Posted on 02/23/2011 8:10:07 PM PST by marktwain
Four Americans, including a Seattle couple, aboard a private yacht hijacked by Somali pirates are dead this morning, and readers reacting to the CBS story on-line are wondering why any of the pirates were taken alive. Likewise, after the Seattle Times caught up with the story at about 7:25 a.m., it didn’t take long for readers to suggest that the pirates be taught a lesson.
The incident is hardly a first in that part of the world. Somali pirates have been emboldened by the willingness of some victims to pay outrageous ransoms. Reports indicate that negotiations were underway between the pirates and a U.S. warship nearby.
Today’s dead are identified as Seattleites Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay, along with Californians Scott and Jean Adam, who owned the Quest, whose home port may be Marina del Rey, where the Adams lived.
Then we should bring the Navy in and blast those Somalian (sic) MF's back into the stone age (or farther back into it). If a Somolian (sic) ship is at sea and is not fishing, blow them up and ask questions later.—Seattle Times reader
Early in the Obama administration, Navy SEAL marksmen took out some pirates holding a merchant captain hostage, but one can now conclude that message was insufficient to convince pirates that attacking boats or ships on the high seas, sailing under the American flag, is a bad idea. It will be up to the administration to take appropriate action. Examiner readers are encouraged to comment below, explaining what you think would be appropriate.
Meanwhile, what can private vessels do to discourage pirates or defend against them?
This column checked on line and it appears that it is legal – with some red tape, naturally – to carry arms aboard.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
When they start talking billions, I just say that a nuclear aircraft carrier group and crew are expensive. ;-)
Nice if you have the billions. But the converted fishing vessel can go anywhere and fly under the radar as a “working ship” and not a James Bond Billionaire Villain’s toy.
And that is very important, unless you own a James Bond Island with a special submarine cave.
All it takes is money. A LOT of money.
It could happen. ;-)
Yep....I am more of the opinion that UCAV’s from over the horizon platforms be they carrier or not would be a perfect stand alone operation. Altitude, stealth, quiet, extreme loiter, economic, minimal if any risk to US operators, observation platform from hell per se and ......hellfires and maybe even a GAU-19 or two for economic pirate punishment.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PInYfRIdKk4
Throw in a few Mark 5’s and Sea Cobras for those heavy days and go on a float in their AO.
Stay safe I am off to bed !
Wait until you try to sneak some beans or beef bouillon cubes past an Australian customs agent. He searched places in our boat that I didn’t even know we had!
Sorry to be blunt but insufficient knowledge is a dangerous thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjB_Tf7Cy3A&feature=related
“the rate (per lakh population) of murder and other crimes in India was much less compared to other countries. The murder and rape rate in India is three and four (per lakh population) respectively whereas South Africa recorded occurrence rates in the two categories as 65.27 and 115.8 respectively.
“Most of the murders take place due to passion, sudden provocation, crime related and family disputes,’’ Delhi police spokesman ACP Rajan Bhagat said. Delhi has recorded an increase of 1.08% in murders in 2007 compared to 2006.
The number of rape cases was maximum in the US which recorded 93,934 such assaults followed by South Africa 54,926 and India 18,359.
The data was compiled in 22 countries which included Australia, Argentina, Austria, Bulgaria, Japan, Canada, England and Wales, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand and Sri Lanka besides others.
Bridge_toofar: Join date DEC 30, 2010. Welcome to Free Republic.
Now compare the government systems in those countries. A favorite tactic for those folks who love to crow about how there is so much crime and especially (gasp) GUN CRIME in this nation love to tout the records of other nations where they claim there is far less crime. Every last nation you listed is an anti firearm system who constantly try to push their globalist ideals onto us.
None of them allows their criminal justice system to function as ours does in leaning over backwards to protect the rights of the accused because none of them enjoys a Constitution that restrains the actions of government as ours does. When it comes to crime you must also compare the respective political systems and systems of justice.
