Posse comitatus

I am not going to say ‘I told you so’, but that’s solely because I didn’t say it on this blog before, but on a Dutch mailing list called Deining. That’s where I first voiced my suspicion that the death of Brazilian Mr. Jean Charles de Menezes had been caused by an SAS (special forces) soldier. Now the Times of London speculates on this as well, and it claims to have found clues in press photographs.
Whether the SAS story pans out or not, the following quote from what is arguable the best scifi series ever, Battlestar Galactica, can never be repeated enough:

"There's a reason why you separate the military and the police. One fights the enemy of the state. The other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, the enemies of the state tend to become the people."

BTW, if there's anyone who's managed to sit through the final scene of this week’s episode, ‘Home’, and listen to Adama's lines without needing a really big glass of ‘perspective and soda’ afterwards, you must be emotionally dead inside. That was some damn fine acting, Mr. Olmos.

21:46

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Blow, blow, blow your boat

Martijn and I went to SAIL yesterday, during which Martijn gave me the idea to buy a boat of my own.
As (a) we didn't get blown up by Al Qaeda, and (b) the whole 'cruising around the world' thing has sort of appealed to me ever since I met an American in Wellington, New Zealand, who had been doing exactly that for the past twenty years, I spent the morning looking at ships rather than finishing an article on why the battery life on your cellphone always seems to suck.
Thanks, Martijn. Next time, I'll tell people how you kept on stroking the silky ribbon of my press accreditation pass as if you were in desperate need of a girlfriend. (Yes, yes, I know, I need one too, but the hookers in Amsterdam won't give me credit anymore, and I hate washing dishes.)
I'll be back at SAIL tomorrow, when hopefully the weather won't suck as much, to make avail of all the press freebies, such as touring the harbour in special press ships which are loaded with booze and food.

Meanwhile, I'd welcome sensible advice regarding decent ocean worthy boats, and how to learn to sail them properly. Sailing on a sweet water lake, fine. Sailing in the midst of a storm on the Atlantic, I'd probably be in over my head right now.

11:22

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