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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The NSA fears it may suffer “irreversible harm”… When I read this…
US spy chief James Clapper has strongly defended government surveillance programmes after revelations of phone records being collected and internet servers being tapped. He said disclosure of a secret court document on phone record collection threatened “irreversible harm”.
… my first reaction was “Irreversible? I certainly hope so”.
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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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That’s just a standard legal term, used all the time. I think it’s code for “we don’t want to wait for a trial, we want an injunction. Now.”
That was my reaction, too.
A bit late for that now Bruce 😀
The harm will become “irreversible” when “failed-up” Rice is added to the NSA bowl.
Clapper is NOT wrong!
Perhaps we’re seeing a rare example of a collective choice between principle and pragmatism being played out before our eyes. Most of the time, when such an issue arises, the average person does not expect to benefit from principle being followed, but does fear the consequences of inadequate (perceived) security. So the choice is almost always to compromise principle for pragmatism (real or perceived). But this is a case where every American can reasonably assume that they are personally involved, which would seem to give a lot more weight to principle than is usually the case. In other words, support for principles (presumption of innocence, rule of law, protection of privacy) suddenly has a pragmatic component. It will be interesting to see how much that affects the outcome.