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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Samizdata quote of the day Public Policy Polling (PPP) has released the results of a poll pitting Congress against various unlikeables, including lice, brussel sprouts, colonoscopies, NFL replacement refs, traffic jams, the country of France, and the band Nickelback.
– Reason magazine blog. You would need a heart of stone not to laugh.
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Smashing!
I note that congress did poll higher than the Kardashians. While this may seem superficially reasonable, given that the latter’s alliance with the Dominion will plunge the Alpha Quadrant into a terrible war, I must confess to having my doubts.
Actually the libertarians celebrating this are misguided.
The people are not told (by the media) that the Senate is controlled by the Democrats.
They are just told about the House of Representatives (that is “Congress” is appears) where the evil Republicans did not vote for the help for the poor people in New York and New Jersey leaving them to freeze (“but that was because…” the media do not report the reasons).
Noble compassionate Comrade Barack with his “balanced approach” is being undermined by the greedy insane (“Dr Strangelove” – according to the Financial Times, after all “only 6 Republican Congressmen” turned up for the “education” being offered by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard – so the “Republican Congress” must be evil, just concerned with helping “rich people”, by the way why do businessmen buy a freaking Communist rag like the “FT”?)
Anyway – the evil greedy “insane” Congress is holding back (undermining) the noble, compassionate, Comrade Barack.
It would be so much better if they could not do that……
So much better if (for example) he could raise the debt limit without their consent……
So much better if he could help people – without their “obstruction”…..
In a Republic the Legislature trumps the Executive (no two branches of government are ever really equal in power – in the end one is stronger that the other).
The decline in respect for Congress (generated by an instense media propaganda campaign – and celebrated by libertarians, who should PLEASE stop and thing) is exactly what Comrade Barack wants.
Government by Executive Orders – and delegated powers.
Perhaps there will even be a fire – and Congress will have to be suspended……
Just till the building is repaired – of course.
Of course history never quite repeats itself in exactly the same way.
What tricks Comrade Barack (and the Tides Foundation, and the Centre for American Progress – and the education system, and the lapdog media…..) have in mind is yet to be seen.
Elections have consequences.
We live in interesting times.
A side comment for the Site Administrator: With so many “Samizdata Quotes of the Day” it is impossible to tell which one is being referenced in the “Recent Comments” list. Perhaps you could start adding the date to the SQOTD title, or in some other manner differentiating among them?
One other observation, since I’m on the topic of the new SI format: When I click on the “Comments” button it opens the comments in the same window as the original article. (The same thing happens if I click on one of the “Recent Comments” links.) In Samizdata’s previous incarnation the Comments section opened in a separate tab, so I could easily click back and forth between that and the main page. The current format requires me to use the back button. Is this something inherent in the new format? Is it the result of some setting on my computer? If possible I’d like to return to the old method (the comments opening in a separate tab). Yes, I can accomplish the same thing by right-clicking the mouse, but that’s less convenient than the old way. Just at thought. Thanks.
There’s no need to insult ‘lice, brussel sprouts, colonoscopies, NFL replacement refs, traffic jams, the country of France, and the band Nickelback’
Actually, there is a need to insult Nickelback, and maybe France, too. Not so sure about the others, though. (And I like brussels sprouts!)
Laird & Admin,
The Comments section only opened in a second window (for me, with Firefox on the Mac, it wasn’t a tab but a window) if you were working from the Main Page posting. And I frankly hated that, whereas I LOVE being able to access the posting, the comments, and the posting box all together in the same tab–one of the best things about the Mark III version, I think. :>)
I used to have to work up a kludge to get around it. It used to be that you couldn’t get to the (single postings + comments)-page from the home page, so if you wanted to respond to a posting that had rolled off the bottom of the main page, what to do? Well, you could try a Search (I’m going to complain again, loudly & piteously, Admin–but I’m waiting till February to give you a chance to rest). If you were lucky, you might find the posting you wanted. But if not, what you did was, you found SOME posting, ideally but not necessarily chronologically near the one you wanted, and then used the postings-links at the top to leaf forward or backward to the one you wanted.
I used to keep at least one tab open to a fairly recent posting, just to make the process easier.
Sorry, Laird…I’d love to support you on this…but I just LOVE the new system, in that regard! :>)
By the way–you could get around it by just opening a duplicate tab (or window) right next to it. Write in the box on one, read the posting or comments in the other.
–J.
Julie, I’m using Windows on a PC. I can see that opening in entirely different windows would be inconvenient for you, but I get tabs which are each to click back and forth between.
And I like having the Main Page separate so I can continue scrolling down through the articles to see when new comments have been added (I tend to remember the number on the ones I’m interested in). And if I want to go back and read the article without losing my place in the comment thread that’s simplified, too. At present I usually open the comments by right-clicking the mouse and opening them in a separate tab. The old system did that automatically; now I have to go through a couple of steps. Not a big deal, but I thought I’d point it out in case anyone’s interested. (And I still want the various SQOTDs differentiated somehow!)
I’m with Laird on SQOTD.
SQOTD: Me too. :>)