Word: truckful
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...violence doesn't only target foreigners and wealthy locals. On Sunday, I was drinking tea with half a dozen truck drivers who ply the road between Kabul and Kandahar, another route I used to drive several times a year. A week ago, Taliban insurgents stopped a bus convoy and abducted 27 men. Six were beheaded and all but one of the rest were killed, according to another Taliban spokesman. He said they were all soldiers for the Afghan National Army. The government, however, says they were migrants, heading to Iran for work...
...Still, the truck drivers weren't concerned about the Taliban as much as they were worried about the predations of police officials who charged exorbitant bribes at checkpoints. And the kidnappers they feared were the criminals who charge ransom, and who often work in cahoots with police - who refuse to track them down...
...truck drivers, Jan Mohammad, 45, was ready to quit, even though his family desperately needed his $100 monthly salary. "I am so fed up," he said. "[Taliban leader] Mullah Omar says if you transport goods for the Americans, I will kill you. But the government security agencies take off their uniforms at sunset and rob me. There is no salvation...
...winning joke is from a 12-year-old Northern Cheyenne boy: "Three men are riding in a pickup--two in the cab, one in back. The truck falls into the river. The two men open their doors and swim out but can't find the third man. Finally, he comes up. 'What took you so long?' they ask. 'I couldn't open the tailgate,' he says...
...Kansas City and St. Louis. After stops along the way, I found myself in Lincoln County, driving through a little subdivision of newly minted homes called Ashleigh Estates, looking for voters to interview. A group of young families was gathered on a concrete driveway, next to a pickup truck with a big toolbox in the bed. Lots of kids, ranging from toddlers to preteens, were playing in the slanting evening sunshine, while a couple of the dads sipped after-work beers...