This thread is worthless without photos for the ladies!
Posted on 05/15/2008 3:29:13 PM PDT by forkinsocket
AS A CHILD, Peter Leeson was pirate-obsessed. He cherished the ruby-eyed skull ring he got at Disney World, after riding Pirates of the Caribbean. He took up a collection of coconut pirate heads. He lapped up the pirate themes in "Goonies." And when he grew up to be an economics professor, and started studying pirate society, he found a new excuse for admiration. Pirates, it turns out, were pioneers of democracy.
Presidential candidates, take note: Long before they made their way into the workings of modern government, the democratic tenets we hold so dear were used to great effect on pirate ships. Checks and balances. Social insurance. Freedom of expression. So Leeson, an economics professor at George Mason University, will argue in his upcoming book, "The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates."
Yes, those stereotypically lawless rum-chuggers turned out to be ardent democrats. And in their strange enlightenment, Leeson sees the answer to a riddle about human nature, worthy of "Lord of the Flies" or an early episode of "Lost." In the absence of government and law enforcement, what becomes of a band of men with a noted criminal streak? Do they descend into violence and chaos?
The pirates who roamed the seas in the late 17th and early 18th centuries developed a floating civilization that, in terms of political philosophy, was well ahead of its time. The notion of checks and balances, in which each branch of government limits the other's power, emerged in England in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. But by the 1670s, and likely before, pirates were developing democratic charters, establishing balance of power on their ships, and developing a nascent form of worker's compensation: A lost limb entitled one to payment from the booty [...]
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
This thread is worthless without photos for the ladies!
OMG, Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!! I’d be his wench anyday, lol.
So the episodes of rape and murder by Gilles de Rais (Bluebeard), the slave smuggling and bounty on Gov. Clairborne’s head by Jean Lafitte, etc. are overstated?
"What kind of movies do pirates watch?"
"Aaarrrrgh-rated", of course!
Same movie, different hunk. :)
How do you know if you're a pirate?
You just Arrr...
What a dilemma for poor Miss Swann. (What I wouldn’t give, to be in her shoes...;) Although Depp has always appealed to me, way pre-POTC days.
I’ll have to keep my daughter away from this thread or I’ll never get to use the computer again.
“Do what you want `cause a pirate is free,
“YOU ARE A PIRATE!”
;^)
ARRRrrrr... 
Pathos on the High Seas, below decks... on his ship the Quivering Thigh
"But I don't wanna be a pirate!" < /seinfeld >
A MUCH better choice......
I don’t hang around with men who wear more eye makeup than I do. :p
I don’t care what he wears (or doesn’t wear). I like Johnny Depp, period (and his eyes are smokin’ when he’s his natural self. Besides, it would be nice to know what kind of waterproof eyeliner that is and have someone in the house to borrow a sharpener from when I can’t find mine!!
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