Pirates Plunder: Seattle Couple Among Four Held Hostage

A recently put a post up here about Charlie Sheen... partially, as a test.
I wanted to see if readership increased when a Hollywood celebrity took a nose dive.
I got my answer.
No one cares any more about fallen Hollywood stars.
Gollywood, Lost Angeles, Dope, Rehab.... It's all Old News. 
And I suppose that's what makes blogging such a unique, fluid form of creative expression.
You can instantly erase mistakes or move past them and carry on.
So at this point I'm not sure what I'll do with the Charlie Sheen story.
I do know, however, what I'll do with a story I've been following closely.
Share it here.
When I first heard about this case, I was on the road and decided it was too important not to blog about.
Because it's not movies.
It's real life.

And the link to the story follows at the end of the post.
This story not about celebrities snorting white powder...
It's about pirates taking over the free seas, holding people captive, because they claim, they can no longer earn a living as fishermen.
So this, they claim, is the next best thing.
Really?
There's no better way to earn a living than kidnapping innocent people who are trying to escape people like them?
But wait... it gets worse.

Now the people being held captive are being publicly criticized for sailing through "Pirate Alley" in the first place.
They should stay out of the bad ocean hoods, cry the naysayers.
I say, the ocean is a big place.
There are no billboards.... road, street or warning signs on the ocean.
And if you're a small pleasure vessel, you won't out-run the heavily armed commandos whose mission is to overtake you.
So no sea is safe, really.
And that's why we have battleships, the Navy.
In this case, the Military is on it....the Seals.... and the copters hover overhead.
Negotiations are underway.
The pirates are staffing up.
Last I heard there were four of them to to every one hostage.
I have no clue how this one will end.
I do know it will not end well.
Here's a link to the story from the Seattle Times.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2014288307_pirates21.html