INEVITABLE - AT 8:14 A.M. ET:  Here it comes.  Reader Alan Weick alerts us to comments by a University of Maryland law professor on the rescue of Captain Phillips.  Naturally:

... it's dispiriting to see this very complicated issue immediately transformed into material for America's insatiable and childish desire to render all events into allegories about evil and heroes. The hijacking of this ship is an opportunity to learn more about the very volatile and complicated events unfolding in Somalia (which most Americans couldn't find on a map and know for only two things - famine, and the brutal murder of 18 U.S. soldiers in 1992 by Somali ganglords).

COMMENT:  The professor is Sherrilyn Ifill, cousin of super lib Gwen Ifill, of PBS fame.  Runs in the family.

April 15, 2009