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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. December 29th, 2007 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
 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 December 26th, 2007 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
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 December 25th, 2007 | 8 comments - (Comments are closed)
You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice. – 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. December 22nd, 2007 | 18 comments - (Comments are closed)
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. December 20th, 2007 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
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. December 17th, 2007 | 11 comments - (Comments are closed)
Intelligence is not wisdom, many intelligent people have been seduced by the false rationality of ‘scientific’ Marxism and many who are ‘dumb’ have, with simple clarity of thought, seen straight through it. It is not only the simple minded that need fear deception. – James, commenting on Samizdata here. December 15th, 2007 | 22 comments - (Comments are closed)
December 14th, 2007 | 13 comments - (Comments are closed)
“The loss of a leg may generally be regarded as a more real calamity than the loss of a mistress.” – Adam Smith. I think I agree, although I guess it depends on the mistress. December 8th, 2007 | 45 comments - (Comments are closed)
It seems to me that we’ve reached the point at which a facility that bans firearms, making its patrons unable to defend themselves, should be subject to lawsuit for its failure to protect them. The pattern of mass shootings in “gun free” zones is well-established at this point, and I don’t see why places that take the affirmative step of forcing their law-abiding patrons to go unarmed should get off scot-free. December 7th, 2007 | 21 comments - (Comments are closed)
One of my great regrets is that I never saw a Lightning take off. – By regular Samizdata commenter Nick M. I hate to rub it in, Nick, but I did, as a young kid at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, on a day out with my old man (RAF navigator in the 1950s). A totally awesome sight and noise: my ears are still probably ringing with the impact. Here’s a picture of one of these bad-ass beauties. December 4th, 2007 | 38 comments - (Comments are closed)
Disturbing reports have emerged that Gordon Brown is rude to his secretaries – or garden girls, as they are known inside Downing Street. He is said to shout at them abusively. On one occasion he is reported to have impatiently turfed one of the girls out of her chair and sat down to use the keyboard himself. All recent prime ministers – Thatcher, Major, Blair – were loved by the garden girls. All recent prime ministers from time to time endured problems. Only Gordon Brown has vented his frustrations on secretaries, who can never answer back or speak for themselves. In the end this intemperate and regrettable conduct may cause him as much damage as Mr Abrahams. – the sting in the tale of an article in the latest Spectator by Peter Oborne under the heading At the heart of the Labour funding scandal is the moral collapse of a once-great party. November 30th, 2007 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
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