SavagesSayWhat?

I used to know this guy who had a manic wannabe Hunter S. Thompson youth that I caught the trailing edge of.  He survived himself and got normal, and I got lots of good-yet-sometimes-terrifying stories to tell.  One of them I was retelling many years ago involved him staggering up the basement steps of the house he was living in to scare his more straightlaced housemates into tottering off to the liquor store for more fuel for the raunchy drug-fest he was hosting downstairs.  At first they refused but he cowed them into obedience by pulling out a razor blade and proceeding to carve "FUCK YOU" into his own chest in front of them.

I saw the scars - he'd gotten through the "FUC" if I remember correctly.

Anyway, I was telling that one to a more jaded group a while later and one guy laughs and offers, completely reasonably, that he'd've wanted the whole phrase, and proper punctuation to boot.  After all, a threat's not a threat if you don't feel threatened, and self-harm can really only hurt the self.

So then there's these guys.

Anyone want to start up #sendmorethread with me?

Cry Havoc And Let Slip The Memoranda of Sanctions

Even the U.N, famous for letting nearly anyone get away with nearly anything, can get seriously hacked off if you poke sticks at it long enough.

Today, the Security Council swallowed hard, found its testicles in an old storage closet somewhere, and imposed new sanctions against North Korea, citing a recent nuclear test.

The latest sanctions on these Commie wingnuts include restrictions on weapons exports and financial dealings, and allows inspections of suspect cargo in ports and on the high seas.

The last one is the most interesting. Only a few weeks ago, Pyongyang (no shortage of balls here, to say nothing of bombast and hysteria) announced:

"Any minor hostile acts, including cracking down on or searching our peaceful vessels, will be an unacceptable infringement of our republic's sovereignty," North Korea's military said in a statement broadcast by state media. "We will respond with an immediate and strong military strike."

Should be interesting, given that there are about 10,000 North Korean artillery pieces pointed at Seoul right now.

Mumbai/Bombay

A couple of dozen cave men with AKs and grenades hold a modern city hostage for three days?

Try that in Fargo, ND. Or Minneapolis, MN. Or Miami, FL.

It might work in a place with draconian gun laws, like Chicago or NYC or DC, but even there I don't think the police or military would take three days.

Oh well, what do I know? I'll just go check and make sure my guns that are supposed to be loaded, are. Heck, they're even welcome to try that shit here in my neighborhood.

I hope that any survivors are being interrogated by the Indian equivalent of Detective Sipowicz from the show NYPD Blue. Or that The Shield guy.

Fuckers.