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For decades, we have held in contempt those who actively celebrate death. When we’ve seen video footage of foreigners cheering terrorist attacks against America, we have ignored their insistence that they are celebrating merely because we have occupied their nations and killed their people. Instead, we have been rightly disgusted -- not only because they are lauding the death of our innocents, but because, more fundamentally, they are celebrating death itself. That latter part had been anathema to a nation built on the presumption that life is an "unalienable right."
But in the years since 9/11, we have begun vaguely mimicking those we say we despise, sometimes celebrating bloodshed against those we see as Bad Guys just as vigorously as our enemies celebrate bloodshed against innocent Americans they (wrongly) deem as Bad Guys. Indeed, an America that once carefully refrained from flaunting gruesome pictures of our victims for fear of engaging in ugly death euphoria now ogles pictures of Uday and Qusay’s corpses, rejoices over images of Saddam Hussein’s hanging and throws a party at news that bin Laden was shot in the head. Read more at salon.com.
Killing of Bin Laden: What Are the Consequences?
By Glenn Greenwald
...I'd have strongly preferred that Osama bin Laden be captured rather than killed so that he could be tried for his crimes and punished in accordance with due process (and to obtain presumably ample intelligence). But if he in fact used force to resist capture, then the U.S. military was entitled to use force against him, the way American police routinely do against suspects who use violence to resist capture. But those are legalities and they will be ignored even more so than usual. The 9/11 attack was a heinous and wanton slaughter of thousands of innocent civilians, and it's understandable that people are reacting with glee over the death of the person responsible for it. I personally don't derive joy or an impulse to chant boastfully at the news that someone just got two bullets put in their skull -- no matter who that someone is -- but that reaction is inevitable: it's the classic case of raucously cheering in a movie theater when the dastardly villain finally gets his due. Read more at salon.com.
Celebrating Bin Laden's Killing: It's Complicated
By Petula Dvorak
A generation of young Americans slammed the door Monday on the great big boogeyman of their childhoods with an epic woot-woot and rounds and rounds of “U.S.A.!”
At the news of Osama bin Laden’s death, thousands of people — most of them college-age and in requisite flip-floppy collegiate gear — whipped up a raucous celebration right outside the White House gates that was one part Mardi Gras and two parts Bon Jovi concert.
There were cigars, a few beers, a lacrosse-stick-turned-flagpole waved by a kid who just climbed a statue, joining others aloft in trees and atop lampposts. Well past midnight, cars zipped up and down the streets of downtown Washington with women standing up through sunroofs waving ginormous American flags and guys blowing vuvuzelas, spring break style.
It felt a little crazy, a bit much. Almost vulgar. Read more at washingtonpost.com.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/culture/2011/05/03/liberals-sickened-usa-usa-chants#ixzz1opQriRjh

Tripoli, Sunday. A Nato air strike killed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi ‘s youngest son and three grandchildren, a spokesman said today, after rebels and Nato dismissed an offer for talks to end the crisis.

The house of Seif al-Arab Gaddafi, 29 (pictured), “was attacked tonight with full power,” government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim told a news conference announcing the deaths in the Saturday evening strikes.

The Libyan strongman and his wife were in the building that was hit, but were not harmed, Ibrahim said, though others present were killed or wounded in what he deemed “a direct operation to assassinate the leader of this country.”
“The leader himself is in good health; he wasn’t harmed. His wife is also in good health; she wasn’t harmed, (but) other people were injured,” he added.

Ibrahim later said intelligence on Gaddafi’s whereabouts appeared to have been “leaked.”
“They knew about him being there, or expected him for some reason,” the spokesman said.

Nato said it had staged airstrikes in Tripoli but did not confirm the Libyan claims. There was no immediate confirmation of the deaths either. At least three missiles had been heard exploding loudly over the capital earlier as jets flew overhead.

The transatlantic military alliance “continued its precision strikes against Gaddafi  regime military installations in Tripoli overnight, including striking a known command and control building in the Bab al-Azizya neighbourhood shortly after 1800 GMT yesterday evening,” a statement said.

Automatic gunfire, apparently in mourning, echoed across the capital following the announcement, while state TV showed flag-waving demonstrators whom it said turned out to mourn Seif al-Arab’s death.

Overjoyed rebels fired rockets, Kalashnikovs, TNT and 12.5 anti-aircraft machine guns for more than a half an hour, rocking the rebel capital of Benghazi with sustained gunfire and explosions to mark the moment.

“They are so happy that Gaddafi lost his son in an air strike that they are shooting in celebration,” said Colonel Ahmed Omar Bani, military spokesman of the Libyan opposition Transitional National Council (TNC) headquartered in the eastern city.
Cars whizzed by the seafront beeping their horns as people shouted “God is greatest” below a night sky lit up by red tracer fire.

