AVAST !

..... International
Talk Like A Pirate Day
......Is  Upon Us !

& Adamant  being of a mutinous
Difposition, ye  Editor hath hoift Literary Piracy's true Colours to the Maft-Head, to get the weather ..   ..Gage of ye accuftom'd  .........    ..Jolly Roger

         

Ye Arts         Letters    0f Marque Richard Rorty  did avast himself a “syncretist hack.” Yet the scurvy scrivner caulked a  philosophical mosaic  fair and bye... more» Robert Trivers loves the logic o' evolution.That dead men tell no tales be bilge- Philosopher's Mate Darwin o'ye barque Beagle dead reckoned a geometry o' time yar as the geometry o' space that lubber Newton or that Leghorno Bos'n Galileo ..Aaaarrh! more>>  Should local folk rebuild N'Orleans as she was? By Cap’n Lafitte’s bones, No!   Probably it be not a bad idea, says Carlin Romano. (Aaarrhhh, me parrot!)   Quite possibly, it be a catastrophic one... (Bilge!)    Academic anthropology be in   crisis, says Dan Sperber, who be not alarmed. (Yarrr, into the futtock   shrouds ) “It deserves t' be in crisis. (Weigh anchor!) It deserves t'   explode, let it do so”... (Bloody privateers!) more»           “The semicolon be   ugly, ugly as a tick on a dog’s belly, I pinch 'em out o' me prose,” says   Donald Barthelme. (Blimey!) Other writers disagree...  more»           What they’re readin' at the   kitchen table. (Gangway!) Home-schoolers o' all stripes find common   ground in superb but nearly forgotten books... (Sink me!)      However baggywrinkle 'is   private life, Arthur Koestler port behind an absorbin' body o' work   for anyone who enjoys the battle o' ideas...        Sure, it’s naive t' think   that all moral beliefs be universal. (The chase is making full sail, matey!)   But thar may be an innate “moral sense” across cultures... (Damn me   eyes.) If Michel Houellebecq   calls Islam “the stupidest religion in the world,” well, aft all, he was   drunk. (Yaaarrrr!) It’s when he writes 'bout sex... (Yo-ho-ho!)   Piracy has a long 'n brutal ahoystory. (Bilge!) How it has   been treated in law makes a useful precedent for terrorism... (Prepare to   dance the hempen jig, matey!)   Translate the Bible, but don’t try t' “explain” it with yer   translation: you’ll just trivialize its grand solemnity 'n epic sweep...T’is   mostly fit for a Black Spot (Aaarrrrhhh!) more»   God looks after bilge rats, drunks, children, 'n the USA.  Did  God  shanghai Palm Beach voters in 2000, in order t' push a neocon   agenda aloft into the riggin ? more»         &Pyrates    New-Captured .......Logs.........   A   warmin' earth ? The fig of Spain for all the monsoon, mega-drought, freezin' ,   malaria, dengue fever, 'n real bad allergy scuttlebut- tis mild as the Bight   O’Benin!.more>   Till the 18th century,   Scots, like other Europeans, saw distilled spirits as medicine. (Shiver me   timbers!) Then a few Jockoes started t'drink whisky for fun... (Pass the Demerara, mate)       From Voltaire 'n David Hume   t' Rob Ingersoll 'n Clarence Darrow, atheism used t' be on the march,   religion on the aft foot. (Blimey!) Times change...  more»         Th’doxy  was dazzled by Sartre’s brilliance as a   philosopher. (Blimey!) For Simone de Beauvoir, terms like “essence” or   “contin'ency” worked like a chest O’gold pistoles'... (Aaarrhhh, )       Belay yer blubbering of hurricanoes,New Orleens! that City o' floods, graceful Venicehas survived such calamities as fires, plagues 'n  Keelhauling of its poxy gondoliers: Nay U.S city has ever had t' endure the like... “Can somethin' be achieved  upstream O Basra worthy o' the sacrifice ? ” George Packer badly   wants that the Iraq answer will turn out t' be yes...  (Prepare to gybe)?   Hilde Kschessinska: prima ballerina   assoluta, mistress o' Czar Nicholas II – a poppet o' vast skill, massive   energy, 'n implacable willfulness... (Dead men tell no tales.)  