What’s Osama’s House Worth?

I’m not saying this is at the “no food, no phone, no motorcar, not a single luxury” level.

I can’t Zillow it and there are no “comps” so I’m stuck with the well publicized estimates of the value of Osama bin Laden’s million dollar “mansion.” in Abbotabad.

U.S. forces finally found al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden not in a mountain cave on Afghanistan’s border, but with his youngest wife in a million-dollar compound in a summer resort just over an hour’s drive from Pakistan’s capital, U.S. officials said. – Reuters

I’m not the only one who found it odd home prices in Pakistan… even in this summer resort city… would be that high.

two property professionals in Abbottabad – a quiet, military-dominated town – said that much of that was incorrect. Based on the size of the plot and the house, which was built in 2005, and using recent property sales as a guide, they estimated that it would fetch no more than $250,000 on the current market.

“Twenty million rupees, maximum,” said property dealer Muhammad Anwar, a 22-year veteran of the local market, at his Abbottabad office. “No swimming pool. This is not a posh area. We call it a middling area.”

Asked about the American estimate, he chuckled. – Guardian.co.uk

I’m not saying this is at the “no food, no phone, no motorcar, not a single luxury” level, but it’s a house with exposed rebar on a dirt lot in a neighborhood that required 14 foot walls topped with barbed wire!

Right now I’m hoping it doesn’t turn into Pakistan’s equivalent of Graceland. It probably should have been demolished as the Seals were leaving.

On Bin Laden’s Death

It’s possible some radicals will lash out at us, but it’s not like they’ve been holding back until now. I suspect we get hit with whatever they have as soon as they have it already.

Word of bin Laden’s death reached me through AOL IM. I am the last person using that, right? My friend Bob (next to the last person on IM) was the sender.

10:49 PM bob: bin laden dead

It had 100% of the information, but came off as a non sequitur to me.

10:50 PM me: what?

There’s a hard hitting follow-up!

Here’s the sad truth in all this. It hardly makes any difference at all.

Sure you want to bring the perp to justice, but it’s difficult to believe bin Laden still had any kind of day-to-day power. His number one job was not being found. Running a movement is the antithesis of how he had to live.

It’s possible some radicals will lash out at us, but it’s not like they’ve been holding back until now. I suspect we get hit with whatever they have as soon as they have it already.

These were not good times for bin Laden. It must have upset him to see the popular uprisings like Egypt and Libya that have marked this spring. The protesters were secular, not religious. They wanted democracy and modernity not a return to a way of life more suitable for the seventh century.

Maybe someday terrorism will go away. Unfortunately the threat of terrorism never will.

A few years ago a friend showed me a photo of her brother. Behind him were rugged hills that match the landscape of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Though of Irish descent he wore a long dark beard and the traditional clothing of the region.

No one knew what her brother did there. She certainly didn’t. We all had our suspicions.

I sent her a text message tonight: “Tell your brother thanks.”

Eminem Lip Syncs Too

It didn’t take long for Saturday Night Live to give it to Ashlee Simpson. In the opening bit, Seth Meyers as Osama Bin Laden talked politics, pop culture and (see left) Ashlee’s SNL appearance.

This was not the only time Ashlee got zapped. In fact, in order to establish her bona fides, the host Kate Winslet, sang and danced – both very well.

But, if you think Saturday Night Live learned anything from last week, Eminem proved you wrong! He was lip syncing, or at the very least singing along with his own voice. His songs (and though I’m an Eminem fan, I thought this stuff was horrid) featured overdubbed singing, meaning some… much… maybe all was on tape.

Saturday Night Live needs to be live. Isn’t that the point? Artists without nets. That’s the fun of live television. There’s a danger that’s not there otherwise. It’s this danger that makes us continue to watch the show, even if a particular night is bad.