Above the Hate
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on November 27th, 2008 5:28 am by HL
Above the Hate
(NOTE: Maggie Gallagher is the president of the National Organization for Marriage, which is sponsoring an AbovetheHate.com campaign.) Take this column with a grain of salt. I’ve been an opinion journalist for 20 years, but when it comes to marriage I’m an activist for a cause I passionately believe in.
The Pirates of Puntland
Somalia’s pirates have a big problem on their hands — in the form of their greatest prize, the Saudi-owned oil tanker the Sirius Star. The Sirius Star has 2 million barrels of oil on board and is one of at least 15 “prize” ships now anchored off the Somali coast. According to the pirates, the ship’s crew of 25 is well-fed and well-treated. They have joined another 300 captive sailors taken from other hijacked vessels. And add $30 million to these impressive numbers. That’s an unofficial figure for the ransoms paid over the last year by shipping companies to Somali pirates to free crews, cargoes and vessels