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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Ah yes, the time of Dr. King’s celebration is here again. The time when young commies that I attend school with distort and lie about King’s message to the “African-American” community. So, let me get started right away with debunking the commies distortion of his message.
Lie 1: Dr. King supported government intrusion in the market to make things more equal.
Not true! Dr. King and other similar civil rights activists were smart enough to realize the oppression came from and was authorized by the state. Most KKK members either were or had connections to high powered lawmakers and were therefore able to evade harassment charges. The Supreme Court cases that came down the channel, Brown or Keyes for example, were about eradicating government intrusion in allowing “separate but equal” policies. Not to mention the fact that “separate but equal” was allowed by the Supreme Court decision in Plessy, written in the 1890s.
Lie 2: If you do not support affirmative action, you are a racist, and do not understand the message of Dr. King
Dr. King sated, quite clearly and quite loudly, that he wanted equality for all. Affirmative action gives unfair advantages to certain groups of people (women mostly) and discriminates against Asians and us white folk. Dr, King also would support a highly productive society, where things were judged by merit, not by the color of your skin. Cleary, affirmative action judges by skin color and not merit.
Furthermore, Dr, King would, I assume, be ashamed that people using his name are crying that they should not be forced to work hard for what they want. If you want to go to the best schools or to the best jobs, you have to work hard, and should not, Dr, King argued, be allowed to just claim your race as a reason for hiring.
Lie 3: You better take off Dr. King day, or else you are a racist.
Dr. King constantly worked, and therefore to honor him, I too am going to work. (Not really to honor him though, I just have to get work done.)
Lie 4 (the big one): Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are the reincarnation of Dr. King
If anybody, they are the re-birth of Malcolm X, who by the way was a racist. Dr. King wanted to decrease government and those clowns want more government. Dr. King wanted more equality, whereas Malcolm X, Jackson, and Sharpton want inequality in favor of the black race. Which one is racist?
These lies are too easy to refute. The teachers and commie students do not bother to think and thus they are commie-like, Jackson supporters who lie for their cause. Pray for me this week as I attempt to not say any of this in class, so as to stay alive!
Over on AintNoBadDude, our pet pinko Brian Linse makes an excellent case for why TV cameras have no place in a court house.
If I were on trial for my life, I’d want to be sure that the prosecutor wasn’t campaigning for DA on my time. I’d want to be certain that the judge wasn’t auditioning for a syndicated series. And I’d want to be damn sure that the lawyers weren’t trying to get booked on Larry King. If there is even the slightest chance that a citizen might be deprived of their life, or even their freedom, then the possible impact of cameras must be seen as a threat to the Sixth Amendment. The impact on the press and the public of keeping cameras out of courtrooms is insignificant by comparison.
It is pretty hard to argue with that.
Over on Dodgeblog, there is a short post about a panel of guests on a talk show who had much sympathy for the Taliban and Al Qaeda but none for their victims.
Can any rational human living in Britain who is not a 24 hour somnambulist have failed to notice the overwhelming support for the USA by people across this country?
I am all for airing a wide range of views, I am a libertarian after all, but why is it that such a high proportion of views shown on television of the various talking heads is so at odds with the views of society at large? If the show Andrew Dodge was referring to was just on some commercial channel then that would be alright… after all, I can always surf off to another channel.
But it is not just another commercial channel, it is the channel that the British state uses the force of law to make me contribute to financially for the ‘privilege’ of owning any television in Britain. It is the tax funded BBC. The official state media. The voice of state establishment. I am being forced to pay for the propagation of this poisonous shit and that is not alright.
I note that I have been ever-so-gently upbraided for my lamentations over the apparent pacification (and pansy-fication) of marxist rebels; more particularly the FARC of Colombia who appear to have retired after a long career spent decapitating villagers and moved to the negotiation table
Surely, this is a step in the right direction, no? Surely, pursuing peace is better than pursuing a savage war? I regret to say that my answer is no. As for it being the ‘right move’, well, I’m sure that the FARC consider it to be the ‘right move’ as the negotiating table will assuredly take them far further then their AK-47s ever did; from fetid jungle encampment to lording it up in the halls of Colombian power within 10 years at most, I’d say
The FARC have learned these lessons well from their European and American comrades who made this transition 30 years ago and just look how far it’s taken them.
