The Living Room Times

No, Wolf Blitzer, your studio isn’t the Situation Room. This is the Situation Room:

Caption: “President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House, May 1, 2011. Please note: a classified document seen in this photograph has been obscured. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)”

Hillary looks concerned (spooked by a 3:00 AM phone call?). Gates looks unfazed. Biden looks like he needs to take a dump. The general at the head of the table looks like he’s playing Angry Birds. And Obama looks like he’s trying to personally bore a hole through Bin Laden’s skull by shooting laser beams out of his eyes.

And who’s that woman way in the back, peering over everybody’s shoulders? Wait a minute — is that Chloe?! 😉

• Americans’ visceral anger about 9/11 may have receded somewhat into the background over the last 10 years, but it is still absolutely there. There’s no need, yet, to say “Never Forget.” We haven’t forgotten. Not even close.

• Osama Bin Laden was very much the personal focal point of that visceral anger. I confess I was surprised by the unabashed elation that almost everyone — of all political persuasions — felt upon learning this news, like Bin Laden’s death is the V-E Day of our time. I’m not criticizing it; I felt it too. It just surprised me a little bit.

• I’m old. Or at least, I felt really old when I saw a tweet by my friend Andrew Fielding, a current student at the University of Denver, noting that he was watching the Bin Laden news from the DU student center. I remember vividly watching 9/11 itself while I was in college, and watching various events in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 (Bush’s address to Congress, etc.) from student lounges at USC. Andrew was in elementary school then.

• “Team America: World Police” is a much bigger cultural force than I realized. It’s amazing how many people online have cited America: F*** Yeah! last night and today.

• Twitter has apparently improved its infrastructure quite a bit. It’s incredible that it didn’t Fail Whale last night.

• Sandwiched between the Alabama tornadoes and Bin Laden’s death, the Royal Wedding had an amazingly short shelf life for a news event watched by 3 billion people.

• Navy SEALs are f***king awesome.

(Cross-posted from my Tumblr. More on that photographed sign here.)

Also, a PSA:

Driving to work this morning, I wanted to hear my 9/11 anthem, so I put my iPhone on my patriotic playlist and listened to it. After that song ended, I let it shuffle through other songs on the list. The third or fourth one that came on was “Anchors Aweigh,” the Navy song. Given that Bin Laden was just killed by Navy SEALs, this was, obviously, awesome. So I turned the volume way up, and when the song finished, I played it again. Now, here it is, for your listening pleasure.

I was also inspired to post this tweet:

About f***in’ time. We got him before the tenth anniversary of 9/11, thank goodness.

I really hope there’s a Hell, if only so that evil motherf***er can burn in it.

UPDATE: It’s official. Obama just announced it. Operation was authorized last week; Osama was killed in a firefight today.

The U.S. soldiers in that firefight must never pay for their own drinks at a bar ever again in their lives. This is an urgent national priority.

UPDATE: Shot in the head by a Navy SEAL. Holy s**t. Perfect. Epic.

There’s really only one thing that can be said in this situation, and it’s said in the following video. Which — warning! — contains profanity. As it must:

Also… fans at the Phillies-Mets game react to the news:

Awesome.

Speaking of “U-S-A” … now I can stop cringing whenever I hear Bush’s awesome Ground Zero speech near the end of my 9/11 anthem. It was the high-point of his presidency, a truly transcendent moment of leadership, but its key line — “and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon” — rang increasingly hollow as the years dragged on with the attacks’ mastermind still at large. Now, at long last, we have justice. It wasn’t “soon,” but Bin Laden heard us. And he’ll hear nothing else ever again, the God-damned evil bastard.

Speaking of which, amid the joy of this history moment, let’s not forget why we all hate this guy so much that normally even-keeled, non-bloodthirsty people are cheering, chanting and generally rejoicing at his departure from the world of the living. Via Sully. As I’ve said before, don’t avert your eyes:

P.S. Check out this New York Times photo:

After the jump, some memorable tweets from this evening. (WARNING: PROFANITY!) But first, one more thing. Take it away, Boss:

Continue reading →