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]

If samizdata was a person…

… then it would be well into the rebellious years of smoking behind bike sheds and dealing with raging hormones, because today Sami turns fifteen, which means it can legally do the wild thing in France as of this moment. What could possibly go wrong? 😛

smite_control

Iizjustafluffysmite

Thisiswhatitfeelsliketogetsmitedonsamizdata

20 comments to If samizdata was a person…

  • David

    Happy Birthday.

  • RAB

    Gawd 15 years eh? Yes a very happy birthday to you all. Having been smited a fair old bit in my time, I can only say my experience is much more like the first kitten than the last. I knew the comment would appear eventually.

  • Shlomo Maistre

    A high quality weblog with substantial readership… for fifteen years.

    Bravo.

  • bloke in suffolk

    Im 29 now and im pretty sure i started reading this when i was 15. All the best and keep it up.

  • Kudos. Fifteen years is no small feat.

  • Alisa

    Happy Birthday to SI, and job well done, Perry.

  • the other rob

    Many Happy Returns, Perry and all.

  • llamas

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0968f0VWvd8

    Watch the video first – I’m sure that this is exactly how they carry on at the Secret World Headquarters. 😎

    I’m shufflin’ thru the Detroit sand,
    but my head’s in Samizdata
    Well, I’m shufflin’ thru the Detroit sand,
    but my head’s in Samizdata.
    The screen got me, in two-thousand-three
    and it surely sealed my fate – ah, help me now . . . .

    I keep thinkin’ ’bout that screen a’glowin’,
    Lord, I thought I was in Heaven.
    I keep thinkin’ ’bout that screen a’glowin’,
    I thought I was in Heaven.
    But fifteen years, of new ideas
    Has left me better knowin’ – ah, what was I doing out there?

    (Where’s my head, baby?
    Somewhere in Chelsea . . . . )

    Last night I saw a kitteh
    She was floatin’ across the ceiling
    And last night I saw a fluffy kitteh
    She was floatin’ across the ceiling
    Who ever knew that blue smite screen
    Could turn out so appeallin’?

    Mmm.

    Baby.

    You gotta be an old grumpy cat now . . . .

    (Beard / Gibbons / Hill © 1983 – Not!)

    Happy Birthday, y’all!

    llater. Much, much llater . . .

    llamas

  • NickM

    I always knew I was something that I couldn’t quite define. Then I found Samizdata (quite by chance and so many Veritys ago I don’t recall exactly when) and… it was like coming home. Thanks y’all. It has been emotional.

    Happy Birthday and many happy returns!

  • Eight comments before me and I am the first to point out that the title should be “If Samizdata were a person…!!!!

  • Oh BTW many happy returns and grateful thanks.

  • cavehobbit

    Congrats, I think I have been following you for at least 10 of those years.

    …which sounds kind of creepy saying to a 15 year old

    OK, I’ll leave now

  • Rob Fisher

    Wow, it’s been that long. I think Samizdata was a few years old when I discovered it, having only just found out that libertarian was a thing. Samizdata showed me they existed in the UK, too!

  • Laird

    Wow. Happy birthday. I’ve only been hanging around here for about half that long, but have thoroughly enjoyed all the posts and discussions (and meeting a few people scattered about the world whom I never would otherwise have come across, but who I now consider friends). Thanks for all you do.

    {Niall, we all knew that was coming from someone here, but we left it to you!]

  • Two cheers for capitalism

    Two cheers for Samizdata

  • TheSanityInspector

    Happy blogoversary!

  • Snorri Godhi

    To put it the way Niall put it: many happy returns and grateful thanks.

    I can’t remember how i discovered Samizdata, but it was a gradual process: i found myself visiting more and more often. It was good to find a libertarian alternative to the multiculturalism of The Economist, and to the reflexive anti-war stance of too many American libertarians (but not Glenn Reynolds). Most important, although i cannot remember anybody changing their minds here, one senses that people are interested in engaging in rational debate.

  • Paul Marks

    Congratulations – and I apologise for not wishing Samizdata Happy Birthday on the actual day.

  • Edward

    Congratulations. One of the first libertarian blogs I caught onto once Usenet really hit the unusability threshold. Long may you endure.

  • Julie near Chicago

    And a belated Happy Birthday from me as well, along with unlimited wishes and more crossed digits than I actually have, that this excellent site, its proprietor, his helpers and writers, and the commentariat outlive all the current nonsense, yea unto to the 700th (at least!) generation.

    Thanks, Perry and all. 🙂

    . . .

    Niall & Laird: Don’t go sticking on side now. I saw it too! 😉