“We’re all smart, Jeremy”—or, I Am Not Immune To Propaganda: Thoughts on Zero Dark Thirty (2012), and “Osama bin Laden Has Farty Pants” (2001)
You know I call them our superheroes. Woman on the radio a few years back, paraphrased (except for “our superheroes”) A man needed special experience and insight to work true meanings out of certain murky remarks. . . . Brilliant riddles floated up and down the echelons, to be pondered, solved, ignored. . . . The men at his level were spawning secrets that quivered like reptile eggs. They were planning to poison Castro’s cigars. They were designing cigars equipped with micro-explosives. They had a poison pen in the works. They were conspiring with organized-crime figures to send assassins to Havana. . . . They were testing a botulin toxin on monkeys. Don DeLillo, Libra (1988) But I love this country To me she has no sins If you don’t buy my record Then Al-Qaeda wins “America (I Love This Country)” from The Simpsons (season 15, episode 19, 2004) This essay contains full spoilers for the film and South Park episode in the title, partial spoilers ...