Re: Antarctic and Lunar property rights. . . a modest proposal

On Sun, 5 Feb 2006 20:55:19 +0000, in a place far, far away, Dr John
Stockton <jrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Arguably, it started in 1979 (at least the modern resurrection of
it--they were actually committing acts of war against us in the late
eighteenth century, which is why the Marines still sing about the
"halls of Tripoli").

But you should not take it personally; the North Africans were
indiscriminately committing acts of war against anyone nearby from the
time of Hannibal or earlier - though "piracy" seems a better term for
what aroused your national ire.

Right (they were, for example, even kidnapping people from the shores
of Britain). Of course, unlike the European appeasers, we decided to
actuall do something about it. I guess that started early, too...
;-)

Of course, to be fair, we didn't take them seriously until four years
ago.

What was the date of the celebrated action at Tripoli? I thought it was
a little later than that.

A little. The war against them started fully in the Mediterranean
under the Jefferson administration (though the Continental Congress
initially allocated funds toward the effort as early as 1784, even
prior to the existence of the present US), about the turn of the
nineteenth century, and ended about 1815, I believe.
.

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