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]

Unseasonal, eh, Mr Blair?

Lords Chancellors are political appointees, and certainly should not be idealised. But our Dear Leader is widely believed not to know or care about the past. So that the following dialogue is fiction should not be a problem.

More: Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: I’d cut down every law in England to do that.

More: Oh? And when the last law was down–and the Devil turned round on you–where would you hide? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake.

— Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons

Or is it more important to look tough and caution be damned?

Samizdata quote of the day

The key to the intricate and massive system of thought created by Karl Marx is at bottom a simple one: Karl Marx was a communist

– Murray Rothbard (via Mises Economics Blog)

Samizdata quote of the day

Economic freedom begets political freedom. Democracy alone, a la elections are not enough, we need a liberal democracy that circumscribe the domain of government to what Martin Wolf says “Under liberty, the state protects everybody from predators, not excluding itself”. Property rights begets individual ownership and that in turn promotes individual as well as economic freedom
Franklin Cudjoe discussing what Africa really need.

Samizdata quote of the day

If anything, it is the failure of multiculturalism to generate real reciprocal respect and provide legitimate avenues to social participation that provides the psychotic self-justification the murderers indulge in as part of their vision of nirvana.

Andrew Jakubowicz, a sociology professor, explains to Australian newspaper readers that suicide bombers have nothing to do with Islam.

Samizdata quote of the day

We maintain that the ‘Clash of Civilisations’ is not only inevitable but imperative.

– Hizb Ut Tahrir (as quoted by the Daily Ablution)

And there we have it: something that a radical Islamic group has said that I totally agree with.

Samizdata quote of the day

“…my great grandparents who were Manchester free-trade liberals who read the Manchester Guardian, which was a liberal free trade newspaper, would I think be astonished to pick up the modern version of the Manchester Guardian to find that it has leapt the fence from being a free trade newspaper to being a luddite newspaper.”

– Alan Beattie, World Trade Editor of the Financial Times, in this speech.

Samizdata quote of the day

The journalist who is determined to give proof of his objectivity often succumbs to the temptation of maintaining silence with regard to concrete facts, because these facts are in themselves so crude that he is afraid of appearing biased.

Arthur Koestler

Samizdata quote of the day

The troublesome [American] underclass is not huge, but its influence is much greater than its numbers. It is a visible problem if one goes to the wrong part of any city. It is much more in people’s minds than it is present in their lives. Indeed, it may be the lack of everyday acquaintance with the underclass that makes it all the more threatening.

It’s a little like terrorism. The British have lived with it for thirty years. It hasn’t touched many of us very directly, but we have always known that it might, and have always seen evidence of it out of the corner of our eye, as it were. We are, to that extent, ready for it when it comes much closer.
– Richard D. North, Rich is Beautiful

Samizdata quote of the day

Burning in fear??!!? Ha!! Not this Brit. With my upper lip fixed stiff, I hoot and mock these jihadis. Wankers one and all. I’d like to see ’em on Celebrity Terrorist Island, the IRA’d make mincemeat of them.
– comment number 9 of these ones at Crooked Timber, spotted there by Tim Worstall yesterday

Samizdata quote of the day

Two decades ago, Sir Bob was at least demanding we give him our own fokkin’ money. This time round, all he was asking was that we join him into bullying the G8 blokes to give us their taxpayers’ fokkin’ money.
Mark Steyn

Samizdata quote of the day

You know we have a greedy government. Even if they cancel the debt, it will not help if the government is greedy. Senior government officials should cut their salaries first.
Phillip Khisa

Samizdata quote of the day

You know what, I’ve finally understood what this whole “live 8” nonsense is about. I twigged when I heard a quote on the news, something like “this is all about you, the leaders of the G8, because you make the decisions”. Recognise the instinctual pattern: singing and dancing, mass ecstatic rallies, high moral cause, loud appeals for attention and for aid from on high – they’re praying, to the only gods they know.
– Julian Morrison