Pirate Papa: An Anarcho-Green Journal of Do-It-You Young radical single papa Sky Cosby tackles stunningly gorgeous twin daughters Lyli & Scarleht in the woods near Puget Sound, eats and grows organic food, splits wood, writes & works on antique printing presses.

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Parenting as a Green Anarchist
2008-03-28 21:34:49
I consider myself to be a pirate in some contemporary sense of the word. This is the lens through which I try to view our world. I am a nice pirate, where others rape and pillage I salvage and sow; where others sack and burn I liberate and grow. I pirate software, vegetables, herbs, bulk food aisles at corporate grocery stores, garbage, books, clothes, thrift stores, free boxes. I find homes for books lost on these high seas of a culture that, for the most part, doesn't read. I steal from the rich and give to the poor whenever possible. I try to be free in the fullest sense of the word and dream always of furthering that freedom. I live with my twin three year old daughters on an old 250 acre farm outside of Shelton, Washington at the inner-most tip of Puget Sound. I try to live as a Green Rebel and a Pirate in this commodified world of disposable consumables. Does this mean I live a zero-sum harmonious existence with my local ecosystem, feeding wild animals by hand and growing ...

Rattle 'n Roll
2008-01-14 21:32:00
Get a baby announcement printed up like a Rock 'n Roll flyer? Sweet. Only the Dragon could dig this one up. Maybe the utter genius of his blog will inspire me to post more this year, or maybe it will just make me a bit more humble to bask in shadows as great as his. ...

Who Is To Blame For The Death of Childhood?
2007-11-06 07:29:00
Thanks Raf, for shooting this one over. Hey, maybe I'll start writing again soon, would that be a good idea? In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, 110 teachers, psychologists, children's authors and other experts call on the Government to act to prevent the death of childhood.They write: "We are deeply concerned at the escalating incidence of childhood depression and children's behavioural and developmental conditions."The group, which includes Philip Pullman, the children's author, Jacqueline Wilson, the children's laureate, her predecessor Michael Morpurgo, Baroness Greenfield, the director of the Royal Institution and Dr Penelope Leach, the child care expert, blames a failure by politicians and public alike to understand how children develop."Since children's brains are still developing, they cannot adjust. . . to the effects of ever more rapid technological and cultural change," they write.advertisement "They still need what developing human beings have always needed, including real ...
Childhood  Death 

nice one
2007-09-27 10:34:00
Mama: Here's your zuchinni and toast with tahiniLyli: Hey, tahini zuchinni. They rhyme! Mama: Hey, you're right! You are SO good at ryhming. When are you two going to start freestyle battling? Lyli: In four months. ...

Utne Reviews Rad Dad!
2007-08-21 20:49:00
Evidently they like us radical papas over at Utne. They reviewed the first (and hitherto only) Pirate Papa 'zine awhile back. Rad Dad "is not cool," according to founder and publisher Tomas. "[I]t's not about being hip, not about trying to be in style... Rad Dad is for radical parenting. The uncomfortable kind." And so the zine's seventh issue picks up where previous ones left off: by interrogating and reevaluating the role of fathers in radical politics. Articles range from "Green Parenting," in which writer Sky looks at the relationship between anarchism and parenting, to "On Being Jewish," in which Bruce contemplates the religious example he wants to set for his child. A contribution from Tomas himself -- "Who's Your Daddy: Fathers in Pop Culture" -- offers a forceful critique of how "cool parenting" has become an apolitical and upper-middle class trend that reinforces "dad" stereotypes. -- Eric KelseyHere's another link to a review of Tomas' Rad Dad from Mamazine.Drop Tomas a line ...
Dad  Reviews 

