half of the time we're gone but we don't know where

Osama bin Laden killed yesterday. It's all people are talking about, justifiably so, but they're talking about pride and happiness and relief and closure, and I don't have any feelings resembling pride or happiness or relief or closure (speaking of course as someone who lives an ocean away from the United States of America). Osama bin Laden being killed won't make terrorism go out of style. Get the boss and a new boss will jump up to take over his job, kill the replacement and someone will replace him*, repeat until fade. This probably goes without saying, but: you can't get rid of terrorism without getting rid of whatever's there that makes people think that terrorism is a Good Thing to begin with, and since we're talking about prospective suicide bombers and the like that won't be done by killing the boss. In that way Osama bin Laden being killed doesn't change a thing, except in people's minds. Which is where the important battles are won, anyway.

*Presumably him- this is al-Qaeda we're talking about, after all.

It's not quite the same as if GMA were convicted of plunder and imprisoned, because terrorists have ideologies to stick to, small things like losing your life be damned. It's not: this is what we can do to you, so watch out. (Well, it is, but it won't work.) It is: you are not our problem anymore. It is: what you did ten years ago, you can't do again. It is: dragons can be beaten. We can beat dragons. In a manner of speaking.

---

Lighter note:

I FOUND IT. I FOUND IT. THE 2007 UPDATED EDITION. FULLY BOOKED, YOU ARE A GODSEND. AN ABSOLUTE GODSEND.

OF COURSE THE COVER PICTURE ON MY EDITION IS MARCO TARDELLI SCREAMING. AND PABLITO. DEAR DARLING PABLITO.*

*My irrational attachment to that Italian national team- the World Cup-winning 1982 side- is even more of an irrational attachment than my other irrational attachments to teams. I never really got to see them play, and I never got to follow them. But my dad, like me, was, broadly speaking, a World Cup convert. My World Cup was 2010 and the winner was Spain, and my club team is Barcelona**. His World Cup was 1982 and the winner was Italy, and his club team was Juventus. I knew about that Italian national team- about Paolo Rossi's hattrick against what was afterwards considered the best Brazil side not to have won a World Cup, about Marco Tardelli screaming his heart out after scoring the second goal in the final against West Germany- before I cared what a World Cup was, or rather before I cared about football.

(My dad officially stopped following football in 2006. We all know what happened in 2006.)

**This is why you cannot talk about Arsenal in relation to a national team: our back line is French plus one Swiss, our midfield is Spanish French Russian English Welsh Cameroonian, our forwards are Dutch English Moroccan Danish, and our goalkeepers are Polish plus Lehmann.

half of the time we're gone but we don't know where

Osama bin Laden killed yesterday. It's all people are talking about, justifiably so, but they're talking about pride and happiness and relief and closure, and I don't have any feelings resembling pride or happiness or relief or closure (speaking of course as someone who lives an ocean away from the United States of America). Osama bin Laden being killed won't make terrorism go out of style. Get the boss and a new boss will jump up to take over his job, kill the replacement and someone will replace him*, repeat until fade. This probably goes without saying, but: you can't get rid of terrorism without getting rid of whatever's there that makes people think that terrorism is a Good Thing to begin with, and since we're talking about prospective suicide bombers and the like that won't be done by killing the boss. In that way Osama bin Laden being killed doesn't change a thing, except in people's minds. Which is where the important battles are won, anyway.

*Presumably him- this is al-Qaeda we're talking about, after all.

It's not quite the same as if GMA were convicted of plunder and imprisoned, because terrorists have ideologies to stick to, small things like losing your life be damned. It's not: this is what we can do to you, so watch out. (Well, it is, but it won't work.) It is: you are not our problem anymore. It is: what you did ten years ago, you can't do again. It is: dragons can be beaten. We can beat dragons. In a manner of speaking.

---

Lighter note:

I FOUND IT. I FOUND IT. THE 2007 UPDATED EDITION. FULLY BOOKED, YOU ARE A GODSEND. AN ABSOLUTE GODSEND.

OF COURSE THE COVER PICTURE ON MY EDITION IS MARCO TARDELLI SCREAMING. AND PABLITO. DEAR DARLING PABLITO.*

*My irrational attachment to that Italian national team- the World Cup-winning 1982 side- is even more of an irrational attachment than my other irrational attachments to teams. I never really got to see them play, and I never got to follow them. But my dad, like me, was, broadly speaking, a World Cup convert. My World Cup was 2010 and the winner was Spain, and my club team is Barcelona**. His World Cup was 1982 and the winner was Italy, and his club team was Juventus. I knew about that Italian national team- about Paolo Rossi's hattrick against what was afterwards considered the best Brazil side not to have won a World Cup, about Marco Tardelli screaming his heart out after scoring the second goal in the final against West Germany- before I cared what a World Cup was, or rather before I cared about football.

(My dad officially stopped following football in 2006. We all know what happened in 2006.)

**This is why you cannot talk about Arsenal in relation to a national team: our back line is French plus one Swiss, our midfield is Spanish French Russian English Welsh Cameroonian, our forwards are Dutch English Moroccan Danish, and our goalkeepers are Polish plus Lehmann.