“Most of the murders take place due to passion, sudden provocation, crime related and family disputes,’’ Delhi police spokesman ACP Rajan Bhagat said.
Well, DUH! Ya think? Those categories are so "broad brush" they cover just about everything and you could just as easily apply them anywhere. "Passion, sudden provocation, crime related and family" pretty well covers the spectrum and it doesn't SAY anything.
The number of rape cases was maximum in the US which recorded 93,934 such assaults followed by South Africa 54,926 and India 18,359.
I got my degree in Criminal Justice and I've been a social studies teacher for 21+ years. I have taught everything in the social studies curriculum at all levels including Advanced Placement. My time as a Sociology teacher shows: Rape is one of the most under reported crimes on the books in any nation. In places like the middle east reporting a rape can get the victim killed by their own family! India's caste system would lend itself to similar repugnance in reporting.
Don't patronize me. You're beginning to look like a TROLL and an "anti American disruptor." We get those often and know how to deal with them when they appear. You like India so much? Feel free to move & don't let our door smack you on the backside on your way out.
Sounds like I need to try shooting from a moving boat, just for practice, of course.
Makes me appreciate the expertise that was actually being displayed when the gunner of a muzzle loading cannon managed to hit the barrel target floating away on the ocean!
That’s good to know! I met an Aussie in Panama who was trying to get home in time for the Sydney olympic games, to charter his rebuilt 60’ wood ketch. He had (and showed me) a few Russian rifles he’d picked up in Oman or Yemen for his Red Sea passage. He said he was going to pitch them overboard last thing before his arrival home. He told me they cost $25 each.
(BTW, I saw him a few years after that on CNN, pulling balloonist/yachtsman Steve Fosset from his balloon’s capsule on the Great Barrier Reef, where he had a charter party when Fosset came down early.)
You have that exactly right! This is why the Brits utterly dominated the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalger and elsewhere.
You just can’t grab some guys and put them on a man-of-war. It takes a LOT of practice!
Like you said, if I liked India better I would move there.
This discussion started with someone posted about being scared to travel to India on a missionary task. The fact remains that violent crime per capita is much lower in India Vs. USA. If you want to argue with facts, be my guest.
So he has no reason to be afraid on his mission to India.
Now as for the guns issue, the best thing going for this country is freely available guns. That will make extremely difficult for a despot to take over here. A Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Gaddafi, Polpot or Castro is highly unlikely here.
Actually this thread focuses on carrying firearms aboard a private vessel for the purposes of defending ones family from the depredations of PIRACY on the HIGH SEAS and really has not much to do about being a missionary on land in the subcontinent of India. You continue to dance around the whole political and judicial systems issues whereby the crime rates in America and India really have NO comparisons to offer. So, I'm not going to respond to your ludicrous assertions. CNBC ain't much of an upgrade from YOU TUBE when it comes to making factual or BELIEVABLE data comparisons, at least not to members on this site.
If you think the best thing going for this country is the easy availability of guns, then you really have not much information on what it means to be an American, do you? The 2nd Amendment is a treasured part of our heritage but there is so much more to being an American. But you don't seem to get that. Your superficial observation on dictators in history shows your lack of understanding.
We stand exactly one USSC Justice away from devolving into a situation ripe for political tyranny. You think Obama and the anti-freedom folks he surrounds himself with wouldn't use a sudden majority on the high court to instantly dismantle the safeguards built in by the Founding Fathers? They still control the US Senate. That means the power to RATIFY is in their hands. True, we made some inroads in this last election and prayerfully that will continue into a huge victory in the next election.
But the price of FREEDOM is ETERNAL VIGILANCE and the uninformed voters of this country have brought us horrifyingly close to the razor's edge of destruction. You think an armed populace stands an EASY rest on the fortress of freedom's walls? You are out of your depth and that depth is only ankle deep.
