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Apparently Bin Laden is dead.

Discussion in 'Off-Topic' started by Jackalope, May 1, 2011.

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Torx Indigenous Nudist

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when i saw that i almost creamed my pants.

looks like nothing i or anyone else has ever seen before.
a 5+ tail rotor system protected by a shield of sorts?
supposedly silver painted to deflect IR or whatever.

more pics here
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1433965&highlight=stealth helicopter
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/05/army-mission-helocopter-was-secret-stealth-black-hawk-050411/

There are probably people in the Pentagon tonight who are very concerned that pieces of the helicopter may be, even now, on their way to China, because we know that China is trying to make stealth aircraft," he said. The Chinese military is known to have a close relationship with the Pakistani military.
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Torx, May 4, 2011

#101
Mince Never Dice, Always Mince!

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Torxx.... I did not read your jibba gabba... fuck this thead... on behalf of fedEx... fuck this thread!!

Mince, May 4, 2011

#102
Sparky ¿sdooɥʍ

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[QUOTE="A Friend's Facebook Status]Osama bin Laden is standing before God waiting to hear his punishment, when God gets a tap on the shoulder. Behind him stands 343 firefighters, 72 police officers, one K9 officer, 3,000 American citizens & over 5,000 soldiers. "Don't worry, God, we got this!" Copy and re-post[/QUOTE]
*facepalm*

Sparky, May 4, 2011

#103
Commissar Smersh HODL Staff Member

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Sparky said: ↑

*facepalm*
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Sparky said: ↑

*facepalm*
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How did you double post 22 minutes apart?

Commissar Smersh, May 4, 2011

#104
ninefivezero infinite resolution

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So I just found out about this yesterday. I was camping for a few days and picked up a Nepali newspaper when I got back. I was reading a short article about falling oil prices and there was a one sentence reference to it. At first I wasn't really sure if it was real, then a few pages on there was more coverage of it.

Pretty crazy story. Took ten freaking years to find the guy and sure changed the world, amazing. My first thought was 'Good, finally' but I sure wish we had gotten him alive...

lol at all the jokes though, classic.

ninefivezero, May 5, 2011

#105
MSP Haunting a dead forum...

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Commissar Smersh said: ↑

How did you double post 22 minutes apart?
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DRUGS!!!

MSP, May 5, 2011

#106
mistawiskas kik n a and takin names

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Time warp

mistawiskas, May 5, 2011

#107
Sparky ¿sdooɥʍ

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Bad university wireless

and drugs

Sparky, May 5, 2011

#108
Commissar Smersh HODL Staff Member

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Sparky said: ↑

Bad university wireless
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I think bad is an understatement here.

and drugs
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oh I see now

Commissar Smersh, May 5, 2011

#109
Commissar Smersh HODL Staff Member

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Now for some real content.

I thought this piece was an interesting commentary:

What 'Situation Room Photo' reveals about us

(CNN) -- By now, the photo is a classic. It's become the most viewed image on the online site Flickr -- a mesmerizing picture that suggests as much as it reveals.

You may know it simply as the "Situation Room Photo," but you may not be aware of what some say are three subliminal messages that make it so powerful and unusual.

The photo captures President Barack Obama huddled with his national security team in the White House Situation Room as they monitor via live video the capture and killing of Osama bin Laden.

Most commentators have focused on the historic nature of the photo: Obama staring at the screen with a grim intensity; Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, covering her mouth to repress her reaction -- the epicenter of U.S. military power hunting down its most hated foe.

But look deeper and that photo becomes historic in a more subtle way. It's a snapshot of how much this nation's attitudes about race, women and presidential swagger are changing, several scholars and historians say.

"The photo is visually suggestive of a new American landscape that we're still crossing into," says Saladin Ambar, a political science professor at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

"When Obama was elected, there were some people who thought that we had crossed a racial threshold," Ambar says. "What his presidency is revealing is that there are many crossings."

A black man becomes 'protector in chief'

The photo crosses one threshold of race in its unusual framing of an African-American man threatening violence, one black commentator says.

For much of U.S. history, the black man has often been portrayed as the threat to America's safety -- the angry man, the thug, the one you cross the street to avoid, says Cheryl Contee, co-founder of Jack & Jill Politics, a blog focused on current affairs from a black perspective.

But in the Situation Room photo, Contee says, the black man is America's protector.

There's no historical precedent for this image, she says. White Americans now see a black man not just as their president but their "protector in chief," Contee says.

"That photo is amazing," she says. "It's another step toward rehabilitation of the image of black men in American culture. It's going to forever impact how people see black men in America."

The photo also resolves a tricky image problem for Obama, says Jerald Podair, a history professor at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Podair says Obama has always been careful to avoid the angry black male stereotype in his public persona, but has acquired another image -- that of detachment, even weakness.