The Taliban is Alive and Well in Ohio
2007-08-03 05:17:00
From Common DreamsWell, this is really weird. I, for one, believe that fathers should have some sort of say in whether a woman gets an abortion or not, even if it has no power beyond an idea logged in some karmic court. I mean, ideally everyone could just talk about the matter and sort things out... but we all know how well that works.Giving the father sole veto power seems just a touch patriarchal and as one-sided as allowing solely the mother to make the decision. But it is her body after all. And personally I'm tired of The Father being the head of household and supreme familial dictator (rarely benevolent). Maybe some form of arbitration (Anyone want that job?)? If a father wants to accept sole responsibility for the child's well-being and agrees to support the pregnant mother at least until birth if not until the child is finished nursing then why should the mother be allowed to make the decision by herself? Indeed, it is her body and don't get me wrong, I am 100% pro-choice, havi ...
Ohio  Taliban 

Two nice sites recently unearthed
2007-08-02 22:37:00
http://greatgreenbaby.com/http://organicbaby.co.nz/ ...
Recently 

Smashing Capitalism One Canoe-Pool At A Time!
2007-07-11 01:51:00
That's right, I'm a friggin' genius. Screw the kiddie pools that cost money, my dual-purpose canoe rules the day.Censored thanks to those fucking sickos who viewed the naked pictures of my daughters I accidentally put on Flickr so long ago. Note the resemblance of censored bars to frowny faces and buzz off, we're well armed out here in the woods. ...
Capitalism  Pool  Time 

In the News: Made in China, II
2007-07-03 22:12:00
From Green Baby Blog Remember the antifreeze-laced cough syrup exported from China and shipped 'round the world to disastrous effect? Well, it turns out diethylene glycol is back on the market, this time in children's toothpaste brands "Excel" & "Mr. Cool." And where did this latest batch of tainted merchandise come from? I'll give you one guess. But according to Zou Jianjun, spokesman for the Chinese trading company responsible for using the chemical, none of us has anything to worry about: "Proper amounts of diethylene glycol are not toxic if it remains uncontaminated." ! Have chemicals become so commonplace that we really believe it's okay to ingest--in any quantity--the same chemical responsible for keeping our cars running smooth? I sure hope not. For the latest information, click here: Tainted Toothpaste. ...
China  News 

Things I find ironic about military shopping abroad
2007-06-30 00:09:00
From my friend Libby @ Diary of an Air-Force Wife - Keep up the good work overseas and give that beautiful family hugs from the pirate twins and me.As a stay at home mommy and wife shopping for the house and the family is a big part of my job. Here are some things I found to be a little giggle inducing along the way.Germany statistically rains 85% of the year, yet the BX does not carry rain jackets, rain boots or warm weather clothing. However, they do have a very wide variety of swimsuits, sandals and essential summer pool equipment. For that ever so average enlisted member sitting in the rain relaxing at their personal pool.Second, in a career field where being on time is considered late and be early is considered being on time an alarm clocks is the number one item needed in making this possible it puts a smile on face that the BX does not sell ANY type of alarm clock; they do however sell six different types of 62" screen TV's.On a base where following the US laws of car seats for ...
Military  Shopping 

Stretch Marks for Dads: What fatherhood does to the body and the brain
2007-06-24 19:50:00
By Emily AnthesThanks to Rebel Dad for linking to this one!Last weekend, Tufts University hosted a scientific conference on the "parental brain." Or at least the maternal brain, which was the subject of eight symposia, while fathers and their brains were the focus of just one. Once, this imbalance would have seemed inevitable, since there didn't seem to be much to say about how becoming a father affects men physically. But now, evidence is accumulating that pregnancy and parenthood leave their marks on men's bodies. Women are not the only ones who are built for parenting, and recognizing that is good for fathers and the rest of us, too.Historically, when men did more than donate sperm to a pregnancy—by suffering physical ailments along with their wives—they got called crazy. The condition labeled "sympathetic pregnancy," or couvade syndrome (from the French word couver, or "to incubate"), describes expectant fathers who are stricken with some combination of weight gain, nausea, foo ...
Body  Brain 

