Tomorrow is great. I intone unto you in a soothing voice "Begin new ventures with the new sun, for new growth" or some shit.

You are kickin' ass, smonster.

I ate the brownie. I think I will ride the sugar high to put away laundry, then put away myself for the night!

Dang. I unplug from the Internet for long enough to eat a ton of Russian food and watch Perkins play slots and this is what happens? Yay free market, I guess.

Erin, for all that the technology changes, I'm not really sure that fundamental human nature does.

Yeah, and the practical aspect of a head on a pike in a pre-media world suddenly became very chillingly clear to me.

And the laundry is put away, and I will have a cute outfit tomorrow. Maybe I'll have a theme: Cut outfit days, last month of teaching.

On that shallow, shallow note, I am off to unplug. Good night, all.

From The Atlantic:

I asked a friend stationed in Islamabad what the neighborhood of Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was killed is like. "It's actually a town outside of Isloo, maybe 1.5-2 hours away, depending on traffic," he emailed, using a nickname for Islamabad. "It's an old British military garrison town, a hill station. Quite nice. Heavy Pak mil presence."

So, basically Pakistan gave him up. I have a feeling this had more to do with State Department pressure than intel.

More confirmation it was a Navy SEAL strike. Which makes more sense since they recovered the body.

But dag, Pakistan must've known forever that he was right there two hours from Islamabad.

Here's the deets on the Operation from ABC News:

*********

Osama Bin Laden was killed not by a drone strike, but up close during a firefight with U.S. troops. He was not living in a cave when he died, but in a million-dollar mansion with seven-foot walls just 40 miles from the Pakistani capital, where U.S. forces killed him Sunday.

The U.S. had been monitoring the compound in Abbottabad for months after receiving a tip in August that Bin Laden might be seeking shelter there. He had long been said to be in the mountainous region along the Afghanistan, Pakistan border, hiding in a cave as the U.S. sought to kill him with drone strikes from above. Instead, he was in a house eight times larger than its neighbors, with a seven-foot wall and valued at $1 million. The house had no phone of television and the residents burned their trash. The house had high windows and few points of access, and U.S. officials concluded it had been built to hide someone.

According to U.S. officials, two U.S. helicopters swept into the compound at 1:30 and 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. Twenty to 25 U.S. Navy Seals under the command of the Joint Special Operations Command in cooperation with the CIA stormed the compound and engaged Bin Laden and his men in a firefight, killed Bin Laden and all those with him.

Two Bin Laden couriers were killed, as was one of Osama Bin Laden's son, as was a woman reportedly used as a shield by one of the men. Other women and children were present in the compound, according to Pakistani officials, but were not harmed. U.S. officials said that Bin Laden himself did fire his weapon during the fight.

One of the U.S. helicopters was damaged but not destroyed during the operation, and U.S. forces elected to destroy it themselves with explosives.

The Americans took Bin Laden's body into custody after the firefight and confirmed his identity. According to a senior administration official, the U.S. is "ensuring it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. It's something we take seriously and therefore it's being handled in an appropriate manner."

According to Pakistani officials, the operation was a joint U.S.-Pakistani operation, but U.S. officials said only U.S. personnel were involved in the raid.

Wow. That's crazy.

Well, progress is being made in the Great Housecleaning, in the long and noble tradition of My People, i.e., right before houseguest show up. There are beds for them to sleep in. There is a bathroom with a light in it, albeit admittedly a worklight. There is food in pantry and fridge, and progress is being made on the Kitchen of Doom.

Everyone has arrived in Albuquerque and are now being fed, so it'll be a good five hours before they get here still, even if they make it tonight. Given how long the SO's been at it, I really wish they'd stay over.

Oy vey. The conservatives on FB are making me weep for their sheer stupidity.

If that same exact speech had come out of GWB's mouth, there would be NO bitching about the use of the word "I" by our commander-in-chief. You dolts, he IS the CIC; of COURSE he ordered the mission. If he didn't, then your precious military buddies are just mercenaries who acted without orders. And that, my friends, is a court-martial-able offense according to the UCMJ.

Eh. There was enough "I" coming out of the speech that it squicked me a little. If the Seals did it, it would have been nice to say the Seals did it. I don't have a big problem with it for the reasons you mentioned, but some of the phrasing did make me squirm a bit.

Okay, entry, living room, sunroom, dining room, guest bedroom, guest bath: all done, excepting a few items of laundry. Kitchen: dishes mostly done. Need to clear the counters, put away clean, wash the last. Gather up trash. Relocate recyclables. Clear deck. That'll be all the public spaces. And I still have a good 3 hours left. So I could conceivably get to the studio & work on the bedroom. Office will probably still be a mess. Although maybe I could quickly shove some stuff in the office closet? I think I'll do that. It's not like I'm getting up in the attic this week anyway.