( Read more... )

Continuing my exploration of Douglas Fairbanks movies, I just watched The Black Pirate. It seems to me that Fairbanks is just playing Fairbanks at this point, and I'm not really in love with this jaunty, smiling, cocky, but chivalrous character. However, this movie is chock full of pulpy pirate goodness (hint: someone walks the plank), and it's ( Read more... )

Scott Horton has an article in Harper's about Guantanamo -- particularly about the two recent judicial rulings dismissing two cases brought by the government -- which raises again the comparison of terrorists to pirates. He discusses Edmund Burke's "Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol" of 1777 in this connection:

"The Letter to the Sheriffs of ( Read more... )

Yesterday I saw Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End with holyoutlaw and my anonymous housemate, and I have a couple of questions.

Was it just my imagination, or did the opening sequence equate pirates with terrorists and the British government of the Caribbean with the Bush administration? ("There will be no habeas corpus," etc ( Read more... )

Arrrrrrrrh!