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]
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Earlier tonight, whilst browsing in a shop, I was listening to a song playing on the radio that I have not heard for years. It is an appallingly bad, drivellous, sappy love tune with a disco beat called Lady (Hear Me Tonight) by one-hit-wonder group Modjo. What makes this song so utterly shit are the lyrics – they were surely written by a computer or perhaps someone who does not speak English. I’m going to reproduce them now, so if you intend to read on, make sure you have a bucket within easy reach. Consider yourself warned:
Lady/Hear me tonight/’Cos my feeling/Is just so right/As we dance/By the moonlight/Can’t you see/You’re my delight/Lady/I just feel like/I won’t get you/Out of my mind/I feel loved/For the first time/And I know that it’s true/I can tell by the look in your eyes
Is this the worst song ever written? I think it a strong contender for that title, but I would like to see some differing opinion from the worldly and wise that congregate here. Therefore, inspired as I am by Johnathan’s recent vox pop and Perry’s determination to position Samizdata as a YouGov competitor, I petition you, dear reader, to leave your nominations for worst song lyrics (with a sample of the horror) in comments.
Conservative party leader David Cameron has introduced a new logo for his party to replace the rather appealing (though not entirely apt) torch of liberty.
Admittedly, the stylised green smudge in the shape of an oak tree represents the Tories under Cameron far better than the bracing Thatcherite torch of liberty. According to the Times article linked above, this is the latest move in a process of ‘decontaminating the brand’. They could have accomplished that to their satisfaction, saved a lot of time and expense AND perfectly encapsulated the Cameronite Tory party by simply borrowing this existing logo.
Today whilst at the fuel station, I had a rather one-sided encounter with a smug Toyota Prius-driving oaf. The guy was fuelling up his car and wearing the most ridiculous grin. I did not think my face conveyed any surprise at such an improbable expression, but it must have – as soon as he saw me glance at him, he said “it makes me laugh to think how much less I spend on fuel these days”. My instant response was “it makes me laugh to think that there are people who will pay $40,000 for a Toyota Corolla”. I lie – that’s what I instantly thought. To the oaf, I simply smiled and nodded – a technique I find useful and effective if I wish to limit interaction with a whole manner of people best avoided – from the vexatious to the unhinged. This time, however, I wish I’d spoken my mind, for taking smug Prius owners down a rung or two is surely the most worthy of pursuits.
I blame my parents – they raised me to be too polite.
Weird echoes of the 12th Century in the 21st Century:
THE Pope’s visit to Turkey, which many hoped would herald a new era of improved relations between Islam and the West, was in doubt yesterday amid condemnation of remarks by the pontiff that appeared to link Islam and violence.
As Muslims all over the world protested, with effigies of Benedict XVI burnt during demonstrations in Pakistan, members of the Turkish Government urged the Pope to reconsider his visit in November. Senior officials in Turkey said that they could not guarantee his safety if he went ahead with the trip.
So, where is this going?
A. It will all blow over in a few days; or
B. One or other side will back down; or
C. We are headed for Holy War
Someone with too much time on their hands used Google trends to compare trends in searches for reputation and corruption
There is a suggestion that we’re becoming increasingly more interested in “reputation than in “corruption” (except perhaps in Washington, DC, as the chart shows). That’s an encouraging little social sign, no?
I tend to agree. However, I shudder at Mr Jordan’s suggestion that we are what we search…
The journey from environmentalism to sanity may not be so far after all:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has reversed a 30-year policy by endorsing the use of DDT for malaria control.
The chemical is sprayed inside houses to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
And about bloody time too! The prohibition of DTT was a product of wrong-headed, fashionable green dogma and Lord only knows how many people in the developing world have paid for it with their lives. Just how many neural transmitters do you have shut down in order to hand-wring about poverty and premature death in the developing world while simultaneously campaigning against everything and anything that stands a chance of tackling them?
I sincerely hope that the greenslimers are seething with thwarted rage. In fact, I hope their blood boils until they have a collective stroke. I wish a pox on them (before they unleash a pox on the rest of us).
London calling! London calling! Reports are coming in of growing resistance to the brutal occupation of the Food Nazis:
Pupils at a South Yorkshire school are being fed fish and chips through the gates by parents who say the canteen is not providing what their children want…
The move is being seen as a backlash against TV chef Jamie Oliver’s campaign for healthy school dinners..
