A Geek's Viewing of Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden

The movie's okay but the
game show was better.

First things first, a family member to some of our "Geeks who write" has died. I hope everything goes well for our geeks on their trip to the funeral. And I hope their families are okay otherwise and get through this troubling time with as much ease as is possible. As such there will probably be a couple of missed posts this next week. We'll try and have some things for you though.

Second thing Ace Ebb, became our newest Geek who Reads. Welcome to you, hope you like our little slice of the internet.

Third thing, damn that's a long title. A long time ago one of our local video stores closed, no this wasn't the Blockbuster that recently closed. And I picked up a copy of Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden. I never got around to watching it.

I watched it today, because well it wasn't going to get anymore relevant, and I couldn't come up with anything useful to do with this disk. Well I know where to get a prop if I ever need to make it look like a blew up a DVD, I considered doing that for the Last Airbender review, but the library would have charged me 20 something dollars for it.

2nd in 2006, not as proud
of this one.

My first award in 2003.
My favorite thing
to put on my resume.

What can I say, at least he ended up in Pakistan at the end, "way to go Morgan you were right there". I say that but then I remember I have been in the same country as many famous and infamous people several times, so at least I have that going for me. That and being Time's Person of the Year...twice.

I was worried this movie would turn into one big joke, but actually after watching it. I'm pretty pleased with it. Osama is what ties the movie together, but really it's more about why terrorism takes place, and how Al-Qaeda can recruit so many so easily.* If you feel cheated by this, well sorry, but I assume the title and subject matter were chosen because they would get butts into the theater.

So many of the people interviewed well spoken, and hate Al-Qaeda. But are distrustful of the United States' Governments way of handling things. I'd say that's fair, we have a tendency to prop up dictators, and the money we donate doesn't make it into the right hands, so it's not surprising that so many are angry with us. When I was in Camp Bondsteel in '02-'03 many of the ethnic Albanians (Albania being a mostly Muslim country) I talked to were happy to have us around and we're about as far removed from the terrorists you saw on the news as you can imagine. They drank, their wives weren't covered from head to toe, one in particular told me about all the great Albania pop stars and how big there breasts were. When I was out in the field the kids in the villages were more interested in our technology then our weapons considering at one time I got surrounded by a pack of 30 people watching me use a device to map the area.

Here is a photo of me after a rough
day in the army.
My friends love this photo.

Sorry, I got off topic. So really the title of the movie maybe outdated, but the subject matter isn't. So if your interested in the subject you might actually want to find this movie even if it is trying to cover a complex subject in a short time, or read the book I've listed below. Thanks for reading my weird meandering thoughts. See you soon.

*If you're looking for a intelligent and well written book on this subject I suggest Terror in the Name of God by Jessica Stern. Fair warning this is about all religious extremists, including abortion clinic bombers, so if you can't look at what our own countrymen do as well this book is probably not for you.