A fool and his money

Parting with almost $2 million is such sweet sorrow, but another day is tomorrow, when the incentives suggest it will happen again:

MADRID - A day after the crew of the Playa de Bakio were released unharmed, reportedly following a ransom payment to the pirates, the government's response to the seizure of a Spanish fishing boat off the coast of lawless Somalia was "cautious, sensible and responsible," José Antonio Alonso, the governing Socialist Party's spokesman in Congress, said Sunday.

....The fishing boat's crew of 13 Spaniards and 13 Africans were freed shortly after 5pm on Saturday when the pirates abandoned the vessel for the Somali shore under the cover of darkness.

A local Somali official told Reuters that a ransom of EUR 1.2 million had been paid to the pirates by the ship's owner, although Spanish officials refused to confirm the report. The negotiations between the owner and the leader of the pirates had apparently been handled by a law firm in London.