grandparents who raped and pillaged

[Cameron Laird]

In article <mailman.1040136022.21917.python-list at python.org>,
 <sismex01 at hebmex.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Laura Creighton wrote:
>> > 
>> > Correct, but we went from Lawless, to Law imposed by the English, as
>> > occupiers.  In our area of Scotland, at any rate, the Scottish Law
>> > you mention was only for deals within the Scottish Noble classes
>> > (we didn't have any merchants, as far as my grandfather was able
>> > to research).  But the Lairds ruled their clansmen as absolute
>> > despots in our area of the world.  Reading about it makes me think
>> > that my ancestors resembled a motorcycle gang of roving arsonists,
>> > robbers, and rapists rather than the picturesque laddies in 
>> > kilts ...
>> 
>> Welcome to the club.  In my case, replace the motorcycles with
>> cute little ships with dragon heads on the front, stick a pair
>> of horns on our helmets, and you've got the picture right. :-)
>> 
>> -looking-on-others-with-dis-dane-ly yr's,
>>  Peter
>>
>
>Cool, so the pillaging game really is a global thing.
>Change the kilts/motorcycles or horns/dragonboats for
>horses and feathers/braids in our case.
>
>-gus
>

The horns-on-heads are, like picturesque laddies,
a nineteenth-century fictionalization <URL: http://
www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/4894/ing/strand5.htm >.
Plenty of pillaging did go on, though; that part's
undeniable.

Incidentally, don't let my social surname fool you;
as near as anyone can tell, my ancestors were the
ruled clansmen, not lairds themselves.  We got the
name as a legal formality in this country (prob'ly
before it *was* this country).

The part that shakes me is not the propinquity of
all those lawlessnesses; it's how close to the 
surface and how recent sanctioned genocide in the
New World is and has been.  Oops!  This *is*
off-topic, isn't it ...
-- 

Cameron Laird <Cameron at Lairds.com>
Business:  http://www.Phaseit.net
Personal:  http://phaseit.net/claird/home.html