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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Ron Paul is not just doing well at fundraising on this, his second run at the Presidency. He is raising enough to be a contender. I Just received this information from their campaign:
We are closing in on three important fundraising milestones for the fourth quarter:
– During the third quarter, Fred Thompson raised $9,750,821 to be used during the primary election cycle.
– Not counting money that he loaned to his own campaign, Mitt Romney raised $9,896,719.
– Rudy Giuliani finished with $10,258,019.
Ron Paul is currently at $9,708,791 for the fourth quarter.
We are within reach of passing Fred Thompson today! Will you help us storm past these fundraising totals over a month sooner than they did?
Please make your most generous donation: www.ronpaul2008.com/donate
And don’t forget to watch the live counter on our website as we meet these marks!?
I must admit I never in my wildest dreams expected the Ron Paul campaign to do this well. Do I dare to believe we really will have a libertarian still in the running come the Republican convention?
A story on the UK news last night gave statistics on trauma patients. Those are the seriously injured who must be transported from an accident site to a trauma centre. The percentages of trauma patients who die are:
UK – 43%
US – 16%
Draw your own conclusions.
I happened to be near a TV last night and was so stunned by the numbers that I pulled out my clipboard and wrote them down. The news feature also noted that ambulance first responders were insufficiently trained and often did not carry out measures such as clearing air passages. It also discussed the idea of having specialist regional trauma centre’s. If any one else was watching last night, their inputs on this TV report and the data behind it are welcome. The only thing I have found so far on the net is this
There are times when I almost feel sorry for conservatives and their confusion over libertarian positions on issues and why those positions appear to shift from time to time.
Our position does not actually change though… we just give pragmatic support to one group or another according to what we perceive is the current greatest threat to our principles. There may be disagreements and even splits amongst libertarians over “what should we be doing right now?” These are temporary because the disagreements are over strategy and tactics and fine points of philosophy, not the goals.
A conservative may look at the support of our particular faction of libertarians (Samizdata and friends) for the war and believe we are fellow travellers. They do not understand we see al Qaeda and the mad mullahs as such a grave threat to liberty and individualism in the world that we temporarily find common cause with the State. Defense is one thing most (not all) libertarians agree is a function of even a minimalist state.
There is a certain pragmatism summed up in the old Arab saying “The enemy of my enemy is my friend”. The Islamic faction which clothes itself in blood and the Koran are most certainly something we can not ignore. The longer you leave them alone, the bigger the war will be in the end. It is easier to cut out a tumor than to go after a metastasized cancer.
That does not mean these fruitcakes will always be number one on our anti-hit parade. As their threat subsides libertarians naturally turn their attention to the long term enemy of liberty: The State.
I am ecstatic (guardedly) to see things working out in Iraq. Because of that, I too can turn my attention to the State.
The State has done much to undermine freedom over the last decade, all in the name of ‘protecting us’. They really believe it. Sadly, they do not seem to have the same love of liberty we do. This has been brought home to me recently by conservative commentators who have denounced critics who took stands I consider obvious and courageous.
One woman wrote she would rather die in a terrorist attack, even see her child do so than give up their liberties. She did not like the surveillance state that is being put together in the US (and which is a nearly completed edifice in the UK) in the name of ‘protecting’ her.
Some years ago, not long after 9/11, I said pretty much the same thing to a CIA guy I once chatted with over beers. I told him I would rather die under a nuclear fireball than give up one tiny bit of my liberty. I stand by that. Those who fought and died in our wars did not do so for safety. They died to defend liberty and the essential character of America from foreign ideologues who hate individualism, hate liberty and hate the very idea of limits on governance.
I sometimes wish I could agree with the anarchist wing that we could completely do without a State. My decades of personal experience and historical reading say otherwise. We need that monstrous ravening beast on occasion. Our problem is how do we keep it starved, chained and caged in the interim? That is a question the founders of America wrestled with. All things considered, they did about as well as could be hoped. It is indeed as they said: the defense of Liberty is the work of every generation.
Our job now is to wrest freedoms back from the beast that were taken in the name of defense. (Am I the only one who thinks we should have a Department of War and make it damn clear what it is for?) I consider that excuse tedious and just plain wrong. Defense to me means going over there (like we did) and kicking the crap out of the enemy on their home ground. It also means people at home must defend their liberty by risking their lives on a day to day basis. They must take a personal responsibility for stopping terrorists or at least making them appear failures.
People who whinge and cry into cameras for The State to ‘protect them’ are simply weak and contemptible. One expects that from dependent children: not from free adults. An adult stares coolly at the distant watching enemy and shows them that killing a few thousand of us will accomplish nothing except get us pissed off and the enemy and his next of kin and entire way of life very dead.
