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]

Samizdata slogan of the day

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
– Benjamin Franklin

Or: We must preserve our freedoms or the bad guys win.
– P.J. Connolly, InfoWorld Magazine

Samizdata slogan of the day

The Moving Finger blogs; and, having blogged,
Moves on: fortunately my Piety and Wit
Can lure it back to cancel half a Line,
and all my Tears wash out a Word of it
Thank goodness for delete functions
-The Rubaiyat of Samizdata Illuminatus

Samizdata slogan of the day

Those fighting for free enterprise and free competition do not defend the interests of those rich today. They want a free hand left to unknown men who will be the entrepreneurs of tomorrow…
– Ludwig von Mises

Samizdata slogan of the day

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away
-Phillip K. Dick

Samizdata slogan of the day

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.
– Benjamin Franklin, 1759

The exquisite arm of the law

Ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is a happy puppy. The new Miss Universe is Oxana Fedorova, a policewoman from St.Petersburg in Russia… now I am off to that historic city to see if I can get arrested.

 

Samizdata slogan of the day

I’ve worked out a use for Stephen Byers. If you take the intellectual rigour of John Major, the financial probity of the late Robert Maxwell, the sense of public service of Neil Hamilton and the integrity of Stephen Byers, you get… President Jacques Chirac!
– Antoine Clarke

Samizdata slogan of the day

We all do no end of feeling, and we mistake it for thinking.
-Mark Twain

The Cannes Film Festival

Sharon Stone is looking pretty damn good for someone recovering from a stroke!

And what is this nonsense about the self styled ‘American Jewish Congress’ urging Jews to boycott the Cannes Film Festival because ‘the French are anti-Semitic’? And which ‘French’ would that be? The 80% who did not vote for Le Pen? Spare us the collectivist crap, guys… I do not see why a foreign Jewish organisation should feel the need to provide the neo-Nazi barking moonbats in France with an excuse to say ‘See? Those mean old Jews are boycotting all of France!’ Duh.

In the linked article, it also says ‘satirist Michael Moore’ is making a documentary about the Columbine school massacre. But satire requires wit and insight, so I guess there must be more than one Michael Moore because the only one I know of is a talentless ignorant prick, not a satirist.

Samizdata slogan of the day

Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil, in its worst state an in tolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamities is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer!
-Thomas Paine, Common Sense (1776)

Samizdata slogan of the day

There’s nothing like a Socialist to get someone who really despises the Working Class, is there?
-Ian Hislop (on the programme ‘Have I got news for you’) addressing socialist Mark Steel who had just been pouring scorn on the huge number of working class people who turned out for the Queen Mother’s funeral

via David Harthill

Samizdata slogan of the day

“If you can’t see a woman in a bikini that’s your problem. You can’t force them to cover up just because you can’t control yourself.”

-Malaysian Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir blasts Terengannu’s state government, which is led by the Islamic party, PAS, for its “Taliban-like” plan to ban tourists from wearing bikinis.