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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Yours truly, my fiancee plus regular Samizdata commenter Julian Taylor, have returned from a fine and patriotic day out in Portsmouth for the “International Festival of the Sea”, an event which at its core commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. Trafalgar in fact was fought in October, but the organisers are no doubt exploiting what passes for the English summer to put on all manner of events for sailing nuts like myself.
There has already been a fair amount of media coverage of the events linked to the Trafalgar bicentennial, although arguably the BBC has underclubbed its coverage, giving more attention it seems to Wimbledon tennis and the Live8 music event. For anyone who wants to know the human cost of defending this nation’s liberties, however, understanding what Lord Nelson and his forces achieved is important. As an island nation, our livelihood is crucially dependent on our peaceable enjoyment of the high seas.
For more than 100 years after Nelson crushed the Franco-Spanish forces off Cadiz, the Royal Navy dominated the world’s oceans, enjoying a naval mastery to an extent not seen until the modern U.S. navy and its vast carrier fleets. Nelson instilled in the Senior Service an esprit de corps, a sense of confidence that was to carry on until the First World War, at which point Germany and Japan began to challenge Britain’s mastery.
There are many excellent studies of Nelson’s life and achievements, and I would recommend in particular Alan Schom’s study of the countdown to Trafalgar, which gives credit not just to Norfolk’s most famous son but also many of the other actors of the time, who ensured that the Royal Navy was raised to a high pitch of excellence. Tom Pocock’s biography of Nelson is also a rattling good read of this brilliant, occasionally vain and charismatic man.
… hears that his friend, an economist, is in Addenbrooks [in the US version of this joke, in Mount Auburn] with a badly broken leg, and goes to visit.
Physicist: What happened?
Economist: I had just stepped off the balcony, and wham! — I fell and broke my leg.
Physicist: You stepped… off… the balcony? What on earth for?
Economist: How was I to know there would be gravity failure?
When blogging about something that has caught your eye, sometimes the other people reading what you have written can add a new dimension to the subject.
Over on Media Influencer, a seemingly off-hand blog about a controversy regarding some questionable business practices and the way journalist cover such stories in the mainstream media has got both the parties mentioned exchanging forthright views in the comments section, which I think is quite interesting.
At Hyde Park, Dido just introduced as the “African Ambassador for Music from Senegal”, Youssou N’Dour*, who she was “in awe” of, “not just because he has a wonderful voice, but because of his wonderful beliefs”. He came on stage to say:
“The debt cancellation is OK. The aid is OK. But, please, open your markets.”
There will be an awful lot of well-intentioned nonsense given unquestioning, reverential coverage today, with ignorance and platitudes dressed up as profundity. Maybe, however, for perhaps the first time at an event of this type and on this scale, a kernel of truth will wriggle its way onto TV.
I consider this a small but notable victory for the notion that, if you permit free speech and are prepared to tolerate every misguided and moronic idea, eventually the truth will out.
* [edit]: add correct spelling and link.
You know what, I’ve finally understood what this whole “live 8” nonsense is about. I twigged when I heard a quote on the news, something like “this is all about you, the leaders of the G8, because you make the decisions”. Recognise the instinctual pattern: singing and dancing, mass ecstatic rallies, high moral cause, loud appeals for attention and for aid from on high – they’re praying, to the only gods they know.
– Julian Morrison
Wired writes that Britain’s House of Commons this week moved forward with plans to create a new national ID card, but a sharp reversal in support for the controversial measure signals a rocky road ahead.
British lawmakers voted in favor of the bill on Tuesday by an unexpectedly thin margin of 314-283. At the last minute, some members of Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Labour Party revolted against the cards, which would carry fingerprints and iris scans of cardholders and be backed by a national database containing extensive personal information.
A Home Office spokeswoman said it’s too early to comment on the bill’s future success.
We won’t speculate on the passage of a bill through parliament. It still has an awful lot of readings to go through. Anything can happen to it.
I wouldn’t hold my breath as Tony Blair indicated that he will use a Parliament Act to force the legistration through. The struggle continues…
I have already mentioned the guy’s robust views about the upcoming Live8 musical event about to hit central London and I make no apologies for following up by plugging a fine book by Richard D. North in which he defends affluence and modern industrial society in his book, Rich Is Beautiful. Written in a deliberately provocative tone of voice, North crushes one modern shibboleth after another in a style reminiscent of a British P.J. O’Rourke. First class.
I was cruising the net and saw an article titled Time magazine defuses CIA stoush. Sure, the story is interesting but… what the hell does ‘stoush’ mean?
Here is a list of the MPs who voted in favour of trying to make you have an ID card. Do you see your MP here? Let them know what you think of what they have done.
Special kudos to the 20 Labour MPs who put decency before party and refused to be go along with this disgraceful attempt to control you.
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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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