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verb. To deconstruct an article on a point by point basis in a highly critical manner. Derived from the name of journalist Robert Fisk, a frequent target of such critical articles in the blogosphere (qv). Usage: “Orrin Judd did a severe fisking of an idiotic article in the New York Times today…” September 13th, 2002 | Comments are closed
 1. noun. A contraction of weblog, a form of on-line writing characterised in format by a single column of text in reverse chronological order (i.e. most recent content at the top) with the ability to link to individual articles. There is usually with a sidebar displaying links, and the content is frequently updated. (probably coined by Peter Merholz) Usage: “Glenn has writen an interesting article about the folly of gun control on his blog” also see: Warblog, Journal blog, Pundit blog, Tech blog, Group blog 2. verb. To write an article on a blog. Usage: “Steven Green has just blogged about the joys of Vodka today” or “After reading that crap in the New York Times about globalization, I feel a serious need to blog about real world economics” — The majority of blogs are non-professional (update July 2004: commercial blogs of various sorts are now appearing in increasing numbers) and are run by a single writer. However whether or not a blog has a single author or is a group effort, a key differentiating factor between a blog and other on-line formats (such as forums, wikis etc) is that the main articles (as opposed to just comments) are written by the blog’s owners/members and not by the general public. Although there are several competing definitions regarding what makes a blog a blog, it can be convincingly argued that, circa 2004, for something published on the web to be a true blog, it must be configured to be readily accessible by the blogosphere. That means although reverse chronological order is a defining feature of a blog, that alone is not enough. If the individual articles cannot be linked to separately via a permalink (rather then just linking to the whole site), then the site in question is not a blog. This means some ostensible blogs are debatably not really blogs at all (they are merely ‘blog like’ in appearance) by what the developing understanding of what a blog really it. For example the Guardian, a British broadsheet newspaper, has two blogs and prides itself that it ‘gets’ blogging. However whereas the Guardian Online Blog, which deals with technology, is indeed a blog (and quite a good one), the Guardian main blog, called simply The Weblog1, is nothing of the sort as you cannot link to individual articles and hence it is not actually part of the blogosphere. Not surprisingly as a result ‘The Weblog’ is largely ignored by other blogs and hardly ever linked to according to the various monitoring services such as Technorati or Blogstreet). 1 = as of late 2004, ‘The Weblog’ was superceded by Newsblog, which is a proper full featured blog September 13th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Liberty… If You Dare CYBERSPACE – September 13, 2002: LibertyForum (http://www.libertyforum.org), a web-based political discussion forum, has emerged from an intensive 1 year beta-testing phase and has opened its electronic doors to the general public. During its testing period, a group of approximately 400 dedicated users logged over 200,000 individual posts to test LibertyForumís PHP based forum software, which reviewers consider one of the best implementations of web-based discussion on the Internet. LibertyForum is organized around the discussion of news-items and political topics, and places the libertarian principles of its creators firmly ahead of site popularity or narrowly ideology. Membership is not restricted to any particular political camp, a fact that has resulted in the wide spectrum of political opinion and ideas presented by forum members. A key aspect of LibertyForum’s commitment to libertarian principles is its environment of open-debate. Rather than rely on moderators, post deletions, poster banishment, or other types of forum censorship, LibertyForum allows its members to decide for themselves what it is they want to read. Comments are rated by the forum’s membership through the use of a Post Rating System based on Slashdot.org’s (http://Slashdot.org) “Karma” moderation system. This fosters a system of meritocracy, where posts are rated according to their content, and where members are free to set their reading preferences at whatever threshold they prefer. LibertyForum’s growing expertise in the delivery of web-discussion services has led it to seek and establish strategic partnerships with a variety other Liberty oriented organizations. These organizations are able to utilize LibertyForum’s infrastructure to provide discussion services for their members; this at no cost to the organization or its members. True to its focus on the individual, LibertyForum also actively promotes an international atmosphere that welcomes the participation of posters throughout the world. With a current, and growing, user base of over 600 members, and daily posting activity that often exceeds 1,500 individual posts, LibertyForum is poised to become the premier Liberty oriented discussion forum on the web. To find out more about LibertyForum, or to become a member, please visit http://www.libertyforum.org. Contact: John Deere September 13th, 2002 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
Yesterday I wrote a short article called The real England speaks in which I described a spontaneous expression of transatlantic solidarity. Much to my surprise, I clearly touched a raw nerve and the response was thunderous (see the comments section of the article to see what I mean). As anyone who has read this blog for more than a few weeks will have surmised, samizdata.net is not just an overtly libertarian group of writers, but represents what can only be described as libertarianism’s ‘hawk’ wing… a sort of anti-anti-war.com. But I was not writing to encourage hawkish memes (well, not that time). In truth, when I wrote my article yesterday, I was not so much extending the sympathy of Britain to our confreres in the United States, at least not as the main thrust of the article, but rather highlighting the existence of a trans-national Anglosphere civil society of sorts that transcends the confines of states and governments. That does not mean I think the remarkable outpouring of responses was ‘wrong’, far from it… just that it was not my objective and certainly not what I was expecting. Yet the response goes quite some way to confirm the contention of my article that there is indeed an ‘Anglosphere’ civil society and not just the distinct English speaking civil societies around the world, connected by sentiments far deeper than mere politics or state. September 12th, 2002 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
In yet another travesty of British justice, Barry-Lee Hastings has been convicted of manslaughter for defending not just his property but his family from a career serial burglar. Naturally the state sees things differently.