Ibrahim had earlier taken journalists to the remnants of a heavily damaged house in Tripoli, hinting but not explicitly indicating this was the one in which Gaddafi ‘s son had died.

Long, twisted rods of reinforcing steel bars stuck out of large chunks of blasted concrete lay in and around the structure. In some areas, the roof had caved in completely and walls had collapsed. A thick layer of dark grey dust covered the grounds.

Given the level of destruction, it was unclear that anyone could have survived, raising the possibility that if Gaddafi  was there, he had left beforehand.Nato vowed to stage more strikes, though the commander of Nato’s Operation Unified Protector stressed that “we do not target individuals.”

“All Nato’s targets are military in nature and have been clearly linked to the... regime’s systematic attacks on the Libyan population and populated areas,” added Lieutenant-General Charles Bouchard.
In a speech on state television yesterday, Gaddafi had said Nato “must abandon all hope of his departure.”
Artical source:-
googletrends.com

When it comes to the Royal Wedding, U.S. media outlets have out-published the Brits, according to The Nielsen Company, which analyzed online buzz in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia following the announcement of the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton in November 2010. The study of buzz on social media (blogs, message boards/groups) and traditional media finds that while the United Kingdom creates the greater overall level of consumer buzz about the Royal Wedding, the United States has the highest share of news coverage by traditional news sources, such as the online versions of newspapers and magazines.

U.S. News Media Take the Crown

Since the couple’s November 2010 engagement, there have been thousands of news posts about the Royal Wedding and its participants by U.S. news outlets, accounting for more than .3% of all news coverage immediately following the engagement and a steady stream of articles since. This share of news coverage from traditional media sources is considerably higher than in the U.K. and Australia. Given the varied number of news outlets, the share of news coverage is the best metric for comparison among the three markets; the share of news coverage by U.S. news outlets is more than twice that in the United Kingdom and Australia at the most recent measurement on April 3.

Kate vs. Prince William

Though Kate has received considerable interest online, Prince William continues to be the more popular subject of social media discussion in the United Kingdom, both by buzz volume and share of all buzz. William is also mentioned more often in the United States and Australia.
Overall the U.K. makes up a larger share of buzz about the Royal Wedding and its participants, while the more populous U.S. market had a greater volume of buzz since the engagement was announced.
Note: For the purposes of this analysis, Social Media use is defined as buzz from blogs and message boards/groups. Traditional Media includes posts/updates from the online counterparts of print and broadcast news outlets, online news publishers, industry publications, and wire services.
Article Source:- 
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/royal-wedding-buzz/

ABC News invites you to witness Prince William and Catherine Middleton exchange wedding vows after nearly a decade of courtship.
From Buckingham Palace, Diane Sawyer and Barbara Walters will anchor live coverage of the royal wedding on the ABC television network starting at 4 a.m. ET.
If you aren't near a television, no need to worry. Catch ABC's live broadcast everywhere we are: ABCNews.com, ABC News' Facebook page, your mobile phone and on the ABC News app for iPad.
ABC News is your front row seat to the royal wedding. Don't forget to visit ABCNews.com where you can watch and share your favorite videos from the best moments of the day, sign the royal guestbook to leave a note for William and Catherine and view photos from the royal wedding in our slideshows.
Plus, join the conversation and interact with ABC News on Facebook and Twitter.
David Muir will be on-air with the ABC News team to cover your reaction of this historic day. Follow him on Twitter (@DavidMuirABC) and ask him all your royal wedding day questions, share your thoughts on Catherine Middleton's dress and let us know what you think are the best #royalmess and #royalsuccess moments.
Follow @ABCRoyals, the official royal wedding Twitter from ABC News. In the week leading up to William and Catherine's big day, @ABCRoyals will be tweeting the latest royal roundup from London. On April 29th, @ABCRoyals is your source for every detail and headline from the royal wedding, as they're happening.
"Like" ABC News on Facebook to vote and tell us what you think about Queen Elizabeth's hat, the sure to be infamous wedding gown, what could go wrong at the wedding, and much more.
On Friday night, ABC News will continue to be your all access pass for all of the wedding details. Watch a special 20/20 with Barbara Walters 9/8c on ABC.
Article Source:-
http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/abc_royalprom_110415_wg.jpg

