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

The President does not want to end slavery. The Congress does not want to end slavery. But the Lord God Jehovah wants to end slavery, and slavery shall come to an end.

– The father (a bishop) of Orville and Wilbur Wright, just when the Civil War was getting started. Check out the context in this fascinating Friedrich Blowhard posting, about that, but mostly about the aviation achievement of the Wright brothers.

Samizdata slogan of the day

Many of people who loathe Rupert Murdoch and who hate the fact he has been able to buy up the TV rights to so many sporting events, are the same people who have supported the regulation of British media companies which has ensured Murdoch never has to face any effective competition.
– Michael Jennings

Samizdata slogan of the day

The dumbest idea is to suppose that an inanimate object can turn a noncriminal into a criminal. To believe that guns cause crime is as stupid as believing that hammers and saws cause houses. It is the grossest kind of mindless superstition to suppose that some magical qualities of an inanimate object can overpower the human will.
Charley Reese

Samizdata slogan of the day

Over the years it has become apparent to me that to discount the position of others on the basis of their number is democratically sound but morally wrong. It’s this feeling that has brought me, and others like me, to samizdata and to a consideration of libertarianism.
– JohnJo

Samizdata slogan of the day

Woe to those who enact evil statutes, and to those who constantly record unjust decisions, so as to deprive the needy of justice, and to rob the poor of my people of their rights, in order that widows may be their spoil, and that they may plunder the orphans.
– Isaiah 10: 1-2

Samizdata slogan of the day

All I advocate is that the free market is the only known method of solving the calculational problem of allocating work to those talents that can engage in it most productively. The free market means in practice comfort, prosperity and abundance for all economically as well as maximising the sphere of personal autonomy within which we can enjoy our liberty and prosperity. Attempts to find other solutions to this key social problem have always been failures, practically and conceptually.
Paul Coulam

Samizdata slogan of the day

The government consists of a gang of men exactly like you and me. They have, taking one with another, no special talent for the business of government; they have only a talent for getting and holding office. Their principal device to that end is to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and to promise to give it to them. Nine times out of ten that promise is worth nothing. The tenth time is made good by looting A to satisfy B. In other words, government is a broker in pillage, and every election is sort of an advance auction sale of stolen goods.
– H. L. Mencken

I reckon it’s Just The Thing

Says Alice:

(I considered putting this on Samizdata, then thought maybe it wasn’t quite The Thing).

This is from Blackadder Goes Forth, a quite brilliant vintage British TV series set in WWI. Lord Flashheart is instructing a class of soldiers training to fly in the Royal Air Corps. Flashheart is the ludicrously loud and oversexed character played by Rik Mayall. George is the idealistic upper-class soldier played by Hugh Laurie.

And here it is:

Lord Flashheart: Treat your machine like you treat your woman!!

George: What, you mean, invite her home at weekends to meet your parents?

Flashheart: No! I mean, get inside her five times a day and take her to heaven and back!!

What a series that was.

Samizdata slogan of the day

There is nothing a power-freak likes better than replacing a muddle with a slab.

Natalie Solent

Samizdata slogan of the day

Poverty is a miracle, created by governments
Leon Louw, Director of Law Review Project and Free Trade Foundation, South Africa

Samizdata slogan of the day

I think our attitude toward America should change … we have a chance, in America, to be the moral leadership of America. The problem is when? It will happen, it will happen [Allah willing], I have no doubt in my mind, Muslims sooner or later will be the moral leadership of America. It depends on me and you, either we do it now or we do it after a hundred years, but this country will become a Muslim country. And I [think] if we are outside this country we can say ‘Oh, Allah destroy America,’ but once we are here, our mission in this country is to change it.
Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi, a prominent American Muslim leader

Samizdata slogan of the day

Whenever a politician starts talking about “the children”, keep one eye on your wallet and the other on your liberty.
– Anonymous