My Anarchist Parenting Hero
2007-06-23 00:12:00
Sorry China, my review is still pending. But I frickin' love the book! So here, I'm reposting this other review just for you. Come visit us again sometime. We're still here while you're shooting to stardom. You deserve it.The Future Generation China Martens Created Her New Book the Way She Raised Her Daughter--One Day at a TimeBy Violet Glaze If you went to a punk show in Baltimore in the early '90s, you remember Clover Martens. She was the only toddler in attendance, a wispy-haired imp in Goodwill sundresses darting in and out of the crowd of slam dancers and malcontents. Her supermodel-tall mom, China, was always with her, available for a quick snuggle or suckle but otherwise letting her daughter zip around at her own whim. There was sometimes talk that China Martens didn't have a steady partner to help raise her daughter, that her anarchist principles meant she wasn't going to enroll Clover in school or immunize her. One of two things (or sometimes both) cro ...
Hero  Parenting 

MARRIAGE AND LOVE
2007-06-22 23:57:00
I'm on a quest to dig up anything relating to parenting and children that Emma Goldman and other anarchists may have postulated or (better yet) practiced. so send anything pertinent my way! By Emma Goldman, from Anarchism and Other Essays. Second Revised Edition. New York & London: Mother Earth Publishing Association, 1911. pp. 233-245THE popular notion about marriage and love is that they are synonymous, that they spring from the same motives, and cover the same human needs. Like most popular notions this also rests not on actual facts, but on superstition. Marriage and love have nothing in common; they are as far apart as the poles; are, in fact, antagonistic to each other. No doubt some marriages have been the result of love. Not, however, because love could assert itself only in marriage; much rather is it because few people can completely outgrow a convention. There are to-day large numbers of men and women to whom marriage is naught but a farce, but who submit to it for the ...
Love  Marriage 

Green Baby Blog
2007-06-22 23:44:00
I applied for a job but no luck so far... looks like she's got the site up and running though. Welcome to the club. I must have been a little too radical for her. Or maybe my kind of green is a touch damper than hers. Ahhh, the 'Clean Green' parents, how I love to sit back and chuckle as they scramble over eco-friendly household cleaning products while I grab a big jug of vinegar and get the hell out of Fred Meyer, conveniently 'forgetting' it under my orange shopping cart/toddler car. ...
Baby  Blog 

Books for Multiples!
2007-06-21 23:27:00
A perfect children's book for triplets One of the most popular children's stories on the market is Guess How Much I Love You written by Sam McBratney and illustrated by Anita Jeram. The pair teamed up again in an equally enjoyable book called You're All My Favorites which is a perfect story for triplets. The story focuses on a family with a mother bear, a father bear and three baby bears. Each night, the parents tuck their three babies into bed and tell them they are all the most wonderful baby bears in the world. The baby bears wonder how their parents know they are the most wonderful bears in the world. Each baby bear questions how he or she could be as wonderful as his or her siblings when they are all quite different. The first worries that he does not have patches on his fur like his brother and sister. The second is concerned because she is the only girl bear, and the third bear is confused because he is the smallest of the three. The mother and father bear explain that the ba ...
Books 

City of Olympia to charge parents for after-school programs???!!!
2007-06-16 03:27:00
I lifted this in its entirety from Olyblog.Thanks Emmett, this is pretty ridiculous. If they tried that shit out in Shelton (where we live), no one would show up to S.O.C.K. (Save Our County's Kids) and they wouldn't make any money off it. Sounds like a good way to propagate unnecessary domestic violence, additional youth crime and a hell of a lot more bad mojo. After-school programs need to be free to the families and kids who need to use them. We, as a community, are responsible for figuring out ways to support and improve these selfless and direly-needed organizations however possible without incurring fees on their patrons, who doubtless are fairly hard-up.My BIG QUESTION however is this: What happens to the poor kids? The ones who get edged out of this brilliant new picture for a closer-to-self-sustaining after-school program?Trouble is, these programs can't be self-sustaining. (Unless we install rooftop gardens, gather together some hotshot fundraisers and canvassers, employ slav ...
City  Olympia  Parents  School 

