So the latest rumour is that by the village of Ljubimovka a group of local gypsies stole a Russian tank.

Now my personal reason to want to believe this story. Back when I was doing my then compulsory army service our country was still housing thousands of Russian troops which had come 20 years earlier in 1968 to keep the peace or something (temporarily). I was stationed at a maintenance and storage unit (managed the kitchen). Our unit oversaw the infrastructure of part of the local training grounds where Russian troops regularly trained. One of the main activities, besides facilitating the sale of military diesel fuel was to remove stranded vehicles the Russians simply left behind broken or overturned in ditches. Breaking them up and selling for recycling was pretty lucrative - our labor was free, trucks and cranes were military equipment (also free), tanks contain a surprising amount of copper and aluminum, steel armor is heavy. I dont think Russians count either their troops or their tanks.

An old EQ tale:

I was invisible and running through the Karanas one day when I noticed a young gnome near the gypsy camp. He was fighting a lion and though it looked like he would win the battle, being a fellow gnome, I decided to help the guy out.

I targeted the lion, clicked on my mesmerize spell, then started to type: "I'm mesmerizing the lion for you." I got as far as: "I'm " when I remembered that I had replaced my mesmerize spell with an Area of Effect mesmerize spell... and that I was standing next to an NPC enchantress. Gulp.

My movement keys are mapped to "w a s d" so I frantically stabbed at my keyboard, trying to MOVE and interrupt the spell.

I forgot that I was in typing mode.

The gypsy enchantress didn't like my attempt to mezz her so she promptly charmed me [IE Mind control] and made me go after the gnome I had been trying to save. I watched in horror as my peace-loving character, knife flailing like a crazed sushi chef, chased the little guy down and stabbed him to death.

I found my victim later and apologized profusely... I even gave him a nice weapon and a piece of armor. He was great about it, and laughed when I told him what happened.

He said he didn't know WHAT was going on. One minute he was fighting a lion, the next minute a strange gnome appeared out of NOWHERE, announced: "I'm wwwaaaddd", then sliced him up like Freddy Krueger.

More from Life on the Road

*related=http://videosift.com/video/David-Brent-Lady-Gypsy-Official-Music-Video

*related=http://videosift.com/video/David-Brent-Life-on-the-Road-official-movie-trailer

David Brent - Lady Gypsy: Official Music Video has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

David Brent: Life on the Road [official movie trailer] has been added as a related post - related requested by PlayhousePals.

Another issue... Uber is a taxi dispatching service for unregulated "gypsy" taxi drivers. It is NOT a "ride sharing" service.

Why?

A ride sharing service would be the Uber driver broadcasting out "I'm downtown, and I'm heading to the airport, anyone need a ride?" and if no one takes him up on it, and he GOES THERE ANYWAY BECAUSE HE HAD TO, he's ride sharing.

If he's just sitting around, waiting for a passenger to broadcast "I'm downtown and need to get to the airport, come get me." then he's a taxi.

Uber doesn't need to be regulated, but they SHOULD only deal with properly licensed, insured, and legal transportation providers. Even if that's just a one-man, one-car business.

It's worth noting though that in Europe the word Gypsy, or variants of Zigane / Zigeuner, is a racial slur and used in modern times in actual, horrifying violence against minorities. I mean to the point where it's used by the same people who paint swastikas on walls before they raze tent villages.

http://www.newstatesman.com/human-rights/2014/04/why-europe-failing-protect-its-roma-population-hate-crimes

In the US this is obviously not a thing, and it still doesn't make sense to me to start writing G*p*y (I just see 'guppy' when I read that) but there is a history of racism against the Romani going back centuries, as well as a modern culture of extreme marginalization and exclusion.

I don't want Europeans to go around casually using the N-word and thinking that that's only a disgusting term when it's used in the US, so I guess I wouldn't want Americans going around casually saying Gypsy either, if it can be avoided?

You mean like accidentally calling a person from Central America a Mexican? Yeah, that's because they're racist and assume they're SO much better than a Mexican (or Romani in your friends cases)....edut:at least that's how it looks to me.

I never thought "gypsy" was a slur, any more than Romani is. How would your 'friends' react to being called Romani I wonder?

@newtboy I have friends from Romania and Hungary.

Gypsies are the scum of the earth to these guys.

Calling them a gypsy will get you a punch in the face, because it's that insulting to them.

Wait, a sexy g****y* costume? Has she even seen traditional Romani garb?

(*Holy shit this is the first time I've ever seen gypsy censored out - I mean, it's obviously racist and antiquated, but I've always seen it as more akin to 'colored' - racist and antiquated and shouldn't be used, but not so offensive that it makes your ears bleed if you accidentally hear it)

Wait...so she thinks if a word is used as a racial slur once it can never have another definition? I'm thinking specifically of "gypsy" here. How can one be upset that it wrongly labels Romani as Egyptian, and also claim it can't mean 'nomadic'? Language is fluid, and because a phrase or word might have a 'racist' origin does not mean it can't ever have another meaning. Duh.

I think many Romani are no longer nomadic because you can't just move across international borders without papers, and they historically refuse to do government paperwork, get IDs, pay taxes, etc. That's also why many were deported, they refused to live by the rules of the countries they were living in. Especially in todays climate, refusing to have a verifiable identity is considered unacceptable in many countries. This should surprise no one.

Thanks

I've been on a bit of a Gogol Bordello watching spree too I love the Gypsy Jazz anyway, and these guys are just great. Unfortunately quite a few had gone dead

Yeah, that's not funny.
Calling a thief a Gypsy is racist. I expected more from the Video Sift community.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'thief, gypsy, money, shop' to 'thief, fat, old, short, gypsy, money, shop' - edited by xxovercastxx

Please get rid of that gypsy tag.