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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The Sex Pistols are as English as the Malvern Hills
-Patrick Crozier
The murderers of Daniel Pearl live in another world. It is a world in which acts of deception that result in the murder of an unarmed noncombatant is seen as somehow heroic. It is an inverted world in which showing your weakness by murdering the would-be journalistic bearer of your own message is seen as showing your enemies that you are strong. It is a world with a chain of unfathomable logic that suggests that a course of action that murders a single fine but helpless American in Pakistan will change America foreign policy more to the murderers’ liking even when killing 3,000 helpless Americans in New York did not.
Well in the last one they are at least partially correct. By killing 3,000 Americans they filled the skies of Afghanistan with thunder and caused the destruction of their patron government, which was indeed a change in American foreign policy. And by killing this good man they move America closer to another change. Pakistan must now realise that they have no choice any longer but to crush the serpent in its midst with whatever force it takes or the United States will rightly do it for them in Daniel Pearl’s name. Just as these monsters filmed their foul acts of cowardice, so too we may soon see the deaths of his murderers, if not from the forces of the Pakistani state then through the green light of night vision scopes and guided bomb cameras of a vengeful America.
The EU has decided to set minimum levels of tax on alchololic drinks and no prize for guessing which way that will move prices for consumers. We have been saying that EU tax ‘harmonisation’ only ever moves up and this is a case in point.
The European Commission argues that the proposals should be good for health, limit tax fraud and reduce wide differentials in rates, which have caused an increased cross border smuggling.
But why not reduce taxes downwards for everyone? Help consumer, retailers and producers? Oh, silly me. This is Europe we are talking about, what was I thinking?
I’ve just finished chairing one of my Friday talks. Patrick Crozier on the railways. Good. And all the better for the presence of a couple of French people, Christian Michel and Francois-Rene Rideau, who runs bastiat.org and also helps out with bastiat.net, and who made several very wise points. The reason for this blog, however, is simply that another friend wanted to know how blogging is done and I am showing him. Incidentally I had to go back and edit this, and I showed people how that was done also. David Carr helped me do the links, which is a first for me. I used to have to beg our Great Leader to do that for me. Progress.
[Ed: links now fixed by The Great Leader so that they actually work]
Well, in the light of the recent crime problems in the UK and the punishment of people for trying to defend themselves, perhaps our police should have a new motto: “Crime is not our business”.
Due to the seriousness of the threat against the Samizdata London Citadel, the craic Samizdata Belfast Drinking Brigade is rushing a reinforcement to London. An airdropped supply of deadly verbiage is expected by 21:00 Zulu time this evening at the latest.
Rumour has it that Samizdatistas are converging on the area from all corners of London.
One of the reasons for the low volume of bloggage here has been the distracting influence of our pet pinko, Brian Linse, who has somehow managed to weasel his way into Samizdata HQ. He has barricaded himself into the downstairs guest room and we cannot get him out. The horror. The horror.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
– Lord Acton
I heard about it last weekend on the BBC TV news, and Perry, informed of the needle, was impressed. He searched the haystack, and found it for us.
A genetically modified mouthwash has been developed which could effectively eliminate tooth decay, scientists claim.
The mouth rinse contains a friendlier GM version of the bug that rots the teeth which does not produce enamel eroding acid.
When the solution is squirted into the mouth, the good bugs take over from the Streptococcus mutans bacteria and prevent them from returning.
According to the researchers, a single five-minute treatment costing less than £100 would last a lifetime.
Professor Jeffrey Hillman, from the University of Florida, said: “If this approach works as well as we hope, it has the potential to eliminate the majority of tooth decay.”
The new strain appears to stay permanently on the teeth, preventing other bugs from gaining a foothold. “It is genetically stable and should be safe for humans,” Professor Hillman added.
He hopes to start clinical trials this year, using a solution squirted on to the teeth of adult volunteers. The mouthwash would be most ideally suited to infants cutting their first teeth, he added.
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
The London based Libertarian Alliance has issued a press release about an outrageous case in Britain in which a man who defended himself from knife wielding home invaders finds himself on the wrong end of the law:
“Drop all charges against householder who killed burglar. This man is a hero“, says free market and civil liberties think tank.
58 year old John Lambert, of Spalding, Lancashire, has been released on bail following two days of arrest after the death of one of two burglars who had broken into his home and put a knife to the throat of his wife, according to press reports.
During a struggle to defend himself and his wife Mr. Lambert killed the burglar with his own knife. Rather than suffering the indignity of arrest and police inquiries Mr Lambert should be hailed as a hero and public benefactor. So claims the Libertarian Alliance, Britain’s most radical free market and civil liberties think tank.
Libertarian Alliance spokesman and Director, Dr Chris R. Tame, says:
“It is a sign of a morally corrupt society that Mr Lambert should have been held by the police for two days and is even now facing the insult of further police inquiries. In a free and moral society the individual has the complete right to self defense, including the use of deadly force, against those who attack and rob them. Any one who invades the home of another constitutes a deadly threat to its inhabitants, and should be dealt with accordingly. Mr Lambert has behaved both honourably and morally in defending himself, his wife and his property – and is a public benefactor by ridding society of one more predatory looter who threatened the safety of us all.
Yet again it is quite clear that the police, like all nationalised industries, have no real interest in their “customers”, but would rather persecute both those who defend themselves and other easy targets. Whilst the restoration of law and order in this country depends upon many things – including the removal of legal impunity from children and adolescents, the restoration of strict sentences and real punishment for real crimes, the return of capital punishment, full restitution by criminals to their victims, the abolition of victimless “crimes” and pointless persecution of politically incorrect lifestyles, and the overthrow of the culture of socialist excuses and social determinism – a great step forward would be the full legal recognition of the right of individuals to defend themselves and others – and indeed, the restoration of their right to do so with firearms and other weapons.
A message must be sent to the criminal vermin that the workers of this country are not prey, that people will fight back, and that the police and the judicial system will no longer side with the predator rather than the victim.”
The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom is courage
– Thucydides, Pericles’ funeral oration
A 16 year-old boy has been killed in a drive-by shooting in Nottingham. At this stage, there appears to be no motive.
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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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