Where there is a sea there are pirates

Greek Proverb

Rich Galen has an interesting entry on Pirates. Worth a view,

In summary:

According to the Associated Press, as of Thursday of last week some 260 hostages were being held aboard 14 ships which had been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden. One of those, a Norwegian tanker, was released over the weekend having been held by pirates since the end of March with 27 hostages on board.

Didn’t hear much about them, did you.

According to the Wall Street Journal about 50 ships a day – A DAY – sail through the Gulf of Aden which is about the size of Texas.

100 days times 50 ships a day = 5,000 ships having sailed through the Gulf of Aden.
Sixty-six ships attacked out of 5,000 total passages means 1.32% of ships have been subject to having been hijacked.

There are about 250 million cars and light trucks on American roads. In 2007 there were 10.6 million accidents meaning about 4.22% of all passenger vehicles in America were involved in a wreck.

There was a report that the pirates wanted $2 million for the captain. How much do you think it cost to have the U.S. Navy keeping tabs on that life boat for the past four days?

Ok, we couldn’t – and wouldn’t – have paid to ransom the captain, but that’s why we’re having this class: If you’re going to engage in piracy, make it about the ship and not the people on board.

For the rest of the story and the political under/over-tones see:

http://www.mullings.com/

Why are pirates pirates? cuz they arrrrrr