RE: D. I'm no expert, Brian, but it's my dim understanding that, paradoxically, the higher insurance costs concomitant to arming a freighter with Blackwater or whatever mercenaries are greater than paying the pirate ransoms. Less cathartic, certainly, but apparently more cost effective.

But, to enlarge the context here: When are we ever going to learn the lesson that if we want to see fewer desperate acts in this world we have to work harder and with greater foresight and less ethnocentric blindness toward reducing the world's desperation?

Instead, one of the alleged strategies for reducing the cost of government being proffered by the conservative thinkers in congress is to cut back on our already paltry foreign aid budget even as we Sec. Gates plans to INCREASE (or in the squirming, anguished minds of conservatives, "cut") the Defense Dept. budget.

LAMBERT: It is a paradox ... that insurance thing. But as this escalates and requires longer detours, larger ransoms, etc. somebody had better be working on a better plan than just HOPING the pirates don't find them. And again, I get not arming the ship itself or the crew. They aren't professional gunslingers.

As for the larger issue, Somalia, like Afghanistan, is so far removed culturally from standards of functioning law and order than even with an Israeli-like foreign aid injection, it'd be a generation or more before the last of the warlord mentality loosened its grip.

Hence my use of the word, "foresight" and the notion of ineffective foreign policy blinkered by obstinate ethnocentrism. The same goes for policy in Afghanistan, Iran, etc. Nobody's arguing that pirates of any stripe should be blown out of the water. But by the time we're having that conversation the patient's flatlined.

Oh, and let's bear in mind the fine job Blackwater did for us in Iraq. I believe they've had to revisit their business plan in the aftermath of some pesky war time atrocities.

LAMBERT: Actually, I kind of am suggesting a few more pirates need to be blown out of the water. And also, my use of "cowboys" as regards Blackwater/Xe is largely pejorative. They may be mercenaries, but they do know their aggressive tactics stuff.

Multiple questions, yet none about the Twins' mediocre play so far. Get your head on straight, will you?

LAMBERT: For the record, I am outraged. Maybe we should sign Barry Bonds.

Petition asking Norm to give it up:

http://www.giveitupnorm.com/signup.php

It carries no real clout but why not?

Even PZ Myers has joined the Facebook group below. Some of the comments are pretty amusing, even those from Coleman supporters, especially from the young rednecks and the Quiverful (my description) mom in her early 20s with an infant and two toddlers.

http://www.facebook.com/people/1243325685#/group.php?gid=53584773155&ref=ts

LAMBERT: Maybe someone could be appointed to nail it to his heavily re-financed door.

Another poke at the re-financing? Hey the guy paid his taxes and fees, more than we can say for some of the guys who moved here from New York to run for Senate.

Norm, go the distance.

LAMBERT: Norm is on mile 50 of this 26.2 mile race.

Oh, I see that I left "not" out my sentence above. Yeah, sure, duh, it takes not much wattage to advocate for the summary sinking of pirate vessels and their occupants whenever the opportunity arises, I'm unaware of any voices in opposition. Over the vast majority of naval history, this has been the norm of the open seas.

These pirates are merely the wet version of the war lord culture of violence in Mogadishu. The ones zipping around the Somali coast and clambering up ropes to commandeer tankers, etc. are merely the desperate and hopeless youth used by their older handlers in Mogadishu whose only value is the same as the buccaneers on Wall Street--$$$$.

But this is merely expedient, tactical thinking, the hallmark of the preceding administration. What we need in addition to simplistic, albeit effective short-term, tactical thinking is much longer term, enlightened self interested strategic thinking.

Time to get over Blackhawk Down Syndrome or all we'll ever be capable of is reflexive tactical responses to greater and greater disasters perpetrated by the ever-growing ranks of the world's desperate people.

LAMBERT: Another year of this "recession" and we'll be worrying about Bulgaria and Spain as much as Somalia.

