Bin Laden Dead?

MLK was also a Christian, which I am not

xp mlk better man than i am tbh, though i can't really muster any more jubilation than "good"

― And thusly create the illusion of babby (forksclovetofu)

pretty much how i feel, more on the grim satisfaction tip than anything i guess.

i have to admit i felt a bit of joy when i heard the news. though mostly i was relieved that the "pending important statement on national security" was not "FUCK THE MARTIANS ARE HERE!"

so i understand, or at least can broadly empathize with, those who celebrated in the immediate aftermath. (that said, the stuff outside the WH was incredibly tacky--just a bunch of college kids doing what college kids do, but this time they get to feel like they are justified in world-historical terms. )

that doesn't mean that this reaction isn't base.

Japan had actively been seeking to negotiate a surrender treaty since April

i guess this qualifies as a factoid, just, but it kind of suggests that... japan was actively seeking to surrender. just a little bit more complex than that.

are you guys still talking about frogbs?

my mom called me yesterday all, I hope americans don't fuck with muslims around here or people who they think are muslims just because

xxxpost i was seriously worried that we'd either been attacked or that he had a terminal illness or something. so my first reaction was THANK GOD, POSITIVE NEWS.

lmao omar

http://i.imgur.com/Co6ap.png

pretty sure MLK was talking about frogbs

good man hm

lol @ tamtam

After Japan/Libya/Syria/tornadoes, the good news is another death? But yeah, grim satisfaction is not too bad. (which reminds me: Charlie Sheen is now in Tuscaloosa--local weatherman: "That's all the help we need." What the hell, maybe he's still got some money)

was pretty sure obama was gonna discuss the "killing Qaddafi's family" thing initially.
btw, there was an earlier article i read that said it was bush's people who leaked the bin laden info to the press before the conference as a "fuck you" gesture... anybody got a link that confirms?

http://streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Screen-shot-2011-05-02-at-9.57.42-AM.png

was pretty sure obama was gonna discuss the "killing Qaddafi's family" thing initially.

we seem to have forgotten this already.

btw, there was an earlier article i read that said it was bush's people who leaked the bin laden info to the press before the conference as a "fuck you" gesture... anybody got a link that confirms?

the bbc said that iirc rumsfeld's former press sec tweeted it. it would've been amusing if it was a full on WE GOT HIM thing claiming responsibility before the WH, though.

My particular take on celebrating an evil person's death comes from a midrash related to the Exodus narrative. The Jewish ppl have crossed the Red Sea successfully and watched the Egyptians drown and they celebrate on the shore. According to the midrash, the angels begin to celebrate in heaven in too and God rebukes them and says, "The Egyptians were my children too. How can you celebrate?" The angels are obviously chastened but the midrash makes note that God allows the Jewish ppl to celebrate bc they have what to celebrate about (they watched their oppressors drown in the sea). Afaic we have something to celebrate here. We can reflect somberly for a moment that any death is tragic, but I don't think that should severely temper any joy. Of course Christianity's big innovation of turn the other cheek makes celebrating death problematic. Not a problem for me tho!

Purim is a good example of this phenomenon too -- Jews still celebrate Haman's death until today.

Thanks for that, Mordy.

nah

I was happy to hear he was dead but I did not celebrate

Mordy OTM

I saw someone quip that we needed to end "all murder", guessing she didn't support the snipe hunt

do you think the majority of the "ding dong the witch is dead" crowd today would self-identify as Jews or non-Christians Mordy?

I really think last night for some people, media or outside, was a giant dick-measuring contest to see who could react to the news most appropriately and ethically

the u.s. seems to have a really weird relationship to public celebration. when i was watching coverage of celebrations here, i knew they made me uncomfortable but still can't quite explain why.

i don't feel bad or upset that he's dead, but actually celebrating seems pretty grotesque

i really appreciate you sharing that mordy

i don't think i'm coming from quite the same place but i can dig that

Not really a turn-the-other-cheek issue in a way - they went to get him, he resisted, they shot him in self-defence. The biggest wrong here was breaching international law by invading Pakistan. No revenge or even moral issue at all, if you frame it in those terms. I'm sure we all do.

yeah i agree with gbx. especially since just about all of us were pretty far removed from any kind of direct impact thanks to bin laden. and yeah, i was raised catholic, so there you go

NV - probably not

I mean the celebrating is only a step removed from 'public hanging', which I find to be hideous and medieval, but it isn't like this was some kiddie fiddler that was murdered, ya know...I saw many friends of mine who are extremely passive even go out of character last night. also US perspective is tainted by the fact that it doesn't experience major terrorist attacks on its soil daily like some weary, beleaguered nations...

if this had happened under pres bush would there have been about half the celebration? or would the demographics have just looked differently

anyway a colleague of mine showed up to our final exam this morning LITERALLY DRAPED IN AN AMERICAN FLAG

i just wonder if another country was in a equiv. situation and i saw them celebrating how would i feel

also THEY TOLD BIDEN -- all jokes aside i'm sure there were points where obama saw biden walk out the door after one of the five high priority briefings and went "jesus fucking christ..."

this was after we dropped atom bombs on two Japanese cities when Japan had actively been seeking to negotiate a surrender treaty since April

― five gone cats from Boston (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Monday, May 2, 2011 8:58 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

Celebrating the end of World War II is very different than celebrating one assassination.

xxxxpost if it happened in the weeks to months following 9/11, reaction would have likely been more muted because of the proximity to the event and the continuing fear of ongoing attacks. if it had happened around 2003 or 2004, I'm willing to bet there'd have been 305 million barbeques within the surrounding 3 days.

as was mentioned before, the ppl celebrating were probably just college kids looking for an excuse to party

I missed all of the celebration because I was asleep; usually my first reaction to any large group of mostly white people cheering loudly about someone's death is "people in my family had to uproot their lives to avoid getting lynched as recently as the 1940s".

xp: with the "public hanging" comment I see I'm not the only one who gets flashes of this

also lol @ them outing KSM as one of the snitches -- maybe the most thinly veiled attempt to have him murdered by another inmate ever

definitely does seem weird to react "Osama's dead, hey, wanna shotgun some beers?".

frogbs used women as human shields

anyway a colleague of mine showed up to our final exam this morning LITERALLY DRAPED IN AN AMERICAN FLAG

― estkella (k3vin k.), Monday, May 2, 2011 6:49 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

i wore a team usa baseball jersey http://i.imgur.com/blXaG.gif

also mlk otm

i think the "any excuse to part-ay" line is probably accurate.

fuck any sympathy for a belligerent murderer like Bin Laden, what makes me sad is more the notion that the end of level boss has been beat and the game has been won

as was mentioned before, the ppl celebrating were probably just college kids looking for an excuse to party

― That Dunkster! (absolutely clean glasses), Monday, May 2, 2011 5:51 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

this

so now we need to find out (I don't think we ever will) whether KSM shared the information after a few Marlboros and a Coke or he was tortured.

btw I'm not going to lecture a relative of someone killed in the attacks about the proper way to celebrate or mourn.

yes this was quite obvious -- but no one on TV was going to ruin their footage by saying that