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Somali pirates
https://forum.costaricaticas.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=26518		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  JazzboCR [ Tue Dec 30, 2008 3:38 am ]
Post subject:  Somali pirates
Somali pirates have just issued ransom-backed securities to buy Citigroup. Moody's rated it AAA, Henry M. Paulson deemed the pirates "fundamentally sound", and Bernard L. Madoff will safeguard the returns, To raise instant cash, Marc Dreier is selling promissory notes.

For other yucks, you probably know about www.theonion.com/content , but also try www.lolFed.com and the YouTube duet RhettandLink. For example, LolFed has an article about who's really making out in the foreclosure mess--skateboarders, with all those empty pools.
Author:  Elroy [ Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:42 pm ]
Post subject: 
JazzboCR is Dan Lebitard.

Can I have your autograph

And hang with you on Sobe, please????? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 8) 8) 8) :P :P :P :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
Author:  JazzboCR [ Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:52 pm ]
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I don't think so, Sport. This guy also real-named Le Batard (which means "The Bastard") is the polar opposite of me. No I am who I've said I am though I do steal from the best.
Author:  Elroy [ Tue Dec 30, 2008 9:58 pm ]
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None the less i do enjoy... Felizidades y Pura Vida Amigo :lol: 8) :P :wink: :D
Author:  WiltTheStilt [ Tue Jan 06, 2009 4:37 pm ]
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I would laugh but it's only half as funny as this real story:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5022fd98-c89a ... 10621.html

Talk about ballsy, as my friend said upon reading this, "The only comparable level of chutzpah I can imagine would be if the captain of the Titanic were taking reservations for a cruise to Somali waters."
Author:  JazzboCR [ Tue Jan 06, 2009 6:51 pm ]
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None of them, not one, can or will believe that they did anything wrong, even though they helped shape, build and perpetuate the system that collapsed. No, it was those other folks who didn't believe strongly enough, who had a failure of will, who weren't credulous enough long enough who brought it all down. "That's my story and I'm sticking with it."
Author:  Prolijo [ Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:10 pm ]
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I realize this is the smack talk & fun stuff section, but if you'll indulge me a little, I'd like to add an interesting comment on the issue of Somali pirates.

I used to be of the belief that someone should go into that area and blow those theiving pirate thugs out of the water, but things are never as black and white as they might first seem. I'm sure the right-wing idealogues on this board considers the huffington post to be part of the liberal pinko MSM conspiracy, but this article does raise some interesting points: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html.

The upshot of the article is as follows:

First of all, pirates are not really of the stereotypical parrot on the shoulder murderous rogue variety we normally think about today. Back in the day, these guys were actually popular folk heroes fighting a repressive navy, who were often rescued from the gallows by a supportive populace. During the Revolutionary War, the US actually employed pirates since we didn't have a navy of our own.

That's all an interesting historical account that I encourage you to read more about but where it gets even more interesting is when the author starts to talk about the modern phenomon of Somali Pirates. "In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country's food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas."

First, re: dumping nuclear waste. "As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken....Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness...""Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. "

Secondly, re: stealing the country's food supply. "We have destroyed our own fish-stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea-life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia's unprotected seas. The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving."

Of course, none of that justifies WHAT these pirates are doing but it does do a lot to explain WHY they do it. "This is the context in which the men we are calling "pirates" have emerged. Everyone agrees they were ordinary Somalian fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a 'tax' on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia - and it's not hard to see why. [According to one of the pirates] their motive was "to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters... We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas." "

Of course, many of these guys are clearly just gangsters out for personal enrichment, such as when they hold up UN aid ships. But one survey found that 70 percent of all Somalis "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence of the country's territorial waters." And how is that much different from our employing pirates back during the Revolutionary War when we were still just a young and defenseless country facing overwhelming more powerful foreign interests.

There is talk about sending a naval taskforce to the area to deal with the pirates, but will that force also be tasked with doing anything to deal with the illegal dumping and fishing that is the justification used by these pirates?
Author:  JazzboCR [ Thu Jan 08, 2009 1:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
I see that I am no better than anyone else at reading past the headlines. Thank you Brother Prolijo for supplying the link and the fresh perspective. Good to know though that even my jokes provoke discussion--can I take a small measure of misguided pride in that?
Author:  JazzboCR [ Wed Jul 29, 2009 12:12 am ]
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Just to show that no Topic ever truly dies here, just goes quiet for a while, here's an opinion piece in a recent WSJ:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 75114.html

...And to think, this Thread started as a joke...and then got all deep.
Author:  El Ciego [ Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:27 pm ]
Post subject: 
Why does the new Somalian Coast Guard use glass-bottom boats?

So they can see the Old Somalian Coast Guard.

Okay...not funny. Sorry.

Back to the depths: Recently, some three dozen Somalian-born men, age 17 to perhaps 30 left Minnesota secretly. Why? To train in jihadist camps back in the homeland.

Somalians are a large minority here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Their take on the piracy is very enlightening; Brother Prolijo barely scratched the surface. If all you know of Somalia is "Blackhawk Down," you need to do more research. Amazing recent history....
Author:  JazzboCR [ Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:25 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Somali pirates
Has it been a year since the last Post on this? Here I am back to my old tricks.

Somali pirates are going on trial in a Federal coutroom this fall--and may very well walk out free men. Why? Because there is no internationally accepted nor US-ratified-by-treaty definition of what constitutes piracy. Absurd? Like that Supreme Court justice said, I can't exactly define what's pornographic but I know it when I see it? See this WSJ article for background (great picture of Blackbeard): http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 70834.html
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