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4. In law, arms are any thing which a man takes in his hand in anger, to strike or assault another.

Yes, the real weapons you list and many you didn't are legally owned by a considerable number of Americans, and they don't run around abusing them.

The incontinence or lewdness of unmarried persons, male or female

Even in the case of marital sex, only the couple should be privy to the activity. Sexual intercourse is the ultimate act of intimacy, the consummation of marriage in which two persons become "one flesh" (Genesis 1:24).

No need to worry about youngsters being sexually stunted or confused. Puberty alone will do its job, as it has for thousands of years.

        1. Belonging to man or mankind; pertaining or relating to the race of man; as a human voice; human shape; human nature; human knowledge; human life.

        2. Having the qualities of a man.

        3. Profane; not sacred or divine; as a human author. [Not in use.]

To counter the notion that my statement was predicated upon the assumption of you being selfish, I included the clause "Regardless of whether or not you're selfish." Really if you think about it, any attempt to imagine what a selfish person desires, by anyone, will necessarily evoke their own desires. And if it doesn't, the exercise was only self-deception. (If you say you're referring to what you believe other people desire... then I suppose you're imagining a selfish man who desires... what? What you yourself desire. Same thing.)

That you find these facts "hypothetical"--as if a person can think something other than what he thinks, then, presumably, act in a manner inconsistent with his thoughts--is what I often refer to as a "startling disconnect from reality."

But this is like talking about a break-dancing unicorn--can he break-dance? You're right that that's the way I see it. However, my argument does not hinge upon its frame of reference. It rests on two main premises: 1) that people act to obtain and keep that which they value and nothing else 2) that these values are often warped and irrational due to the effects of various societal pressures and religious delusions.

Selfish is simple word to define considering its roots, and I tend toward Webster's 1828 Dictionary for its preference of Latin roots over definitional tends. "SELF-ISH - Regarding one's own interest chiefly or solely; influenced in actions by a view to private advantage." That is my definition.

And again, implicit in the definition of selfishness, is the concept of rationality. No irrational act can ever ultimately be selfish. That's not so obvious, but neither is it incredibly abstruse.

Now let's go back to this break-dancing unicorn of yours, the altruistic man. To start, the notion of a selfless desire is a contradiction in terms: desires originate from nowhere but the self. An organism cannot act without some inner compulsion; the mind cannot spontaneously order a muscle in the absence of intent; the thing that acts cannot act out of reference to itself. The notion that persons can act out of reference to themselves is, again, that "startling disconnect from reality" to which I often refer. This is the pitfall of all but a handful of philosophies, incidentally.

Use of the word "piracy" in reference to the infringement of intellectual property dates back to at least 1771 according to the Oxford English Dictionary [Ref]:

2. fig. The appropriation and reproduction of an invention or work of another for one's own profit, without authority; infringement of the rights conferred by a patent or copyright.

1771 LUCKOMBE Hist. Print. 76 They..would suffer by this act of piracy, since it was likely to prove a very bad edition. 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 520 He is charged with 'Literary Piracy', and an 'unprincipled suppression of the source from whence he drew his information'. 1855 BREWSTER Newton I. iv. 71 With the view of securing his invention of the telescope from foreign piracy.

2. fig. The appropriation and reproduction of an invention or work of another for one's own profit, without authority; infringement of the rights conferred by a patent or copyright.

1771 LUCKOMBE Hist. Print. 76 They..would suffer by this act of piracy, since it was likely to prove a very bad edition. 1808 Med. Jrnl. XIX. 520 He is charged with 'Literary Piracy', and an 'unprincipled suppression of the source from whence he drew his information'. 1855 BREWSTER Newton I. iv. 71 With the view of securing his invention of the telescope from foreign piracy.

PI'RACY, n. [L. piratica, from Gr. to attempt, to dare, to enterprise, whence L. periculum, experior; Eng. to fare.]

1. The act, practice or crime of robbing on the high seas; the taking of property from others by open violence and without authority, on the sea; a crime that answers to robbery on land.

Other acts than robbery on the high seas, are declared by statute to be piracy. See Act of Congress, April 30, 1790.

2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.

PI'RATING, ppr. Robbing on the high seas; taking without right, as a book or writing.

1. a. Undertaken for the sake of piracy; as a pirating expedition.

The term piracy has been used to refer to unauthorized use of copyrighted materials for more than 150 years. This definition appears in any reasonable dictionary, even going back to 1828.

So get over it, already. It's piracy.

