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Even God’s Weighed in on the Death of Osama bin Laden!

Proverbs 24:

17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:

18 Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

  • A. D. Jameson is the author of five books, most recently I FIND YOUR LACK OF FAITH DISTURBING: STAR WARS AND THE TRIUMPH OF GEEK CULTURE and CINEMAPS: AN ATLAS OF 35 GREAT MOVIES (with artist Andrew DeGraff). Last May, he received his Ph.D. in Creative Writing from the Program for Writers at UIC.

19 thoughts on “Even God’s Weighed in on the Death of Osama bin Laden!

  1. Martin Luther King, Jr. had this to say about the subject:
    “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

      1. This whole thing episode is fascinating. I wonder how much viral misquoting actually happens on the web. Probably a ton.

  2. While I was walking down the street yesterday, outside DePaul, a man walked by me holding up a paper and pointing to the giant headline. He was shouting, “We got him! We got him! Shot him in the head!

    The pundits on cable news were no less triumphant (when I saw them while at the gym). Speculating endlessly as to whether we’d get photographs of bin Laden’s corpse, other corpses—not to mention dwelling endlessly on the detail that bin Laden had used his wife as a human shield. (I see that part of the narrative’s already changing. Perhaps that comic book detail was what I tell students is called a hook?) (Update: Here’s more on how this part of the story is evolving.)

    These are the kinds of things I think about whenever people tell me that the US is a Christian nation.

    1. Hiding behind the wife is standard rhetoric in these circumstances. Remember Lincoln supposedly sneaking into Washington disguised as a woman (he was wearing a travelling rug); or Jeff Davies supposedly captured while dressed as a woman. It’s just a way of emasculating the enemy after the fact: look how much bigger, bolder, tougher, more masculine we are!

      Whenever I see this story about some hated enemy hiding behind a woman, I reckon it is just someone small trying to make themselves seem big.

      Notice too how the firefight story has changed; it seems that bin Laden wasn’t actually armed and wasn’t putting up a fight. But it doesn’t sound so good if you say: we went in and shot an unarmed man who was relaxing with his family.

  3. “Some of [9/11] families think seeing photos of bin Laden might help their healing.”

    [http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/white-house-considering-releasing-bin-laden-death-photo.php?ref=tn]

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