The photo of Obama hunkered down with his national security team watching the stalking and killing of bin Laden solves both problems, Podair says.

"He can now appear strong without being threatening. After all, he's on our side. Obama can now take up his white predecessors' mantle of 'protector in chief,' " Podair says.

It's not certain how long that mantle will stay attached to Obama, but at least one political scientist says he's already seen the photo's impact.

"This is one of the rare times that Tea Party supporters have referred to Obama as President Obama," says Ari Kohen, an associate professor of social justice and political science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Women at the center of power

The photo also breaks ground when it comes to women, others say.

The image is laced with testosterone: a crowded room full of powerful military and political men, some with medals bristling across their uniforms, gathered to drop America's hammer.

Some online viewers compared it to the photos of D-Day during World War II. Another said it was a portrait of "the nexus of power in the Western world."

But there were no iconic shots of women storming the beaches of Normandy or raising the flag at Iwo Jima.

Go back and examine the defining historic photos of American military might in action, and women are absent, historians say.

A glance at the now famous photos of President John F. Kennedy and his staff during the Cuban missile crisis is typical, says Ambar, the Lehigh University professor.

The photos show square-jawed men in crew cuts and uniforms surrounding Kennedy in the White House. You can practically smell the Aqua Velva in those old black-and-white photos.

"But if you go back and look at the Cuban missile crisis photos and the movies about it, there's no women," Ambar says. "In the movie 'Thirteen Days,' the only woman in the film was Kennedy's secretary."

Yet you see two powerful women in the Situation Room photograph -- Clinton and Audrey Tomason, director for counterterrorism, who is straining to see from the back. Their inclusion shows how far women have come, Ambar says, even though Clinton's response is ambiguous because she's covering her mouth in what looks to be alarm.

"God only knows what she's seeing on the screen," Ambar says. (Clinton has since said she was trying not to cough.)

Lori Brown, a sociologist, says showing two women at the center of American military power is noteworthy, but Clinton's gesture undermines some of its impact.

"Women are often more physical in their emotional responses and in a 'power situation' it may not seem as acceptable, but times are changing and the Situation Room needs to change, too," says Brown, a professor of sociology at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina. "Her emotions were more obvious, but I am sure many of the men in the room felt the same way she did."

Obama gets a little swagger

The photo finally crosses the threshold of what may be called presidential swagger, historians say.

American presidents have traditionally sold themselves as our alpha male. Theodore Roosevelt went safari hunting; Ronald Reagan cleared brush at his ranch in a cowboy hat; George W. Bush did his "Top Gun" imitation when he donned a flight suit on the deck of an aircraft carrier.

"There's a certain kind of machismo and swagger that Americans expect their president to reflect," says Clarence Lusane, author of "The Black History of the White House."

Projecting that presidential swagger was so powerful that it obscured some president's serious illnesses, such as President Franklin Roosevelt's polio and Kennedy's hobbling assortment of aliments, including a bad back, Lusane says.

"They were both very ill. Kennedy could barely stand for two hours. But they never let those images out because they had to project toughness. Obama, though, is a different animal."

The photo shows why.

If someone didn't know who Obama was, he or she probably couldn't tell that he was the president in the room, some scholars say.

"He's not in the tallest chair," says Brown, the sociology professor at Meredith College. "He's not the center of attention. He's not even in the middle of the room."

Yet Obama's willingness to be photographed without the typical Oval Office swagger gives birth to a new type of swagger, says Contee of Jack & Jill Politics.

She says that photo shows Obama's self-assurance and leadership style. He seeks out the opinions of his advisers. He believes in collaboration -- all while he's taking down the baddest terrorist on the planet.

He doesn't need to wear a "Top Gun" flight jacket to project strength, she says.

"You would almost expect the president to be standing in that position," she says. "That shows his leadership style. He doesn't need to thrust his leadership style forward."

Expect more snapshots such as the one from the Situation Room, says Ambar, the Lehigh University professor.

As Obama moves into the third year of his term, photos will capture moments that show how far we've come.

"That's part of what being the first African-American president is all about -- we're all being transformed together," he says.

Ambar says he was so intrigued by the Situation Room photo that he cut it out to study it. He's still parsing its meaning.

"It is an image unimaginable 30 years ago," he says. "Let us hope we have more of these in the nation's future."
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Commissar Smersh, May 5, 2011

#110
MSP Haunting a dead forum...

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I personally think folks are reading too much into the photo. I for one don't see color at all, I just see a room full of people. Obama not being seated in the center, or in the tallest chair, is just his style. He doesn't appear to be one of those people who are hung up on that sort of thing.