I found a Spectrum article about jacks, plugs and sockets. I cannot recall whether my professor said "socket" or "jack."

Your post is nonsense. I felt puzzled because the verb has a separate date, 15th century, from the noun, 1533. The two disagree blatantly. The two differ by at least 32 years. You misunderstood the Merriam-Webster clarification of dates and incorrectly blamed it on the database. Additionally, the 1828 link you provide, while it does not list "socket" as a verb, does list "unsocket" as a verb.

I checked to OED. Needless to write, I am right. "1533 Lett. & P. Hen. VIII, VI. 642 For mendyng and sockettyng newe Cressytts." Henry VIII most definitely was not American, but English. Next time you consider being pedantic, make sure to be correct, too.

Sorry, but that's nonsense.

To be pedantic: the use of the word "socket" as a verb is only found in modern American or colloquial English. Look up "socket" in a British or International English dictionary and you will see it listed as a noun only. e.g. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=754 42&dict=CALD

The "1533" listed in your reference (Merriam-Webster -- a modern American english dictionary) refers only to the usage of the word "socket" itself, and most definitely does NOT refer to the specific application of the word as a transitive verb. The unfortunate listing of the date under the verb is misleading. (A side-effect of a database-driven website blindly serving data without context or deeper understanding, I suppose. See http://www.bartleby.com/61/88/S0528800.html for a better presentation).

See http://www.m-w.com/dates.htm -- dates for first recorded occurrence are not related to the actual meaning of the word in modern English.

You can also see the 1828 definition here. Note that in 1828 the word is not listed as a verb.

Check the etymology in a more complete source than an online dictionary to see what I mean...

Wow, guess I got a bit carried away with this reply. I think I'm turning into some kind of language lawyer or "word addict". :o

Even more important to remember is that this is not a new definition. An online 1828 dictionary defines piracy as "The robbing of another by taking his writings."

That's 175 years ago. I think it's time to accept that language changes.

1. 1 To get into one's possession by force, skill, or artifice, especially:
2. 
   a. To capture physically; seize: take an enemy fortress.
   b. To seize with authority; confiscate.

If I capture, seize, or confiscate your property, I have control and possession of your property while you lose it. That is the point you cannot see. If I don't take, or remove your property there is no theft. There might be copyright infringment, forgery or plagerism, but there is no theft without a transfer of possession.

But if that's not good enough for you, perhapse you'd like a few more. While you're noting the complete absence of any copying of so called "intellectual property" from any of those, check out how many specifically say "taking and removing". Thats because theft is concrete. I've either stolen your car from your garage or I haven't. I've either removed some stereos after breaking into Radio Shack or I haven't. That doesn't apply to downloading a copy of Office XP without paying for it, because there is no guarantee that I would have bought it in the first place. And even if it was guaranteed, MS has only "lo

And where do you think that 2nd reference comes from?

I assume you're implying that it's a recent addition...

An online Websters dictionary from 1828 defines it as

PI'RACY, n. [L. piratica, from Gr. to attempt, to dare, to enterprise, whence L. periculum, experior; Eng. to fare.]
1. The act, practice or crime of robbing on the high seas; the taking of property from others by open violence and without authority, on the sea; a crime that answers to robbery on land.
Other acts than robbery on the high seas, are declared by statute to be piracy. See Act of Congress, April 30, 1790.
2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.

A 1913 Websters Dictionary defines it as:

Pirate (Pi"rate) n. [L. pirata, Gr. fr. to attempt, undertake, from making attempts or attacks on ships, an attempt, trial; akin to E. peril: cf. F. pirate. See Peril.]
1. A robber on the high seas; one who by open violence takes the property of another on the high seas; especially, one who makes it his business to cruise for robbery or plunder; a freebooter on the seas; also, one who steals in a harbor.
2. An armed ship or vessel which sails without a legal commission, for the purpose of plundering other vessels on the high seas.
3. One who infringes the law of copyright, or publishes the work of an author without permission.

Maybe it's just me but I think that 175 years later it's time to accept that language changes.

Let's see A quick web search turns up an online Websters 1828 dictionary that contains:

PI'RACY, n. [...] 2. The robbing of another by taking his writings.

and an online Websters 1913 dictionary that contains

Pirate (Pi"rate), v. t. To publish, as books or writings, without the permission of the author.

It doen't look like there's a good online dictionary with better dates in it, so that the best I can do for now. So basically what I'm trying to say is, 1828 is a long time ago. 175 years later it's time to accept that language changes.