So Osama Bin Ladenwas killed yesterday. Now what kind of political blogger would I be if I didn’t post something about this? (btw: to me, this doesn’t count as a post, Mr. Fleming) ([update]this kinda does).
Let me first say that, as a Christian, I can’t jibe condoning killing of any kind with the Bible. That said, the world is certainly a better place without that monster and his death does not grieve me in the slightest.
Now some people have had interesting reactions to this news. The Wikipedia section on his death states “In Pakistan some people were reported to be shocked at the unauthorized incursion by US armed forces.” Really? If they know Osama was the target, are they actually surprised that we went in without their permission or knowledge? Pakistan isn’t exactly a staunch ally and Osama didn’t exactly throw a shoe at the President.
Now, of course, there’s the subject of who gets the credit. Naturally, Obama is receiving no small amount of praise for this. Honestly, I don’t think any President deserves any significant amount of credit. They don’t work sources for intel or fly the choppers to the target or participate in the firefight. They basically do little more than sign off on the mission. Even so, my first reaction was that Bush (or even Clinton) should get more credit because he at least started the search for Osama, whereas Obama has professed for the longest time that we should be out of the Middle East. After a little more research, it appears Obama does deserve some credit, as he was somewhat involved in the days leading up to the operation; he certainly deserves credit for not letting on about what was going on (something I doubt I could have done), although I find this to be a disturbing pattern in this President:
The president made the decision to undertake the operation at 8:20 a.m. on April 29th in the White House’s Diplomatic Room before he left to survey tornado damage in Alabama. Tom Donilon, his National Security Advisor, prepared the formal orders and convened the principals at 3 p.m. that same day to complete the planning.
The next day, without giving off a hint of the weighty operation being planned, Obama prepared for and delivered his address at the annual White House Correspondent’s Association dinner. The next morning he played nine holes of golf.
So, all in all, Obama may deserve some credit, but remember that if America had gone along with his original wishes, Osama would not only still be alive, but possibly even able to operate openly with a lack of any kind of American military presence.
Now some jokes have popped into my head while writing this and, I’m sorry, but I just have to get them out.
First, there’s the post’s title. Get it? “Laden,” as in, “burdened with”? …..shutup, you stupid crickets…
Osama Bin Laden to rest
And finally, the gamer in me just wants to say: BOOM! Headshot!
So one of my high school classmates is in a short video by the NY Times about a “nonviolent” protest on the West Bank. The caption reads “Nicholas D. Kristof reports on the Palestinians who are experimenting with nonviolent protest of Israeli policy in the West Bank.”
Now, granted, they weren’t rioting or shooting guns or anything, but I wouldn’t consider slinging rocks to be “nonviolent.” And what’s the point, anyway? You’re not going to do any damage, it’s not going to get your point across any better (and might even do the opposite), and it will incite an escalated response.
On top of that, the fact that they’ve all got handkerchiefs means they were expecting the gas. I don’t know about you, but if I’m aware that tear gas is a possibility, I’m not going to sling rocks at the guys holding the gas. Just doesn’t seem smart.
The following is not rhetorical or sarcastic: What, specifically, were they protesting anyways?
“Shariah for the Netherlands; Ice Cream for the Children”
“The Modern World Is Scary; Join Islam and Help Us Yell at It”
“Down with Infidels; Up with Fun Beards”
“You Know How the Dog Is Scared of the Vacuum? Freedom Is Our Vacuum”
“Give Islam a Try; First Prayer Mat Is Free”
“Join Islam; How Great Could Bacon Possibly Be?”
Next, someone needs to write them a catchy jingle!
To which I readily respond:
(To the tune of Fill My Cup Up)
Fill my vest up and kill the infidels.
Fill my vest up and let it blow them up.
Fill my vest up and let it overflow.
Let it overflow with death.
And to which others responded:
How about a theme song sung to the melody of “The Brady Bunch” theme song:
Here’s the story, of a man named Allah,
Who bonked boys and would kill by throwing stones.
The Sunnis liked to stone the the Shia,
But they were all alone.
It’s the story, of the non-believers,
Allah named them ‘the infidels.’
They had freedoms and seemed to like them
And they ate Bacon
Till the one day when the Sunnis bombed the infidels,
And they knew it was much more than a hunch.
That this group would somehow form a jihad
That’s the way we became the Allah Bunch.
{OK. It ain’t perfect, but it’s still a little bit funny}
and for you Holy Grail fans:
In the name of the prophet, I issue a fartwa in your general direction!
I left a couple of comments on a YouTube video of the Alan Grayson thing and got suckered into a debate with this guy obdaddy. So far, we’ve gone back and forth on waterboarding, torture, religion, the media, Rush, Crowder, Obama, liberalism, conservatism, and a good bit more. Essentially, he’s a bitter middle-aged man who can’t send a message or leave a comment without being condescending (concerning our age gap), insulting people (“tea baggers”), or something of the like.