Dressed in a police uniform, Aman Mojadidi once set up a fake roadside checkpoint to hand out real money to befuddled Afghan motorists used to paying, not receiving, bribes.
Then, during last fall's parliamentary elections, the Florida-born Afghan artist took his antics a step further by covertly pasting Kabul walls with faux campaign posters that featured him in a black turban with a gold-plated pistol hanging around his neck.
"Vote for me," the posters urged. "I'm rich—and I've done jihad."
The stunts are part of a campaign the 40-year-old Afghan-American has been waging for the past three years against the excesses of the Afghan government, ranked as one of the world's most corrupt. In the process, he has become the leading agent provocateur of the nascent Afghan art scene.
"I think Aman can be a leader for Afghans in showing what provocative art can do in Afghanistan," said Tamim Samee, founder of Afghanistan's Contemporary Art Prize, a four-year-old competition meant to nurture the country's young artists.
In recent years, Mr. Mojadidi has helped train young Afghans about street graffiti, worked with Mr. Samee on the annual arts prize, and joined forces with expats who have injected a jolt of inspiration into Kabul's evolving artistic community.
"No one's doing as provocative and unusual stuff," says Nikki Diana Marquardt, Mr. Mojadidi's Paris-based art dealer.
Kabul is now home to a small-but-growing number of experimental musical acts, including a heavy metal band and a popular indie group inspired by Britain's pop sensation Oasis.
Filmmakers have used American and European government money to produce movies on everything from Afghan women prisoners to the region's unusual sport of buzkashi, under which players on horseback vie for possession of a dead goat.
Veterans of that struggle, known as mujahedeen, occupy the top rungs of power in President Hamid Karzai's administration—and many of these once-respected fighters have come under withering criticism for enriching themselves while on government service.
"Jihad," proclaims Mr. Mojadidi, "is the Afghan bling."
Mr. Mojadidi, who spent his teen years as a vegetarian, high-school dropout and surfer in Florida, most famously channeled widespread contempt for the country's corrupt leaders by adopting the persona of "Jihadi Gangster"—a comical blend of Afghan mujahedeen and American gangsta rappers.
The most controversial photograph from his "Jihadi Gangster" series—"After a Long Day's Work"—featured Mr. Mojadidi sitting on a couch in front of a gold-plated prosthetic leg and a table filled with alcohol, cashews and jade-tipped bullets.
With his black turban and golden gun hanging down below his long gray beard, Mr. Mojadidi was pictured blithely using a remote to switch TV channels as a scantily clad woman with a blue burqa covering her face fawned over her man.
The limited edition photos—one of which was auctioned off for $14,000—have caused an uproar in Kabul.
When Afghan censors saw some of the tamer photographs from the series featured in the December issue of Kabul's largest English language magazine, Afghan Scene, they angrily forced the publisher to cut out the images—literally, with scissors—from 9,000 already-printed copies.
"This is not a Muslim fighter, he is Indian or something," said government censor Abdul Raquib Jahid as he jabbed his finger at one of the banned photographs. "This is an insult—or a blasphemy—to jihad."
As it happens, Mr. Mojadidi, who sometimes describes himself as a "Southern Fried Afghan," comes from holy warrior stock himself.
His uncle, Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, was one of the country's most famous anti-Soviet mujahedeen in the 1980s, and, until recently, chaired Afghanistan's Senate. Mr. Mojadidi himself briefly traveled with his uncle's anti-Communist fighters in 1990 to the front lines in Afghanistan.
At the time, dressed in Converse sneakers and the traditional Afghan shalwar kameez, the artist even fired a couple of mortars at the Soviet-backed government's tanks outside Jalalabad. He drove back to Pakistan the next day, filled with his first jolt of conflict reality.
"I grew up saying: 'I'm Afghan,'" Mr. Mojadidi recalls. "But when I came on that trip when I was 19, I remember thinking: 'I'm not that. My experience is completely different.'"
The next time he returned to Afghanistan was in 2001, when he joined his uncle in a triumphant convoy from Pakistan to Kabul after the fall of the Taliban regime.
The uncle, Mr. Mujaddedi, who had served as interim president of Afghanistan after the fall of the Soviet-backed regime in 1992, oversaw the drafting of a new Afghan constitution.
The white-bearded Afghan leader chuckled quietly when he was first shown his nephew's photographs of the "Jihadi Gangster" series.
"I don't agree with him," Mr. Mujaddedi said while looking over the images in his office as former Taliban government officials sat nearby waiting to confer. "This will make people upset and create problems for him."
Controversy, of course, is what Mr. Mojadidi is courting. His recent run-in with Afghan censors was just the latest round of cultural shenanigans.
In his first big attempt at performance art, Mr. Mojadidi bought an Afghan police uniform in 2009 and set up a fake checkpoint on a road outside Kabul.
Some of his filmed experiment, which he called a "reverse bribe," made its way onto "Danger Bell," Afghanistan's premier political satire TV show.
With video cameras rolling, Mr. Mojadidi flagged down cars, checked their papers and then offered a personal apology—along with $2 worth of Afghan currency, a significant amount of money here—if the drivers had ever had to pay off a police officer in the past.
On the video, most of the drivers appeared perplexed and initially hesitant to take the cash, perhaps fearing it was some sort of cruel trap. But only four of the 20 drivers turned down the money.
Artical Source:-
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703916004576271262475103684.html?mod=WSJ_Ahed_LEADTop