Is No One Safe?

An angry mob took 30 police officers hostage in Guatemala and threatened to kill them unless authorities release a farm leader who was detained last week. Thats right, a farm leader... and we go live to Gerry's Blog for more:

As we were settling down to a drink in the bar last night a disturbing message came over the radio. A group of indigenous people were reported to have taken over the police station in Livingston and were holding 15 policemen hostage. Raoul (the cruisers helper there) advised that all offices were closed, there could be no checking in or out of the Rio for a few days.

As we were assimilating this piece of information we heard that the police station in Fronteras had been similarly attacked and more police taken hostage e, bringing the total to 32. A group of locals has been seen crossing the bridge on their way to the police HQ wielding machetes and stakes... It was reported that the police station had been burned and police vehicles destroyed.

It sounds like all hell has broken loose! The Soviet revolution where the workers take up arms against the government... This can not possibly be happening anywhere else!

Accept in Kosovo of course where Serb protesters are attacking the UN and chanting "Kosovo is Ours!' The scene is oddly familiar to the mid-1990s, when Kosovo tried unsuccessfully to break away the first time. Lets go to Dr. Bulldog and Ronin for more on this...

Serbs are furious at Kosovo’s declaration of independence, and the nationalist-backed government is stoking the flames of a visceral passion for a province where Serbs have long been a minority — but that is seen as the sacred heartland of the Serb nation. By breaking free, Kosovo has touched several raw nerves in the Serbian psyche. This war-shattered nation feels it is being unfairly punished for the sins of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. It is wounded by the loss of yet another big chunk of its territory. Its youths are bitter and restless over the deep poverty brought on by four lost wars.And now it is faced with the trauma of saying goodbye to what its people are taught to cherish as the cradle of their culture.

Now for the Word on the Street...
“Kosovo is ours,” said Dragoljub Stojanovic, 61, a retired factory worker from Leskovac. “We can’t give that away.”

“As long as we exist, Kosovo … is our Jerusalem, and we cannot give it up, just as we cannot give up our soul and our destiny,” Bishop Amfilohije, a church hard-liner, told worshippers at a prayer service Thursday following the Kosovo protest.

“Among normal people, the recognition of the independence of Kosovo is the final act of offending Serbs and proof that the West is unjust to the Serbs,” said Bratislav Grubacic, a leading political analyst in Belgrade. “They don’t see why they should be punished.”

The headline of the popular Vecernje Novisti newspaper the next day summed it up in a single word “Vow” — a pledge that Kosovo will not be lost for long.

Others not safe include those in the so called "Green Zone" in Baghdad... "A series of rockets or mortars were fired toward the U.S.-protected Green Zone early Saturday, a day after radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his Mahdi Army militia fighters to cease attacks for another six months." Well, obviously al-Sadr is not in charge in Iraq, nor is the Iraqi military, the U.S. military or any one else for that matter. Steve D reports:

Baghdad is 75% secure according to a Hoover Institution gasbag fellow. Unfortunately, it appears the heavily fortified Green Zone isn't one of those places:

A series of at least 10 explosions hit the home to the US embassy and Iraqi government ministries on Saturday, causing a siren to sound warning people to take cover.

Major Brad Leighton, a US military spokesman, said: "I can confirm that we did receive indirect fire and that it was multiple round."

But at least unlike the rest of Baghdad, I bet their plumbing still works inside there. Because Americans don't do wars liberations without indoor plumbing. So as long as none of those mortar shells hit the rest rooms, everything's jake.

Also not safe are polar bears! Environmentalists want to get the animals on the endangered species list while oil companies are hoping to take them out in order to make more money. I understand the dilemma when my cash is not safe either as I'm paying $3.11 a gallon at the pumps! Vivian Song reports her encounter...

How deceptively gentle she appeared, as she gnawed lazily on the grass and gazed curiously at her fleet of human company. She struck a queenly figure, even though all she did was poke her nose in the air, offended by the foreign smell of gumbo soup, and snoozed with her beautiful snowy face resting on her paw. There's no hint of savagery in 'ol Fluffy's carriage, for though I understand she's quite capable of pawing my face off, on that day she was in a playful mood for the cameras. By Fluffy, I speak of the eight-foot tall Ursus maritimus environmentalists have adopted as the pet mascot for their cause, and which politicians have cursed as their formidably furry foe, hampering the pursuit of their interests.

Of course one has to wonder... how can we solve both problems? I know! We can ride polar bears!