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 “Last time I remember over-reaching legislation being similarly rushed, we ended up with the Terrorism Act Section 44 which started out as preventing terrorism and ended up as random stop-and-search powers being exercised by the Met on any motorist they felt like bothering.”
– Alec Muffett, in a rather depressing summary of his thoughts about the meeting that he, other members of the Open Rights Group, and other civil liberties groups had with Hacked Off last night. Read the whole thing. (This is a subsequent post to the one that was linked to earlier).
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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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This measure was made in the office of Mr “Ed” Miliband (the leader of the Labour Party – and younger son of the Marxist Ralph Miliband).
With Mr Miliband was “Nick” Clegg (the European Union and Lib Dem scumbag), and a token “Conservative” minister (David Cameron did not go himself).
With these people were FOUR MEMBERS OF “HACKED OFF”.
That is how the laws of the United Kingdom are made.
Is it not wonderful?
Laws were made with more sense in the era of Cato and Cicero.
Under Section 7 of the Terrorism Act you can be stopped, questioned and searched in any port or airport area by anybody. They can be, but not necessarily, in uniform, in which case they can identify themselves not by name but only by officer number and then only if asked. They can be plain-clothes, in which case you have no idea who’s asking you these questions and on what grounds. They can examine any computer equipment you might have, and ask you, and you are required to give, passwords to computers, websites and email sites that you use, along with PIN numbers for debit and credit cards that you are carrying.
I was stopped and questioned in a port area when leaving the UK on the grounds that I had “quite a few” Turkish tourist visa stamps in my passport. I had a Jordanian visa which was also a subject of comment, though my Syrian and Egyptian visa stamps were ignored.
I subsequently complained. I am 60+, white, male, I was driving a 10 year old Škoda estate, I’ve paid taxes for 40 years. I expect to be treated with a bit more respect, especially by people younger than me and whose wages I pay.
I was told that section 7 had been through a process of consultation with community groups. I said, as a white male, I’m not sure which community group I belong to. And that it was continually monitored and updated, which turned out to be untrue.
I gave up at that point. Life’s too short.
With these people were FOUR MEMBERS OF “HACKED OFF”.
Yet according to Muffett’s previous post, they were at pains to assure the ORG that
It looks as though they’ve begun to realise what a can of worms they’ve opened and that they’ve been taken for fools in a game of political censorship. At the end of my post at Counting Cats, I quoted Johnny Rotten at them and their supporters: “Ever get the feeling you’ve been had?” This wasn’t about the Dowler family, or even Hugh Grant’s whoring. If any single event caused the main political parties to agree on controlling the press, it was the expenses scandal of a couple of years ago. HackedOff (the rank-and-file, at least, and their cheerleaders) were just conveniently useful idiots.