- It’s official, Somalia! Break out the champagne, light the fireworks and set up the parade route. You are officially the piracy, according to the 2008, according to the annual report from International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center (PRC). According to the report, piracy off the coast of Somalia rose nearly 200 percent in 2008 compared to the year before. Additionally, the attacks were much bolder attacks over greater distances, making Somalia and the Gulf of Aden were the worst areas for piracy in 2008. All told, the IMB report counts 42 vessels hijacked in those areas and 815 crew members taken hostage -- best in the world. If you need something to put into your tourism literature to celebrate this momentous achievement, how about citing what this report calls an "unprecedented" rise in piracy? How can you not celebrate leading the charge that saw global piracy increase 11 percent from 2007 to 2008? Better yet, the totals from 2008 are the highest on record since the IMB began keeping records of such activity in 1991. Don’t believe me? just ask IMB Director Captain Pottengal Mukundan. "The 2008 statistics surpass all figures recorded by the PRC since it began its worldwide reporting function in 1991," said Mukundan. Not only that, last year these scourges of the high seas captured the largest ship ever taken by pirates, an oil supertanker called the Sirius Star - and they squeezed a $3.5 million ransom payment out of it. It’s been enough to inspire the largest-ever anti-piracy force to begin patrolling the region, a sure sign that the pirates are making their mark in a big way. As to the competition…..Nigeria is the nearest competitor for the top spot, having reported 40 incidents last year, including five hijackings and 39 crew members kidnapped. One of the key differences between Somalian piracy and Nigerian piracy is that in Somalia the motives are financial while in Nigeria they are at least partly political. Keep it about the money, that’s what I’m talkin’ about. Keep this up, Somali pirates, because unfortunately piracy is declining in other areas of the world, especially in Indonesia. We’re counting on you to carry the flag and you need to do it proudly….
- I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that the new season of 24 has already had such a predictable plot twist, but I think the ride has been exciting enough so far to overlook that fact. Last night, Jack continued on his new venture, posing as a member of Tony Almeida’s terrorist crew trying to abduct Prime Minister Motobu of the African nation of Sangala. The attempt succeeds when Jack remains calm under pressure and figures out that he can manufacture some toxic ammonium-based gas and pipe it into the ventilation system that filters into the safe room where Motobu and his wife are hiding. That nearly kills both Motobu’s, but the wife opens the door right before losing consciousness, allowing Jack, Tony and the rest of David Emerson’s crew to capture them and haul them off in their utility van. Before they can get away, however, they have to deal with FBI agent Renee Walker, who is acting on information she coerced from a suspect, Alan Tanner, in the hospital last episode and trying to save Motobu from being abducted. Despite being ordered to stand down by her boss, Larry Moss, she barges in on the house where Motobu was staying and gets herself captured and taken hostage by Emerson’s crew alongside the Motobu’s. Emerson’s crew then begins the trek to deliver Motobu to Col. Ike Dubaku, right-hand man of war lord Gen. Benjamin Juma of Sangala. Dubaku remains at the mysterious, always-dark command center he’s been in along with the leaders of Emerson’s terrorist organization since the season began. Before they can deliver Motobu, Emerson and Co. must stop and kill Agent Walker after it’s determined that she hasn’t learned enough to compromise their operation but is nonetheless “extraneous.” Jack draws the short straw and is the one to kill Walker, but he is able to make it appear he has shot and killed her when in actuality the bullet barely grazes her neck. Jack and Tony are then ordered to bury her in a trench at an abandoned construction site, which means burying her alive and hoping she’s somehow able to escape once they leave. Of course, even if Agent Walker gets out of that ditch, she still has to deal with the newly opened investigation by the Attorney General’s office into her interrogation and alleged torture of Tanner in his hospital room. With Tanner’s attorneys filing a lawsuit, the AG’s office crashes the party at the FBI field office looking for her and although she refuses to come back to the office until she apprehends Jack and Tony, the representative from the AG wants to question Janice (Janean Garofolo) for her role in helping divert Tanner’s attorneys to the wrong room in order to give Agent Walker extra time to question tanner. Agent Moss fends off those attempts because he needs Janice to help find Renee once she’s abducted, but this thing isn’t going away. Speaking of going away, neither is President Allison Taylor’s plan to send U.S. forces into Sangala. She decides that in spite of the threat of Dubaku inflicting mass casualties on the American people using the CIP module he has to take down commercial flights, disrupt vital utilities like water and power, etc., she’s going ahead with the invasion. The kidnapping of Motobu isn’t enough to dissuade her, and her decision and refusal to pull U.S. ships out of the waters off Sangala’s coast puts Dubaku on the verge of putting the CIP module to use. Meanwhile, her husband Henry is mulling what to do with the jump drive he’s just been given by Samantha, the fiancée of his late son Roger, a drive she claims contains information revealing that Roger was murdered rather than committed suicide. Bryan, the Secret Service agent assigned to protect Henry, says that a friend of his can pull the encrypted files off the drive at his apartment. Bryan and Henry go to the apartment, but when they get there, it turns out to be an ambush and Bryan is revealed to be one of the people within the administration working in the conspiracy that Bill Buchanan, Chloe and Tony alluded to last episode. Hmm, shocker! Wonder who saw that coming (read my recap of last week’s episode of 24 if you’ve forgotten that it was me)? Bryan’s plan is to poison Henry Taylor’s coffee with a full-body paralytic, then lure Samantha to the apartment and kill them both, framing it as a murder-suicide by Henry. So not a terribly complex, detailed episode, but another solid one capping a great first five hours for Season 7 of 24……
