We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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Samizdata quote of the day “Churchill, who was prone to the black dog of depression, went to bed on the night of the 5th of June 1944 with a heavy heart. Gloomily he told his wife, Clementine, that by the time they awoke in the morning many tens of thousands of young men he had sent across the Channel might lie dead on the beaches of Normandy. In Alanbrooke’s diaries (he was the finest of the WWII diarists) it is clear how heavily he felt the weight of responsibility throughout his time as a commander in France in 1940, and subsequently as CIGS. Yet neither Alanbrooke nor Churchill felt the need to go in front of the cameras and explain how troubled they were by all the pressure. Even long afterwards it wouldn’t have occurred to either for a split second that this would be a good idea or remotely appropriate.”
– Iain Martin, commenting on the recent performance of Mr Blair’s former spinmeister on the TV. He makes a good point, I think.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Some hardening up is required.
NSFW
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY3TfjOeuhM
Some hardening up is required.
NSFW
I’m always finding reasons to send people that link, boy on a bike. It is safe for work if you’ve got headphones, I would say.
The difference is that Churchill was a man, whereas his modern-day successors are little boys in men’s clothing, trying to do a man’s job.
After The Rhine had been crossed and held a few months later there is a story that Churchill, Alanbrooke and Montgomery visited the part near Wesel that the Commando’s had taken. Whilst on the banks they took the opportunity to relieve themselves. What a photo opportunity that would have been.
I seem to remember hearing that Churchill wanted to be there as the first wave of landing craft went in on D Day, but was persuaded not to.
As you say Kim, a real man.
Quite. My thoughts: “Well what the fuck do we pay you for?”
If Churchill had not been made Prime Minister, or if WW2 had not happened, what would we now think about Winny? Wouldn’t he just be remembered as a failed Lord of the Admiralty, blamed for Gallipoli?
Not to say anything nice about Mr. Blair or his men — but I wonder what would have happened if the Brits had actually had the fortitude to deal with Hitler when he was still talking about lebensraum and nibbling little bits of Europe. If Chamberlain had dealt with Hitler swiftly in, say, 1937, would he still have been dealing with a whining British press and second guessing Commissions in 1945?
Just like there are tired old lefties in the US still living their glory days of Vietnam (despite knowing what happened to the Boat People), there seem to be tired old lefties in the UK who loved every moment of their opposition to doing anything about Saddam Hussein (despite knowing that he had already been responsible for a million deaths).
Maybe it was better when the lefties weren’t so old, and still had energy to waste on sex & drugs & rock n’roll. Now they are just pathetic. Let us talk of them no more.
The Rhineland 1936 – we should have backed up those elements in France who wished to stop the reoccupation of the Rhineland.
Germany was utterly unprepared for war the whole operation was based on bluster and bluff – indeed the German soldiers carried no ammunition (for fear that there would be an “incident” if they did) there were standing orders to pull back if the French moved in.
Without the Rhineland Hitler could not make Germany ready for total war – and if the operation to move into the Rhineland failed Hitler would have fallen from power.
Sadly London (and elements in Paris) did not fear that Hitler would have been replaced by Marxists (as the school textbooks have it) – the Reds were broken by 1936.
They feared that Hitler would replaced by a “reactionary” regime (unlike now – Hitler was understood to be a Progressive) which, indeed, he would have been.
As a reactionary myself I, of course, do not fear the idea of Hitler being overthrown and replaced by a reactionary regime.