And Hillary's reaction? She may be the most cunning and calculating person in the room. She was very aware of the camera, and was projecting the image that she wanted to be in the photo.

MSP, May 5, 2011

#111
tex jive turkey

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I'm surprised they dont have a bigger situation room

tex, May 5, 2011

#112
Goofus Maximus Too old to be this dumb!

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I have to wonder why Obama isn't the one in the big cushy chair!

Also, what are those pictures lying on the desk?

Goofus Maximus, May 5, 2011

#113
Scrubbin_Bubbles I'm dead inside.

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They look like overhead views of the compound..

Scrubbin_Bubbles, May 5, 2011

#114
mistawiskas kik n a and takin names

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/06/us-obama-statement-idUSTRE74107920110506

mistawiskas, May 6, 2011

#115
Goofus Maximus Too old to be this dumb!

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They were supposedly watching it live. Where is this "fog of war" from, for such ridiculously different accounts?

Goofus Maximus, May 6, 2011

#116
ninefivezero infinite resolution

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A U.S. drone killed 17 in northwest Pakistan, despite warnings from the Pakistani military against the mounting of attacks within its borders.
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Wow, we just don't give a fuck about Pakistans wishes, haha. You have to wonder what that strike was hitting...

One of Osama bin Laden's wives, Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, told Pakistani interrogators the al Qaeda leader had been living for five years in the compound where he was killed by U.S. forces this week, a Pakistani security official told Reuters.
The revelation appeared sure to heighten U.S. suspicions that Pakistani authorities have been either grossly incompetent or playing a double game in the hunt for bin Laden and the two countries' supposed partnership against violent Islamism.
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Double wow.

ninefivezero, May 6, 2011

#117
Goofus Maximus Too old to be this dumb!

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Too bad you missed being in India as this is happening. I bet they're happily celebrating this sudden souring of relations between the US and Pakistan!

Goofus Maximus, May 6, 2011

#118
ninefivezero infinite resolution

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LOL, at one point I was thinking of visiting Pakistan, now that would be an interesting time to be there

ninefivezero, May 6, 2011

#119
Torx Indigenous Nudist

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religion. IT KILLS.

Torx, May 6, 2011

#120
Goofus Maximus Too old to be this dumb!

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Religion doesn't kill people! PEOPLE kill people! Brought to you by the NRA: The National Religion Association, promoting the responsible use of religion!

Goofus Maximus, May 6, 2011

#121
ninefivezero infinite resolution

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Good read: http://www.nationaljournal.com/magazine/the-cost-of-bin-laden-3-trillion-over-15-years-20110505

The most expensive public enemy in American history died Sunday from two bullets.

As we mark Osama bin Laden’s death, what’s striking is how much he cost our nation—and how little we’ve gained from our fight against him. By conservative estimates, bin Laden cost the United States at least $3 trillion over the past 15 years, counting the disruptions he wrought on the domestic economy, the wars and heightened security triggered by the terrorist attacks he engineered, and the direct efforts to hunt him down.

What do we have to show for that tab? Two wars that continue to occupy 150,000 troops and tie up a quarter of our defense budget; a bloated homeland-security apparatus that has at times pushed the bounds of civil liberty; soaring oil prices partially attributable to the global war on bin Laden’s terrorist network; and a chunk of our mounting national debt, which threatens to hobble the economy unless lawmakers compromise on an unprecedented deficit-reduction deal.

All of that has not given us, at least not yet, anything close to the social or economic advancements produced by the battles against America’s costliest past enemies. Defeating the Confederate army brought the end of slavery and a wave of standardization—in railroad gauges and shoe sizes, for example—that paved the way for a truly national economy. Vanquishing Adolf Hitler ended the Great Depression and ushered in a period of booming prosperity and hegemony. Even the massive military escalation that marked the Cold War standoff against Joseph Stalin and his Russian successors produced landmark technological breakthroughs that revolutionized the economy.
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ninefivezero, May 9, 2011

#122
HEAVY-D Eh?!

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Goofus Maximus said: ↑

Religion doesn't kill people! PEOPLE kill people! Brought to you by the NRA: The National Religion Association, promoting the responsible use of religion!
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Sign me up!

HEAVY-D, May 9, 2011

#123
ivwshane We are all old school!

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Thanks to Bush Bin Laden was the real winner. Osama stated his goal was to bankrupt America and on almost all of his tapes he went off on something that had to do with money. Bush played right into his hands.

ivwshane, May 9, 2011

#124
ivanolo Guest

It's a shallow victory. It feels good that the mastermind behind 9/11 is finally dead. Justice has been served and all that crap. But another person will take his place.

ivanolo, May 9, 2011

#125

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