billcoe

the 2 parts to every story version here. "We're Being Lied to About Pirates By Johann Hari, Independent UK Posted on April 13, 2009, Printed on April 13, 2009 Who imagined that in 2009, the world's governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy – backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the US to China – is sailing into Somalian waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somalian ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth. But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell – and some justice on their side. Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the "golden age of piracy" – from 1650 to 1730 – the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage Bluebeard that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: pirates were often saved from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can't? In his book Villains Of All Nations, the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence. If you became a merchant or navy sailor then – plucked from the docks of London's East End, young and hungry – you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the Cat O' Nine Tails. If you slacked often, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages. Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied – and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively, without torture. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the eighteenth century". They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed "quite clearly – and subversively – that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal Navy." This is why they were romantic heroes, despite being unproductive thieves. The words of one pirate from that lost age, a young British man called William Scott, should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirateing to live." In 1991, the government of Somalia collapsed. Its nine million people have been teetering on starvation ever since – and 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. Yes: 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. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the UN envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead, and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury – you name it." 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. When I asked Mr Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no clean-up, no compensation, and no prevention." At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia's seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by overexploitation – and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300m-worth of tuna, shrimp, and lobster are being stolen every year by illegal trawlers. The local fishermen are now starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won't be much fish left in our coastal waters." This is the context in which the "pirates" have emerged. Somalian fishermen took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least levy a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coastguard of Somalia – and ordinary Somalis agree. The independent Somalian news site WardheerNews found 70 per cent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defence". No, this doesn't make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters – especially those who have held up World Food Programme supplies. But in a telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali: "We don't consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas." William Scott would understand. Did we expect starving Somalians to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our toxic waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We won't act on those crimes – the only sane solution to this problem – but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit-corridor for 20 per cent of the world's oil supply, we swiftly send in the gunboats. The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know "what he meant by keeping possession of the sea." The pirate smiled, and responded: "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor." Once again, our great imperial fleets sail – but who is the robber? © 2009 Independent UK All rights reserved. http://www.alternet.org/story/136288/

Well, I thought we warned you about using too many words? Seriously, I read every one of them. Whats your point? What should be done? We may actually agree on this, but I'm not sure. My thoughts are this: we tried to provide food aid to the Somalis and they kicked us in the balls when our "Peacekeeping" troops were attacked. There was a movie out of it called "Blackhawk Down". The most notable thing about the movie is that when Somali people saw it, they cheered at what we perceived as all of the wrong places. They are in the middle of some serious internal violence involving religions, resources and tribes. Why TF should we run in there and get involved again when most of them do not want our assistance and don't trust us either? The UN sends food and some asshole warlord immediately hijacks it and distributes it as a political statement in support of himself. Perhaps killing every damn thug who attacks a US flagged vessel is the best we can do right now? Somehow, they fuck up their country and we get blamed for it doesn't work for me. There's plenty of poor country's that do not turn to illegal activity's that no one should give these asswipes a pass just because they've trashed their country and can't get their shit together to pull it out. The hourly cost to run a Navy vessel is huge. Would we be better served putting Seal crews for rides on US flagged vessels who could then call in the calvery in the event of an attack larger than they wanted to deal with. We (the US) would send a cease and desist order via this method. If any Panamanian, Liberian or non- US flagged vessel needed help, the owners can call us in and pay us up front. ps, NPR is just another tool of the US government.

That's not a question a Canadian needs to concern themselves with sir. We'll take care of the worlds oil issues.

I'm fine when we use the full power of our countries military might to attack, punish, save and release a kidnapped vessel AS LONG AS ITS A US FLAGGED VESSEL! WTF is up with letting ship owners flag their ships in Liberia to avoid the more expensive US laws and maritime requirements and then not expect to get a bill from the US Navy when we spend millions of dollars and risk US lives to help them get out of paying a ransom to pirates? Screw them. Let them pay the ransom and let us teach the pirates that attacking a US flagged vessel is not part of the play book for survival or profit. Why the hell are we running all around the globe being the worlds policeman? This patrolling the horn to protect the worlds shipping is damned expensive and gets us exactly what? Stupid.[/RANT]

The more people randomly invited in without passing the attitude test = the increased likelyhood of various crazy assed viewpoints and personalities popping in is what I was reflecting on Doug. I totally agree that it's nice to have discussions like this online, in an appropriate forum: which was something Raindawg really had trouble with. I wish this crew well, sounds like they are on a good path, and sure, it would not be for everyplace, but it is for this location. Regards to all

That was fast! Thanks for fueling my inner gearwhorishness Brian!

OK, maybe he's trying to bond and I'm misunderstanding it all. Hmmm. Yes, finished the trail work and 2nd ed the climb. Worse on and even stupider - a few years back I took a face plant after falling off a roof while doing a tear off job. The first thing to hit anything was my face, which slammed the edge of the metal table. This snapped the facial bone thats under your eye socket there. That was before lunch. The bone was sticking straight out and the blood ran down to and soaked my shirt until my brother couldn't take looking at it and insisted I have a bandaid so he wouldn't have to look at it. It was threatening to rain and I didn't want the water to get in or stick my bro with the job. We had the roof dried in by 4pm so I headed to the hospital. They said "when did this happen? Cause it's all swollen up and we can't do anything for you until the swelling goes down and that's in about 2 weeks from now". They could clearly see the bone still sticking out, not as sharp of an angle though, as well. Dohhh! ps, skipped lunch, but took a shower (wherin it looked like an Alfred Hitchcock slasher film in the shower) first.

