SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:24 P.M. ET: 

HEY, IT'S THE RAGE – Even Venice is getting into the "let's split up countries" act.  From London's Daily Mail:  "Venetians have voted overwhelmingly for their own sovereign state in a ‘referendum’ on independence from Italy.   Inspired by Scotland’s separatist ambitions, 89 per cent of the residents of the lagoon city and its surrounding area, opted to break away from Italy in an unofficial ballot.  The proposed ‘Repubblica Veneta’ would include the five million inhabitants of the Veneto region and could later expand to include parts of Lombardy, Trentino and Friuli-Venezia Giulia."  And I say, if Beverly Hills and Massachusetts want to secede, more power to 'em!

WHILE WE SLEEP – From AFP:  "(AFP) - About 200 pro-Russian protesters on Saturday stormed a Ukrainian air force base in western Crimea, forcing the soldiers to leave as the Ukrainian flag was taken down.  The unarmed crowd yelling "Russia! Russia!" broke through to the base in the town of Novofedorivka and started smashing windows.  Ukrainian servicemen barricaded themselves inside buildings and threw smoke bombs at the intruders from the roof. Some of the people threw the smoke bombs back at the soldiers.  Russian officers stood outside watching as the protesters took down the Ukrainian flag and put up the white and blue flag of the Russian navy.  'It's my unit and I have to protect it!' a Ukrainian soldier yelled to the Russian officers from the roof.  A Russian military officer then went inside the building to negotiate with the Ukrainians as the crowd of protesters were told to leave. Several dozen soldiers were later seen walking out of the base, leaving it empty, with Russian soldiers standing outside."  Within a few weeks we seem to have gone back decades in Europe.

A REAL CLUE? – Amidst all the non-stop breathless coverage of the Malaysian airline mystery, there was one intriguing development today that may actually have some meaning.  Several informed commentators noted that the pilot's (or co-pilot's) last words from the plane – "All right, good night" – were very odd, and did not conform to airline protocol.  Normally, we're told, the cockpit officer would have acknowledged the air controller's last instruction, then issued a self-identifier ("United 682," as an example) and only then would he say "good night."  I'd like to know more about that.  The implication is that something was going on aboard the plane, distracting the pilot or co-pilot from normal protocol.

March 22, 2014