I'm surrounded by a-holes...

When I first started this blog, I expected that I'd have a lot to say about current events. However, since the election, other than Inauguration Day I have been feeling pretty apolitical, partially out of winter blues/general grumpiness, but also because I'm waiting for the honeymoon phase with President Obama to wear off and have something interesting to talk about besides the recession.  This week, with the attack of the Somali pirates on the U.S.-operated Maersk Alabama and North Korea's repeated attempts to matter by launching a satellite into orbit (which failed), I've felt the first stirrings of political interest in the past 3-4 months.  North Korea always seems so desperate for attention, and I have to laugh at their tenacity.  There is a long history of brutality and oppression in North Korea, but given the pervasive presence of asshole dictators in the world, it seems that the West simply has bigger fish to fry right now, and absent any real show of power, Kim Jong Il and his boys just aren't going to hold our attention.

Which brings me to what I really want to say.  My friend Eskimo Bob recently blogged about a religious movement of Ultimate Fighters who want to accentuate the edgier side of Jesus, and his butt-kicking capabilities.  I'm not on board with that, but I do think sometimes people forget that Jesus wasn't all sugarplums and molasses and baskets of butterflies.  He said things that sometimes were interpreted as harsh, and was definitely not the pantywaist hippie that some people seem to prefer to see him as.  Which brings me back to the pirates.  I haven't kept up on the story continuously, but I was really annoyed by our Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who was laughing about the situation in a press conference, as if to say, "Those darn pirates!  Boys will be boys!"  I am rooting for the Obama Presidency to succeed spectacularly, but I am kind of wondering why this isn't being treated with the seriousness it deserves.  The pirates are completely defying the U.S. government, and it seems any time we should be putting the fear of God into them. Negotiation and diplomacy have their place, but not with terrorists, and that is all pirates are, even if Captain Jack Sparrow is a fun dude.  I had the most productive week I've had in a long time this week, so I'm in a fighting kind of mood, but for the love, can we just get this handled already?  That's all I have to say.  Discuss.