Aaaargh ... Blackbeard must be dancin' a jig in hottest Hell. The old buccaneer must be splitting with pride to see the latter-day sons of the Jolly Roger thumbing their noses at every navy on God's blue seas. But what in the Name of Heaven, in the age of geo-positioning, laser-guided weaponry and satellite surveilance are we doing with pirates running amok on the high seas?

Good Lord, where's Errol Flynn when we need him. Across the globe nations, ours among them, dispatch submarines armed to destroy continents, carriers loaded with an air force apiece, cruise missiles, and the toughest, best trained fighting men on earth -- and all this might is helpless against a handful of ill-tempered swashbucklers armed with a stolen motorboat and nothing to lose.

And you know, it's hard not to have a grudging admiration for men who have the nerve to go out and steal a supertanker -- oil and all. Talk about the ultimate gas drive-off. And the thought of the Saudis and the world's shipping magnates literally dropping gunny sacks of cash from hovering helicopters to keep their captains and crews from walking the plank has a real David and Goliath-ness to it.

Pirates -- your kid can take a wrong turn and end up another Henry Morgan or Calico Jack Rackham, a Mary Read or Anne Bonney. Avast, me hearties and shiver me timbers -- there be pirates afloat and the king can't catch 'em.