Pat gets a no-prize with an eye patch for bringing us news that piracy is far from dead:

A luxury ship carrying at least 600 tourists from Europe narrowly escaped seizure by gunmen off the pirate-infested Somali coast when it sped off to the high seas amid a trail of gunfire.

The vessel was destined to the Kenyan Indian Ocean city of Mombasa, where it was expected to arrive Monday, Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers' Assistance Programme (SAP) told AFP.

I've been reading about piracy in this area and the area around the South China Sea for years now. As long as they stuck to tramp freighters and the occasional hapless sports tourist, I suppose they were just ignored. Now that they're starting to take on bigger fish, maybe someone will finally take care of them.

Doesn't have to be us. China and India both have navies more than capable of squashing thugs in speedboats. If the pirates make commerce expensive enough, I'm sure those navies will.