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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Patrick Crozier pins the blame for the strike firmly where it belongs
The firemen (don’t expect me to use the virtue fascist term “firefighters”) have kicked off an eight-day strike. The Evening Standard (and I am sure a whole host of other worthies) have chosen to single out the unions for blame.
Poppycock. It is the sole responsibility of the government to provide firefighting services as no alternatives now exist. If it fails to do so then it is it (the government) and no one else who is at fault. If they find that they can’t sack striking firemen then that is again their fault for either signing no-dismisal agreements or making such action illegal (I am not sure which, if any, applies in this case.)
I think (but I am damned if I can find the quote) Enoch Powell once described unions as “pure as the driven snow”. He was right.
In expectation of an obvious comment… Yes, I know ultimately it is our individual responsibility to provide ourselves with fire-fighting services. I do not know if it would be legal or not to do so but the fact that the state usually provides one and taxes us for the privilege tends to crowd out the alternative.
Patrick Crozier
It seems some of the conservative media are getting all hot and bothered over sex on the campus. If the allegation that tax payer funds were used were true, I would agree on that very limited issue. Universities should not be State funded. Period and full stop. In any case, the University of Arizona event in question apparently wasn’t campus funded:
The university insists none of their money went toward promoting the controversial festival. It was underwritten by a public-funded arts council and held both off- and on-campus.
Another even less objectionable event occured in Indiana:
Other universities have also lately had trouble maintaining the line between sex and education. At Indiana University, officials are probing whether any laws were broken when pornographic filmmakers from Shane’s World entertainment, based in Van Nuys, Calif., used a campus dorm to make an adult movie last month.
It’s hard to see what laws could be broken. I don’t think any force was used by the filmmakers. Hell, if you were an undergrad and a porn starlet hopped into YOUR bed, which of the following would you say?
- Help, Police! I’m being attacked by a sex goddess!
- Thank you God!
Why does sex seem to be such a hangup for so many of the conservative orientation?
Frank Sensenbrenner sees the triumph of subjectivism in the British legal system. The victim’s perception of the nature of a crime now replaces analysis of the objective facts.
It seems that in David Blunkett’s Britain, it has become a greater crime to offend the opinions of a select class than to infringe upon their rights. Natalie Solent recently reported on Robin Page’s arrest. Mr Page, a reporter for the Daily Telegraph, was arrested for inciting racial hatred after stating that rural individuals should have the same rights to legal protection for traditional events as other minorities, such as blacks, Muslims, and gays.
At the heart of the subject is the definition of inciting racial hatred. A libertarian perspective would conclude that inciting racial hatred would be advocacy for direct action to deny liberties and rights to a certain race or group, as opposed to merely voicing bigoted opinions. No matter how repellent one’s opinions are, if one is only disparaging certain groups, as opposed to suggesting criminal action against them, it is free speech. After all, no one is forcing anyone who might be offended by free speech to listen to it. Most of history’s famous human rights campaigners such as Martin Luther King, Steve Biko, and Mahatma Gandhi used the same construct as Mr Page. They did not advocate hostilities against their oppressors, but demanded equal rights. Today, suggesting similar ideas is racial hatred.
There is deep hypocrisy in the enforcement of the Public Order Act in this context. While Mr Page stewed in prison for advocating equality, Sheik Abu Hamza and his cohorts preach the slaughter of infidels on the streets of London and by main landmarks. Surely proposing murder is a greater crime than proposing equality? Just a look at Al Muhajiroun is bad enough. While Mr Omar Bakri Muhammad is certainly free to preach whatever he likes behind closed doors, to allow him to advocate crime in public is too far.
In addition, the Public Order Act may go too far. According to an official government website, racial hatred is defined as threatening, abusive, or merely insulting behaviour. Also, was looking at what laws enshrine hate crimes against gays, and it looks even worse in that respect. According to Rainbow Network the perception of anyone that a crime was a homophobic or racially motivated attack is enough for it to be deemed so.
Therefore, Samizdatistas de Havilland, Carr, Cronin, Micklethwait & Amon, I look forward to seeing you as a fellow defendant versus The Crown when they get around to prosecuting the Samizdata Team for hate speech, as I’m sure there’s some idiot in Islington who’d deem Samizdata ‘hate speech’.
Frank Sensenbrenner
Today’s Ballistic Missile interception test has been successful:
“The target was launched at 2:30 p.m. Hawaiian Standard Time (7:30 p.m. EST). The USS Lake Erie, equipped with Aegis BMD computer programs and equipment, developed a fire control solution without any external sensor inputs. Within two minutes after target launch the Aegis Weapon System fired the SM-3 guided missile. Approximately two minutes later, the missile’s kinetic warhead acquired, tracked and diverted into the target, demonstrating the Aegis BMD system’s capability to engage the ballistic missile target in the ascent phase. This was the third consecutive target intercept.”
