Image from the LA Times

The Defiant One: Rap and protest in Morocco, post-Arab Spring.

The Iranian Pirate Rescue raises the question, if the enemy of your enemy is your friend, then what’s the captor of your enemy?  Or the captive of your enemy?

FBI finally redefines eons-old definition of rape.

Could Tennessee think of a way to make anti-bullying laws anymore toothless?

The history and algorithmic explanation behind Santorum’s “Google Problem.”

Ahoy! We at U.S. Democrazy love pirates, with their eye-patches, parrots and Johnny Depp swagger. But while pirate movies are fun, modern pirates are anything but.

There has been an ongoing problem with Somalian pirates hijacking ships. Yesterday, they were at it again, capturing a ship after chasing it for five hours.

These modern day pirates, armed with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades, have been terrorizing the seas for a long time. Spain is asking the European Union forces to blockade three Somalian ports.

Spain is also asking other countries to keep better track of the ransom money paid by companies and individuals to the pirates in exchange for the release of seized property and personnel.

A few London law firms have helped ship owners figure out how to pay the pirates in exchange for the safety of employees who have been captured.

However, some of these lawyers have been accused of having ties to pirate gangs. It doesn’t help that one of the pirates’ lawyer gave an interview suggesting that he was being paid by the one county’s interior minister.

It’s all a bit muddled, but we’re hoping that the pirates put down their guns and trade it in for a parrot.

We at USDemocrazy usually think of pirates as scruffy seafaring scoundrels sailing the seven seas in silly hats. So we were quite surprised to learn that Pirates now have their own political party in Sweden! (and it is not a Boarding party)

This came to our attention because these politically savy pirates are now members of the European Parliament.

But these aren’t your average pillage-loving pirates, these pirates are anti-pillage purists (say that 5 times fast)!

These pirates are against the pillaging of people’s privacy rights on the Internet. Their three platforms are “to fundamentally reform copyright law, get rid of the patent system, and ensure that citizens’ rights to privacy are respected”(CNET).

Being one of the 18 seats representing Sweden doesn’t seem like much now but wait! These pirates are one of many “green” or newer liberal parties taking the EU by storm. Countries like Germany, France, Italy, and Belgium were infested by these new parties in the recent elections (Washington Post). Well maybe not infested like bugs or anything but they did manage to creep into the Parliament.

Due to the REALLY low voter turnout (about 43.5 percent of 375 million eligible) the fringe parties of the political realm were in higher demand. There are two possible explanations:

“With strict proportional representation enforced by the EU, the fringes suddenly become accessible to voters who might otherwise vote for more conventional parties and candidates. And with incredibly low turnout, only the most committed of voters are casting their ballots – perhaps those who are committed to parties farther from the center than would be the case in national balloting.” FiveThirtyEight

In the end, we here at USDemocrazy are happy to see some pirates in power… silly hats and all. Arg ye matey!

No Bull? See the video above.

Stay Back! Ship fends of Pirates.

All or nothing. Sri Lanka rejects Tamil Tiger cease fire.

Go train, Go! Obama wants faster trains.

How do you like them Big Apple. Pirate to be tried in New York.

Almost found it. Cleopatra’s tomb is on the verge of discovery.

Ginsburg ain’t giving up!

Pirates re-ignite debate…  Should ships arrrrrm themselves?

It is very hard for us serious folks here at USDemocrazy not to think of talking parrots, gold dabloons and Johnny Depp when we hear the word “PIRATES!”. 

So we landlubbers were alarmed to discover that real pirates do exist today and are wreaking havoc as we speak (…or is it type?).

The location of these havoc-ateers is not the Caribbean but the Arabian Sea off the coast of Somalia. The mission of these Somali bandits is not to discover sunken treasures and drink copious bottles of rum but to rob and steal at gunpoint from the numerous cargo ships that traverse the sea nearby.

Somalia is a pirate’s paradise.  Starvation, civil war and anarchy have defined this failed state for nearly two decades. Early on the US tried to intervene and help the struggling nation with little luck. The famous movie “Black Hawk Down” embodied that unhappy episode. It catalogues a failed American military mission in 1993 that cost the lives of 18 US soldiers.

In the chaos and remoteness of Somalia, pirates operate unchecked. They are heavily armed, board ships with guns blaring and hijack cargoes. This is no Hollywood family movie.

The pirate issue caught the news this week when a small band of pirates attacked an American flagged vessel and took its captain as hostage. The US Navy was sent in to save the day, but as the New York Times says:

The Indian Ocean standoff between an $800 million United States Navy destroyer and four pirates bobbing in a lifeboat showed the limits of the world’s most powerful military…

Kinda makes you want to rethink the way we spend our military budget… (WAIT! That’s what we are doing!)

This all comes at a pretty busy time for President Obama. Trying to fit pirates into his daily routine of saving the planet from financial ruin is not easy at the moment.

So it will be interesting to see how the US and the world tackles the thorny problems of these bad acting pirates of the high seas (Johnny Depp excluded).

If you’re a Somali pirate… this wasn’t the ship to commandeer. 

From White Castle to House… to White House.

When Obama first met him at a fundraiser, the future president said, “What show are you on?” When Penn told him it was House, Obama said, “That’s right. The doctor show.”

The DMV says “no”… to tofu.