It’s almost funny how he calls me a “zombie” and a “sheep” when he regurgitates (or at least appears to) stuff I’ve heard many, many times. Let’s just go through a quick rundown of some of what he’s said to me.
He really harped on Rush being a druggie, despite me trying to explain that Rush got hooked on what was originally necessary medicine (or as necessary as painkillers can be). He also consistently ignored the fact that Rush kicked the drug.
He told me to stop mindlessly listening to Hannity, Beck, and the like. I told him I’ve watched Hannity maybe three times and I’ve never even heard or watched Beck, or any of a number of other people he mentioned. He proceeded to call me a liar. To which I say, why would I lie about something like that? I told him I listen to Rush! Why wouldn’t I “admit” to listening to Beck or Hannity if I did? It makes no sense to me.
He said that waterboarding is torture because the waterboard-ee doesn’t know that it’s relatively harmless. So, apparently, we’re now allowing the ignorance (or lack thereof) of terrorists to dictate what we define as torture.
He accused me of being in a cult when I said I believe that the overwhelming majority of “Christians” are not Christians at all. However, I gave him specific Biblical reasons for this. He replied by saying that not everyone believes the Bible. To which I said that that doesn’t matter! Do you have to believe the Qur’an in order to use it to determine whether or not someone’s a Muslim? No.
He called pretty much every sort of media “snake oil salesman” (Rush, ESPN, liberal news, Disney, etc.), apparently because their motivation is selling adspace and stuff. I’ve asked him if he hates capitalism or something, but no response to that yet.
He says that I’m just a young idealist who’ll learn better as I grow. Does that ring just plain false with anyone else? Let’s see, the demographics show that a much bigger proportion of middle-aged people are conservative compared to the number of college students who are conservative. Seems to me that it is far more likely that my peers will grow to be conservatives, rather than us few conservatives growing to be liberals.
He essentially called liberalism the ideal of being benevolent, of helping society’s weak and claimed that conservatives construe health care for all as “evil.” I asked him what he, personally, does to help society’s weak and gave a few examples of what I’ve done, pointing out that liberals would actually have laws passed forcing others to care for society’s weak, rather than caring for them themselves. He hasn’t yet cited a single thing he’s done to care for the weak. He also told me not to try and pass off missionary work as anything other than condescending and rude. Someone’s got to explain that one to me.
He said Tea Partiers are racist and hateful but has yet to supply a single example (although I did ask). He claims he’s not calling me racist but says I “protest too much” when I gave him the short version of what’s in my letter to Janeane Garofalo.
It’s been a while, I know. Needed a break from politics. Anyway, I’ve been keeping up with IMAO, and this post struck me as particularly funny:
I was thinking that while conservatives are concerned about important things like terrorism and preserving freedom, liberals are always worried about silly pansy things. Maybe, though, to help them out, we can try using our practical conservative know-how to solve them.
SISSY LIBERAL PROBLEM: Global warming.
CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION: Destroy the sun.
SISSY LIBERAL PROBLEM: Children have low self-esteem.
CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION: Drop children in the middle of enemy territory. Those that make it back will have earned self-esteem.
SISSY LIBERAL PROBLEM: Muslims feel unfairly discriminated against.
CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION: Forcefully convert them to Christianity.
SISSY LIBERAL PROBLEM: Not enough support for the arts.
CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION: Classify monster trucks as art.
SISSY LIBERAL PROBLEM: Endangered species.
CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION: Drop endangered species in the middle of enemy territory. Those that make it back will be toughened up to help their survival. All others probably deserved to go extinct.
SISSY LIBERAL PROBLEM: Plastics don’t biodegrade.
CONSERVATIVE SOLUTION: Load plastics into rocket and fire them into the sun. If we’ve destroyed the sun, fire rocket to moon. Nuke moon.
“Practising Christian” Barack Hussein Obama claims that, by the number of Muslims, America is one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. I wasn’t aware that the 48th largest Muslim country (pretty small, for the 3rd most populous country in the world) was “one of the largest”.
Now why would he say something like that? It’s not remotely true. Going by the same logic, Ghana is one of the largest countries in the world. It is the 48th largest country by population, with approximately 23 million people. The only reasons I can see for that are that either he’s a closet Muslim, which I’m still reluctant to believe, or that he’s trying to cater to Muslims (or both). Why does he insist on catering to Muslims? They’re not going to stop attacking us and it doesn’t make him more popular, except among the few radicals who wouldn’t ever vote for a Republican in a million years anyway.
