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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Danish pride If I were a Dane I’d be getting more than a tiny bit sick of this whole “plucky little Denmark” meme that is evolving in line with current events. I cannot help but think of some small but tenacious dog – perhaps a Jack Russell – when anything is described as both “plucky” and “little”.
This does not compute. As we all know, in the canine world Danes are rather greater.
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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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Today my local newspaper, the “Dominion Post” in Wellington, NZ, finally weighed in with support for freedom of speech, with an editorial and an article showing and discussing the offending cartoons.
Plucky little New Zealand!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060204/ts_afp/europeislammedia
TEHRAN (AFP) – The international outcry over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed has intensified as Iran said it would cancel deals with countries in which newspapers had reproduced the images.
The list, which already included Denmark, where the 12 caricatures first appeared last year, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain, expanded Saturday to take in New Zealand and Poland.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the cancellation of economic contracts with countries where the media have carried cartoons of the prophet, the ISNA news agency reported.
Excellent! Who needs sanctions when these bozos impose them on themselves. Wow, with enemies like that, who needs friends?
Perry – Wow, with enemies like that, who needs friends?
As Mr Burns would say “Ex-cell-ent!”
Bruce Hoult, I think we should be careful about using these terms – where the media have carried cartoons of the prophet. What prophet? There isn’t just one prophet in the world and in history; there are hundreds. Let’s not assume we all mean the same one. Lots of different prophets. Let’s not accept their way of thinking, eh?
Verity,
None of those words were mine. They were all quoted direct from the press release from Tehran.
Should I ever, personally, refer to The Prophet I would hope that I’d make it clear whether I was referring to Rand, Hayek, Persig, Dawkins, Turing, McCarthy, Jobs, or others, if it was not already clear from the context.
– BBC
I may be a grump and a grouch, I may have nothing better to do, but I made a complaint over that. The fella I spoke to did seem to have a hard time grasping the point of the complaint. Then again, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear BBC newsreaders muttering “peace be upon him” after every mention from now on.
Pete_London writes:
“I may be a grump and a grouch, I may have nothing better to do, but I made a complaint over that. The fella I spoke to did seem to have a hard time grasping the point of the complaint.”
It’s a given that complaining to the BBC is a complete waste of time, but I, too, called last week (The World at One had devoted almost the entire programme to promoting the ‘poor, aggrieved Moslems’ line) and found much the same reaction.
Unlike many call centre staff, it seems the BBC’s agents (I gather the operation has been “out-sourced”) aren’t those who failed the hairdressing course at the local tech college – but equally clear they have problems getting their tiny minds round non-BBC angles on stories.
Have we, perchance, finally discovered where media studies graduates wind up?
GCooper – Funny!
Am I the only one to feel a certain bitter irony that, at the rate things are going, if the Iranian president manages to enforces his policy then the only countries his country will be able to trade with soon will be Britain and the USA? (oh, and have any Israeli papers published the cartoons yet?)
I never thought the media could make me ashamed to be British, but the last few days have proved me wrong:-/
Ah, if only every country would just published and be banned from trading with Iran!
I just wish the cartoons had been a little funnier, but then I keep thinking of that artistic exhibition from years ago, what was it called – “Piss Christ”? I didn’t think that was funny or artistic either. Don’t remember any riots or threats to kill stemming from that blatantly attention grabbing exercise though.
Perhaps this is finally the thin edge of the wedge; the slippery slop; pushing the envelope – pick your cliche, pick your metaphor – and it’s in nice easy terms for the average ‘tolerant’ person to understand. After all, there can’t be many people who haven’t seen a cartoon, or many cartoons, with Christ, or God, or mother Mary, or the three wise men, or satan, or angels, and so on.
What a specticle, to see the MSM and politicians quivering with apologies and demanding censorship so as not to offend Muslims.
Funny: politicians and the MSM have been offending my sensibilities for years and I’ve never had an apology.
I am still amazed that the police ‘guarding’ a demonstration in London should permit someone to dress up as a suicide bomber at the protest. Despite Mr Omar Khayam (yeah, right – why don’t you just call yourself ‘Donald Duck’ instead of such a lame pseudonym) holding an impromptu press conference yesterday to ‘apologise’ for his conduct surely this man should have been shot on sight by officers? In addition to that how on earth did the man get to the demonstration? By tube? By bus? Did someone see the man dressing up as a fake martyr out of the back of his car maybe?
I bet if the chap had been a Brazilian we would have been treated to the sight of someone being gunned down in Sloane Street in the full glare of the media spotlight.