- Somali pirates love to seize ships off the African coast. Their latest victim: a Danish-owned, American-operated container ship. [Reuters]
- The earthquake in Italy appears to have killed at least 250 people. [UPI]
- Moldova, have you heard of this place? Little country between Romania and Ukraine? Do not visit there, because they just held an election where the Communists won a suspiciously high percentage of the vote and now people are protesting and generally restless. [BBC News]
- Nobody really cares so much about gay marriage, as far as animating political crusades go, because they are more worried about starvation/homelessness. [Christian Science Monitor]
- Google doesn’t hurt newspapers. Newspapers hurt newspapers. [Triangle Business Journal]
- Senators and congresspeople from defense spending-dependent areas do not care so much for the new budget proposed by Robert Gates, who appears to hate the military as much as a common Democrat. [New York Times]
Travel Notes: Avoid Gulf Of Aden, Moldova, Anyplace Italian
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{ 34 comments }
Communists won a suspiciously high percentage of the votes? It’s called democracy people! You lost, get over it.
If that container ship had been owned by Ross Perot, he’d already have commandos on the way over and a ghost writer working on the book about the rescue.
[re=283564]Come here a minute[/re]: Hear, hear. Everyone knows the dedication of the Communist Party to free and fair elections.
Where is Steven Seagal now that we truly need him?
The comments section on CSM is priceless.
If there’s one thing I trust when it comes to Moldova is the opinion of people who have never been there. The most reliable information about international travel always comes from Americans who have never (or nearly never) spent time outside the United States.
Of course, those of us who have spent considerable time in the region are foolish enough to think that one need not be afraid of a few protests. Imagine if someone said “Don’t visit American; they’re protesting in Seattle. Or Boston.” It might seem ridiculous.
By all means, my fellow citizens, come on down to Moldova! Open your eyes and experience something new without the television telling you what to think.
[re=283568]Lazy Media[/re]: Send Carrot Top in. S
Seagal is beginning to look too much like Kim Jong il.
“Precipitate economic collapse”, it’s right here on this copy of The Gay Agenda, right after “Fiat Topolinos for everyone.”
All I know about Moldova is that it’s between Romania and Ukraine, which means the women there are explosively hawt. And the guys all look like Bond villains. That’s based on personal observation in Ukraine, and eyewitness reports from Romania.
The pirates found no WMD on the ship.
Good to see that Gates is finally reading from the commiesocialist terrorist-lovin’ TelePrompterz!
Huh? US merchant sailors? I thought that these days sailors were underpaid folks from poor nations needing monies… Oh.
[re=283577]Lazy Media[/re]:
Having met, uh, Ukraine and Romani strippers. Yes.
I say we send in ninjas to fight the pirates. Ninjas can beat pirates, right?
Soon we’ll see if congresscritters who luv thems a war on terror are prepared to actually build a military to fight one, or will vote to continue to build out-moded, unwieldy killing machines intended to fight the wars of the previous century, just to keep the federal munnies flowing in.
[re=283571]Romerican[/re]: Good for you for living in Moldova. I’m sure it’s an interesting place, but I’m also sure I’m not the only one wondering why the fuck you live there, of all places. Nothing personal, mind.
[re=283571]Romerican[/re]:
Moldova airlines has flying Yaks. I might brave the riots to see that.
[re=283583]hobospacejunkie[/re]: But without the F-22, how can we hope to intercept Al Qaeda’s force of rocket-propelled flying camels?
[re=283577]Lazy Media[/re]: Yah, until they hit a certain age. Then th hawt Ukrainski dyevochki pupate into potato-dumpling shaped babushki.
Well, you know, I have heard that it is, it is a glorious thing to be a Pirate King.
Dear Michael Gerson,
Bite me.
Sincerely,
mr. plainsight
P. S. Also.
hobospacejunkie: I’ve lived in a number of different places, being in this area is just another one. There’s a long story about a series of events drawing me to this region, but let’s admit it’s ultimately random and not permanent. Life here is far better than I could have imagine before actually experiencing it. It seems to be the same pattern for most anywhere one chooses to live: it’s not as bad as you had thought (and/or it’s not as great as you thought, for those moving from places like this to the US).
I find it funny how people reject out of hand lives they’ve never lived out of some certainty they know what’s best without ever actually finding out. My conclusion, thusfar, seems to be life is what you make of it, not where you make it.
[re=283613]Guppy06[/re]: Well, clearly we’ll have to start investing heavily in war mecha research.
Heard of Moldova? Isn’t that where O-Zone, the numa numa people, are from?
I knew a Moldovan woman once. She was reason enough for me to avoid the country.
Isn’t Moldova the organ-trafficking capital of the Europe? I’m pretty sure I read that somewhere.
I wonder why ships go anywhere near Somalia. You’d think they’d avoid it like the plague.
If there is some international commission that investigates suspicious elections, where were they in 2000 and 2004? And when are these cheapass shipping companies going to put some machine guns or 20mm cannons on these ships and show these pirates who’s boss? And if the babes in Moldova are that hot, is there a Moldova bride website?
[re=283766]medici[/re]: Seriously. These pirates are gadding about in little fishing boats. Just hire some able seamen that like to shoot things when necessary and break out the AK’s or something more long-range for the trip through the gulf. How hard can this be?
[re=283570]smashtheduck[/re]: I say lets go back, flag-as-inappropriate every single comment there and see if we can make them all [Admin: Readers don't think this comment adds to the discussion.]
Priceline is having some great deals for a week in Moldova, if you book the trip on a tramp freighter going via Somalia.
Yeah, Moldova did get top honors in Europe for illegal human organ trafficking! And they made the medal race world-wide, too.
http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/news/moldova_leads_in_illegal_organ_trafficking.html
Thank god that piece of trivia stayed in my brain.
Ha ha. America USA: 1. Pirates: 0.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7990566.stm
Moldova is the butt of all jokes in Romania. (and the Gypsies and undservedly the Hungarians)
O-zone are from Moldova?? Oh thank god
/less embarrassed to be romanian
Yes, O-Zone are from Moldova.
You can always tell the Western media slant when a cry of “rigged elections!” comes up. If the winning party are ones that the CIA/NED/info-warfare guys like, then the protestors are loonies and extremists. If the winning party are socialists of any kind, to give an example, the protestors are noble freedom fighters.
I have seen no evidence one way or the other on whether the election results are fair and square, but it’s deeply suspicious that the losing parties are the ones who want Moldova to “be friendly and integrated” with the EU/Nato. Same thing happened in the Ukraine five years ago – remember the “Orange Revolution”? And then it turned out that the Orange mob were just as corrupt and incompetent as the nasty evil pro-Russians they illegally overthrew…
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