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 “We’d rather like people not to live on flood plains. Because, you know, their existence is evidence that that’s where it floods sometimes. Not being able to insure your house against floods if you live on a flood plain is what is known, in technical language, as a “fucking clue” that perhaps you shouldn’t be living there. Surely to God at least one person in government knows someone at Lloyds of London?”
– Tim Worstall. I love it when he gets justifiably riled.
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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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My firend John Clarke is a some-time county commissioner of Larimer County, CO – it’s in the Front Range, outside Denver.
When he was in office, he drafted a guide for landowners wanting to build home out in the wild country. He called it The Code of the West – you can see it here:
http://larimer.org/planning/planning/code_of_the_west/index.htm
The money quotes are as follows:
4.5 – The topography of the land can tell you where the water will go in the case of heavy precipitation. When property owners fill in ravines, they have found that the water that drained through that ravine now drains through their house.
4.6 – A flash flood can occur, especially during the summer months, and turn a dry gully into a river. It is wise to take this possibility into consideration when building.
4.7 – Spring run-off can cause a very small creek to become a major river. Many residents use sand bags to protect their homes. The county does not provide sand bags, equipment or people to protect private property from flooding.
Amazing that people need to be told this stuff in such direct terms. Even-more amazing that they expect insurers to cover them when they ignore the obvious risks and do it anyway.
llater,
llamas
Yes indeed. If the Barrett house you are thinking of buying on the new Sunnyvista Estate used to be called Swampy Bottom when the farmer who sold the land had it, run a mile.
I live on top of a hill. No fool me 😉
It’s also wise to avoid building or purchasing a home in any areas with names similar to the following –
Captain Nemo’s Estates
Nautilus Land Development
Or any promotional such as
High Capacity pumps with every purchase.
Free sand bags for life
Every home comes with an emergency kit containing a mask and snorkel for each family member.
I know the above is silly but when one has to essentially codify common sense ( which is really impossible ), we have to laugh to avoid crying !!!
Lightning! ;^)
I love natural risks… tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, wildfires, even earthquakes, because they are so predictable and do so little damage compared to legislative and regulatory risks.
Lightning is only supposed to strike the same place once PFP, but I’ve been Smited so many times on Samizdata, I think I’m now damn near immortal! 🙂
How would Lloyds be able to help- weren’t they nearly made bankrupt by a host of calamities a while back?
I have some friends who live in a small village on a hillside outside of Bristol, which had for years successfully stopped house building companies from expanding the village downwards. Alas, one year one company managed to grease the right set of palms, and within 12 months the size of the village tripled thanks to the placement of little rabbit hutches.
And one year after that, the new inhabitants got first-hand knowledge why it was called the “Watermeadows Estate”…
Let’s build a city partly below sea level right next to Lake Ponchartrain. We’ll build it at the foot of the largest river in North America, on the Gulf Coast where it will be threatened by hurricanes every summer. We’ll call it New Orleans. And if it ever floods, the flood will be the fault of George W. Bush.