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 quote of the day

As you might expect, vegetarians will have a somewhat rough time here. For most people in Argentina, a vegetarian is something you eat.

– Idle Words in Argentina On Two Steaks A Day

Bonus quote: Upon reading the article Mr de Havilland announced that he’s booking a ticket to Buenos Aires…

Samizdata quote of the day

It’s ultimately kind of sad that the controversial person in the race is Ron Paul rather than Huckabee.

– Jonah Goldberg, who is no fan of Ron Paul, discussing ‘Liberal Fascism’. Seeing as we, well I, have ‘diss’ed’ Jonah in the past on Samizdata, let me plug his new book.

Samizdata quote of the day

A smaller state in Victorian terms isn’t on the cards. The electorate would take flight at such talk. What the electorate is after, however, is a redrawing of the state’s boundaries. There is no fall in demand for collective services like health and education but voters are seeking two clear advances in their freedom from such a redrawing exercise. The first is to gain greater freedom from a centrally run ration book-type state service where there is a set menu, often a single item, that has to be consumed at a certain time. The second demand is for taxpayers to use their own money to run their own services.

Frank Field, Labour MP. He is probably right, but once people get into this habit of choosing to live their lives as they please, who knows where it may end up.

Samizdata quote of the day

[X-Factor winner] Leon Jackson is more influential than Gordon Brown.

Alex Singleton

Samizdata quote of the Old Year

I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and Iraq and everywhere like such as and I believe that they should our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S. or should help South Africa and should help Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future for us.

Lauren Caitlin Upton, eloquently the making the case for home schooling.

Samizdata quote of the day

Why is it always sadder when tragedy strikes hot people?

– Ugly Betty, smuggling profundity in with the fluff.

Samizdata quote of the day

Slavery was in fact the very first form of “Renewable Energy”. Slavery was green! And, what is even better, slavery was sustainable – it lasted for thousands of years, until the ability to use fossil fuels gave us the liberty to feel bad about it. Whenever someone waxes eloquent about “Renewable Energy”, think slavery. Because that is where wishful thinking is taking us.

– Commenter Alice.

Samizdata quote of the day

We were thinking of challenging the Taliban to a game of football on Christmas day, but I’m not sure they’d get the joke.

Sgt Kraig Whalley, 29, Royal Military Policeman

Samizdata quote of the day

The welfare state has largely failed as an anti-poverty weapon… Higher welfare payments often encourage students to drop out of school, they often encourage families to disintegrate, and they often lead to lifelong dependency.

– Robert F. Kennedy

Samizdata quote of the day

You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice.
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.
You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
I will choose a path that’s clear
I will choose free will.

– Rush.

It is my birthday, so a little personal reminiscence is in order. The man who introduced me to Rush, 29 years ago, subsequently turned down physics fellowships at both Oxford and Cambridge to become a Baptist missionary. I guess he took his instructions from the first part of the verse.

Samizdata quote of the day

Even more predictable than the post-Thanksgiving appearance of shopping-mall Santas is the inability of pundits at this time of year to say or to write “commercialism” without prefixing to it the word “crass” – as we encounter in your pages today in Tom Krattenmaker’s “The real meaning of Christmas.”

I challenge this notion. Commerce is peaceful. It involves sellers working hard and taking risks to bring to market goods and services that consumers want to buy. No one forces anyone to do anything; all is voluntary.

What truly is crass is politics – that sorry spectacle of power-seeking ego-maniacs who, when not pronouncing platitudes, are promising to help group A by picking the pockets of group B. While commerce is honest, politics is duplicitous. While commerce is peaceful, politics inevitably pits citizen against citizen. Far more enlightened and ethical behavior is on display during any one day in a shopping mall than the most intrepid observer will find in a century on Pennsylvania Avenue.

– A letter from Donald J. Boudreaux to USA Today. Amit Varma liked it too.

Samizdata quote of the day

For I think there’s a fault line that runs through “political blogging” which isn’t in fact properly appreciated. There are those who blog for a specific group, for a party, for their tribe. And there are those who blog in support of certain ideas, or ideals. The former group will indeed be liable to capture by the centre (“don’t rock the boat old boy, not now we’ve got back into power again”) and the latter will continue to scream for their cherished goals whichever party is in power.

Tim Worstall