Victory Soap v. 2.0

But they opposed Western civilization, so that stuff is OK.

Well, the only bloggers who seem to be into this silly thing are the so-called "conservative" and "libertarian" bloggers. Then again I don't read liberal blogs anymore, so maybe they are into it too. But I don't think so.

I don't really get the whole pirate thing, myself. For my entire childhood my father urged me to read Treasure Island. It was his favorite book. I finally read it last year, to find that far from the "pirate romance" with fun treasure hunting and so on, it was a grueling drama where the main pirate character was a conscienceless and manipulative psychopath. "Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" indeed!

But Johnny Depp looked so kewl in his piratical scarves and eyeliner (BTW, perpetual drunkards aren't that much fun IRL either), and being on the high seas on a pirate ship is like being a hippie, free of The Man, baby! Though this still doesn't indicate what the appeal is to conservatives. I'd say it was a lingering anti-British sentiment left over from our revolutionary days but I'd be kidding myself, to modern conservatives "the past" means 1980, when Reagan was elected. I'm guessing it's just all those pirate movies we watched as kids, half-baked absorption of books we were told about but never read (like Treasure Island), and an attraction to "old" things, combined with the American love of the outlaw, a national disease that crosses all political boundaries.

I will admit that for Halloween, I dress up as a British Naval captain circa 1700 or so in historically accurate clothing and sword. Can't say as I look kewl, though.

On the other hand, dressing up as a pirate for Halloween seems reasonable, since other choices include zombies, ghouls, vampires, etc., who are not the most pleasant types either.