Glam, where are you sitting? I think we're in the cheap seats.

after the government collapsed back in 1991, ships from other countries, specifically western Europe, have been not only poaching the fishing in their territorial waters, but even worse, they've been dumping barrels of nuclear waste.

I'm glad this stuff is coming out, coupled with the fact that the pirates have actually never killed any of their hostages. My heart breaks for the Somalis.

Those pirates were dumb as hell though, to take on an American ship and crew. As they now know, we will kill ya dead as soon as look at you! And since our policy is not to pay ransom, then there are very few ways for this to come out well...

Honestly, I don't think the Somali pirates are bad men. I think they are men driven to do some very sketchy things, but I cannot and will not pass judgment on them. There, I said it!

"Never judge a pirate until you've walked a nautical mile on his peg-leg."

Today I have found the missing cable junction box in our house and gotten the non-bootable computer booting. It's still not totally functional, but I'm feeling pretty swanky right now.

Now I will clean the bathroom in preparation for the cable guys arriving tomorrow.

Honestly, I don't think the Somali pirates are bad men. I think they are men driven to do some very sketchy things, but I cannot and will not pass judgment on them. There, I said it!

Oh, I suspect you've got some bad apples in with the bunch. You do anywhere.

I'm glad this stuff is coming out, coupled with the fact that the pirates have actually never killed any of their hostages.

Was it determined that the French hostage who died in the rescue last week was killed by friendly fire?

Bank wants a salary code, boss is giving me one that's too short, I think, employer has a website to look it up yourself, but requires an account which they never gave me, nowhere in my personal profiles (all 3 of them) my employer has for me has this info and even if it did, the damned websites are so byzantine I'd never be able to find it anyway, no one is returning my calls or emails and I have a whole lot of fucking shit to do.

I hate everybody.

I hate everybody.

Yeah, I remember that stage of moving.

Somalia is a living hell, and it would be great if the attention moved other nations, including the U.S., to help. However, attacking cargo vessels that are not involved in dumping waste or illegal fishing does not help the argument that they are responding to abuses of Somali coastal waters.

This is twitch from my years in the nuclear industry, but they're throwing around the words "nuclear waste" pretty loosely. Nuclear waste is not the worst stuff to end up in your backyard. For one thing, you can find it. The other hazardous wastes mentioned are much more immediately hazardous. The symptoms they're describing sound like heavy-metal poisoning.

The odds are the "nuclear waste" is low-level medical nuclear waste, which is not well controlled anywhere. (That's a whole other rant. The worst radiation exposure in North America happened when a radiation source from a Texas hospital ended up in a Mexican scrap metal facility.)

Was it determined that the French hostage who died in the rescue last week was killed by friendly fire?

This particular self-righteous poster was unaware of that particular situation and will now STFU.

Blurgh.

ETA: The pirates weren't called out as killing the French hostage, it was just mentioned as happening as part of the liberation. So, yeah, you're right, not clear. I amend to what I should have said originally: "MOST hostages are unharmed."

in a Mexican scrap metal facility.

Yep, ended up in a lot of patio furniture and wrought iron work back north of the border. Or at least that was the fear in town at the time.