BING BING BING... Holy shit Batman another WINNER!

It's hard to change some people, but people definitely do change and I think ultimately the people in these countries will change for the better. The young people, the people that are coming up now are generally way more liberal and more open to new ideas than their parents and grandparents ever were. I think these countries are about to be broken up from within and it's because of technology. It's because of Hollywood, Mark Zuckerberg, the western culture and everything that goes with it.

I promise not to refer to Frank's current posts as dumber than his last ones ever again. Please note that I am replying to you because I didn't want my record to reflect 10 of the last 11 posts as replies to Frank, 9 of 10 is enough.

To me, Frank's posts are just special. He is also a special kind of man..but then again, we're all special.

Wow! You guys are seriously jocking me now. But get off my nuts, huh? You can't have me.

And I'm glad we think we're special considering how many collective hours at our respective employers are probably wasted on this website.

But we are special Frank. Our employers may give us the evil eye from time to time and threaten to fire us if we don't post less on the gangsterbb, but that doesn't mean we're not special. We are. I am not singling you out and mocking you for having special opinions. Many of my opinions are as special as yours. There is a great scene from the Wedding Crashers where one of the lead characters (played by Vince Vaughn) goes deeper into it and raises an important awareness.

"If you can't stand the heat ...." How does the rest of it go?

Is Fist-Pumping the Right Reaction to bin Laden's death?
on.wsj.com

As I watched the crowds gathering outside the White House on TV Sunday night in the wake of the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed, I spotted a young woman standing atop another's shoulders to get a better view of the festivities, and then a second, and a third. When they dismounted they all did so in the same way—with a sprightly, confident controlled fall, vanishing back into the arms of the crowd.

They were obviously cheerleaders, probably from one of the several colleges within a few miles of the White House. They appeared the same age as one of my daughters—in their early 20s. The sight of them made me wonder what, if any, lasting effect the events of 9/11 had on them, and on my children, what scars it left. The frat-house atmosphere suggested not much.

"The response was much more patriotism than reverence or fear," my daughter said over the phone from college. Like most of her peers she got the news not from television but from Facebook. "I was on Facebook and a friend's status was, 'We killed Osama bin Laden. America #1."'

President Obama and the operatives who finally brought bin Laden to justice deserve great credit—Mr. Obama particularly for his sang-froid. Obviously, he knew what was about to break while attending the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday night. Nonetheless, he delivered his Donald Trump zingers with impeccable timing.

And the kids' euphoria was understandable. The 9/11 terrorist attacks were arguably their generation's defining and darkest moment. But the fist-pumping after the news of the terrorist's death, treating geopolitics like the Final Four, left me concerned. Although, I'm certainly in no position to throw stones. My astonishment the morning of 9/11 as I watched those planes plow into the World Trade Center, and then the skyscrapers crumble as if made of salt an hour or so later, was matched only by my amazement at the news that some of the hijackers had spent months beforehand in the U.S., even visiting a shopping mall in the days before the attack.

It showed the extent of my residual Cold War naïveté—raised on the gospel of American exceptionalism and the belief that the reason the Soviets had to turn their state into a gulag was because all their citizens would move here given half the chance—that I found it unfathomable that anybody who'd visited an American shopping mall, let alone spent months here, couldn't fall in love with this country.

Obviously, there's a big difference between the average person who dreams of living in freedom and religious fanatics whose idea of a better life is flying a plane into a building and taking thousands of innocents with them. But one thing 9/ll taught me to a far greater extent than I knew or was willing to admit is that we're not universally loved, and that the U.S.'s responsibility toward the rest of the world extends beyond selling them Sly Stallone films.

I think another reason my euphoria at bin Laden's death was tempered is because I'm a New Yorker. The Cold War threat of mutually assured destruction may be gone, but that doesn't mean that Al Qaeda, with or without Osama bin Laden, or some other group isn't capable of ruining your day.

Apart from thwarting another terrorist attack, the NYPD has done an impressive job over the last couple of decades reducing crime. Do I feel safer walking the streets at night? Yes. Do I feel safe? Not really. I prefer to think of myself as less paranoid than a hard-boiled realist, and looking over your shoulder as mere common sense. My hunch is that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly feels the same way—that Sunday night he was watching the celebrations at Ground Zero with one eye, watching the security cameras at the Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square with the other.

My hope is that dispatching bin Laden makes the world a safer place. But the New Yorker in me refuses to let me celebrate as guilelessly as those cheerleaders in front of the White House. There are bridges to the rest of the world yet to be built, work to be done. One of the effects of 9/11 should be to offer our children's generation a more sophisticated and nuanced world view than the one with which I grew up. Watching the celebrations Sunday night I'm not sure we're there yet.

i just realized something that pissed me off about this operation. why did they have to give bin laden the nickname of 'Geronimo' who was a native american chief. if anything thats a big mistake.