If we ever   find out that a basic tenet o' Buddhism be shown false by science, we simply   must give it up. Who said it? The Dalai Lama... The kirtled   lubber. more»   Don’t be shocked at the sad   fate o' the Big Easy. (Be ye ready to walk the plank?) history be littered   with “eternal” cities brought low by flood, plague, or   man-made disaster... (Weigh anchor!)   Christopher Hitchens be a man whose passion outruns 'is reason.   (Blimey!) He can be fun t' read 'n t' argue with, but.smart as paint? Sink   me! more»     Søren Kierkegaard , The scurvy quacksalver,rebuked the Christianity   o' 'is day: rather than get rid o' the whorehouse, it preferred t' baptize   it... (Arrgh!) more»   The FDA bans absinthe, as it be  adulterated” with wormwood. (Arr!) Still, customs agents will typically ignore a   bottle or two in yer suitcase... (Yarrr, more grog, wench!) (Aaaarrrhhh!!!)  Most Utopias are   odorless, antiseptic futures, intolerably streamlined 'n sensible, with   splendid plumbin'... (Bilge!) more» Should local folk rebuild N'Orleans as she was? By Cap’n Lafitte’s bones, No!   Probably it be not a bad idea, says Carlin Romano. (Aaarrhhh, me parrot!)   Quite possibly, it be a catastrophic one... (Bilge!)  Curst be the Bones o’the scurvy  dog who reprinteth this but as by the Articles of ye  ALD’s  permission for  editin be thirsty work requiring of   Zacapa rum  So stand ye  Readers, and deliver doubloons  to ye  Paypal account of Mnestheus@aol.com Copyright MMVII         Daily     Essays  and   Affadavys Be quotation marks the new boldface? Arrh,'tis as  a grog shop sign hailing “FINE FOOD”? Aye , but don’t expect such usage to overhaul Bristol fashion English... more»  How can yer Arab left openly embrace  Muslims listing far to starboard? , says  Hussein Ibish, (By the Black Spot, A Salee Cap'n sure) such matey gestures  be never returned except by a  poxy kiss o'Davey Jones ... more» Al-Qaeda's hard aground  upstream o'Basra, so the lascars be moving the jihad to Europe... more»... Turn Turk, Osama says, and ye’ll get a hefty tax cut!   Antarctica be a red state. March o' the Penguins ‘affirms    norms O The Code like monogamy   sacrifice'n child rearin'” says a critic. But some o' those penguins be   gay... (Bilge!)   “Nay iron can pierce the   heart with such force as a period put just at the starboard place” Raymond   Carver above all loved precise writin'... (Aaaarrrhhh!!!) more»           Thar be genuine intensity   in the sufferin' o' Frida Kahlo. Yet thar be somethin' vaguely repulsive in the adulation she receives.   Victimhood, aft all, be not beatitude... (Bloody landlubber!) more»           “Booty doesn’t   buy happiness.” Oh, aye? (Yaaarrrr!) A strong correlation exists between   the wealth o' a country 'n its general level o' happiness. (Gangway!) But as   Aristotle. (Bloody Turkadoe !) knew... more» Democracy? (The chase is  making full sail, matey!) Good governance can include many components besides   democratic participation, says Francis Fukuyama. (Bloody landlubber!)   Consider the case o' Sin'apore ,  ye   Lascar dogs! Original thinkin' can   flourish under conditions o' intellectual marginality. (Prepare to dance the   hempen jig, matey!) Conservative thought was once marginal. (Arrgh!)   Now it’s mainstream, 'n increasin'ly dumbed down... (Yarrr, more grog,   wench!) Should mere pundits take   the rap when the administration’s Iraq policy goes wrong?   (Yo-ho-ho!) When their sophistic arguments helped sell 'n sustain it, yes..Tis   in the Code.AAARRHH!!!)   Editin' be a bloody trade.   (Arrgh!) But knives aren’t the exclusive property o' butchers. (Aaarrrrhhh!)   Surgeons use 'em too. (Yo-ho-ho!) Blake Morrison defends editors   wi’rusty cutlasses... (Aarhh!) more»     “I have felt it meself,” Freeman Dyson said.   (Aaaarrrhhh!!!) “The glitter o' nuclear weapons. (Aaarrrrhhh!) It be   irresistible if ye come t' 'em as a scientist: an illusion o' illimitable   power.”...  more»