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Due to the chaos caused by the change over to the new blog format (plus the fact we actually have lives beyond blogging… shocking I know), many people to whom we have written saying we would link to them have not seen the link appear. We will try to catch up with all the additional blog links (and perhaps cut a few inactive ones) over the next week or so. Feel free to remind us if we have previously promised to link to you July 28th, 2002 | Comments are closed
 There are several companies that anti-capitalist protestors love to hate and two of them are Disney and MacDonalds. These companies are seen as the very embodiment of American ‘economic and cultural imperialism’. Samizdata contributor and blogger in her own right Natalie Solent once remarked on the Libertarian Alliance Forum (20 June 2002) that there is a near 1:1 correlation between people who slag off MacDonalds, using derisory terms like ‘MacJobs’, and people who are in reality advocating a nihilistic communistic reordering of society. And yet whilst I think Natalie is generally correct on that point, in the right leaning Daily Telegraph, Andrew Gimson also writes a rather flaccid article about why he too does not like Disney and it has nothing to do with big business. Like Andrew Gimson, I have nothing against big business and am an avid supporter of globalization. As a result I regard Disney and MacDonalds as remarkable examples of international commerce and I have no problem with them plying their toxic wares everywhere across the globe… hang on a minute…’toxic wares’? Yes, the truth is, I detest both Disney and MacDonalds. Much in the same way as I support the right of looney toon Nazis and incoherent socialists to publicly advocate their idiotic views, so too do I support the right of Disney and MacDonalds to hawk their wares from Peoria to Petropavlovsk… and just as I support the right of people to shout abuse and pour scorn on Nazis and Socialists when they do air their views, so too do I support the right of people to vote with closed wallets in order to protect their children from near-fraudulent cultural hijacking by Disney and heart disease and obesity by garbage-like ‘food’ sold by MacDonalds. If Disney wants to create animated movies (that are in reality little more than an exercise in merchandising) from whole cloth, then I have no real objection. But when they produce something like ‘The Little Mermaid’, I find my blood boiling. The Little Mermaid is a story by Hans Christian Andersen, and was written not as Disney would have us believe, to convey the message ‘go for your dream, girl, and live happily ever after’. No, not at all.
This is far from the pallid castrated ‘culture’ that Disney’s marketing wonks would have you believe the story contains. Now I realise this sort of gritty prose might not sell so well in some places with sugar coated rose tinted views of what children should hear and read, but then why the hell call it ‘The Little Mermaid’ then? Call it ‘The Adventures of Ariel’ or ‘Fishgirl gets her Prince’ or anything that does not claim to have the slightest intellectual similarity to what Hans Christian Andersen was actually trying to say. Feel free to purchase Disney’s drivel if you wish for your hamburger bloated offspring, but do not kid yourself that your children are hearing anything whatsoever from probably the most famous writer of children’s stories who ever lived.  July 27th, 2002 | Comments are closed
The good news is that it looks like there is no significant support for the US joining what can only be described as a monstrous tax cartel with truly global reach being advocated by the high tax states of Europe. This is truly splendid but do not for a moment think that this is the last we have heard of attempts to end the ‘unfair’ competitive advantages of lower tax economies. July 25th, 2002 | Comments are closed
There is an interesting article in the print version of Inside The Vatican (sorry, no article link at their meagre on-line site) about Rabbi Israel Zolli, formerly the Chief Rabbi of Rome from 1939 until 1945. So if Pope Pius XII was an anti-semitic pro-Nazi collaborator in Italy as some have claimed, why did Rabbi Zolli convert to Christianity in 1945, professing his admiration for the pontiff? Zolli was certainly in a position to know what the truth of the matter was! The fact the Pope was no supporter of Zionism did not mean he was antagonistic to Jews. Clearly the reality is the calumnies against Pius XII have more to do with modern agendas than historical facts. July 25th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Back in 1991, the English band that rejoiced in the name of Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine re-released a song called Sheriff Fatman from the album ‘101 Damnations’, about nasty landlords in London. One verse in that song was:
