The First Saturday Of May Thinking About Osama Bin Laden's Home Movies

The first Saturday of May appears to have dawned with a clear blue sky. Even though the sun only recently arrived it has already heated it up out there to 67 degrees, heading to a predicted high of 88.

Tomorrow the predicted high is only 6 degrees short of the century mark.

This morning's Osama bin Laden new news is he made home movies whilst in his sanctuary compound. These are going to be released for the world's viewing pleasure.

Let's just hope none of the bin Laden home movies are of the Paris Hilton sort. That man was a prolific breeder with his multiple wives. I'm sure it got really boring in that Pakistani compound at times.

I've noticed that when Osama bin Laden returned to being the top news story that many of the news sources changed the spelling of his first name from Osama to Usama. I suspect this was done due to the first name similarity of Osama and Obama.

Poor ol' tongue-tied Rush Limbaugh has been having himself a terrible time mixing up Osama and Obama. If only Osama had been Usama from the start, pronounced, You-Som-A, there would be none of this chronic mix up with Obama.

I think I will go swimming now and try my best not to think about Osama bin Laden, Rush Limbaugh or home movies.

Osama's Bin Laden's Dead- This One's for You, East Brunswick 8

I was among the last people in the New York- New Jersey megalopolis to learn of the death of the mass murderer- mastermind of the 9/11 attacks Osama Bin Laden. Last night I went through my usual Sunday night routine, catching Game of Thrones on HBO at 9:00pm and Treme at 10:00. I found myself nodding off at 11:00, and I started sawing logs soon afterwards About 4:00am I woke up and turned off the TV, still tuned to HBO.

At 7:00 AM I got up, made coffee.....I put on channel 11 where I saw anchor Laurie Dhue talking about the death of Osama Bin Laden. And my jaw dropped.

I watched the celebration at Ground Zero, and the party atmosphere in front of the White House, and the elation at West Point. This was one of the moments you remember for the rest of your life....the Boogie Man who killed 3,000 of our friends and neighbors was dead, shot through the eye like Moe Green, and sleeping with the fishes like Luca Brazzi.

Well done Navy Seals, CIA, and all who executed this operation. And  well done Mr President, and to your administration, for getting it done with surgical precision.

To any clown that suggests that Democrats hate America and are soft on national defense, I have to say the only thing "soft" in such people are their brains.

In the afternoon I took a ride over to the municipal building to give East Brunswick (NJ) their check for the right to live there (aka "tax day"). Upon leaving I took a walk over to East Brunswick's 9/11 monument.

As you can see, the East Brunswick memorial consists of black twin towers. On the left the names Siew Nya Ang, Susan Blair, Paul W. Innella, and Hweider Jian are engraved. The right tower lists Alan David Kleinberg, Stuart Louis, Suzanne Passaro, and Kenneth W. VanAuken etched in the black granite.

They are the East Brunswick 8, township residents who died on that horrible day nearly 10 years ago. I knew none of them personally, but in a community like ours its easy to find people who knew them or their families. These eight, and nearly 3,000 others died in a fiery inferno that collapsed around them- if they weren't incinerated alive they were crushed by tens of tons of falling debris, squeezing the life from them. They must have died horribly. Osama Bin Laden met his demise instantly and literally never knew what hit him. It was much too quick....but at least he was gone.

And hopefully the sharks in the Arabian Sea are eating well tonight.

I snapped several pictures of the monument.....and paused for a few seconds of silence. And then I spoke to The Eight.....

"They got the son of a bitch."

A memorable day indeed.

Under An Umbrella In A Downpour At Fosdic Lake Pondering Rush Limbaugh Heaping Praise On President Obama

You are with me under an umbrella, in a downpour, looking at Fosdic Lake in Oakland Lake Park, today around noon.

I rather enjoyed walking in the rain under an umbrella. I've not done that all that often in Texas.  Lightning striking made me a little nervous, but the rumbling thunder was slightly in the distance, so I felt slightly safe.

I have been having myself a wet day today. This morning I said I did not think I'd go swimming. And then the rain went into downpour mode, making it suddenly seem fun to go out in it in my swimming suit to go swimming in the rain.

The pool water was quite a bit warmer than the incoming rain and the temperature of the air. Was very pleasant. Except usually I do not get wet from the neck up. That was not possible today.

When the thunder started booming, as I was walking, and the rain started pouring real hard, I thought taking some video might be interesting. I just uploaded a YouTube video of today's walk in the rain.

But, before I get to that, one very strange thing happened today. I turn on my radio to WBAP/96.7, at a bit past 11, to listen to the opening of the Rush Limbaugh show. This is part of my aerobic routine, because usually I find him annoying, which raises my blood pressure. I think.

I was curious how Rush was going to spin the killing of Bin Laden and somehow make Obama a bad guy.

Well, first off, Rush had the same problem I just had. When I typed Obama, it came out Osama. Over and over again Rush made that mistake and then corrected himself, eventually saying he needed to refer to the guy as Bin Laden and end the problem. And then a few seconds later, made the mistake again.

Here's a blurb from today's Limbaugh email newsletter...

"We need to sincerely congratulate President Obama.  He has done something extremely effective -- and when he does, it needs to be pointed out.  He has continued the Bush policies of keeping a military presence in the Middle East.  He did not scrub the mission to get Osama Bin Laden."  -Rush

The above is a mild version of how effusive Rush was in his praising of Obama. I kept waiting for the sarcastic twist, that never came. Yes, Rush did get in some digs about how many times Obama used the words "I" and "me" in his message from the White House last night.

My reaction to the Osama news was odd. I think because it's been such a long time he's been the world's most wanted man. The news seemed somehow anti-climatic. I'd long gotten over the shock of 9/11. So much has happened since then. A lot of it not good. And now Bin Laden is finally dead.

I'm thinking what happened last night is just the start of a new chapter that may take us to some disturbing new places we don't really want to go.

And now my disturbing video of walking in the rain with lightning strikes...

The 2nd Day Of May Thinking About Killing Osama Bin Laden & Not Going Swimming Because Of Rain, Record Cold & Lightning

Well. This morning I finally checked the news to see a headline I've been expecting to see for almost a decade.

Osama bin Laden is dead.

I think I would have preferred captured, tried and sentenced to some miserable forced labor. But I can see there is some efficiency and expediency in shooting him in the head and dumping his body in the ocean.

Switching the subject from Truth, Justice and the American Way, we are heading to a predicted record low of 43 degrees today on this second day of May.

You can not really tell it from the view from my primary outlook on the world, but it is raining hard right now. And only 45 degrees. I'm thinking this may be a day when I decide not to go swimming in the morning.

This is being a stereotypical Western Washington winter day today here in North Texas. So far.

45 degrees, thunderstorm, with the wind chill making it feel like it is 33. Yes, this does not sound like ideal swimming conditions this morning.