Rrrrrr?

This blog is about pirates- not the Orlando Bloom hot friendly pirates- or the ones worshiped by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster but the ones in Somalia currently causing problems for basically anyone in the ocean at this rate.

Somalia is a failed state by all definitions offered- there is a "government" but it doesn't really do anything. Initially it kind of made sense to be a pirate, take a few people off a boat get a crap tone of ransom money (an old NY Times article talks about how they live in the nicest houses and drive cars and such). But then they got greedy and really picked up the action- I believe there are currently over 100 people being held hostage by pirates at this point in time. We really should have done something once the traffic picked up- weirdly while terrorists are not covered by International Law (it is slow to adapt) pirates are- from my understanding they are considered stateless people which means anyone who wants to can deal with them. The cruelest but most effective thing to do might have been to send in the Chinese or some other state that isn't that concerned with its human rights record and let them do the patrolling. (Currently France seems to be the one making the large patrolling effort).

The pirates then got really greedy and stupidly decided to attack a ship under an American flag. It did not go well and all they got was the hostage that volunteered himself- the Americans also stupidly lost their hostage without getting their captain back. In the end because Obama kicks ass the Seals went in and the Captain is safe. For some reason this really pissed off pirates who were not even involved with it. On declared that America was the aggressor (why he thinks killing people who were about to kill our guy, who was I dunno... kidnaped, makes us the aggressor is a bit confusing to me).

Now the pirates claim no Americans are safe, if any are on crew they will be shot on the spot. This creates a huge problem for the pirates, they make their money from ransom... if you shoot the person you cant get ransom money. This also shows that the situation is getting really desperate. Come on countries of the world they are pirates in tiny little row boats! One you have to be able to see them coming for a little while, two I am pretty sure Navy weapons guns trump whatever massive guns they have. This is a problem we could easily take care of, we could also label it as self defense, aka we dont shoot at them if they dont shoot at us. That should make some of the human rights people happy.

All in favor of replacing the cranky pirates with orlando bloom types? Rrrrr

My opinion on Bank Holidays...

So being an idiot on Friday I walked into the city (45 min walk) with the hopes of depositing a check, mailing some letters, and getting a few books out of the school library. Of course Friday was Good Friday so really I just got a lot more exercise then I was expecting. It got me thinking back to the Easter a friend and I sat in the car for two hours before our movie because everything else was closed (even KMart- kind of like Asda for you British readers).

I began to think about how bored I get on these holidays (not being a practicing Christian and all) and think of how much worse it is for Jews, Muslims, anyone who doesnt at least have the obligatory dinner with family that even us non-Christians get. Personally I find it a little unfair that Christians get paid days off that do not come out of their holiday leave and other religions in the West do not. I am pretty sure a Muslim would not mind going to work on Good Friday (just saying). So since we no longer live in the Medieval age where the Pope ruled everything and no christians were harassed I have come up with a lovely proposition.

Christians should still be allowed to have their days off on Christmas and Easter I fully support that, however how about letting the non-Christians come into work and instead get their own kind of bank holiday on a day that is suitable for them (like Yom Kippur). Obviously it would be difficult to accommodate some holidays (Ramadan lasts more than two days). But what I want to know is why Jews and Muslims must take personal holiday time in order to observe their holidays and Christians get theirs as a bonus. Not only would this be fair to non Christians but it would mean more things would be open for those of us who dont spend the whole day with family and at church! Really it would just be giving everyone 3 religious days to use when they see fit that do not come out of their other holiday time, for Christians it could be Christmas Day, Good Friday, and Easter Monday (for some reason Christmas Eve does not cut it as a bank holiday). For Jews it could be the first night of Hanukkah, Purim and Yom Kippur, Muslims could have a portion of Ramadan or their New Years off, Chinese people have their own New Years to celebrate. (Ps I am sorry to those of the other religion if holidays I have listed are spelled wrong or you really require a whole week off or something like that- my religion class failed to drill in the exact details of all the holidays into my head but hey one paid day off is better than no day off!)

Anyway I say we all get behind this it is silly for Christians to be the only ones to get additional Holidays off in the Western world- we are supposed to be progressive in the West! (not to mention it would be really awesome if I could have gone to the library)