I assume I am not the only one who rather suspected at the time that ‘Nicholas Van Wotsisface’ was referring to Nicholas Van Hoogstraten and ‘Sheriff Fatman’ was lawyer Michael Harris, who was not only a tad portly but was under-sheriff of London, responsible for serving many of the eviction orders Nicholas Van Hoogstraten used to gain possession of properties. It is just a theory of course July 24th, 2002 | Comments are closed
On this day in 1704, British Admiral George Rooke took Gibraltar from Spain by force of arms. British control of the Rock was later permanently granted to Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht on 13th July, 1713. Britain has controlled Gibraltar for almost 300 years, i.e. longer that the United States has even existed, and what is more, unlike the goats and scorpions of Perejil Island off Morocco, the people of Gibraltar refuse to submit to Spanish sovereignty or be bartered away against their will like livestock. July 24th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Veterans of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) who opposed both the Nazis and the Red Army (whom they regarded as occupying Russians) from 1942 until they were largely crushed by the communists in 1953, are to be accorded the same rights as former Red Army veterans by the Ukrainian government. It is interesting that the Russian government regards this as an affront even after all these years, calling the UPA ‘bandits’ for having the audacity to defend the Ukraine against all comers. However although the UPA opposed both the Soviets and Nazis, they were also implicated in the mass murder of Poles and Jews and do not really fit comfortably into the ‘clearly-the-good-guys’ category, a fact surprisingly absent from several reports on the recent hostile reaction by the Russian government to the Ukrainian decision to grant surviving UPA veterans full military pensions.  July 24th, 2002 | Comments are closed
After casting our eyes enviously at the Instapundit’s and Bitter Girl’s on-line shops, we decided to also open an on-line shop for Samizdata.net as well (click here or see our sidebar under ‘Network’) Now you too can prove you are one with the sinister globalist Illuminati (not to mention defray the cost of setting up this nice new blog!)  
July 24th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Sarah Lawrence, the object of the previous article by Brian, is in fact the latest member to join the Samizdata Team, as eagle-eyed perusers of this blog’s sidebar may have already noticed. She is an indomitable advocate for children’s civil liberties via her organisation Taking Children Seriously and her view can be found expressed on her own site SarahLawrence.org. We look forward to seeing Sarah’s often highly controversial views on Samizdata.net! July 22nd, 2002 | Comments are closed
 Seeing a reference to the marvellous children’s programme Thunderbirds over on the Brothers Judd sent me off on a rare bout of nostalgia. Thunderbirds was far and away my favourite programme when I was young and this was long before I appreciated the shows astonishing libertarian political message… These guys were like the real world RNLI only with guns and spaceships! ‘International Rescue’ were shown as a benevolent but armed covert high tech para-military search and rescue organisation, privately controlled and funded by a philanthropic American businessman’s multinational company (Tracy Construction and Aerospace Industries), run secretly by his family and loyal friends. IR was completely independent of any government! What is more, International Rescue’s ‘muscle’ was provided by British aristocrat Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward, cruising in a pink six-wheeled armoured Rolls Royce, capable of travelling at 200 mph complete with a hidden front grill mounted auto-cannon. No anti-capitalist or anti-private ownership of weapons vibe here!  Now that is a splendid role model for children rather than the usual dreary assortment of statist lawyers, severe cops and government spies who are trotted out to pass for heros! July 21st, 2002 | Comments are closed
As part of a longer e-mail to me from first class blogger Jim Henley of Unqualified Offerings fame, he had the following pearls to cast:
Sad but true. July 20th, 2002 | Comments are closed
Feedback from most people regarding the new look Samizdata.net has been very positive. However a few people have reported strangeness. The website is blue with white body text and lighter blue links. A few people have reported seeing our text as black and electric blue links, which is odd. It could be that older browsers which do not support css might have problems. Please let us know by e-mail (see sidebar) if you are having problems, noting what browser/version/OS you are using.  I should look like this! Please note that reducing the size of the screenshot in has made the blues a somewhat darker in this picture than they really are July 20th, 2002 | Comments are closed
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