Funny piece in the WSJ detailing how some who romanticize pirates are worried that the current spate of pirate attacks off Somalia and in Gulf of Aden are hurting their image.
Some better names suggested: sea-thugs, boat-muggers, kelp-festooned kidnappers.
In reality, for all the notions that pirates ran ships like democracies and had strict codes of honor - parley, anyone? - they were also brutal killers who were known to torture and sell captives into slavery. Just like people romanticized cold-hearted killers like Bonnie and Clyde or Jesse James, they find something romantic about men who thumb their nose at the system.
You'll see something like that happening in Somalia right now where local communities look to their pirates as heroes. Perhaps there are people in Somalia saying the Jack Sparrows of the world are actually giving "pirates" a bad name.
WSJ: Real Pirates have taken the "Ho Ho" out of "Yo Ho Ho" for Cap'n Slappy
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