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“Freedom is participation in power.” – Mike Gravell, on Thom Hartmann’s Air America show. “O, RLY?” – Commenter Sunfish, when he heard that. Yes, Sunfish, ‘Freedom’ is the freedom to join a gang and fight over who gets plundering rights on ‘your’ turf, I thought everyone knew that! June 18th, 2008 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
 What it [the UK Libertarian Party] will do, like the Libertarian Party has done in the United States, is to tarnish the libertarian brand, allowing the crazier aspects of libertarian thinking to come to the fore, and achieving nothing of any merit. – Alex Singleton, ‘How Libertarians undermine liberty‘ May 30th, 2008 | 67 comments - (Comments are closed)
Just straying off the Samizdata reservation for a moment…a pointer for Nine Inch Nails fans: Trent Reznor is giving away his latest record The Slip, and it is 100% free… to download it, go here. Reznor has released it under Creative Commons, which is a very interesting development. May 6th, 2008 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
Overheard this morning on Topsail Island, North Carolina, not far from USMC Camp Lejeune… Two Chinook helicopters flew down the coast at low level, almost directly over the beach: Male Person on Beach: Damn I hate it when they fly right down the coast like that, it’s inconsiderate. Female Person on Beach: Well I kinda like it, honey. That there is the sound of Freedom. April 20th, 2008 | 22 comments - (Comments are closed)
The more I think about it, the more I realise that the establishment of a formal, state-run empire was a mistake, both from the point of view of the conquered peoples and from that of Britain. The first phase of British expansion – our informal mercantile dominion – was much the more successful. It is at least arguable that the nationalisation of the East India Company marked the moment when things started to go badly wrong. April 19th, 2008 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
It is not the level of wealth that makes us happy. Instead, it is the process of betterment – the pursuit of it – that makes us happy. Whether we are twice as rich today as in 1971 has little bearing on our happiness, because it is in the past. Whether people can see their lives improving in the future is what counts. That is why economic growth remains a key component in happiness, despite what the happiness researchers might tell us. – Alex Singleton, Comment is Free April 16th, 2008 | 10 comments - (Comments are closed)
Sir Karl Popper is not really a participant in the contemporary professional philosophical dialogue; quite the contrary, he has ruined that dialogue. If he is on the right track, then the majority of professional philosophers the world over have wasted or are wasting their intellectual careers. The gulf between Popper’s way of doing philosophy and that of the bulk of contemporary professional philosophers is as great as that between astronomy and astrology. – W. W. Bartley, Philosophia (September–December 1976) April 12th, 2008 | 15 comments - (Comments are closed)
The BBC is under fire after altering a news story about global warming as a result of activist pressure. Tim Worstall writes that:
Will the BBC’s Roger Harrabin please put the article back to how it was before the lobbying started? Email him your views at roger.harrabin@bbc.co.uk. April 8th, 2008 | 76 comments - (Comments are closed)
It has been revealed that the Europhiles in the Tory party, led by John Maples MP, rigged the Tories’ recent primary for Members of the European Parliament in order to prevent the deselection of Europhile incumbents and to promote women that had received too few votes. ConservativeHome has the full, sordid account. April 4th, 2008 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
‘Market’ was the sixth word I ever learnt – after ‘This little piggy goes to…’ – Dr Eamonn Butler, author of The Best Book on the Market. Isn’t it great how we get children understanding buying and selling months if not years before the anti-market teachers can get their claws on them? April 2nd, 2008 | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)
… this guy needs to buy a cat and take some well deserved ‘chill time’ for, oh, the rest of his life maybe?
The short version: he set off a booby-trap (the old tripwire/grenade shtick) in the middle of his patrol, jumped on the grenade and his body armour and the stuff in his backpack took the brunt of the explosion. Other than getting blown through the air, this Royal Marine walked away pretty much in one piece. Fortitude and insane luck are a very cool combination. Let me offer the Lance Corporal a career suggestion: head back to civilian life and get a job doing endorsements for a certain backpack manufacturer. March 31st, 2008 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
Hackers in Indonesia have defaced a government website in protest over that increasingly authoritarian nation’s plans to block internet access to porn (and what is the internet for if not porn?)… Sadly the site has now been repaired, but nice one, guys. Stick it to them! And here is a nice list of proxy servers for our Indonesian readers (yes, we do have at least a couple). March 28th, 2008 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
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