Earth

Piracy off the Somali coast continues to be a significant concern. Fourteen ships and over 200 sailors are currently held captive. Fret not, the UN is on the case:

The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved a US resolution allowing countries to pursue Somali pirates on land as well as at sea.

It is an extension of the powers countries already have to enter Somali waters to chase pirates.
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President Obama will likely be signing into law some form of socialized medicine legislation. Already a goal of Congressional leadership, now with an even stronger majority, I expect a American Health Protection Act will be the last bill sponsored by, and first national tribute to, Ted Kennedy and his brain tumor.

With East African piracy at the top of recent headlines, the BBC looks into how the bad guys collect their booty. Aside from the spy-movie intrigue, two thoughts come to mind.

1) Piracy is a textbook example of order without law. In the absence of government, people need not devolve into chaos:

"No matter what process is taken, they always go through a middleman," advises BBC Somali service analyst Said Musa. "And trust is at the heart of everything."

Thursday, November 27, 2008
21:58 Mecca time, 18:58 GMT

Iraq parliament approves US pact

Although our governments have chosen to not name any official day marking the end of this war, we the people have taken it upon ourselves to commemorate November 22, 2008 as the day of victory over the forces of tyranny, oppression and terror in Iraq.

For those who agree that the US shouldn’t buy oil from countries that don’t like us very much, there’s good news. The huge, sudden collapse of the price of crude is hitting those countries hard.

Putin is trying to talk the Russian economy away from the edge, Iran might not be able to buy gasoline (they export oil but import refined products), and Chavez might end up swinging from a lamppost.

With the election of Barack Obama, some lax thinkers are convinced conservatism has been struck a mortal blow. These folks seem to believe George W. Bush was a conservative, and Obama’s victory was driven not by race, or by his opponent’s meekness, but was a rejection of conservative ideas.

Conservatives counter that Bush is no conservative. He is merely a Republican, of the moderate center. Sarah Palin was the only genuine conservative up for a significant office. The righties believe their ideas have not lost, they have been abandoned.

But only in the United States.

While the headlines are focused on gray financial skies, sunshine increases in Iraq.

BAGHDAD — Market by market, square by square, the walls are beginning to come down. The miles of hulking blast walls, ugly but effective, were installed as a central feature of the surge of American troops to stop neighbors from killing one another.