Osama Bin Laden’s Head Turned Into An Executive Desk Toy
WE want Osama bin Laden’s head as a paperweight (What about a novelty mouse instead? Let’s move with the times – ed). Mark Steyn looks back at how executive toys have altered:
After Kitchener slaughtered the jihadists of the day at the Battle of Omdurman in 1897, he made a point of digging up their leader the Mahdi, chopping off his head and keeping it as a souvenir. The Sudanese got the message. The British had nary a peep out of the joint until they gave it independence six decades later – and, indeed, the locals fought for King and (distant imperial) country as brave British troops during World War Two. Even more amazingly, generations of English schoolchildren were taught about the Mahdi’s skull winding up as Lord Kitchener’s novelty paperweight as an inspiring tale of national greatness.
Where are the curios of the future?
Not a lot of that today. It’s hard to imagine Osama’s noggin as an attractive centerpiece at next year’s White House Community Organizer of the Year banquet, and entirely impossible to imagine America’s “educators” teaching the tale approvingly. So instead, even as we explain that our difficulties with this bin Laden fellow are nothing to do with Islam, no sir, perish the thought, we simultaneously rush to assure the Muslim world that, not to worry, we accorded him a 45-minute Islamic funeral as befits an observant Muslim.
That’s why Pakistani big shots harbored America’s mortal enemy and knew they could do so with impunity.
Do jihadis keep old heads they’ve removed from bodies? Or do you need the desk before you get the ornaments..?
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Posted: 10th, May 2011 | In: Reviews Comment (1) | TrackBack | Permalink
