Yar!

Oh, and those Somali pirates who nabbed a ship full of tanks and heavy weapons? They want 20 million US to release it.

Were is Iron Man, Chuck Norris, or the governor of California when we need them?

In fact, now that I think about it, didn't the marines cut their teeth as an organization suppressing African piracy? Sounds like a job opportunity.

See the story here.

Tanks, But No Tanks

In news more appropriate to the opening scenes of a super-hero film, pirates off the Somalian coast have seized control of a tanker ship hauling 31 Russian made T-72 tanks, the BBC reports.

The ship has subsequently disappeared.

The tanks, along with an assortment of anti-aircraft weapons and RPGs, are not surprisingly worth a fortune according to the Times.

Less sensational, but ultimately more interesting, is that Russia has announced the beginning of anti-piracy naval patrols along the Somali coast. Isn't that precisely the sort of job the US navy should be all over, as part of their effort to keep the world's sea lanes open? Are we ceding a zone of influence in the Indian ocean, along Europe's oil shipping lanes to the Russians? Potentially, that would be far bigger news than what's been going on in Georgia.