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]

He’s pretty fly for a white…well, grey…guy

There is a funny post on the NRO Blog ‘Corner’ by Rod Dreher relating to Lord of the Rings. The final remark is hilarious… but they do kind of have a point!

Global bloggers go green with envy

Double bugger! If Ken Layne is to be believed (and of course he should), it sounds like we missed one hell of a party in Los Angeles, hosted by our pet pinko and true gentleman, Brian Linse.

Perhaps we need to organize a London (and environs) Blogger Bash along similar lines. Sounds like a damn fine idea to me!

US forces face disaster in Philippines

It appears that US soldiers being sent to the Philippines to fight against Islamic Abu Sayyaf guerillas are welcome to clean up that nation’s mess and possibly get killed doing so, but only if they are kept away from local ‘sex workers’ (remember when they were called prostitutes?). As the commanding officer of the US troops must look after his men’s morale, he should march up to Philippines President Gloria Arroyo, hand her a packet of condoms and a Koran, followed by the single word: “Choose”.

Like so many nation states, it appears the Philippines thinks it actually owns the bodies of its subject-citizens and who they may freely associate with.

News from the front lines of capitalism

It is not just about huge multinational mergers or collapsing energy conglomerates… it is also about small entrepreneurs struggling to make a deal here and develop a property there. Tonight I am delighted to be able to take my good friend Nikki Brandt out to dinner in order to welcome her back to London after an extended stint in Jamaica. She has been trying to breathe some life into a holiday resort development out there in these difficult post-September 11th times. Londoner Nikki is a partner in a small and rather lovely hotel in Negril, on the western tip of Jamacia.

Clear proof that entrepreneurial activity leads to great legs

Robert Nozick: influential libertarian philosopher

From each as they chose, to each as they are chosen.

As one of the most influential libertarian thinkers of the 20th century, Robert Nozick certainly deserves a tip of the hat from Libertarian Samizdata. His book Anarchy, State and Utopia is an excellent debunking of coercive statism generally and John Rawls’ book Theory of Justice in particular. Although I must confess I have never been a fan of Nozick’s essentially intuitive approach to rights theory, it would nevertheless be churlish not to recognize his enormous influence in stemming the intellectual tide of statism. He had a key role in widely propagating libertarian memes and adding hugely to the developing libertarian meta-context.

Robert Nozick, philosopher, born November 16 1938; died January 23 2002

Samizdata e-mail unweirdness

Our ISP e-mail problems have been sorted out and we are receiving all e-mails properly once more.

Anyone one who did not receive a reply to an e-mail sent to us in the last 24 hours or so might want to send their e-mail again as it does seem that the dircon server ate a few incoming mails. Yummy.

National Review On-line’s ‘Corner’ blog

As Glenn Reynolds on Instapundit points out, it is nice to see National Review On-line deciding to copy Samizdata’s format of multi-contributor blogging. I am sure we were foremost in their minds the whole time

Update: Cal Ulmann over on Where HipHop and Libertarianism meet has a rather entertaining take on NRO Corner<. Cal wrote:

The Corner on National Review Online is National Review’s attempt at a blog. They don’t want to call it a blog though. I guess that would mean their opinions are no better than anybody elses opinions.

Samizdata e-mail problems

Samizdata seems to be having e-mail problems (or rather the ISP through whom the e-mail routes is having problems), so we may not be getting all incoming mail at the moment (as of 23:15 GMT). It is unclear how long this problem has been going on. I shall report when we are back in touch with the blogosphere.

Pat Buchannan demonstrates the depth of his lack of comprehension

Let me state that I do not expect a paleo-conservative like Pat Buchannan to actually agree with libertarian views, but what I do expect is that, if he is going to comment on them, that he actually takes the time to figure out what libertarian views actually are before opening his noise making apparatus.

I have had numerous e-mail on his ludicrous article called Does libertarianism lead to statism?. Over on Dodgeblog, there is also a rubbishing of Buchannan that speculates what his real motivation for the remarks might be. The section of Buchannan’s article that best sums up his complete lack of comprehension regarding what libertarians actually do stand for is:

As these immigrants are also far poorer than Americans, they are disproportionate users of social services — i.e., health care, food stamps, rent supplements, legal services and general welfare. Immigrants have become the principal propellants of the growth of the welfare state.

Libertarians to Buchannan: Read this carefully

The state has NO legitimate role in health care, food stamps, rent supplements and ‘general welfare’… Libertarians do not support the very existence of the theft based welfare state! Eliminate that and the only people who will be willing to emigrate to another country under those conditions are self selecting high initiative folks who want to avail themselves of employment and entrepreneurial opportunities…i.e. exactly the sort of people who came through Ellis Island and made the USA the wealthiest nation on earth. I fail to see a problem with that!

So in essence Pat Buchannan’s thesis of genius is that “libertarianism leads to statism because non-libertarians have imposed welfare policies that libertarians regard as both immoral and economically unsound”. D’oh!

Thanks to Virginia, Andrew, Hank, Ann, Anne, Ivan, Jorge, Margarthe, Will and Dieter for also baring their fangs via e-mail regarding the utterly clueless Buchannan article. I have never received so many e-mails that made almost exactly the same points on the same issue!

Yikes! I’ve been harpied by Natalie Solent!!

Which is nothing to do with herpes, I assure you.

Picture problems

Sorry but our hosting server has maxed out and thus you may (or may not) have problems seeing the pictures you have have come to see… this will be fixed by tomorrow.

Samizdata loses its credentials over misleading photograph

Sheesh… we try to bring a little class and glamour into the blogosphere but I guess there is no keeping some people happy. Glenn on Instapundit accuses us of not showing a faithful representation of semi-recovered bloggstress Natalija Radic (scroll down six articles for the ‘offending picture’ of a suspiciously healthy looking Natalija).

   

There… are you happy now? This picture even shows the amazing disappearing cat “Little Monster” prior to his absconding during Natalija’s hour of need. Can we please have our journalistic credentials back now, Glenn?