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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Yeah, no posts – so cut my pay Sorry, Natalie, but I am in a profound depression triggered by the US Supreme Court’s decision to jettison the First Amendment (which protects, or used to, freedom of speech and of the press). After I am suitably medicated (less than half a bottle of Laphroiag to go), I will have some thoughts on one of the fundamental flaws in the whole campaign finance debacle.
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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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On a related note, I read an article the other day, which of course I can’t find now, that said that the National Rifle Assoc. was looking to buy a media outlet because “news” was exempted from the McCain-Finegold ban on free speech.
That could work.
Oh, ach, Dean, that was awful. I’m so disappointed in those black-robed nincompoops. And everyone thought it was such a slam-dunk, too.
I mean “Congress shall make no law”…unless they decide to make a law?
The NRA’s threat is a clever one, but merely symbolic. Even if they really did it, it wouldn’t really redress the matter…since you’d have to tune to their station to see their message. That’s hardly as loud a megaphone as ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN combined.
Do you drink the ten or the fifteen year old version of the medication? I find the ten just a little harsh, but the fifteen is just lovely.
An Australian government (with the agreement and votes of the other major opposition party) attempted to ban paid political advertisements on TV and radio. The Australian constitution does not explicitely guarantee freedom of speech, but it does require fair democratic elections. The court ruled that fair democratic elections are not possible without freedom of speech, that Australians thus are thus required to have freedom of speech on “political matters” (whatever that means) and that the law banning paid political advertisements was therefore unconstitutional. Something of a stretch perhaps, but I prefer having freedom of speech than not.
(That said, paid political advertisments on TV and radio are not legal in the UK).
Beam and you beam alone; Laphroiag and the world laphs with you.
My single malt collection is celebratory. I resorted to Canadian Hunter. It didn’t help.
Perhaps we could encourage them to cross over to the Netherlands with, say, 3,1 kg of nose candy…