What Century Is This?

Over the past few days, there have been an uncanny amount of stories in the news regarding pirates.  No, not the kind that download music from file-sharing sites.  Real pirates.  The kind with wooden legs and parrots that poop on their shoulders.  As far as I can tell though, these particular pirates aren’t drinking rum and hooking up with wenches in the Caribbean, they’re hanging out in the waters off of Africa taking people hostage and demanding large ransoms.

For those who haven’t been following the news, let me catch you up to speed.  Basically some Somali pirates took over a Saudi supertanker.  Another band of pirates have hijacked a Thai fishing boat.  And a yet different band of hook-handed thugs had their ship sunk by India’s navy in the Gulf of Aden.  (I blame their failure on the fact that hooks don’t come with opposable thumbs.)