Yeah, I'm still trying to wrap my head around how the GOP can get away with screaming that Obama is decreasing the military budget when it stands to gain a 4% increase in this budget. Those demigods and their feet never touch ground do they? The GOP has no grounding in reality anymore. I guess since most of their elected representatives in swing districts of moderate and pragmatic intellect went down to defeat all you have is the bratshitcrazy hysterical right-wing bizarro-world nutjobs left.

Take, for example, the free-range cougar Michele Bachmann attempting to articulate party policy but failing to have any mooring in the real world. Obviously, Bachmann is being directed by the freak-a-zoid element of the extremist right-wing, however, it suits her phyllogenetic (flakey) mind to be mimicking their fear-mongering, no doubt and invention of FOX and their wacho fear inventing media workshop.

Having said all that, I agree that piracy on the seas is the result of sustained avoidance of instability in the world and the desperation of lawless and ruleless countries like Somalia. The Bush administration avoidance and incompetence in dealing with economic and social instability in these countries was criminal. The solution is for those countries to rebuilt themselves based on a rule of law and mutually self-sustaining social pact for all its people.

Hysteria and extremism will not benefit any society - America and its Bachmann's or Somalia and its warlords. I do not suppose we can turn back the clock to a pre-Bush world order but let's learn the lesson of neglect, ignorance and incompetence and the horrible travesty they produce. This isn't just an issue for the U.S. and it is an issue for the entire world to address.

LAMBERT: The howling about "spreading the wealth around" ... in the United States, was nothing compared to what happens when you start suggesting we have to do it overseas. Still, corruption (induced poverty) is a pretty formidable obstacle to overcome.

Your post, like every single story I've seen on the Coleman court challenge, assumes he has no chance...zero...of prevailing in State Supreme Court. If, however, Coleman wins there then I would expect you would immediately call for Governor Pawlenty to declare the race over and send Mr. Coleman back to the U.S. Senate. Right?

Not that I imagine anyone outside the reporting corps cares one way or another by now. Any good will either of these clowns ever enjoyed has been frittered away in a stupid, mathematically incoherent attempt to sort out a "winner" when such a thing is statistically impossible...not to mention long since boring beyond belief.

The race was a dead heat and should have been decided by coin flip last November.

LAMBERT: Let me be a bit clearer. Norm Coleman never did have a chance of winning via his legal strategy. Sorry to blunt your semi-anarchic (half-pregnant?) buzz. And also, I'm not buying the "frame" implicit in "either of these clowns". Norm may actually be more personable than Franken, but Al Franken hasn't put the state through this. The first recount was automatic. Since then he's played along, rebutting Coleman's legal inanity. Once in the Senate Franken will serve my best interersts just fine.

"in the Senate Franken will serve my best interersts just fine."

How is it that washed up B grade comedians/satirists who have a hard time running businesses or gaining popularity in the media always know what is best for a state they haven't lived in for 40 years?

LAMBERT: Well, besides the Harvard education -- an indicator of possible talent -- an orientation to middle-class issues helps a lot. Not as much as having the right competition at the right time maybe, but it helps. Also "washed up"? I seem to remember Franken maintaining quite high popularity with his books.

Norm has the right, ney, the DUTY, to pursue the case to the Supremes, where he should prevail, based on the FACTS.

Remember, we're talking about the spector of Sen. Stuart Smiley here!

In other news, three shots, and three kills by Navy snipers. Nice work, lads.

LAMBERT: When I think of snipers I think of you.

"...been frittered away in a stupid, mathematically incoherent attempt to sort out a "winner" when such a thing is statistically impossible...not to mention long since boring beyond belief."

This is sh*t talking. This has no basis in reality and is hot air blowing out of the arse. This election has been counted, scrutinized, debated and evaluated in ways no election has ever been. Every vote has been examined by multiple sets of eyeballs from all parties and this is suppose to mathematically mean nothing?

This result making Franken the winner has nothing to do with STATISTICALLY possible or mathematically impossible because statistics (if you went to college Frogman) are samples of a whole to predict a real count. But the vote count and recount are not samplings, they (Republicans, Democrats, and Independents) counted EVERY single ballot. The final result not a statistical sampling.

The recount was then scrutinized by a panel of judges made up of people who consider themselves from all three parties and their examination of the evidence and the cross of the lawyers advocating for both sides was highly watched.