They handed in their guns, bombs and incendiaries and equipped themselves with altogether more stealthy (and infinitely more lethal) weapons of inclusivity, diversity and sustainability. So ended the the dream of revolution and began the grim determination of the long march. The fiery radicals of yesteryear became the outreach workers, counsellors, legal-aid lawyers, community activists, environmental campaigners, journalists, professors, social workers, teachers and union delegates. Carlos the Jackal became Charles the Educator and he lives next door to us now. He wears a well-tailored suit, expensive shoes, drives a car, sends his kids to private schools and writes a column in the Guardian
Thus many of us, nay, most of us were fooled into believing that the marxist rebs had finally grown up and ditched their war with civilisation. Tosh and horsefeathers, I say. We were merely blinded by the brief incandescent light of Thatcher; deafened by the noise of tumbling bricks in Berlin. The Third Way was not so much a coming-to-terms with reality but, rather, a tactical realisation that reality had to be upended by other means. The programme remains on course; it is merely the method that has changed
And, in a sense, they were right. Now it is they who rub shoulders with those in power while we squat in our cyber-camps, seething and scheming. Hell, in many cases they are the ones in power. What an extraordinarily successful application of the black art of cognitive jiu-jitsu that left the rest of us lying spread-eagled on the mat, bruised, dazed and wondering how that happened. Well, now we know how that happened; the marxist radicals chose peace instead of fighting
So I say, let us return to the bad old days when the interminably neurotic children of the bourgeoisie were yomping around the countryside blowing up electricity pylons. It made it so much easier to put their lifeless bodies on display to a grateful public without so much as a hint of equivocation. They were them, we were us and the only decision anybody ever had to make was to pick a side. We knew exactly upon whom we had to set the dogs and, more importantly, why
The triumph of civilisation has always lain the in the vigourous trumping of stupidty by reason and it is only the purblind obsession with ‘peace at any price’ that has caused us to forget this biblical simplicity. ‘Stop making wars’ they implored. What they meant was ‘Stop making wars we can never win’
Come back, Che Guevarra. Lead your comrades out into the jungle again. You can have back your sweaty T-shirts, your ghastly berets and your molotov cocktails. We’ll have back our moral certainty, rule of law and our armed citizens. You can be free again to shout Long Live the Revolution and we can shout Let’s Roll
USS Clueless has a lengthy article about US unilateralism which makes some interesting points. He also makes some rather dubious ones.
We gave Europe one chance, after WWI, to dictate their own terms and the result was another bloody war. So the second time, we did call the tune — and the result was a hell of a lot better.
As for Britain and France dictating its own terms, what about Woodrow Wilson’s role in dismembering the Austro-Hungarian Empire and trashing all vestiges of the potentially stabilising old order? America shares some of the blame for the instability in Europe in the 1920’s and 1930’s. And the ‘second time’ was better for who? I don’t think too many Poles, Czechs and Hungarians would agree with Steven as they ended up with nearly half a century of communist rule. Does Steven think Yalta was America’s finest hour?
But that’s because we are willing to try the unconventional. For example: after WWI, France insisted that Germany, with its ruined economy, pay drastic reparations to France. The result was hyper inflation, collapse of the Weimar Republic, and the rise of the Nazi Party.
All of which may never have happened if the US had stayed out of the Great War and a negotiated settlement had been reached in 1917 or early 1918.
And even in the recent past the Europeans have proved that their counsel sucks. That’s what we learned in Yugoslavia, something I’ve discussed here at great length. Years of dithering where the US lobbied for military action and the Europeans counseled diplomacy and sanctions, and what it got us was years of slaughter and civil war there. Finally the US issued an ultimatum; and after 6 weeks of bombing, and the war there ended. Milosevic was deposed, and the Serbs went back to democracy and ceased to be imperialistic. And it’s been reasonably peaceful there ever since.
