Samizdata

So we are told the year 2002 is significant because it reads the same beginning to end as end to beginning. We are somehow fortunate, if we are a certain age, to be alive for two of them (1991 being the other one). 2002 is significant for those of us of a libertarian ilk, however numerology has nothing to do with it.

We face a world in a flux, no more than usual, but in flux nonetheless. As I sit here writing this missive, Tony Blair is heading off to prevent a war on the Indian sub-Continent, convinced that his “president of the world” trick will prevent a 4th war between the two countries. Is Blair, even while still in office, to become the Jimmy Carter of the new century? Just the mere threat of his being sent to some far off land will make both sides question their motives for war. Blair will be appointed upon his retirement from Downing Street, UN “Meddler in Chief.”

No doubt the blind-man of justice, Blunkett is even now thinking of ways to ever erode Britons personal liberties. Is it me or is not odd that the Sheffield socialist now has more in common with a fundamentalist Christian mid-westerner than he does with his former socialist comrades.

One wonders if Blunkett and Ashcroft are in constant email contact regarding tactics on how to put their authoritarian plans in place. The only thing that is no mentioned is the punishment that dare not speak its name: the death penalty.

We live in a situation in the west, where to question the laws brought into help stop terrorism is to be seen as an appeaser. At the same time the sainted left in the media are allowed to be actual apologists for the terrorists. These people claim that the attacks on the 11th and since then are self-inflicted and deserved. The real apologists are allowed to operate, quite rightly, under the banner of a free press, yet free speech is being curtailed under awash of legislation.

2002 will no doubt see virtual countries coming into their fore, not for financial purpose,s but in order to protect one from prosecution. Data havens will become information havens where those who do not wish to follow the party line will be able to express their opinions freely outside the realms of persecution. Of course Europe and the UK now have the addition of Euro wide “arrest warrants” meaning that one can offend a Greek and be arrested in the UK, and sent there for trial. In case the Greek government wished to re-assure us, they spent the later part of 2001 harassing a bunch of airplane-spotting nerds. These spies would be some of the most incompetent in existence, sticking out like a black man at a Klan rally. If they are spies they could only be CIA, for no other intelligence service is that gormless.

It will be interesting to see if the EU uses these laws to start to shut down criticism of their utopian experiment Europe wide. No doubt this is more likely if the Euro has the wings of a turkey. Under the guise of “a threat to the economy of Europe” anti-Euro campaigners will be threatened with being dragged to Brussels for prosecution in Belgium’s notoriously speedy judicial system.

But I have gone off message. With all this going round in the world, what is the role of the libertarian activist? Are we to return to our sitting, chat and smoking rooms to ponder more theory? Are we to return to the underground and ponder when next to show our faces in normal political circles? Or do we have a role in attempting to hold back the authoritarian urges of both the traditional right and left? The socialists are seemingly impotent, more concerned with defending the “misunderstood” Islamists than defending their own liberties. In the extreme, Jack Straw has been heard boasting that his son has become a convert to Islam, a religion they both claim to be “inclusive” despite both Koranic verse and recent events.

I leave with this thought dear friends. What exactly are we the libertarian activists of the world to do in the coming days and months? What is our role in the post 9/11 world?

Of course in my case 9/11 is irrelevant, I carry on hammering on about classical liberalism until I die or Cthulhu rises from his slumber in R’Leth.

Andrew Ian Dodge

“What Sucks? Statism Sucks!“

“This is the news from the BBC. Today witnesses the launch of the Euro as the official currency of the twelve Eurozone countries. There are reports coming in from all over the Eurozone of joyous celebration and free, happy citizens spontaneously embracing each other in a new spirit of unity and brotherhood. Our leader, Citizen Prodi, has formally announced that the Euro will herald in an everlasting era of unprecendented peace, prosperity and complete fairness for every person. Already, the grain harvesting figures are confidently predicted to reach their highest ever level and tractor production has officially doubled! It is the Great Leap Forward our leaders have promised us. Meanwhile, however, in Britain counter-revolutionaries and extreme right-wingers continue to conspire with American capitalists to keep the Euro from liberating the oppressed British people. That is the end of the news”