Taking Children Seriously & the Future of Liberty
2007-05-16 21:15:00
This chick kicks ass. TCS: The Final Phase of The Enlightenment Transcript of a speech given at the World Libertarian Conference in London, Ontario, in July, 2000. by: Sarah Fitz-ClaridgeTaking Children Seriously (TCS) is the name of an organisation I founded to promote the libertarian educational philosophy. How can there be such a thing as the libertarian educational philosophy? Aren't parents in a libertarian society free to educate their children in any way they wish? Yes. But that doesn't make every possible choice morally right, or best for the child, or compatible with the survival of the libertarian society. To satisfy these criteria, we must look more deeply than libertarian political philosophy – which is basically about how a society can run without the initiation of physical force. What justifies both libertarian political philosophy and TCS education theory in my opinion is reason – somethi ...
Children  Future  Liberty 

The Real Costs of Nuclear War: Radioactive Breastmilk, Birth Defects, Contaminated Food Chains
2007-05-16 20:33:00
Well, I'm an Eastern Washington baby, born and raised in the downwind nuclear shadow of Hanford, so this kind of stuff hits especially close to home. If you think humans only suffer injury or death when a plant melts down or a bomb goes boom, think again. Isn't reproduction a freedom and a right to be protected at all costs? Shouldn't the health risks to pregnant women and small children, when coupled with the environmental costs and wreckage, be enough to convince people that nuclear energy is not even remotely safe and we should perhaps find better ways of reducing energy consumption rather than increasing energy production? Anyway, here's a bunch of terrible news on uranium mining in other countries and on Native American reservations, depleted uranium, radioactive breast milk, birth defects in infants due to radiation sickness acquired by their mother from working in nuclear power plants, Hanford's Environmental Impact Statement ... you know, some of that dark underbelly we don't o ...
Birth  Chains  Costs  Food  Nuclear  Nuclear War  Radioactive  War 

The First Carnival of Radical Feminists
2007-05-16 19:50:00
Thanks to my gang down under at http://www.katipo.net.nz/stanselen/ for bringing this to my attention:The First Carnival of Radical FeministsI can't wait until we have stuff like this organized for fathers and groups of young men.Other recent highlights from my radical anarchist sister:Trafficking of Women and ChildrenRaising children collectively…So I hacked the tip of my left thumb off with a two-century old sugarcane harvester about a week and a half ago. That's been a joy to deal with. Got to learn how to shuffle cards, change diapers, garden, shower, dishes, etc. with no left thumb. Give it a shot sometime, it's trickily challenging and it might even be fun if you were only pretending to be a crippled gimp. Good thing my gorgeous girlfriend has been around to pamper me and help with the near-impossible tasks.Still plugging away on my goddamn lawn and garden, trying to knock most of the grass down before the girls' birthday bash on June 2nd (e-mail Steph or I for details if you'r ...
Carnival  Radical 

No Nightmares, Please - Why is so much children's poetry full of sadism and doom?
2007-05-15 19:46:00
A nice piece by my new internet buddy.by Jeff Gordinier One day it dawns on you that your kid has watched too many episodes of Dora the Explorer. Every time the Dora character known as “Map” shows up on screen and sings, “I’m the Map I’m the Map I’m the Map I’m the Map,” you entertain private fantasies of dousing him in lighter fluid, torching him with a match, and giggling uncontrollably while he flails in agony. If a cartoon inspires this much raw hatred before you catch the train to work, it’s probably not a good idea for your kid to watch a ton of it.So maybe you want to expose your children to fine poetry instead. Which is great, except that you live in a country where some moron makes way more money than you do by writing lyrics like “I’m the Map I’m the Map I’m the Map I’m the Map,” so you’re sort of on your own. And when you come right down to it, reading poems to your adorable offspring is, like breastfeeding, much harder than you think. W ...
Children  Nightmares  Poetry 

Nature Deficit Disorder
2007-05-03 00:21:00
Just got a copy of the Book Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature Deficit Disorder and started reading it today. It is reinforcing a lot of ideas I knew to be true, having grown up in forested seclusion, and helping me realize a whole skill set of which I was only vaguely conscious until recently. Will toss up a review upon completion (which at my current speed of reading might be one or two months unfortunately). In the meantime, here's what the web has to say:http://www.xanga.com/Pfeffy/445299279/long-time-to-write.htmlhttp://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2005/06/02/Louv/index.htmlhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4665933http://www.edutopia.org/1629http://www.wbhm.org/News/2006/NatureDeficit.htmlhttp://www.grist.org/news/maindish/2006/03/30/louv/http://www.truthforce.info/?q=node/view/1175http://www.truthforce.info/?q=node/view/2186 ...
Deficit  Nature 