Yeah, and they all lived happily ever after dreaming good dreams about nice Uncle Sam. That is an… interesting… analysis of the intricacies of the recent Balkan Wars. Whilst I am not fan of European diplomacy (to put it mildly), US actions in the Balkans were at best only half right and Kosovo was a rather more ambigious matter than you seem to think. Do you not think the fact the Croatian and Bosnia Armies (not the USAF) had defeated the aspirations of a Greater Serbia might have had more than a little to do with Slobo’s declining political fortunes? He was politically very vulnerable due to the fact he had lead Serbia to catastrophe, horror and defeat in Bosnia and Croatia, unemployment was running at over 30% (50% by some estimates), the currency was fast turning into toilet paper and so is it really so surprising that he collapsed after yet another military defeat, this time at the hands of the largely US strategic air offensive that resulted from the Kosovo affair?
I am afraid Steven’s analysis contains some grossly simplistic elements and seems to ascribe almost magical qualities to the application of US military force: the USAF turns up and shazam… peace breaks out all over the Balkans. It is rather more complex than that.
[Editor: Link fixed. Now goes to correct article on USS Clueless]
Over on Live from the WTC, blogger Megan McArdle writes in favour of the abolition of taxation on corporate income. It is a good albeit lengthy article that is well worth reading.
And Megan, the truth is “When the revolution comes, she’ll be the first one with her back against soft silk sheets.” Forget the empty threats of the left, the future belongs to the radical evolutionaries.
Perry mocks the Black Kittens. David laughs at the soppy little FARC-ers. Can I just remind you boys that, if you must be some sort of revolutionary socialist, it is at least less bad to be a halfway peaceful one. Let’s not make it harder for them to move in the right direction.
Along the same lines, may I also offer my heartfelt congratulations to any ex-Taliban among our readers who cried “uncle”, hid, shaved or ran away during the recent readjustment in Afghanistan. Well done. Right decision. You think I’m joking at your expense, but I’m not. Welcome back to the real world.
This test, being prepared all sorts of people, will be to see if the Bush administration is actually as sophisticated as I think they might be.
Somalia is being suggested as the next course on the menu after Afghanistan by all manner of odd bed fellows, from the Ethiopian government who would like to see their neighbour destabilized for their own ends, to oil companies looking to redeem worthless Siad Barré era concessions, to certain conservative US revanchists looking to avenge the bloody 1993 repulse of US Rangers by Somali militiamen.
My guess is that if there is any US military action at all, it will be highly targeted, rather than just blundering in and picking a fight with a Somali clan over an absurd UN derived desire to reorder Somali polity more to Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s liking, as happened last time.
Europe is getting old
It’s all about cause and effect and as yea sow so shall yea reap. Europe’s post-war social model has always been a euphamism for high taxes, a bloated public sector and rigid, protectionist policies. The long-term effect is that children have been, quite literally, priced out of the average family budget
As a result, Europe’s elites are sitting on a volcano. The present levels of welfare and pensions are simply unsustainable and whilst there is much hot air about reforming the fact is that Europe’s politicians dare not break the promises they have made to their people. Change now will just be too painful. Yet, the only way to sustain the current systems would be by the influx of vast numbers of young immigrants. With national socialists already on the march throughout much of Europe, that’s going to be like throwing a match into a tinderbox
Yet there is not single purblind European politician who will not fall over themselves to declare their unswerving support for the social model. It is almost the equivalent of the US Pledge of Allegiance which is ironic given their hostility to the US and it’s dynamic, less-fettered capitalism that threatens to pull the plug on their collective life-support machine
More bellicosity from Silvio Berslusconi
I’m not at all happy about this ‘common foreign and defence policy’ guff but, hopefully, it’s a case of one step at a time. Besides who on earth would entrust their foreign and defence policy to the French??!!
Europe is swinging to the Right according to this article in the EU Observer.
In 1997 only three of the fifteen EU countries had Conservative governments. Now the figure is seven and the Portuguese are expected to elect a Conservative government this year.
However, expect no material changes. European ‘Conservatives’ (Christian Democrats) are not informed by classical liberal values and therefore tend to be, at best, centrist and, at worst, indistinguishable from the Social Democrats they replace.
Power corrupts. Absolute power is kind of neat.
– John Lehman, former US Secretary of the Navy
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