I don’t mind admitting to the whole world (or such proportion of it that reads this blog at any rate) that I love Christmas. And not just any Christmas, mind, but a Traditional English Christmas. The Christmas of a chocolate-box cottages festooned with holly and mistletoe settled in a thick blanket of virgin snow. Inside, the ruddy-faced yeoman of England get ready to carve the succulent goose while their stout jam-making wives bustle in and out of the kitchen with sweet, steaming puddings. Through the window the sight and sound of squealing children building a snowman and playing with their toys (they have to be innocent, wooden toys – tops and hoops and dolls – none of your Nintendo in this folk-fantasy if you don’t mind) and carried on the wind are the melodic harmonies of the Church choir singing carols from vestries unseen

After the banquet, the sleep-inducing warmth of the crackling hearth, the brandy and the sherry and the port; the smell of cloves and mulled wine; stories and songs and recitations and in every soul the ghostly tingle of the metaphysical magick of the yuletide

This is what Christmas means to me. It is what Christmas will always mean to me. I know it is probably a construct; a quasi-Dickensian fantasy of an England that is no more and, perhaps, never was. But it is a righteous and worthy fantasy all the same; an expression of eternal desire for all the truly important things in life – goodness and bounty and family and home

I have no place in my heart for ‘Happy Holidays’ or the ghastly, bureaucratic ‘Winterval’. Christmas is Christmas and for me it will always be that chocolate-box cottage in the snow somewhere in Dickensian England

May I take the liberty of wishing a very merry English Christmas upon all my fellow Blogistas

Actually I do not mean Sauron at all, I mean Noam Chomsky (I know, I know, same thing).

What do they have in common? Flit, an interesting new blog run by Bruce R., that is what. I found this polished looking little jewel via Dawson, whom I was checking out to see if he had any new Ann Coulter pictures <snigger>.

There is an excellent article critiquing the Horowitz attacks on Chomsky and I must say I largely agree with him on all but a few minor points. I think Christopher Hitchens‘ attacks were far more damaging to Chomsky than those of Horowitz, though he does indeed land a few blows on the Vile One too.

In an earlier Flit article, had I started blogging sooner than November, I would have made much the same points regarding the historical analogies in Afghanistan. Much of the ill informed punditry fretting US involvement in view of the disastrous Soviet and before them, British Afghan wars missed something rather importent… Britain learned the lessons of the horrendous First Afghan War and kicked the crap out of the Pashtun in the Second Afghan War. Likewise the military ‘template’ of successful colonial style warfare, namely using the synergy of friendly local forces and a smaller but highly professional British force with higher technology (the famous mountain warfare ‘screw gun’ light artillery) is exactly what we have seen in Afghanistan once again with the Americans (and some Brits too) operating with the various anti-Taliban forces. It is gratifying to see someone else make those points. However it also backs up what I have also pointed out myself in earlier Samizdata articles, the trick after victory in the Second Afghan War was to install ‘friendly’ local leaders and then get the hell out before an insurgency developed…so why oh why does that cretin Tony Blair want to stick around ‘peacekeeping’? The Americans clearly understand the relevance of British military history better than the half-wits in the Foreign Office… no surprise there I suppose.

But Bruce, as for Kylie and that song… resistance is futile, you have been assimilated.

I missed these excellent brios first time around, but on the theory that highlighting any negative exposure for ol’ Sauron can never be a bad thing, let me commend these well researched exposés to you all.

Over on Front Page, David Horowitz systematically exposes Noam Chomsky to the light of day in The Sick Mind of Noam Chomsky.

He drops his second daisy cutter The Sick Mind of Noam Chomsky: Part II Method and Madness to complete the mission. A job well done, Dave.

I am sending in a vital article from Bosnia-Herzegovina tonight. But the problem with being with my friends in here in Sarajevo is that I now have little sticky crumbs of baklava in between the keys of my portable computer (no, sorry, not the infamous biMac I was fantasizing about before but a real Titanium PowerBook) and there is cigarette ash everywhere. But if there was no baklava crumbs and cigarette ash, I would not believe I was here. Yes, I know I am rambling but I am slightly drunk on Stara Sljivovica and hopped up on endless tiny cups of nuclear strength Bosnian coffee.

Ok, the important information now: over on the wonderful blog Mind over what matters, there is a picture of Jay Zilber in bed. It is soooooo cute!

But what I want to know is who is that funny looking guy that he is lying on?