As Heinlein said: “You can never defeat a free man. The most that you can do is kill him.”
I long ago endorsed Ron Paul despite strong disagreements with his foreign policy. Now, with Iraq looking more and more like less and less of an issue for the next election, that disagreement is fading in importance.
Meanwhile my distaste for ‘security measures’ taken in the name of ‘defense of the homeland’ has reached a point of utter disgust. On the issues which matter to me there is probably not the light of day between a Clinton or a Guliani Presidency. Neither is likely to ask for congress to kill off ‘Real Id’. Neither is likely to put Presidential authority behind removal of even some of the more obnoxious sections of the un-Patriot Act or any of the other wildly misnamed acts of Congress.
Over my many years as a libertarian I have come to feel like someone alone in the wilderness. People who believe as I do simply do not get elected. I assumed that a Ron Paul run for the Republican Party slot would be the same, with the very positive upside that he would gain more publicity for the ideas of liberty and individualism than decades of efforts by thousands of dedicated libertarians.
I am beginning to wonder if I might have been wrong. I was rather pleasantly surprised to read that Ron is picking up more money and attention on the web than any other Republican hopeful. While this does not translate into as much attention off web as I would like to see, it is nonetheless a surprise. Ron is still very definitely in this race and it is beginning to look like he will still be in it come the Republican convention.
I would really look forward to that happening. I have not bothered to watch convention coverage in many years because the people running did not even vaguely represent me.
I could rub my hands with glee at Just imagining the horror in the eyes of media and politicos alike if someone were to stand on the podium at that convention and not just mouth words about Liberty and Individualism… but really mean them!
The Israeli raid on a Syrian target earlier this month has mostly faded from the news, but to my knowledge there has been no definitive report on exactly what was bombed. My own best guesses are either a big Hezbollah staging area or a Syrian nuclear weapons related facility, but my gut guesses and ten cents will buy you a cup of coffee if you have access to a TARDIS.
This item, by a former Jerusalem Post editor is about the best discussion I have run across.
What’s beyond question is that something big went down on Sept. 6. Israeli sources had been telling me for months that their air force was intensively war-gaming attack scenarios against Syria; I assumed this was in anticipation of a second round of fighting with Hezbollah. On the morning of the raid, Israeli combat brigades in the northern Golan Heights went on high alert, reinforced by elite Maglan commando units. Most telling has been Israel’s blanket censorship of the story – unprecedented in the experience of even the most veteran Israeli reporters – which has also been extended to its ordinarily hypertalkative politicians. In a country of open secrets, this is, for once, a closed one.
Read the article and make up your own mind.
Diamond Aviation, a UK General Aircraft company, has test flown its single engine private jet.
Oh, if I were a rich man…
The following is a short story I penned for a theme issue of Ad Astra magazine. It did not make the cut on that particular issue so I have decided to share it with our Samizdata readership instead. It was, by the way, written before the accident at Mojave Spaceport… Dale Amon, Samizdata Editor… and Chair of the National Space Society Conference Coordinating Committee
Another load of tourists arrived last night (we run UTC here) so I am just getting up and having my morning coffee, or what passes for coffee here in Heinleintown, the main residential tube of Luna City. You see, I work at the Bigelow, and new arrivals are so biologically confused and excited to be here after the two day cruise on the big Virgin cycler that we just keep the bar open until they finally fade off to their rooms. Depending on the age group, that sometimes takes awhile, but they tip well so I can not complain.
Actually I have very little to complain about. I am here, and I am alive, and neither of those would have seemed very probable to someone 50 years ago. I sometimes remember a friend of mine, Gary Barnhard, writing an article for Ad Astra about what it might be like now. No idea where he is off to these days. Last I heard he was off in the asteroid belt on a project to convert an asteroid into a commercial simputer, a gadget to model pretty much anything you could ever want to model. An entire asteroid as a computer. The mind boggles… but then the nanotechnology which allows that is the reason I am here at all. One hundred and seven. Imagine that. I sometimes repeat it and shake my head in disbelief that we actually have managed to create most of Dr Leary’s “SMI^2LE” [Space Migration, Intelligence Increase and Life Extension]. Perhaps even more amazing was that we actually survived the nanotechnology transition. I guess it helped that the superpower competition between the USA, India and China was ‘mostly peaceful’, to paraphrase a long forgotten humorist.
