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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Go and see just how idiotic a protest by an American pacificist group, Voices in the Wilderness, looks even to the Iraqis. A group of 12 activists lead by Kathy Kelly gathered on Saturday to bring the American style of protest to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. And of course, they are protesting against President Bush and his threats of war against Iraq. What a shrewd choice of venue! Salam reports from Baghdad: Nothing in the news about it, and no one at work making any “look at those poor deluded souls going at it again” comments (which is one of two responses to this sort of thing, the other being “I wonder how much money are they getting as a ‘thank you’ gift from saddam”).”
And this is how he feels about it: Dear american friends, please stop sending her over here, she is not helping. Some people might think that this sort of thing I like to see happening. It is NOT. Kelly baby you have been used. They have put you on show for the westerners.”
I think he is too kind to those brain-disconnected idiots, trying to understand that everyone has to make a living…somehow.
David Blunkett, Britain’s blind Home Secretary proved his blindness extends far beyond mere eyes.
New sex offence laws to be unveiled by the Government next month could include a crackdown on date rape.
Under the proposed law, reportedly being introduced by Home Secretary David Blunkett, men accused of rape will have to prove they made efforts to ensure their sexual partners gave agreement.
They will no longer be able to rely on the defence of “honest belief”, a legal loophole where suspects can be acquitted if they genuinely believed the alleged victim wanted sex.
What happened to the presumption of innocence? This is utter madness. Rape is an appalling crime, but how exactly can a guy who “genuinely believed the alleged victim wanted sex” somehow prove it to be a justified believe? Is he expected to get a second opinion from some third party before continuing at each stage? Perhaps lawyers like David Carr will find an new lucrative source of business as ‘dating lawyers’, sitting at the bottom of the bed and witnessing each declaration of consent.
Him: May I touch you there, my dear?
Her: Oooo, yes please!
Lawyer: Consent recorded.
Him: Oh yeah, baby…
Her: Ahhhhhh….
Lawyer: Umm, is that ‘Ahhhh yes’ or ‘Ahhhhh no’?
Her: Yes! Yes!
Lawyer: Consent recorded.
Him: Lean back a bit…Oooooo!
Her: Mmmmm… a little lower darling.
Lawyer: Hold it! As your lawyer I must advise you that if you proceed, it could be construed as potentially non-consensual as she has clearly stated you are not touching her exactly where she wishes to be touched! Whilst not admitting anything to the generality of the foregoing on behalf of my client, I must advise my client to, er, withdrawn and seek written confirmation before continuing…
And back in Enlgand, the home grown idiotarians tie themselves into knots over capitalism.
Michael Meacher, the environment minister, told BBC Radio 4’s Any Questions: “We do not believe in capitalism. Capitalism is something that threatens inequality across the whole of society1.”
The responses are fun to follow. Downing street refused to endorse his claims and referred the Sunday Telegraph reporter to the Labour Party spokesman who said: “Socialism or capitalism is a sterile argument. The world has moved on.”
The comments caused ideological confusion among MPs identified with New Labour giving rise to gems like these: “I think there is rather a philosophical black hole here. We really need an economist to sort his out.” and “Of course unbridled capitalism is very dangerous but we cannot deliver the advances that we want in equality outside the market economy.” (Barbara Follet, MP and Glenda Jackson, MP respectively.)
The Left-wing MPs were delighted: “The party is moving away from New Labour back to its roots…”
This may place Mr Blair under pressure to spell out his attitude. In the summer he claimed that “we are moving away from Thatcherism now”. Care to tell us where you are heading, Tony? We have seen the posters…
1 = Mr Meacher is, of course, right, capitalism does threaten inequality across the society. It threatens it with prosperity, property rights and individualism. Marvellous!
12:00 noon GMT… That ghastly song with the refrain ‘The answer is blowing in the wind’ may have been hippy nonsense but everything else here in Central London bloody well is blowing in the wind.
The radio has just reported the winds have hit 75 mph downtown and whilst writing this blog article I have just seen a chair go flying past my window. I am on the third floor!
I finally saw some TV news on the marvelously skilled Russia rescue.
And what angle do you think the newsies are taking? Oh, lord. 90 hostages died. SCANDAL! SCANDAL! They killed the terrorists instead of pulling out of their war in Chechnya. SHOCK! HORROR! They used GAS! They haven’t told the DOCTORS what GAS they used on PEOPLE!
I want to know if the graduation ceremony for a Journalism degree requires brain removal. These people are just simply some of the most assinine, stupid, moronic, ignorant fools I can imagine standing on two feet while still retaining control of bowels and locomotion.
The alternative actions for the Russians were stark and terrible. They could have folded. Had they done so, Russia would have sent a message. Anyone along that entire Asian border stretching half way around the world from the Pacific to to Europe would know they could grab a piece of Russia. Terrorists would be planning their next demands and an even bigger attack before the last Chechen asswipe sobered up from the victory celebration.
Presumably this means journalists can’t understand maps beyond looking at the pretty colours.
The other alternative was to try talking and talking and talking. The problem is, we aren’t dealing with normal human beings. We are dealing with folk who got that old time religion. They aren’t people anymore. They are self portable Memes. The end result of this seige, whether it was tonight or several days from now would have been a charred wreckage with eight hundred corpses burned beyond recognition.
Perhaps it’s those children’s stories journalists read on airplanes. The ones where villains actually all have a good heart if you’d only figure out what makes them act so mean.
