Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal gave Blackwater International some free advertising in today’s business section. Complete with a beautiful picture of Blackwater International’s beautiful little blue boat.

Blackwater is in London, as we speak, trying to sell whatever it is about that boat to a god only knows who or what — Rupert’s Journal simply informs us that it involves “more than a dozen firms”. Not shipping firms, presumably, since the new global economy has reduced their $230,000 price tag to as little as $1,000 greenbacks a trip. With the plummeting demand falling hot on the heels of oil prices artificially inflated by Goldman Sachs and their friendly neighborhood rating agency monopoly, one is forced furthermore to wonder what the real value of the Sirius Star’s cargo would have been.

Certainly it was a colorful first installation on a series of publicity stunts that promise to get more astounding with each new next great idea.

Check out the latest effort — surfacing in the global memescape courtesy of CBS. Watch it and make sure you have plenty of floor space to ROTFLOL.

“A US Cruise ship has a scary run in with Somali pirates.”

QUOTE continues

Most of the ships being hi-jacked by pirates have been slow moving freighters or tankers . . . this time the target was a very fast cruise ship and it is her speed which may have saved her”.

According to the cruise ship’s website, “two small skiffs suspected of carrying pirates were spotted. The captain sped up to try and outrun them, but.

“One of the skiffs managed to close the range to approximately 300 yards and fired 8 rifle shots in the direction of the vessel before trailing off”

“Had the pirates been able to capture a ship full of people, not only that but wealthy westerners and presumably a lot of them Americans . . . the piracy story would have been taken to a whole other level”

Don’t take my word for it. You have to get a load of the talking head’s tone.

Plus, extra bonus, maybe some of you have no idea what a “skiff” is, so here’s a picture :

There were two of them — reportedly carrying a total of six (6) bandits.

And here’s a picture of the Cruise Ship [Maximum Speed: 18 knots] carrying lots of “presumably rich Americans” but more generally “656 international passengers and 399 crew members” :

Let’s do some math, so everyone can be sure and share the page —

656 / 399 = 1.6

1 knot is 1.852 kilometers an hour) or 1.1507794480235425 Miles per Hour. 18 knots is 20.7 miles per hour.

“It is very fortunate that the liner managed to escape,” said the head of the International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

So now I think we can understand why the problem calls for Blackwater’s little blue boat — packed to the gills with ersatz Steven Seagalls — and not just the 10 warships the EU is sending and the one India has sent and the one(s) Japan is thinking of sending. And of course, the one the Russians already have in situ plus the one(s) they’re thinking of sending in addition.