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

Whenever I’m caught between two evils, I take the one I’ve never tried.
– Mae West

(I doubt she had politics in mind but…)

Samizdata quote of the day

You said, “but.” I’ve put my finger on the whole trouble. You’re a “but” man. Don’t say, “but.” That little word “but” is the difference between success and failure. Henry Ford said, “I’m going to invent the automobile,” and Arthur T. Flanken said, “But . . .”
– Sgt. Ernie Bilko (The Phil Silvers Show)

Samizdata quote of the day

Money can not buy friends, but you get a better class of enemy.
– Spike Milligan

Samizdata quote of the day

Personally, I’d be delighted to live in a country where happily married gay couples had closets full of assault weapons.

Instapundit showing why it is wrong to call him right wing

Samizdata quote of the day

For what Britons and Canadians pay in taxes for their miserable government health service, they ought to be entitled to three terminal diseases a year.

– The incomparable Mark Steyn, being the incomparable Mark Steyn. (Personally, I find the NHS so unspeakable that I try to delay going to the doctor until those times that I visit Australia. But that might be just me).

Samizdata quote of the day

There are more instances of the abridgment of freedoms of the people by gradual and silent encroachment of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

– James Madison

Samizdata quote of the day

Do you want to help to kill an African? It’s very easy. Just sign Christian Aid’s petition against free trade.
Stephen Pollard

Samizdata quote of the day

Satan has no suicide bombers
– Unknown

Samizdata quote of the day

George W. Bush is a lying, collectivist, protectonist, big-government statist and I despise him. The only, and I do mean only reason I want him to win the election against the other lying, collectivist, protectonist, even bigger-government statist who I despise is to see the stunned faces of those people on the left when they get their arses kicked. Its an expensive ‘cheap thrill’ but I take ’em where I find ’em.
– overheard at a get-together of Samizdatistas recently

Samizdata quote of the day

Constrained democracy can be a splendid check on state power but unconstrained democracy just shifts the locus for where the seat of tyranny lies.

Samizdata quote of the day

Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal well meaning but without understanding.

– Louis D Brandeis

Samizdata quote of the day

Russians do not have an equivalent of political correctness. Russian politicians don’t get brownie points for competitive empathy. There is no inclination to take a therapeutic view of cultural conflict.
Jim Kunstler