* Captain A Hostage
* Kim Jong Il Back
* Yahoo Over Facebook?
* New DOJ Ethics Chief
* Pinko Nation

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These are the stories I am most interested in this morning:

• Hijacked Maersk ship: Crew safe but captain offered himself as hostage; U.S. warships on scene. Captain still held. Hillary Clinton condemns “scourge of piracy.”
• North Korea’s Kim Jong Il has been re-elected chairman of the National Defense Commission. According to the nation’s constitution, that makes him leader, as his dead father is “Eternal President.”
• Can Yahoo beat Facebook at its own game? Cindy Cotte Griffiths thinks maybe. Reasons: Business-friendly architecture; some better at-a-glance systems; AND . . . huge user base (many have joined Yahoo in order to stay connected to local PTA’s, etc.).
• Attorney General Holder replaced the Department of Justice ethics chief over complaints that the previous occupant, while thorough, moved to slow and was too secretive.
• Rasmussen survey says just a narrow margin of Americans say they prefer capitalism to socialism. 53% of adults prefer capitalism, 20% say socialism, 23% are “not sure.” But in December, 70% of Americans said they preferred “free market economy” to one “managed by the government.” Rasmussen thinks it may have to do with people not believing capitalism is really about free markets. My take: In the recent survey, “capitalism” and “socialism” are not defined, and there may be confusion about what the terms mean.

Thanks for reading.

Brad