The picture in the Times says it all:

It seems to me there's a certain futility in prosecuting pirates, who recongize no nation or law, but this one drew the long straw, apparently, and won the all-expenses-paid trip to the Big Apple.  And he seems positively thrilled.  Maritime law experts say "a criminal trial would be historic and [a] potentially useful approach to a longstanding problem," but it will also, as a matter of course, be a three-ring circus.

There's apparently already some question as to whether he can even be tried as an adult.  The AP called his mother, who "said he was just 16, and was lured into piracy by older men with the promise of money."  OMFG! That's just how the Gay Agenda got me!  And we both get lotsa booty.  But that's where the similarity ends. I get mine lawfully.  The kid's clearly plenty piratey enough to prosecute.  As for his mother, who's asked the Obama's for an all-expenses-paid trip to the US, too, so she can be with her pirate son during the trial: this is not American Idol, sweetheart.  And whoever heard of a pirate's mom coming to his rescue?

The human aspect to the story, which is already being played up in the press, is a familiar one, and it pits our profligate concern for individuals trapped in the grinding gears of history with our more prudent concern for social order over anarchy.  Something in us loves the idea of a pirate — the lawlessness, the anarchy, not to mention all that rum, sodomy, and the lash (oops, no, sorry, that was the Royal Navy).  But then there's the scurvy and obvious lack of orthadontics onboard.  Pirates, it seems, don't all look like Johnny Depp.  This one isn't even wearing eyeliner.

Still, a staargh is born.

Check out 25 Random Things About Pirates at 25 Random Things.