It did help being in the center of it back in the ‘oughties’ and early ‘teens’ when things really started cracking open. I was there watching it happen. Hell, I was there helping to make it happen. I can still remember the sight of those early contraptions lifting off from our spaceport in the Western US. Rocketplane Kistler, Virgin Galactic, Masten, Armadillo, SpaceX, BlueOrigin, XCOR and the
rest. Household names now. Some of them anyway. Some failed, some merged… and one fell apart after the big accident. I had known the guy for 30 years. We all had because in those days the whole business was a small family. We had all quite literally grown up together. I wish I could say that was the only close friend I lost to satiate Murphy, but it was not. There were and will be more. Perhaps me some day. I am in great health still thanks to the nanocritters that cleaned me up from the inside out. It has been a long life and I am sorta catching my breath and smelling the daisies here in Luna City, just working the hotel bar and playing the old favourite songs of space flight. They figure I am part of the atmosphere because I lived those songs. They are not dusty history to me like to the party-hearty youngsters of last night.
Yep, I just might be getting ready to move out again. The moon is still empty but it is too close to Earth and I always did say “Happiness is the Earth in your Rear View Mirror”. A couple days ago I was talking to some of the guys from the Interstellar Consortium. Yeah, a bit early by a few centuries, but I like their style. A bunch of the guys from the early days, John, Elon, Jeff, Jim, Dave… people who know how to make things happen. Hell, they even got George Whitesides to front for them and help raise the capital. Got a big chunk from the National Space Society Exploration Fund, so we would be carrying their flag to the edge of the solar system.
The idea is to prove that Kuiper Belt Objects could provide the fuel and structures for a ‘slow boat’ to the nearest stars. As I said, I think they are a bit premature, but hell, how could I pass up a trip to the edge of the solar system? Even if we just stick the NSS flag on a few iceballs, it is a pretty cool thing to do.
And why bother living a few centuries if you do not have a dangerous adventure or two? I never was the stay at home type so at a hundred and seven this old space dog is not about to learn to stay in the doghouse. Besides which, I always did tell friends I intended to go downhill skiing on Europa at a hundred and twenty.
I just might manage to do that thing.
The corporate State considers that private enterprise in the sphere of production is the most effective and useful instrument in the interest of the nation. In view of the fact that private organization of production is a function of national concern, the organizer of the enterprise is responsible to the State for the direction given to production. State intervention in economic production arises only when private initiative is lacking or insufficient, or when the political interests of the State are involved. This intervention may take the form of control, assistance or direct management.
– Benito Mussolini, 1935, Fascism: Doctrine and Institutions, Rome: ‘Ardita’ Publishers. (pp. 135-136)
Ed: With thanks to DC Downsizers…
A fund has been set up to help the families of those killed and injured at Mojave. If any of you are interested, you can find out more at the July 29th entry here.
Scaled Family Support Fund
c/o Scaled Composites
1624 Flight Line
Mojave, CA. 93501
Acct # 04157-66832 / Wire xfer ABA Routing # 0260-0959-3 (Bank of America) /
Please make your check payable to “Scaled Family Support Fund”.
This is not a tax deductible donation.
Many will fall on the road to the stars. We must remember them as best we can.
Yesterday was a terrible day in the Mojave Desert, as many of you may have seen on the news by now there has been an explosion at space technology company Scaled Composites during testing of a propellant system. Three are dead and three more are in the hospital with injuries of varying severity.
This is a dangerous business we are in and we all know it. I feel somewhat relieved that none of them were people whom I knew well, but at the same time share some of the sense of loss which must be nearly overpowering to their co-workers.
If any of you at Scaled drop by here during this time of sadness, know that you are part of something greater. Your friends will be remembered.
As to the facts of the accident, I have little to add beyond what my coworker Rand Simberg has said.
Things were ‘mostly quieter’ for me on May 28th, the Sunday of the conference. I had my one and only chance to run about the exhibitor areas to pick up flyers, buy shirts… and acquire a few DVD’s of sessions I really wanted to see but could not due to being in demand elsewhere.
I briefly met Dr. Kistler of Rocketplane Kistler earlier but did not get a picture of him until he came by their exhibit for a photo op. I happened to be chatting with a friend who was manning their company table next to it so I joined the others. The hotel lighting in the public areas was rather problematic for my camera and few of the photos I took there were satisfactory. But hey, this is a really serious old school rocket scientist with a German accent.
Dr. Kistler, on the left, founded Kistler Aerospace. This merged with Chuck Laur’s company, Rocketplane, to become Rocketplane-Kistler. They have a contract from NASA for space station cargo delivery.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Late Sunday afternoon there was a demonstration which friends had told me about: Faster Than Light signal propagation. I am rather skeptical of such things but the demonstrator was a serious research physicist from Germany, I believe, so I had to go and see for myself.
All I can say is, I think I saw FTL comms. Nothing practical in real life as the difficulty increases with distance. This rather negates the reason you would want it in the first place. But over a distance of about 3 meters the return signal with the ‘barriers’ in returned faster than it did with the barriers out (normal light speed) as shown on an OScope synced to the outgoing pulse. He could even modulate it.