I’d say we’re getting close to a North Korea sized ICBM solution.
NOTE: The available information does not specify the missile type intercepted, but I would guess it is more an IRBM than an ICBM in this test. I know very little about the Kaui Launch site so I can’t comment on what sort of pads/launchers they have. I’ll add more information when I receive it.
I’ve just run my beady eye over a draft of the Criminal Justice Bill conveniently printed in The Times but since non-UK residents have to subscribe I will refrain from linking (in accordance with the recent directive handed down by the Samizdat-buro).
Casting my mind back a few months, I distinctly recall that warm, fuzzy feeling of exuberation that only comes when the scent of a victory (albeit minor) is in the air. The scent in question was the aroma of cannabis which, HMG magnanimously informed us, was going to be ‘downgraded’ from Class B drug to Class C drug. Thus, whilst it would remain theoretically illegal, police could no longer arrest anyone for being in possession of small amounts for personal use.
Well, it was minor but worthwhile advance. Or so we thought, because the good news is that HMG has proved good to its word and cannabis is, indeed, to be reclassified as a Class C drug. The bad news is that the new Criminal Justice Bill gives police the power to arrest anyone found in possession of Class C drugs.
In short, we’re back where we bloody well started.
At my suggestion Perry recently added Sofia Sideshow to our blogroll. I’ve rarely commented directly on other blogs, but I’ll make an exception this time.
It’s fun. Go read it. And oh yeah, bro’ Brian, you should get together with him since you’re producing a film in his general region of the world.
Mr jcrank: If you ever need some intros into the commercial space world for an SF movie, feel free. I’m part of the Artemis Project.
Sean Gabb has written a particularly interesting Free Life Commentary called Is There a Right in Ireland? In this he recounts the substance of a radio interview he gave for an Irish radio station.
I explained why foreign aid is a bad idea. It is the negation of charity for a government to take money from people and to give this to other people, no matter how hungry they are. Charity is by definition an act of choice: interpose the tax gatherer between doner and recipient, and there is no charity. Regardless of its moral status, it is also an unwise transfer of funds. As Peter Bauer once said, foreign aid is the process by which money is taken from poor people in rich countries and given to rich people in poor countries. Very little of the aid ever reaches the advertised recipients. At best, most of it is stolen by those in charge of distributing it. At worst, it becomes a cushion for corrupt and oppressive ruling classes. They can insulate themselves from the effects of their policies. Directly or indirectly, they can get the money to pay the security services on which their power rests. Much better than aid, I said, was free trade with poor countries. That does raise incomes.
But the part of it that particularly fascinated me is the amazed fury his comments caused to both the radio presenter and a charity worker present. Not just shock at the points he made but at the very notion that someone would make them. It seems such ideas were completely alien, unknown, unheard of apparently. It was as if Sean had suggested the world was spherical to people which accepted as axiomatic that the world was flat. → Continue reading: Evidence is so often trumped by emotional preference
Yes, I was briefly an Explorer Scout… but that’s not what I’m writing about.
Given the article posted by Natalie I think Samizdata needs to think ahead of the Statist curve. I too find this so far beyond my worst nightmares that I am near speechless – or whatever one calls the blogged word.
If anyone out there has their own server on a high bandwidth link and could work with Samizdata.net to set up a mirror and in the worst case scenario, free hosting, it would be much appreciated.
Here, for the Infidels, I repeat The Holy Word of The Goddess Liberty, (Praised be Her Name!) which I Worship above All Others and whose Word is not respected in the UK:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”
– US 1st Amendment
So take this Tranzi Scum!:
Victory to Israel! Hang Saddam! Shoot the Guantanamo terrorists! A HARM in every Al Qaeda’s SUV! Nuke the Chechens! The only good al Qaeda is a Dead al Qaeda.
Thank you for your kind patience.
Yesterday, chewing gum was in the Eye of the Beholder who quoted from this story, about some US-Singapore trade negotiations:
Negotiators from both countries said they hoped to resolve the issue of capital controls quickly, clearing the way for a final deal.
But Mr. Zoellick apparently did not break down Singapore’s resistance on another issue: its longtime ban on chewing gum, a prohibition ordered to keep the nation’s streets and sidewalks cleaner.
I know how the Singaporeans feel. The relentless disfiguring of London’s public spaces with chewing gum deposits is one of the things that most often makes me wish that “public” spaces were more frequently privately owned than they are. Occasionally a fresh deposit actually sticks to your shoe, which is horrible. You later have to scrape it off with a knife. Usually the deposit has dried and just remains there, a black blob on the floor.