Alternative Medicine in Danger!
2007-04-16 22:49:00
Speak Up For Health Freedomby Owen WatersYou wouldn't think it could happen in the USA."The land of the brave and the free" is about to become a lotless free unless enough of the brave stand up and voice theiropinions by April 30th.The Food and Drug Administration plans to pass laws to"protect" you from alternative health care, complementarymedicine and natural supplements.If the FDA passes these proposed laws, you will no longer beable to buy vitamins, visit a chiropractor, acupuncturist ormassage therapist... UNLESS you first obtain permission from amedical doctor.Now, I don't know how much your M.D. knows about naturalhealth care. Most of the doctors that I've met so far knownothing beyond how to select the most capable, poisonous drugto SUPPRESS the symptoms of illness. I have yet to hear onetalk about actually CURING an illness.If this legislation passes, you will no longer be free to makeyour own natural health care choices. The medical doctor fromwhom you will HAVE to seek permi ...
Medicine 

times change as often as diapers
2007-04-08 21:00:00
So I've spent less time with my grls in the past week and a half than ever before in their lives and I realized that I have to get used to this... because they won't always be two and a half, because they're growing up before my very eyes, because they have friends and family above and beyond the sheltered care I've given them on this first leg of their journey in the world. It's an interesting melange of ecstatic joy at my own slowly rediscovered freedom, painful lonliness at losing little bits of myself selflessly gifted to these gorgeous creatures I call my daughters, realizing at the same time that they are not mine, or anyone else's for that matter. They belong to themselves and I can never change that, only grow and guide and change alongside them.Almost gone are those days I've grown so accustomed to, lounging around most of the week at the farmhouse pretending the rest of the world doesn't exist. What comes next? Little roving packs of young children, activities with friends, m ...
Diapers 

Gone A Spell, Back Again
2007-04-07 08:06:00
I beg no forgiveness for my recent absence. A much needed vacation in Walla Walla, with a serious theme of self-improvement and re-creation. Girls get grandparent time, I get time with Hannah, some book work done, and a nice four night stint at my childhood cabin. Head muddled, diet unsatisfactory, head cloudy but clearing. We arrive back past seven tonight, Hannah makes a marvelous feast for us. I put the girls to bed as Tomas from Rad Dad arrives with his daughter, her friend and Artnoose in tow.Catch their Radical Parenting & Radical Letterpress presentation at Last Word Books Saturday night at 7pm! ...
Back Again 

A few steampunk baby pics in this series...
2007-03-31 07:22:12
although there is a serious lack of material in this category of The Underground Baby League I'd like to point out. Guess I'll have to get The Dragon of the Honk and Tonk out here to improvise a few costumes and pix one of these days so we can get the corner on this underappreciated market. if only it were acceptable to wrap yer kid in tin foil and shuffle them off to some Mechanical Wizard's Academy. Aren't we supposed to stimulate their little mind-boxes with fresh fruit from the imagination tree? Well let's kick into high gear and take them back a century plus-half, garb 'em up 'er down and toss those babes out on the cobblestones to garner themselves a little living, wot? ...
Baby  Pics  Series  Steampunk 

Who's Your Daddy? - Best Daddy and Papa Blogs of 2006
2007-03-30 07:16:58
Knew about a lot of these but a few were new to me.Getting ready to go to Walla Walla for four days with my girls and Hannah, been full to brimming with gardening and personal emotional realignment, a little surgery from the inside out. Being in a relationship again so soon, even a good one, strains me at times. I find myself scared without knowing why, a smell I can place but not locate. I trudge through the monotony of chores and bills, checks and balancing acts, searching the small stuff for some substance to shore up my sore heart and patch me through 'til tomorrow.My hard-copy zine of Pirate Papa got reviewed in Green Anarchy's magazine. Not a very good review, but Zerzan gave me a good word after Felonious Skunk wound his way through a long-winded, self-deprecating piece of boredom. I took offense at first but then I just felt sorry for him. He's a new father and doesn't think fathers are interesting? Watch out buddy. You're in for a ride. Any publicity is good publicity in my op ...
Blogs  Daddy 

