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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Cheery news from a fox As the decibel count rises amid the drumbeat of war, we try to do what we can to see the cheery side of things. These are grim times, but my fervent hope is that in a few decades, Baghdad will be the Hong Kong of the Middle East, al-Quaeda and Saddam will be a distant memory, Iraq will be one of the richest countries on the planet, Jacques Chirac will have been put behind bars, the EU will be just a free trade zone and Samizdata will have more readers than Fox, CNN and the BBC combined.
But what has really fired my determination to be optimistic is the report, in today’s Financial Times (only available in print edition), that quintessential British media megastar Basil Brush, emblem of all that is finest about this island, is to release a pop record. Magnificent.
(Apologies to non-Brit readers. The last paragraph will be totally meaningless).
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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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Obviously, an example of British kitsune. Although Basil doesn’t seem as if he – unlike his Japanese cousins – ever possesses anybody. At least, not very often.
http://www.lists.lightbearer.com/immortal-l/1997/12/msg00396.html
“Possessions by foxes include violent seizures in which the afflicted speak “in the voice of the fox”, deriding humans and making demands of priests and practitioners through the body of the possessed. One ongoing story within the religion tells of a girl in Tokyo who was possessed by two hundred and fifty foxes at once… a “boss kitsune” who was a kind of a branch manager in the shrine of Inari in Tokyo and two hundred forty-nine fox servants of the original. After being possessed by the fox and making demands of the priest for sake and food, the girl’s priest ritually banished the fox, converting it to a kind of universal doctrine and sending it back to the shrine of Inari. When the kitsune and its servants returned to the shrine, however, its boss, an even more powerful kitsune (it reportedly had seven tails) beat the first kitsune until it agreed to return to the service of Inari. It then possessed the girl again and attacked the priest, who “killed” it using okiyome, the practice of a kind of purifying ray from the hands. For months after, the girl would attack the priest suddenly, crying “Attack! Attack!” Reportedly these attempts were being made by the two hundred forty-nine in an attempt to avenge their master. Most kitsune possessions, and they are quite frequent, involve much easier banishments.”
Chirac arrested? Nah. Too good for him. Force him into exile, and make him spend the rest of his life in west Virginia. Nothing is more painful to a cheese-eating surrender monkey than to spend the rest of his life eating Velveeta.
Chirac arrested? Nah. Too good for him. Force him into exile, and make him spend the rest of his life in west Virginia. Nothing is more painful to a cheese-eating surrender monkey than to spend the rest of his life eating Velveeta.
A fitting song for war
Boom Boom.
Derek Fowlds was Bernard in Yes Minister and liked stuffing his hand up puppet’s bottoms. The BBC in the 60s and 70s – truly surreal.