Not mine, but you rule for offering them to the owner! Haydar Rules!

ropegoat maintenance request package. link to info

We use to think of the Sonics as our brothers to the North, but then they moved into a trailer with some skanks down in Oklahoma Territory and none of us can stand them anymore...... Good luck with the current ballclubs that their owners are allowing to stay in Seattle...for now, until one of the Mario Bros wants to move to a warmer climate.

Fixed that for you sir! BTW John, that's only cause your in such superb shape. Old marshmallows like me can't keep up with any of you:-)

I'll bet that camping with you is real fun. Just as the fire gets going real strong you do a stinky steamy piss right into it I'll bet. Then you drop trou and crap on the picnic table so that people can remember you when they wake up the next day and have breakfast. Very memorable, not in a good way I mean. Thanks to everyone else for the well wishes!

Fuck that, I reads dat shit fer yer stellar writing. We can copy and paste someone else's pics as we all know what it looks like:-) How was it for you when you weren't shivering your ass off? I've done it with only nuts. The most memorable part of that is when my partner, clipping my pro which had just held me, pops a #7 wired stopper on the 2nd pitch traverse (if you did it as 3 total) and swings out over that overhang into big air space. Cams and cam hooks make some of this stuff much better on the nerves.

At my age, bailing at 2pm is a full day anymore:-) Whacked it at noon, covered it with a bandage and tape, finished up the trail work and then followed Kyle up the new route, which he named "Wounded Knee" both for the knee and for the interesting Indian Head feature nearby. I got home and also got at least a 1/2 an hour from my laughing wife on how I can be now be the camp bitch in Yosemite next month! She says: "repeat after me, would you boys be having the pancakes or the cereal for breakfast this am", and " You fellas go climb I'll clean up the dishes and tidy up the camp".

I thought they were on something like this. How do you get a clean shot? Seals: Pretty tough dudes. My neighbor down the street is a PJ (airforce parajumper (Pararescuemen?), they're the dudes do the Mt Hood rescues via helicopters around here or if you read "The Perfect Storm", they jumped out into the sea that day. Anyway, went to his house for a party once and was talking to my next door neighbor who was @ 15 years younger than me. I said, it's striking that you can so easily tell who the neighbors are and who the PJs are cause they all look like fit athletes (bunch of uber fit badass looking kids running around) He looks at me head on all offended and says to me in a loud mock unhappy voice "Hey damit!" . I'd forgotten that he was an All American and on the United States Rugby team when younger as he'd gotten soft(er) than when he was an athlete.

I'll take the 4 screamers for $40, the Metolius Hooks x2 $7 ea (Metolius makes hooks!?, who knew this?), and the cinch for $30. let me know where a good place to meet is and I'll be there with cash. I work in Beaverton. $84 total.

Fucker. I promised my wife I'd stay around here as there was a social function Sat night. ( She had to ask 3 times to talk me out of Smith). I was thinking either East Face or North Face weather dependent. Can't wait for the TR Ivan! Starting to leak, just up the hill from my steller backflip performance wherein my buddies gave me low marks of 7.6, 7.3 and 7.1 respectfully as I didn't "stick the landing". Hmmm, judges, pfft, what the hell do they know anyway. By the time I'd hiked out then driven my ass home, I had quite the blood collection system going in my shoe and the leg had swollen up substantially. It had soaked the bandage just working with gravity. This is that it was looking like after climbing for a bit b4 hiking and driving out. After climbing, still bloody. Don't know whats so damn funny but I suspect Kyle had just reminded me he'd named the route "Wounded Knee". That's why Kyle is It continued to soak the sock and fill my shoe on the hike out and drive home. Wife was pretty incredulous. Had an excuse to blow off the function though, it all works out somehow. The knee swollen up to about double of normal and was almost impossible to walk on later though.

Little of both JH, but it will get back soon. Wow, all you dudes hanging around town should have gone East of the Mt's or to Smith this weekend, bet it was great weather!

Thanks Keith! Yup, wish we were discussing the massacre but that is not the reason I'm in the house today. Rolled off a trail and the knee hit a sharp rock. 4-6 stitches. Back @10 days.

Damn, that's saying a lot too! Here's my poor contribution to this (otherwise great) thread Nate:

that's all for now

The world which you live in must be dark indeed.

NUTS! Saturday at 9am on the Ozone trail. Washer and hanger as well. No Loctite, evidently some things you just have to have yourself.

Here's the main one to head to the Granite in Leavenworth or places beyond. You increase the chance of permanently breaking off features if it had rained recently as the rock will be weaker due to the moisture infiltration. This is a truism for all sandstone materiel. Including super hard stuff in Australia.

Kevin says it's a Fixe 12mm bolt! Do don't go running up there with a 3/8" nut or you're screwed! 12mm NUT only! Probably a standard 1.75 thread, tighten to approximately 44 lbs/ sq ft. have a nice day!