I'm down for the reading session with Osama

[Michael Bailey]

 Edward A Moore wrote:

> [Osama] converts to pacifism and becomes a prominent spokesperson against all
> forms of violence. =A0He donates his massive holdings to Oxfam and NORML
> and appears on Colbert. =A0No, maybe Stewart...guest shot on 30 Rock...I
> give him a kidney...
>
>
> Huzzah! I would like to humbly suggest some "Golden Bough" and possibly
> later some selected passages from "Satanic Verses" but I would be afraid ole
> "Sammy" (I anglicized Osama's name) might roll his eyeballs (or worse he might
> make us read his personal library)
>

We know he at least heard of William Blum's book _Killing Hope_
(http://killinghope.org/) mentioned in one of his videos did he not?
or was it Chomsky?
You 'member that?  Osama mentions it in his video, like 2004 or 5 or
so, and sales of that book whatever it was, went way way up...

> I would let Michael be point man on the discussion because of my apprehension
> of being agent provacateur ("what ed really meant to say was. . . .")

well, if there was some kind of way to hang with him?
I mean he was kind of a rock star of terrorism
but let's say one of his SUVs broke down, we (you and I, Ed) could
show up like Vato and Blood, take him back to his compound, get
invited in

>
> It would have been neat to have Osama on our "Recognitions" forum but
> I doubt he
> would have had the patience. . .
>

the Muslim tradition does include a strong studious strain although I
gather he was more of a man of action, but he would at least have to
pay lip service to intellectual discussion.

It's interesting just as an intellectual exercise to think about
forgery in TR and forgery in the case of Osama...

I mean, *just as a hypothesis* - not as an excuse to lurch into some
kind of militia activity, or even as a justification for cynicism
about government, but what if he was totally a creature of the CIA?

Somebody must have fed him the Blum title, n'est ca pas?  Who better -
who really reads that stuff most attentively (just like Sinisterre
read Counterfeit Detectors Monthly) - who reads the revolutionary and
anti-imperialist stuff with a fine-grained focus?  gotta be the CIA!
My anarchist friend back in Kansas was saying that the various flower
revolutions were undoubtedly backed by the CIA but used tactics drawn
from anarchist theory...

And Osama, well, he was the by-goddest rabbit I ever damn saw!
(which if you remember on page 21, it was a toy rabbit)

(which sort of feeds back into my mechanical rabbit analogy, so I must
be starting to be influenced by Gaddis?)