“We aim to provide good quality food which is within government healthy eating guidelines and helps the children’s learning in the afternoon “…
“The food that these parents are handing out is not part of a healthy eating diet and on top of that I have to question the morality of delivering it from the grounds of a cemetery.”
Smuggling food into prisoners is a time-honoured practice but I have to admit that the cemetery angle is cool. They may need to start digging tunnels though.
Hopefully, this is a ‘line in the sand’; a message from the public to the ruling class paternalists and busybodies that their food fascism is an intervention too far.
Well, if you spray acid everywhere:
Public faith in Britain’s political system is being eroded by alarmingly low levels of trust in Tony Blair’s Government, the standards watchdog said yesterday.
A detailed survey of public opinion carried out by the committee on standards in public life has exposed deep mistrust of politicians, with fewer than one in four people saying they thought ministers tell the truth…
The survey exposed corrosive levels of mistrust in the political system.
“This suggests a widespread disillusionment in the way the business of government and politics is conducted – people just do not believe they are being dealt with in a straightforward, honest and open manner” …
Of course, our political masters will conclude from this that the solution lies in compulsory voting.
The senior Russian central bank official who was shot dead this week was a prominent campaigner against money-laundering. No matter what one thinks of some of the more oppressive laws against money transfers – as a libertarian, I find a lot of such laws counter-productive and intrusive of privacy – there is no doubt that Russia has a terrible reputation for financial skulduggery. By going against financial hoodlums, it sadly appears this guy signed his death warrant.
Funnily enough, this story does not appear to have caused much of a stir outside the business sections and some of the foreign bits of the press. I find that a bit odd, if not chilling. A senior central bank official gets murdered. Imagine the reaction if a top official working for the Bank of England or the Fed got killed.
Russia has a long, long way to go before it becomes a place in which civilised people will want to do business.
This by George Reisman, economist and free marketeer:
The New York Times reports that the European Commission has “ordered Microsoft to disclose secret code in Windows XP needed by rivals to allow them to write programs that work properly with Windows. And it required the company to introduce a second version of Windows XP with its audio and video player removed.”
The European Commission is also reported to be drafting a ruling that will require the world tennis champion Roger Federer to share the secrets of his play with rivals, to enable them, for example, to better integrate their returns with his serves.
In still another development, the European Commission is reported to be contemplating barring the sale of automobiles and other motor vehicles equipped with radios, CD players, or video players. The ruling is held to be necessary to preserve the separate markets of the suppliers of these devices and not allow them to be monopolized by automakers.
Here is more about anti-trust pursuit of Microsoft by the European Union, in a slightly less irreverent vein.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s national current affairs flagship, the 7.30 Report, ran an interesting piece on Peak Oil theory, which was surprisingly contrarian considering the ABC’s traditional biases (think BBC protégé). The most common manifestation of Peak Oil theory – a belief that at some point soon oil production will peak and then decline, causing spiralling oil prices and a world of chaos – has long been a favourite of environmentalists, leftists and the perpetually gloomy. However, of late Peak Oil’s slip is showing to such an extent that even an organisation like the ABC cannot deny it is distinctly iffy. I would go further; it’s demonstrably false. Mark Nolan, ExxonMobil Australia’s Chief Executive controversially stated earlier this week that
According to the US Geological Survey, the earth currently has more than three trillion barrels of conventional recoverable oil resources. So far, we have produced one trillion of that.
When an oil company representative talks like that, one tends to believe him – oil companies have a natural interest in maintaining a perception of scarcity to maintain upward pressure on the price of crude.
And he’s referring to known oil reserves. Thanks to woeful underinvestment in exploration by – and equally woeful management of – many of the world’s true oil majors, the state owned National Oil Companies (subscriber-only article, sorry), we may have knowledge of just the tip of the iceberg.
Considering the pace of development of alternative energy sources, the famous quote from former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani that “the Stone Age did not end for lack of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.” is looking more prophetic than ever. Peak Oil chaos? Stuff and nonsense.
Exxonmobil is a global vandal. They’ve invested millions of dollars in to trying to confuse the public and muddy the science on climate change.
– Don Henry, Australian Conservation Foundation
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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