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]
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Crazed Samizdata reader Peter Barker has written in with a proposal that we felt needed to be shared:
I was involved in an interesting discussion with a self claimed libertarian the other day. We were doing the rounds on the usual ideas about gun control and the right to arm bears. This guy was up for the idea of unrestricted possession or firearms but was advancing the idea that a legal caliber limit (?) might be placed on personal weapons.
This got me thinking in my radical way. When the “founding fathers” drew up the American constitution (and all its subsequent amendments) and gave American citizens the right to bear arms they did so to enable the citizens to defend themselves not only from hostile people but also (and mainly) from hostile governments (like their own…). The general idea being, I suppose, that if the “government” attempted to impose unconstitutional means upon the populace then they could resist effectively – as they did against the British.
So move this ideal forward a few centuries. Now if the government think you shouldn’t be doing something – they send round a semi-armoured swat squad, a few APCs and have a helicopter with missiles in reserve. If the neighbourhood ain’t so quiet they send in the national guard with the whole cacophony of modern warfare. Now of course if the local citizens objected to this and “tool up” to resist effectively, well, the administration will just calls them “unlawful combatants” and your civil rights are history. Remember those mad mullahs – the Branch Davidians of Waco (We Ain’t Commin’ Out) as an excellent example.
So how to square the circle? American citizens are supposed to be able to effectively defend themselves from government aggression. This can only mean one thing. The right to bear arms must translate (in new speak) into the right to own an effectively deterrent against anyone attempting to arbitrarily impose their will.
Which leads me to conclude one thing. I want a tank and a nuclear bomb [Ed: only one?]. As much as I’d like a Sukhoi 29 (or the new 31) the running costs are too high – there are some fiscal limits to my imagination. So, libertarians, who’ll support me?
Oh! that many…. Hmmmm.
Peter did not say if he takes cash, cheques, gold or credit cards for this worthy cause.
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?
The European Commission convened an emergency session today to urgently discuss a response to the eruption of the Mount Nyirangongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo
“This is a very serious situation” said Hans-Pieter Blinkenblankenblonken the Dutch chair of the Committee for Pompous Pronouncements. “The Congolese will now have access to the highest quality building materials that could threaten the livlihoods of our European producers” he added
The delegate from the German Green Party, Annaliese Klumpf said: “This volcano has simply erupted without even any consultation process. It is completely unacceptable, undemocratic and flies in the face of all European opinion”
The French Minister of Duplicity, Bertrand Maginot was furious. He condemned Mount Niyragongo as a “shitty little volcano” and called for urgent measures to protect French quarries from what he termed “these unfair volcanic practices”
The Commission agreed that these unregulated volcanic eruptions posed a grave threat to the environment and European jobs. A draft resolution was unanimously adopted demanding legislation to curb unfair volcanic activity worldwide and the setting up of a committee to insitgate and oversee a set of formal consultation procedures to be implemented before any further eruptions were permitted to take place
Over on Matthew Edgar’s blog, he outlines several scenarios for how Bush nearly choked on a pretzel. I rather liked: “The dogs attacked Bush to tell him that he [Bush] better not try to take them out like Clinton took out Buddy.”… but the truth does not require such pretzel logic, Matthew. Apply Occam’s razor and the real reason is apparent:
Bush suddenly realised that the pretzel was in the shape of a peace sign and started choking.
Q: What is the difference between Argentina and Japan?
A: About five years
Given that ‘Samizdata Illuminatus’ has been posting Churchill quotes lately, it is only matter of time before someone else thinks up this Churchillian reference:
The only traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, bloggery and the lash.
Sorry.
President Bush announced today that they have stopped a terrorist organization that has taken millions and millions away from the American people. Yes! The IRS is finished!
– Jay Leno
More bad news for the Taliban. Remember how they are promised 72 virgins when they die? Turns out that it’s only one 72-year-old virgin.
– Jay Leno
Now if only George Bush and his bunch of ‘yee-ha’ cowboys in Washington could only read this
Perhaps they would think twice before they go stomping off round the world to try to kill ‘terrorists’
WASHINGTON, DC. According to a Cato Institute report released Monday, the U.S. has become overly dependent on foreign turmoil for its conversations and media coverage. “The American people consume as many as 60 million barrels of crude speculation every day, using it for everything from driving discussions to heating up political debates,” the report stated. “Unless we can dredge up domestic sources of turmoil, we may end up utterly dependent on the Middle East for conversational fuel.”
From The Onion via Mondial Global Investors
Scholar of arcane Anglospheric Cultism, the eminent James C. Bennett of Miskatonic University, has turned up a disturbing fact after translating an ancient text. In a closed session address to Foreign Policy Research Institute, Bennett reported his findings:
H. P. Lovecraft got it garbled: It’s “In his house in Riyadh great Cthulhu lies sleeping.” That’s why the Saudi Whahabis hate all other varieties of Islam. Their form is really Cthulhu-worship.
Naturally the Saudi ambassador dismissed this as:
Obviously just another Zionist smear campaign and quite clearly racism against Middle Eastern people. So what if a few of us smell strongly of fish, commune with extraplanular creatures and have tentacles under our burqas?
Alarming stuff.
[Editor’s note: you need to have read H. P . Lovecraft’s horror stories to have the slightest idea what this means]
Whilst perusing Fevered Rants, as I am wont to do, I came upon an article relating to how NORAD helps make certain that Santa is safe when operating over North America.
However, what really concerns me is that due to interference from Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson, Santa’s policy of only hiring elves from Northern Finland has been replaced with a more ‘multiculturally inclusive’ system that does not permit ‘racial profiling’. As a result many of the packages in Santa’s North Pole grotto which are destined for your home, have been packed by efreets and djinns of decidedly Middle Eastern appearance.
Think about the implications of that whilst you are opening those ‘nice’ presents on Christmas day. Check the soles of those new Adidas shoes very carefully before you go jogging around the block to break them in.
Merry Christmas.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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