If the entire process went to the U.S. Supreme Court and even if they ruled in Coleman's favor, he still wouldn't win because the Supremes can declare winners and Pawlenty at no point has the authority to "to declare the race over." At the very best for Coleman (and very worse of Minnesotans) there would have to be a special election. Yes, another parade of clowns and buffoons, of dirty false accusations, and character slander on both sides and a pathetic retry.

I just do not get you folks who blow the entire process off just because it didn't reach the conclusion you wanted. It is so dishonest and everyone can see it and it is time to put the whole mess behind us.

What's incredible is Coleman doesn't have the grace nor intellect to see it is best for him to concede. He can make more money in the private sector than he ever made in office as former U.S. Senators. Now, he is the scourge of so many millions of people, however, he could revive his reputation in private life like so many before him. But ego and personal aggrandizement is so self-destructive.

LAMBERT: I know someone who will take this as a declaration of war.

Franken's middle class orientation? Even when Franken was "middle class" he was going to wealthy prep schools - the guy's memory of middle class are as foggy as when he paid his workers comp insurance.

So now Franken's dismal entry into movies, sitcoms and radio shows are because of his compeition?

And if writing popular books is all it takes to qualify for the Senate then let's get ready for Senator Mark Levin, Ann Coulter, Socks the Cat - all who had best selling books.

LAMBERT: One big difference. Franken's books were factually accurate and intentionally funny.

With a tip of the hat to the high unemployment numbers across the country , I think a reasonable resolution of the Senate election is for the boys to job-share. One is Senator on Mondays and Wednesdays, the other on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Senators usually travel on Friday and just attend unnecessary events on weekends, so those days don't really matter anyhow.

Think about it. We're on course for Franken to become Senator sometime around World Series time, and it's all just boredom for the electorate after that. But have these dudes splitting duty, and everyone's watching.

LAMBERT: Would Al or Norm get the top bunk in Jeff Larson's townhouse basement?

"One big difference. Franken's books were factually accurate and intentionally funny"

Franken can spin facts and take things out of context like the best of him. His "humor" and factual accuracy tend to be a matter of opinion.

LAMBERT: Yes, but the opinion of a better breed of people, as we elitists like to think of ourselves.

I keep waiting for Team Coleman to claim the state is obliged to count the psychic vote, i.e, count those people who TC knows would have voted for Coleman if they had only voted. That seems to be their only hope. Courts only give decisions where they can provide relief, and I can't imagine any relief that would benefit Coleman.

Beowulf in a hero; Odysseus is a hero; somebody's Little League coach is not a hero. Sullenberger did it about right: stayed on the media scene long enough to praise the training of veteran, union airline workers and then fled.

Somalia presents the usual problem of epidemic crime: do you reduce crime by changing the conditions that spawn it or deter it by punishing the criminals. The problem with Somalia is that nobody knows how to do either. One problem with letting Blackwater run around in speed boats, beyond letting Blackwater do anything, is that boats, even the fastest, are slow. It will have to be done by air; the French just sunk a mother ship using helicopters off, I think, a DE. I wonder if would be possible to use satellites and drones to monitor and punish. It might help to shrink the channel by telling merchants ships they have to stay within certain bounds with the understanding that if they leave the channel for good reasons, e.g., going into port, they will be given air cover.

LAMBERT: I tend to see the modern world as an actuarial table. Shipping companies may find it cheaper to pay off the pirates than shoot them, but pretty damned soon their insurers are going to crank the rates through the stratosphere. At that point it gets a lot cheaper to hire the Blackwater guys -- ANYTHING to get them out Iraq -- to float alongside every ship in a high-speed gunboat and rake approaching zodiacs with gunfire. I mean, that's Blackwater's game, right? Raking third world types with machine guns?

The question must be asked, yet again - why do you hate freedom?

It was the US Navy and their snipers who put down the asshat "pirates".

LAMBERT Now how am I "hating freedom"? I thought you'd love the idea of over-caffeinated gun nuts raking the Persian Gulf with machine gun fire.