I will not go into detail here. You can look for yourself at the photos I took of his presentation. Look for photo numbers around dsc00616. I am still skeptical… but not quite as skeptical as before the demo.
Was it or wasn’t it? Demonstration of faster than light signal propagation.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Sunday night we had our closing banquet with Harrison Schmidt, the geologist who flew on Apollo 17 and one of the three Apollo guys at the conference. Actually this is not unusual as Harrison, Buzz and Rusty Schweikart are regulars and Buzz served as the Chairman of the Board through part of the nineties. Harrison has long been a promoter of human settlement and was given our O’Neill award in recognition of his efforts. Excuse the defect in the photo: I think the professional photographers flash went off just as I took this shot. She was standing right next to me.
Mark Hopkins bows in unworthiness before one of the last men to set foot on the moon.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
At the end of the banquet George Whitesides, NSS Executive Director, presented Carol Johnson and Ken Murphy with tokens of appreciation from the Society for their hard work. As the Chairman of the NSS Conferences Coordinating Committee I was sort of their ‘boss’ so I can publicly state they were a pleasure to work with over the last two and a half years, besides the fact that they ran a magnificent conference.
Yes, Ken really did wear a black hat. Carol got the roses since they would not have matched Ken’s je ne sais quoi…
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
And then we partied long into the night…
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
We crawled out of bed for the Society Town Hall Meeting…
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
And then, for the 26th time, it was over…
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
After the conference I spent a week in Dallas with an old friend. That will take us up to the beginning of June. So tomorrow: Aviation museums!
Or I hope so. I take a train to NYC tomorrow, repack, fly out to Denver and on to Laramie on space business Monday.
There was much of interest in the program of the ISDC, but I missed seeing most of it and much of what I did see was covered at the time by Glenn Reynolds and Rand Simberg among others. As I have noted before, I am part of the National Space Society management so I see a very different face of the conference than most attendees. Much of my time there would be terribly unexciting to write about. I very much doubt a detailed discussion of the 2009 conference site selection meetings, presentations, politics and such would be of a great deal of interest.
Today i will look at the May 26th evening of the conference via candid shots of the people and proceedings.
There is more to the space movement than rocket science. Art and music also have a place. We have had Space Art shows at every ISDC I have attended, which is all but four.
We had a fine Space Art show, thanks to Teresa Patterson and Kaz.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
We have had everything from John Denver (speaking only) to a Space Improv Theater group. At the one I ran years ago, we even had a ballet dance interpretation of Zero G done to a live electronic music performance. As one would expect, there are often filkers lurking about ready to spice up a party with “Home, Home on Lagrange” or “Ron, Ron, Ron, Deuteron, Ron, Ron Ron”.
I caught Rand Simberg, Glenn Reynolds and Alan Boyle chatting before the awards banquet on Saturday evening. Oh, and there was a former head of NASA Ames with us as well, just outside of the picture. I discovered he is a professional musician on the side so we hit it off quite well.
Why is it bloggers always seem to congregate in the bar?
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
The NSS annual award banquet is a big event for our community. We have several major awards: the Heinlein Award, a working model brass cannon on a hardwood base; the O’Neill award, a space colony replica; The Space Pioneer Awards, pewter lunar globes; and finally the Von Braun Award. The Heinlein and Von Braun alternate years. Both men were intimately involved with the founding branches of our society so this is a fitting way for NSS to honour extraordinary members of the space community.
Our Chairman of the Board of Directors (an Aussie), Kirby Ikin, bestows one of our highest honours upon Dr. Steve Squires of JPL.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Weeks before the event Mark Hopkins, one of our senior officers, asked if I could snap photos at the awards banquet. Even though there was a professional photographer, with equipment to die for also talking pictures in front of the podium, I did not realize I was being set up until my name was called…
Mark Hopkins bestows the NSS Exceptional Service Award upon a very surprised me.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
After the banquet came the receptions and a mobile party which finally settled in, with the tolerance of the hotel, in a 15th floor meeting area. This one lasted until dawn I believe, but I had to be up for the morning sessions so I only stayed until 3am. Or so.
Some of our people are very dedicated to getting off the planet.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Excuse the darkness but I preferred that to the loss of mood my flash causes. I loath flash shots and do them as little as I can. Perhaps someday I will own a camera that is fast enough to match my photgraphic tastes. Stabilization during long exposures would be nice…
The party was brought to us by the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) with a bit of assistance from our expert speaker to hotel staff.
Serious partiers… check.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Food… check..
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
Alcohol… check. 6ft 4in Dallas conference chair in a white cowboy hat???… check.
Photo: copyright Dale Amon, All Rights Reserved
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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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