- After what might be the world’s easiest-ever police investigation, Olympia, Wash. mixed-martial-arts champion and avowed anarchist Jeff Monson has been charged with first-degree malicious mischief for spray-painting graffiti on columns on the north side of the Capitol on Nov. 26. The investigation was so easy because Monson posed for photographs published in a December edition of ESPN The Magazine that showed him spray-painting an anarchist symbol on the state Capitol. Now let’s face it, no one is a bigger anti-Man, anti-authority advocate than me, but posing for pictures may not have been the smartest move for Monson. Police have been looking high and low for the responsible party, without success, and they likely never would have found out who dunnit if Monson hadn’t been so stupid as to pose for those pics. After the ESPN The Magazine article was published on Dec. 29, accompanied by a photograph of Monson leaving graffiti on the Capitol, the police had their man. Not too tough when there’s a picture in a national magazine with a caption above it that reads 'On a recent night in Olympia, Monson suddenly pulled out a spray can and tagged the state capitol (sic),' is it? An Olympia police detective recognized Monson in the picture and put two and two together. After that, a warrant for Monson's arrest was filed in Thurston County Superior Court and he’s now charged with first-degree malicious mischief, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. Ironically, the cost to clean up the graffiti was $19,000, so some nice symmetry there. To be fair to Monson, the messages her spray-painted were great ones, including anarchy symbols, a peace symbol and phrases such as "no war" and "no poverty." I think peace and the eradication of war and poverty are concepts we can all get behind. Also, the fact that Monson was involved in an act like this is hardly surprising. Dude is a unique character, a bold soul who’s not afraid to take his own path through life. A few years ago, he left a job as a mental-health counselor to pursue mixed-martial-arts fighting, winning the Cagewarriors Fighting Champion heavyweight title in Sheffield, England in December 2004. When contacted and asked about the graffiti, Monson owned it and said it had a point: to protest the war in Iraq and economic inequality at home and abroad. "Every great movement in the United States, from civil rights, women's rights, the labor movement, has been the result of people standing up and breaking the law, refusing to stand at the back of the bus, refusing to stand aside when the government asks you to get off their property," Monson said. True dat, Jeff. Standing up and breaking the law is right on, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be smart about it, i.e. not posing for pics while doing it. But hey, at least the pictures appeared in a national magazine and not just on Facebook before you got busted. The graffiti dovetails nicely with Monson’s participation in protests at the Port of Olympia in November 2007 and in other protests against the Iraq war. I’m with you on what you stand for bro, but next time, be smarter about your methods…..
- Can I just ask this: who’s more credible in denying torture of refugees than the Thai miliatry? I mean, if you can't believe an upstanding, credible group like the Thai military, you just aren’t going to believe anyone about anything. So when the Thai military denies abusing refugee boat-people from Myanmar after claims some were whipped on a tourist beach and hundreds more left dead or missing, I’m going to believe them, dammit. These refugees simply couldn’t have been abused after being towed in from sea, so I don’t care if there are vivid color photos showing refugees being made to lie face down on a popular beach and in poor condition. Ever heard of Photoshop, people? You can fake those things. So the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees can say all it wants about how much it’s "concerned" about the fate of the Muslim ethnic minority Rohingya people, who have fled from Myanmar's border with Bangladesh, that doesn’t mean the Thai military is abusing these people even though it’s pretty obvious that they are in fact abusing these people. All the accusers have is people like an unidentified Australian tourist, who declined to be named for fear of being barred from Thailand, who says boat-people were "whipped" by Thai guards on popular diving resort island in the Similan Archipelago last month. Nor do I buy the stories by Rohingya survivors that the Thai military have been detaining hundreds of them an island called Koh Sai Daeng before towing them back out into open water without supplies. If the Thai Navy denies knowledge of the incident, I believe them. After all, when is the last time a government or military lied to cover up its misdeeds? Hmm? Bet you can’t give me one single incident in the past hour, can you? No, you can’t. So people like Sean Garcia of Refugee International had better be careful when they say things like, "The Thai government is taking highly vulnerable people and risking their lives for political gain." I will not have you sullying the good…well, marginally good…okay, sh**ty name of the Thai military by accusing them of such heinous conduct……
- How generous of banished New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury to renew his offer to return $1 million in salary to the team in an effort to kick-start talks toward a buyout. Starbury still hasn’t played this season and with his crappy attitude, bloated salary and diminishing on-court skills, the team is in no hurry to see him play for them. Actually, at this point it’s a certainty that Starbury will never play for the Knicks again; negotiating a satisfactory divorce settlement to end this poisoned marriage is all that remains. Still, it’s an incredibly magnanimous gesture for Starbury to put that $1 million offer back on the table. Never mind taking it off the table seven weeks ago, all is forgiven because Starbury has deigned to put it back into play. Hmm, wonder if that’s because Starbury claims to have an offer to play for another team? That is the weirdest freaking coincidence ever. Of course, the final decision on the matter belongs to the man whose money is one the line, Knicks owner James Dolan. "I'm hoping," Marbury said in an interview. "I don't know what the real reason would be if they didn't take it." Hmm, maybe because you’ve been a total dick throughout this saga and even though the team hasn’t exactly handled it all that well, you’ve been a tool from start to finish. "I can't fight a billion-dollar company," Marbury added. "I've been waiting nearly a week." Prepare to wait a little longer, Starbury. You and that stupid-looking tattoo on the side of your head can sit there, take the undeserved paychecks you’re getting for doing absolutely nothing and take a hike…..
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