Episode # 119 "Mental Masturbation"

"The people of Chalcedon," we read,  "had a large number of mercenary troops in their city, to whom they could not pay the wages they owed. Accordingly they made proclamation that anyone, either citizen or alien, who had a right of reprisal against and city or individual and wished to exercise it, should have his name entered on a list. A large number of names was enrolled, and the people thus obtained a specious pretext for exercising reprisal upon ships... "

The Enemy of All / Piracy and the Law of Nations - Daniel Heller-Roazen

Reprisal - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reprisal

Prize - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/prize

Letter of Marque - A letter of marque and reprisal (French: lettre de marque; lettre de course) was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, to attack and capture vessels of a foreign state at war with the issuer, licensing international military operations against a specified enemy as reprisal for a previous attack or injury. Captured naval prizes were judged before the government's admiralty court for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque

Record - "an unsurpassed statistic"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/record

Surpassed - "to transcend the reach, capacity, or powers of"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surpassed

Transcend - "to rise above or go beyond the limits of"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/transcend

Statistic - 1852, "a statistical statement; one numerical statistic," see statistics. From 1939 in reference to a person considered as nothing more than an example of some measured quantity.

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=statistic

Statist - 1580s, "statesman" (OED marks this "Very common in 17th c. Now arch."); by 1803 in the sense of "statistician." It is attested by 1976 as "supporter of statism (q.v.);" attested by 1960 as an adjective in this sense.

https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=statist

Statism - c. 1600, in reference to church-state matters; 1880 as "the art of government;" by 1912 in reference to the political theory that to some degree legitimatizes centralized state control over society and the economy, 

https://www.etymonline.com/word/statism

genesis - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/genesis

G what? - "The elusive mystery of the letter g (looptail) explained

 https://www.typeroom.eu/the-elusive-mystery-of-letter-g-explained