“On nights like this one, we can say that justice has been done”: President Barack Obama, just a few minutes ago, announcing the death of Osama bin Laden.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
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Michael Leddy“Orange Crate Art” is a song by Van Dyke Parks and the title of a 1995 album by Van Dyke Parks and Brian Wilson. “Orange Crate Art” is for me one of the great American songs: “Orange crate art was a place to start.”
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
“Who are we as a country?”
Michael Leddy
Don’t look for premiums or
coupons, as the cost of
the thoughts blended in
ORANGE CRATE ART pro-
hibits the use of them.
Comments are welcome, appended to posts or by e-mail. I moderate comments to keep out spam, so please be patient.
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Words to live by
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in the face of certain defeat.
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
*
Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
*
Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
*
Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
*
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
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I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
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I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try
Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
*
L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
*
Νέος ἐφ’ ἡμέρῃ ἥλιος. [The sun is new every day.]
Heraclitus
*
Every day is a new deal.
Harvey Pekar, “Alice Quinn”
*
Nos plus grandes craintes, comme nos plus grandes espérances, ne sont pas au-dessus de nos forces, et nous pouvons finir par dominer les unes et réaliser les autres. [Our worst fears, like our greatest hopes, are not outside our powers, and we can come in the end to triumph over the former and to achieve the latter.]
Marcel Proust, Finding Time Again
*
Surely, in the light of history, it is more intelligent to hope rather than to fear, to try rather than not to try.
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living
*
I don’t really deeply feel that anyone needs an airtight reason for quoting from the works of writers he loves, but it’s always nice, I’ll grant you, if he has one.
J.D. Salinger, Seymour: An Introduction
*
I’m not afraid to get it right
I turn around and I give it
one more try
Sufjan Stevens, “Jacksonville”
*
L’attention est la forme la plus rare et la plus pure de la générosité. [Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.]
Simone Weil, in a letter
#1 hit
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Nancy, October 19, 1950.
comments: 6
Michael - Do you agree that assassination is justice? That sentencing without trial is justice? I love your blog but this post puzzles me.
Best regards,
Melanie
I feel no impulse to whoop and cheer and holler over bin Laden’s death, or anyone’s death, but I think it’s reasonable to say that bin Laden was never going to allow himself to be taken alive.
This has been troubling me: all of the cheering and celebrating; the reporters licking their lips over the 'double tap;' the glee.
A human life was necessarily taken (actually--more than one, but no details as yet) and it was a significant killing, but I would rather not see this level of in-your-face reaction. I hope not to see the tragedy extended.
Winner of peace nobel prize sends hit squad. Welcome to barbarism.
Even our chancellor (Merkel of Germany) has expressed her joy at Osama Bin Laden's death.
No, that's just not what I expect in the 21st century, at least not in the so-called civilized countries.
I agree that he was not going to allow himself to be taken alive. It was evident, by using his wife as a human shield, that he was not going to allow her to be taken alive either.
Assassination!? Not in my way of thinking, no more than the 3000+ men, women and children he was responsible for killing in New York on 9/11. Was that assassination or was it his way of thanking us for helping when they were in war with Russia?
Stop and think of the other deaths he was responsible for, all over the world. Were those assassinations or just a friendly reminder that evil still existed in this world.
Osama bin Laden and his henchmen have brought untold suffering to the American people, and without doubt, the culprits deserve the most severe punishment. However, I would have preferred an approach which is more appropriate to a civilized world but maybe a looming danger or the need for self-defense have made that strike necessary.
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