Reflections From a Murky Pond

Soon it’ll be pirating time! Well, privateering, since we’ll have Letters of Marque and Reprisal and, hence, safe ports in the US. 😆 Some of us lads – and a few lassies I’m sure – will be able to hoist the Jolly Roger and prowl the Caribbean for enemy vessels to seize or sink.

And no, Ladies and Gentlemen, I’m not exactly kidding. There’s a bill introduced to Congress granting President Trump the legal authority to issue those Letters of Marque and Reprisal.

S.3567 – A bill to authorize the President of the United States to issue letters of marque and reprisal with respect to acts of aggression against the United States by a member of a cartel, or a member of a cartel-linked organization, or any conspirator associated with a cartel, and for other purposes.

— Sen. Lee, Mike (R-UT)
(Introduced 12/18/2025)

Of course, absolutely nothing will come of this. Nothing! This is just a bit of fun and fantasy. S.3567 is, was, and will remain DOA in committee. It won’t even reach a floor vote, where it would fail anyway, given that Democrats vote against every single bill put forth by American Senators.

Even beyond enemy action or inaction in the Senate, there’s a laundry list of issues that would need to be addressed. While the U.S. Constitution, in Article I, Section 8, Clause 11, empowers Congress to “grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal,” there’s a bit more to it than just commissioning ships’ captains into privateers and setting them upon Venezuelan narcoterrorists and, potentially, tankers violating international and/or American sanctions. A whole legal infrastructure would need to be (re)created, e.g., Prize Courts.

Ah well, it’s a fun thought even though there’s statistically no chance that I’ll ever be able to captain a modern sloop-of-war claiming prizes from Caracus to the Gulf of America.

Tags: America | Humor | Marque | Narcoterrorists | Piracy | Pirates | Politics | Privateers | Reprisal | S.3567 | Society | US Senate | Venezuela

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 27th, 2025 at 10:29 am and is filed under Humor, Politics, Society. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

There’s a lot of whinging, whining, ranting, and raving over SOPA and PIPA. My guess is that very, very few – perhaps as low as 1% – of the people engaging in these histrionics have bothered to read either bill.

That fundamental, self-imposed ignorance, of course,  never seems to stop these cretins from yammering about things about which they know nothing or next to nothing.

Most hilarious reaction is the SOPA Strike or Blackout protest going on today (January 18, 2012).  Well over 99% of the sites choosing to “go dark” are so inconsequential that their permanent loss would go utterly unnoticed by the internet public at large.

NOTE: This blog would also most definitely fall into that 99%, as would virtually all personal websites. I have some comforting illusions but this blog’s importance isn’t one of them.

On the slim chance that you, my dear reader, wish to be one of the 1% who isn’t bleating in ignorance born rage, links to the full text of both SOPA and PIPA can be found below:

Texts of SOPA & PIPA

• Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) [H. R. 3261]
• Protect IP Act (PIPA) [S. 968]

At least after reading the bills in question one can, if one still has an issue with one or both of them, have complaints and arguments based upon actual verifiable facts as opposed to the drivel certain agendists spoon feed their drones. And it’s not inconceivable that you would still take issue with SOPA and PIPA; like all laws, there’s room for argument over the details – especially over the various amendments and riders that are always added to bills in Congress.

Tags: America | Congress | Copyright | Copyright Infringement | Crime | H. R. 3261 | Intellectual Property | Internet | IP | Law | PIPA | Piracy | S. 968 | SOPA | Technology | Theft | US House of Representives | US Senate

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 4:17 pm and is filed under Politics, Technology. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.