The only option for the Russians was to go in. The worst possible outcome of that was no different than the expected outcome. Acting meant some hostages might be saved. Inaction meant they all would die. As it turned out, brilliant tactics (and probably a healthy dose of luck) let them save better than 6 out of 7 of the hostages.
Our media people have become grotesque apologists for the most evil, ugly, murderous, callous, merciless killers on the planet. They are backers of our mortal enemies, enemies of a sort we will have to wipe from the face of this planet if we are to have a prayer of retaining a semi-liberal society.
I have no respect for these walking cowflops and their jaded, venomous self-loathing. It will be a happy day indeed when we have internet video broadcasts by intelligent and educated people on location and news anchors bringing the stories together who are more than a hair style holding their ears apart. When that day arrives, it will be with the greatest pleasure that I turn my back on them as I have already done with traditional print journalism.
We thank you for putting up with this brief interruption and return you to normal sedate Samizdata programming, now in progress.
The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.
-Jeff Cooper
Serial comment writer Molly does not like the look of Britain’s future
The poster of the ‘kindly’ authorities watching us that Perry de Havilland wrote about on Wednesday scared the hell out of me. Is that really how they see themselves? Do they really think we want to have our movements watched? Do they actually think that a bunch of gobshites full of beer on a bus are going to be made to behave by a camera?
The fact is if you have ever had your house broken into in Newcastle (and I have lost count) then you know that the boys in blue, when they turn up a day later to take down your details, are never ever going to catch them. They are just going through the motions. If you are assaulted and raped by someone you do not know, they will take a statement and look around for evidence for a few minutes (like, maybe he dropped his f**king business card perhaps?) and then give you the telephone number of some tax funded and utterly pointless ‘counsellor’ to talk to who will keep forgetting your name.
And yet if you take a baseball bat to a burglar, they will throw the book at you because they know who you are and where you live. Of course they do because you foolishly called them to come.
All the people who live off my taxes, both the ones who empty my meagre bank account to ‘provide me with services’ and the ones on the dole who break into my house to steal what I have left, seem to me to be on the same side most of the time. David Carr is right that if ‘security’ is why the state is watching us, it certainly does not seem to be our security.
No, I am not sure why the cameras are going up but it sure as hell has nothing to do with my safety. The people who put them up do not give a f**k about that, this much I know for sure.
Molly
The future?
That 80 or more hostages have been killed is dreadful but the fact 750 were saved is a triumph.
But there are some very stark lessons here.
In 1995, a related Chechen group took over 2000 people hostage in a hospital in Budyonnovsk. After an initial attempt to free the hostages was botched with considerable loss of life by the Russian forces, a deal was cut by then Prime Minister Victor Chernomyrdin that agreed a cease-fire in the Chechen war and allowed the hostage takers to escape in return for the safety of their captives.
And of course that was proof that you can indeed get the Russians to cut a deal if you are daring enough and willing to slaughter enough innocent civilians.
Well I hope that Vladimir Putin has just signalled a complete rejection of that mind set. As terrible as it is that so many hostages have died, the fact is the Chechen terrorists who did this are now either dead or facing a very grim time indeed in a Russian jail… and were given nothing for their pains by the Russians. That is the only message that must be sent to terrorists everywhere, to do otherwise is to motivate such people to cause more horrors in theatres, hospitals and homes. The enemy may not fear death itself but I suspect they do indeed fear pointless death.
So whatever the cost, in the long run it is cheaper in lives to never negotiate (other than as a tactical ruse). Give them the death they desire but nothing that would further their aims, no matter how small.
Russian commando with SV-98 sniper rifle
For the last couple years many pundits have expected a black aircraft to have a coming out party “Real Soon Now”. It has finally happened but the new debutante is not at all what anyone expected.
It’s neat looking but only a technology demonstrator. Slow, low ceiling… and very hard to detect.
Personally I think there are a few other rather more interesting craft still in the deep, deep black of Groom Lake.
Photo: with permission, Boeing Aerospace
Russian special forces have pulled off a brilliant rescue. I was not surprised by the attempt. In fact, I was discussing this probability with a friend last night before going out to watch “The Bourne Identity”. There was simply no choice at all but to take the risk because the alternative was certain death for over 700 people.
I expected higher casualties among the hostages than what actually occured so my hat is off to the Russians. I’m also happy to hear of the death of such a large percentage of the terrorists. Thirty-six out of fifty ain’t bad shooting.
I’m really glad we’re on the same side now.
If it got under J. Edgar Hoover’s skin it’s no wonder I loved it when I was a kid.
Happy 50th Alfred!
Taking a bus to Brixton from Streatham this afternoon, I saw the Big Brother posters which assured me I was safe. Considering I was in one of London’s three murder hotspots, the posters seemed appropriate. In Coldharbour Lane the new multimedia telephone kiosks were empty yet there were queues outside them. These were the drugs hustlers who called out “Grass”, “Charlie” and “Horse” as I walked past.
Directly beneath a bus lane camera a car blocked the bus lane. I was reminded that when the security cameras were installed in Coldharbour Lane one of them didn’t work. Any guesses where a murder was committed? Yup, directly beneath the faulty camera.
In Kingston-upon-Thames a few years ago a jeweller’s shop was discovered to be the only shop in the street which couldn’t be seen from the array of cameras. A nice dark alleyway running alongside was also unaccountably off-screen. Any guesses how this was discovered? Yup, when a gang burgled the shop.
At least there is no suggestion that inside information could possibly have contributed to these crimes.
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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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