out.

Fuck sakes... really.