You are rambling on for no reason. I never said anywhere, anytime I was against the 2nd Amendment. If Germany had something similar, it would not have been easy to herd 6 million people into gas ovens. So we concur that 2nd Amendment is a very good thing for protecting freedom from tyranny. Of course the government has military power and people can not win a war with them but it won’t be a cakewalk either as it was in Hitler’s Germany.
Again, I was responding to some poster’s concern about travel to India. Facts are that violent crime is much lower in India per capita (their population is 3.5 times US) than US.
I have a feeling you may not be aware of historical facts, but India & China had the largest GDP for over thousand years in the past. After a brief interlude (in terms of historical clock) both countries are well on their way to regaining that position. It is not because they are superior to others but simply because of very large populations and very large number of educated people in sciences. I am talking about national GDP and not per capita income. The latter will not happen for dozens of decades because of population sizes.
You're wrong. In almost every instance of an armed populace taking on a government, the populace has been able to fight the government to a standstill.
Folks like Clinton and Obama are counting on that silly belief of yours to keep control when they decide to take control. For all of our freedom's firepower in this country, I suspect that about 90% of the gun owners will roll over and play dead with a meek "Please don't hurt me" exactly because of your attitudes. They will do this because they are sheep.
The good news is that that other 10% is pure SHEEPDOG and that includes a lot of vets, dates of service all the way back to WWII (if it happens soon enough before they all die off). Many of these folks will have combat experience and some who will have been leaders. 100 million gun owners. 90 million will probably act like the sheep our society has made them into over the last 40 years. But that 10% is the largest army outside of CHINA.
Do you know that each and every month since November of 2008 those sheepdogs have purchased enough arms and ammunition to outfit the entire INDIAN ARMY? Each and every month? That is a lot of ammo. I know folks who are still buying it by the pallet load. That's in anticipation of what our very own (freeper) Travis McGee calls CW2. My point is, that having guns isn't enough. One must have the will and the ability to use them effectively. Quite unlike the Indian army and police forces demonstrated during the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
As far as their economy goes, that's great. I cede the point. They are a dynamo of economic potential. My God, when a company named TA-TA takes over some of the most prestigious names in the automobile industry like RANGE ROVER, well, that is quite an accomplishment, no doubt.
But a lot of that power has been unfairly given to them by our own globalist politicians who are seeing their NWO take shape on the horizon. The treaties snuck into existence because the American people have been asleep at the switch again and again, trusting folks who push this easily identifiable agenda into existence. It's not just Democrats, it's Republicans and Independents, as well. When our Government pushed NAFTA and GATT into being, we gave India the fuel it needed to jump start it's economy into overdrive.
You're correct, they will continue to move forward while we become a tertiary economy and languish into relative obscurity. There could be a reversal if we'd just reverse NAFTA and GATT and force the American businesses who outsource to India to come home and re-establish the USA as a country that MAKES things again.
and do not forget Mittal Industries which is the largest producer of steel in the world, owned by an Indian family.
Another interesting tidbit, 2 out of 5 richest individuals
in the world are Indians.
As for fighting with the military, I will have to acquire an Abrams tank to have a chance. Rifles and guns ain’t going to cut it.
And there you have stumbled across (in your sarcasm), the classic doctrine of TRADE UP. See, if you have a Stick, or a rock or a knife .... you can GET a handgun. If you have a handgun .... you can GET an M16/M4. If you have an M4 you can GET just about anything. LOL Up to and including an Abrams tank! Multiply that doctrine by 10 million and pretty soon you've got your own fully equipped army. That includes the assets to knock down or deter the fast movers (air assets for ground support) and in either wooded areas or urban areas, choppers can also be dealt with using other very low tech means. Don't worry about this, there are plenty of SHEEPDOGS around to take care of you sheep.
What does the average Indian citizen of upper or middle class pay in taxes, btw? Do the untouchables pay taxes? That would really suck, wouldn't it? Born into a class so low you're too vile to even be spat upon but ya' gotta pay taxes, too!
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