Pirates have stolen a UN food shipment for Somali tsunami victims. The report I read said the waters near Somalia have been experiencing increasing numbers of piracy events. Piracy? That means the waters around Somalia are completely lawless. When are we going to wake up and smell the grog?

The world is a violent place. Human beings enslave other human beings. Terrorists kill civilians in order to further a socio-political agenda. Politicians lie to their country's detriment in order to gain power. Countries attack other countries in order to take over their land for oil resources, ports, whatever. There are numerous dictators who deprive their people of basic necessities in order to smoke Cuban cigars or eat caviar with their morning toast. Warlords take food shipments sent by charitable organizations in order to use the food to feed their militias so they are healthy and strong enough to go out and kill thousands of civilians to drive down the population of other ethnic groups.

It is an ugly world out there. When are we going to drop the veneer of touchy feely, I'm alright, you're alright kid gloves with which we approach the rest of the world. Every day the real news demonstrates to us that we live in a world which is at least as violent as it was two hundred, perhaps two thousand years ago. We have NOT reached some magical point in the history of the world in which everybody is pretty reasonable and we can resolve everything by talking or forging relationships. Those who question the existence of EVIL in this world are missing the bigger question. It is not so much a question of whether Evil exists, but rather of whether Evil is in control.

We need to approach many of the problems of the world with an iron fist. Short of that we will simply continue to have our citizens dragged dead through the streets by animals who do not know how to spell their names. I think George Bush and many in the government already understand this. Why must we continually try to tie their hands so they cannot act on the principle?