Of course we're not there yet. We're still nine kinds of testosterone wrapped in a Davy Crockett coonskin cap.

However, that doesn't mean that he didn't need killing. And if it brings some teensy, tiny measure of comfort to any of those who lost their loved ones in the towers, in the Pentagon or in Shanksville, PA, then let the celebration begin.

too f en bad on the name that is...

Apparently the photo of what went on in the "situation room" was fake, and here's the real one.

Good one, Lou, unfortunately some will take it seriously.

You think?

It's a whole new world that's for sure.

I just watched Carney's Press conference. Of course NOT releasing the OBL photo was a constant subject. One reporter asked how come a few senators saw the pictures? Carney replied, "no senator has seen the pictures."

Well a Sentor Ayotte (R NY) claims she saw the pictures. I wonder if she saw the fakes? Like I said, a whole new cyber world.

TIS

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/newsstatenewengland/918113-227/ayotte-i-saw-photo-of-dead-bin.html

You can claim anything on Fox News, because most watching it will believe anything.

Evidently Scott Brown (along with a few others) also saw the pictures. HOWEVER, Brown admits here he was duped. We simply can't believe anything. Until when/if the President says "here they are", we must consider ALL fake.

TIS


http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1335533&position=2

Well looks like they won't release the photos.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/obama_leaning_towards_not_releasing_mNsTCBrT5Vx75hLtaik4DP

I...agree with the decision?

Remember Abu Gharib?

This is not a universal but a unilateral rule. If the U.S. was a small country they could hardly apply this rule. International rules have to be universal. Otherwise, it's always the strongest who dictates the rules.

A bit late to this thread i am but a hearty good riddance to the fucker i say!

spin spin spin spin spin!!!!

BBC:

Some of those on the Boards might remember Woody Guthrie, the American folksinger/songwriter, probably best remembered for writing This Land Is Your Land. (Some may have heard of him as Arlo Guthrie's father.) Over 70 years ago, he wrote a song called So Long, It's Been Good To Know You, perhaps the most famous in his series of songs called the "Dust Bowl Ballads."

Anyway, if you don't know the original song, there are two Guthrie versions to be found on YouTube: click here for a recording he made for the Library of Congress around 1940, and click here for a version he rewrote a couple of years later with patriotic, World War II-themed lyrics.

Since Woody Guthrie was known for rewriting his songs when the occasion seemed appropriate, I felt the time was right to bring this song up to date, combining my "channelling Woody" with my own observations at the end. Performed this last night at a folksinging get-together in Brooklyn, and I will admit that it was well-received.

Signor V.

*****************************

So Long, Osama (Ain't Been Good To Know You)

We’ve sung this song, but we’ll sing it again,
How we’d catch him or kill him, though we didn’t know when.
Two thousand-eleven, the first day of May,
And the world heard America singing that day. (Singing:)

So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
From the Home Of The Brave and the Land Of The Free,
Now Bin Laden is buried at sea.

On September eleven, two thousand-and-one,
We bled as a nation, the fight had begun,
A war against terror, our leaders they said,
We’d cut out the heart when we cut off the head. (Well, it’s:)

So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
From the Home Of The Brave and the Land Of The Free,
Now Bin Laden is buried at sea.

They found him in Pakistan, now we can tell,
How our brave Navy SEALS sent Osama to Hell,
They planned it, they landed, two bullets and then,
Bin Laden was dead and we sang once again. (Singing:)

So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
From the Home Of The Brave and the Land Of The Free,
Now Bin Laden is buried at sea.

So let us remember those patriots, all,
The men and the women who’ve answered the call,
We’ll fight overseas, we’re protecting our shore,
And we’ll pray in our hearts for an end to all war. (But it’s:)

So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
So long, ain’t been good to know you,
From the Home Of The Brave and the Land Of The Free,
Now Bin Laden is buried at sea.

VERY nicely done, Signor Vitelli.

Nice work SV!! You hit the nail on the head.




TIS

Fantastic. Thanks SV.

Let's see. Do they deliver e-mail to Hell?


TIS

I was just watching some clips from the ceremony today at Ground Zero. It had some very somber moments of course, and I'm rather ashamed of those like Glen Beck who accused the President as being 'slimy', or Sean Hannity who said he was 'spiking the football' by going there today.

Photos from the bin-Laden compound. They're real and very graphic.

http://www.reuters.com/subjects/bin-laden-compound