So let me get this straight: A gang of pirates have hijacked a tanker carrying the highly flammable chemical Benzene and are now threatening the US Navy ship that is planning an assault on the vessel.

Do they not know what we are capable of? Not since the First Barbary War have I been so fed up with Piracy. What these pirates don’t get is we’ve been at this pirate fighting thing since the very beginning. The first thing we did after kicking the English out of the Colonies was go find some pirates to fuck with. It’s practically our National Birthright.

As a Nation we are nothing if we’re not kickass pirate fighters.

The Piracy Reporting Centre says Piracy is up once again:

In the first 9 months of the year a total of 15 vessels were hijacked, 172 crewmembers were taken hostage, 63 were kidnapped, and 21 were assaulted.

There was a lull in Piracy in 2005 but as we all know that was just the clam before the storm. I’m not sure if the photo above is of Pirates or Pirate Hunters but those guys look pretty serious. Granted, I don’t see where they could attach a plank.

Lately there has been a bevy of Piracy articles in the news:

National Geographic: Dark Passage

BBC: Dip in global pirate ship attacks

BBC: Somalia’s pirates are ‘thriving’

AP: Piracy Off Somalia’s Coast Increases