Yet in the last year we have had story after story of the Police responding to pleas for assistance by turning up hours if not days later. The fact is, the job which Detective Chief Inspector Matthew Horne is speaking about is not your protection but rather the protection of the State’s monopoly on the means of violence. Institutionally speaking, the safety of you, your family and your property is purely incidental: if it were otherwise, a person could legally own a weapon for their personal defence in Britain… yet regardless of the fact you may manifestly be at risk from violence in a high crime area or live in a home which has been robbed again and again and again, you may not even use a kitchen knife, let alone a gun, to protect yourself. Ask Barry-Lee Hastings. The state is not your friend. September 12th, 2002 | 9 comments - (Comments are closed)
Here is a completely gratuitous picture of Elizabeth Hurley, who we very much wish would write for our splendid blog September 11th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Pubs, ladies fashion stores, restaurants, banks, cafes, mobile phone stores, boutiques, gift shops… If you are looking for the real England, you will not find it in the pages of the Guardian, but rather on the high streets and in the shop windows. I have just got back from lunch and what I saw on the King’s Road in Chelsea, here in London, amazed me. There is no law requiring it, no government departments ‘encouraging’ it loudly, yet shop after shop are displaying signs saying words to the effects of “At 1:46 pm to day, we will be observing two minutes silence in remembrance of the atrocities on September 11th of last year in the United States.” Others are expressing memorial sentiments, still others just displaying small American flags. No doubt these signs will all be gone by this evening, but they are there now. Some signs are hand written by shop managers, others were clearly printed by a head office… but the signs are there and they come not from above, passed down from the salons of the chattering classes, but from below, from the true heart of England. There is indeed an Anglosphere and it is very, very real. 
September 11th, 2002 | 371 comments - (Comments are closed)
September 11th, 2002 | Comments are closed
We had 25 people show up to the Second British Blogger Bash and the party has been hailed as a great success. Below can be seen (L to R) Ben Sheriff of Layman’s Logic, Mike Solent (back turned), Steve Chapman of Stephen Chapman (formerly ‘Daddy Warblogs), Tom Burroughes of Samizdata.net (back turned), Andrew Dodge of Dodgeblog, Brian Micklethwait of Samizdata.net, Alex Singleton (barely visible) of St. Andrews Liberty Log, Peter Briffa of Public Interest UK and Natalie Solent of Natalie Solent. 
Steve Chapman and Peter Briffa were disappointed when Below are Nikki Brandt, Luisa Gutierrez and Adriana Cronin of Samizdata.net. 
The ladies discuss the aerodynamics of a Below are Perry de Havilland of Samizdata.net and Patrick Crozier of CrozierVision and UK Transport. 
Perry shamelessly advertises Samizdata.net tee-shirts Below are David Carr of Samizdata.net and Adriana Cronin of Samizdata.net. 
David and Adriana make jokes about why they had Below are Patrick Crozier of UK Transport and Dale Amon of Samizdata.net, uncharacteristically shown wielding a beer. 
Dale demonstrates the correct stance for Below are Natalie Solent, Alice Bachini of A Libertarian Parent in the Countryside and Perry de Havilland. 
Alice, having eaten the collar of Perry’s shirt (with some Brendan O’Neill was unable to attend due to prior obligations… you missed a good one, O’Neill. September 10th, 2002 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
04:30am The Second British Blogger Bash has finally run out of steam as its participants have started dropping like flies…  …I suspect there may be somewhat less blogging on Sunday from the London Samizdata HQ. September 8th, 2002 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
02:15 am The Second British Blogger Bash continues and the tone of discourse has become more ‘interactive’ with the arrival of Andrew Dodge… 
September 8th, 2002 | 6 comments - (Comments are closed)
10:45 pm: The Second British Blogger Bash in London is in full swing and as the picture below indicates, things are sober and sedate. 
Claire Berlinski and Alex Singleton September 7th, 2002 | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)
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