Arrrrrrrrgh...
Posted on 08/20/2002 10:29:51 PM PDT by floriduh voter
Ahoy mateys, please check in here at the unofficial Pirate Chapter of Free Republic if you were at Friva and saw the Pirate Invasion at least one time while at the Treasure Island Resort.
Even though I could spot some of you unsavory pirates from across a room, I didn't bother to scribble your screen names on any of my numerous receipts from Vegas.
The good news is that my camera's fine now. I just purchased shoddy batteries in Reno. IT FIGURES with a name like that.
I'll bookmark this thread and post here occasionally because Jeb Bush doesn't need me full time. LOL
I make a motion that we have no issues or ping list. What more could you want in a chapter?
If you had a bad day at the office, drop by the Pirate Thread and just try to get our undivided attention.
And, finally, I make a motion that we don't take any guff from the bandwidth police. We'll sink their battleship if they try anything.
An Historic Day - The Pirate Chapter thread is officially opened on this 20th day of August, 2002.
Close enough...
http://www.crimelibrary.com/americana/lafitte/main.htm
Jean Lafitte, or Laffite, c.1780-c.1826, was a Louisiana privateer and smuggler who helped U.S. forces in the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the WAR OF 1812. About 1810 he and his men settled in the area of Barataria Bay, near New Orleans, and preyed on Spanish ships in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1814 the British attempted to buy Lafitte's aid in attacking New Orleans. Instead he passed their plans onto the Americans and helped Andrew Jackson defend the city in January 1815. Lafitte later returned to privateering.
He fought valiantly in the Battle of New Orleans and was a proud and devoted advocate of the exiled French emporer, Napoleon.
Jean Lafitte: Gentleman Pirate of New Orleans - Pirate and Patriot
He has been called "The Corsair," "The Buccaneer," "The King of Barataria," "The Terror of the Gulf," "The Hero of New Orleans". At three separate times, U.S. presidents have condemned, exonerated and again condemned his actions. He is known for his piracy in the Gulf of Mexico, and lauded for his heroism in the Battle of New Orleans. Each personae seems to balance the other. He hated being called "pirate," for, as he saw it, he was a "privateer" serving an economic purpose in an economically frugal time in a new country that needed to economize. When he at last sailed away from American shores, he felt betrayed by a country that didn’t understand the difference.
From the Gulf of Mexico through a vast uncharted maze of waterways to New Orleans, his name was legend even in his day. Entrepreneur and astute diplomat, he took an island-full of bloodied seafarers, rovers and fishermen and turned them into an organization of buccaneers, smugglers and wholesalers. From the ships they plundered off the Caribbean Coast and in the Atlantic he and his "crew of a thousand men" kept a constant cargo of black-marketed and very necessary provisions (including Negro slaves, a very important "commodity" to the early South) moving through the Mississippi Delta to help feed and clothe a part of the nation that the government overlooked. As a result, he won the praise of the local rich and poor alike.
He never attacked an American ship. A man without a country, he nevertheless respected the constitution of American ideals and hoped that what he called his "kingdom by the sea" might someday meld into like ideals.
Unlike anything the government knew; the topography, coupled by its habitation of misunderstood Cajuns and Creoles, confused and perplexed Washington decision makers. Much more, overcome with other, deepening international problems, the nation more or less abandoned this wetland with its foreign cultures to fend for itself. Lafitte’s commerce of merchandise -- of cloths and linens, spices and trinkets, furniture and utensils -- sold at discount prices, avoiding high tariffs, to the grateful citizens of New Orleans. In short, Lafitte’s piratical methods, despite their negative connotation, proved to be a survival factor for what was to become a major American city.
And then came a new territorial governor who decided that it was not conventional to let an outsider -- let alone a notorious pirate -- become a part of the blossoming American texture. Harassment and imprisonment followed, even destruction of Lafitte’s Valhalla. But, the governor and the rest of burgeoning America were to learn that Lafitte’s importance to this new territory meant much more to him than his own personal prosperity. When men were needed to keep New Orleans and the entire Mississippi River from enemy hands, Lafitte -- despite the chastisement and near ruination he faced from American mediators -- stepped forward to defend them.
Many stories have been told of Lafitte. To quote author Jack C. Ramsay, Jr. from his excellent and concise Jean Laffite, Prince of Pirates, "Some considered him a rapacious rogue, a man of unmitigated violence. Others, many of whom were young women, regarded him as a charming person. He was seductive, perhaps deceptive, but always elegantly gracious."
He writes that contemporaries described "(Lafitte) as ‘graceful and elegant in manners...accomplished in conversation.’ And yet this was the man who was often described in very different terms as the ‘Prince of Pirates’ or the ‘ferocious’ head of ‘desperadoes.’"
Sounds like he would have made a good FReeper. :)
Arrrrrrrrgh...
My LI pictures came out too dark.
Hope you're having a great weekend.
"Hi, interesting, I noticed how muscular you freeper men were when you moved the buffet table before my presentation. Do you all work out? Toodles." Laura
It struck me as an odd name for a private party - whatta ya think? Meanwhile, on break Saturday, I was hanging around the registration table and two guys from another conference asked me what Free Rebublic was.
Due to time constraints and our lecture minutes ago by Matt Lewis about keeping the message short, I just said Rush goes there. The really tall guy said he listens to Rush. He's gonna drop by. PROVING ONCE AGAIN THAT WOMEN'S INTUITION WORKS!!! lol
I used to work right across the street from Borders at an insurance company. We did auto claims and while we were working, lots of adjusters got their cars stolen from our employee parking lot - no joke.
When I worked at the insurance company there was an in-town lumberyard where Borders Books is. I'd sit in the break room and watch the lumberyard.
I also saw the Klintoon bus and limo entourage right after he was elected and he flew into TIA and let me just say, I don't think Dubya travels with the size entourage that bubba did. It went by our building and snaked its way along the raised interstate highway. So, I've seen bubba, kind of. Peering out an office window was close enough for me.
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