It’s the sneakiness of it that gets me. The chewing gum droppers know that in the grand scheme of things their petty little misdemeanour doesn’t rate very high on the wickedness scale. And it is exactly this that they exploit. In a world of terrorist outrages, ever rising crime of the more usual sort, ghastly new laws that won’t do anything about crime but will be ghastly, ghastly new … well, just read every second posting on Samizdata (which seems to be going through a rather grim phase just now, for some reason), … in such a world, who has time to moan about chewing gum? Only me and the government of Singapore it would seem.
If the chewing gum miscreants don’t drop their chewing gum on the floor, they stick it on a strategically chosen spot in an advert. The first few times you see this it can be funny, but for me this joke stopped being funny years ago.
What’s going on here? No doubt a lot of chewing gum misbehaviour is sheer thoughtlessness, perpetrated by otherwise blameless and worthy people, but not nearly all, I surmise. I think what we may also have here is a particular example of the pathetic-person-making-an-impact syndrome. Another example of this is people who make a point of crossing roads just in front of motorists who they know will slow up and be inconvenienced, because that way the regular (car-owning) world is forced to pay attention to their otherwise meaningless existence, if only for a moment. Take that! I’m not so insignificant now, am I? Chewing gum misbehaviour is even sneakier, because it is anonymous. Ha! That was me, but you’ll never know, will you, hee hee hee! Chewing gum as clandestine self-expression, a subculture of secret Jackson Pollocking.
And why are there so many pathetic people who can only make an impact on the world by annoying it anonymously with chewing gum? The answer to that would be a bigger and grimmer Samizdata posting. I merely flag up the problem.
Other gum scum (I like that – that’s my heading for this) scatter their chewing gum as part of a more general pattern of nastiness and parasitism and not-so-petty aggressions. Presumably what the Singaporeans also feel, in addition to simply not liking gum dropped everywhere, is that if it’s chewing gum droppings today, it may be bricks through windows tomorrow and robbing old ladies for small or not so small change the next day. This is the “zero tolerance” theory, which I think is also right.
I know what you’ll say, all you people who can only make an impact on the world by leaving clever little comments on blogs (which I do agree is better than gum dropping). There’s a difference between possessing chewing gum and chewing chewing gum, and dropping chewing gum. (Cue the great Gum Control debate of Christmas 2002: “The majority of gum users are in fact responsible people, and we should not allow a small anti-social minority to be the excuse for suppressing the harmless pleasures of the law-abiding majority …” blah blah blah.) True. But not my point here. Have a nice day.
A columnist for the Telegraph has been arrested and held in a cell for saying that the rural minority should have “the same rights as blacks, Muslims and gays.”
“Dear Britain,
In accordance with our jointly agreed plan for regime change in Iraq, we would like to place an order for various British fighting personel in order to assist with our military plans in the region.
Having carefully considered the wide range of assets that your country has to offer, we would be most obliged if you would arrange to place the following units at our disposal:
1. A large contingent of Glaswegians to be stationed at Iraqi pubs and bars where they can be relied upon to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy when their drinks gets spilled.
2. A contingent of chirpy, cheeky Cockneys who will boost moral by inventing rowdy, obscene songs about Saddam Hussein and who will also greatly liven up the eventual victory celebrations by dancing around in the fountains of Baghdad, half-naked and wearing Union Jack underpants on their heads.
3. Since we expect some degree of close-quarters fighting, a division of soccer fans will also be required; most particularly those with experience in ripping out the seats of football stadia and using them to hospitalise European policemen.
4. A contigent from Liverpool will also be desirable as it is anticipated that we will have to occupy Saddam Hussein’s heavily-guarded Palaces and therefore burglary skills will be required.
5. Also please supply all available drug-running gangs from Manchester as we understand that they have even more firepower at their disposal than we do.
Please confirm at your earliest convenience that the above-listed requirements can be met.
We look forward to working with you on what we are confident will be a successful joint venture.
Yours Sincerely
The Pentagon”
Hot off the Debian-Security mail list:
“It has been confirmed that the Twente University server rooms have now completely burned down. This means, (security,non-us,nm,qa}.debian.org and ftp.snt.utwente.nl are now lost. Rest in peace…
To translate and summarize http://www.webwereld.nl/nieuws/13242.phtml: “The fire started a little after 8AM CET. There are no casualties. The near Dutch-German internet exchange will take over some of the SURFnet activities. The network will probably be up again tomorrow, with help from HP. A new server room in another building was already being prepared anyway for use next month…”
And yes, also in the Netherlands it’s highly unusual that such a fire happens.
Regards, Pieter-Paul”
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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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