Marijuana and Children: A Smattering of Articles from the Web
2007-03-24 17:29:10
I'm glad there's some decent articles, books and discussion boards kicking this idea around the edges of the mainstream in more productive ways than when I was in D.A.R.E. so many years ago. What a joke that was. You ever try parenting on weed!??! Enjoy the articles I dug up:Is it always wrong for kids to smoke marijuana? Two families discuss their pot-smoking kids.Kids and pot; a controversial topic if there ever was one, with many pot advocates buying into the prohibitionists' idea that it's always bad for children to use marijuana."Protecting kids from drugs" is the mantra of justification for prohibitionists who want adults thrown in jail for using cannabis. But it isn't just anti-potties who decry underage cannabis use. For example, at a marijuana rally, three high school kids came up and asked me if I would smoke with them. I did and found them to be witty, savvy, fun people. When I returned to the activist's booth I'd been at, however, one of the powerhouses of the marijuana mov ...
Articles  Children  Web 

Papa - Wikipedia Entry
2007-03-24 16:41:34
Papa can refer to: * affectionate for father in Latin and various Romance languages o hence, Pope in various languages o also, Papar (Culdees), Irish monks o many languages (often unrelated) have words with labial consonants and open vowels as their word for "father" and "mother"; /papa/ is just one example. A discussion of this phenomenon can be found in the article Mama and papa. o some people also refer to their grandfathers as "papa". * P in the NATO phonetic alphabet * Papa class submarine * pāpa in Sanskrit, the concept of sin in Hinduism * Potato in Spanish, in some dialects slang for "food"people: * Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961), nickname * Nick "Papa" Kho, former professional pick-up artist and part owner in the pick-up and seduction company Real Social Dynamics * Papa Bouba Diop (born 1978), a football (soccer) player from Senegal. * Rav Papa (?-375), a Babylonian Amora from the Talmudin mythology: * Rangi an ...
Wikipedia 

The Low-Down On Organic Veggies for Yer Family
2007-03-23 02:30:07
Feeding Your Family: Organic Veggies on a Budget"Anybody who's shopped for organically-grown produce has probably experienced the sticker-shock that goes along with it. It's a fact that in most cases organically-grown supermarket produce is more expensive than its non-organic counterpart, but I think a larger number of parents would likely grab the organic stuff if the two were closer in price..."Read More...I'm really lucky to live in the Pacific Northwest, where we have superb access to organic, locally grown foods without expending much effort. But, with the current trend of 'going green' being set by places of such ill-repute as Fred Myer and Wal_Mart hopefully everyone will soon be informed as to the benefits, politics, pitfalls and corporate scams revolving around the food we eat.I would add to this nice little snippet from Strollerderby a few things: Food Co-Ops are a great way to save money, support local agriculture and dine on organic foods without signing on to a year ...
Family  Organic 

The Battle For Our Children's Minds
2007-03-22 08:21:19
Interesting article, can't say that I necessarily agree on all their points, but I must applaud their tone."A global and social transformation is taking place being manifested through the media, television, corporations, government agencies, the United Nations, and the educational system. The agents of change and the social engineers wish to purge our children's beliefs, value systems, their independence and individuality; their aim being to replace them with more global beliefs, universal values, and interdependence thus molding their fragile little minds, shifting them into group think. All the while with the state trying to undermine parental authority and influence, playing a greater role in a child's life and contributing to the further breakup of the family.There is a battle on for our children's hearts and minds. With the educational system assuming direct control and responsibility for the development of children's attitudes and values, and through mental health screening, ...
Battle  Children  Minds