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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Although I make my living (sometimes and poorly) doing internet infrastructure, my true home is in the art’s scene. It may be hard for those who have not live the life of the artist to understand the world of the actor, the musician, the fine artist… but no matter how long or how well I program machines, that is my true home.
The entry into the arts world is not an easy one, and not one for those who are weak of heart or who do not truly love their art for its’ own sake. I’ve paid my dues over decades and it lets me move freely in the arts world, and most particularly in that global brotherhood of musicians. There is an assurance in knowing you could be dropped anywhere in the world and inside of an evening get yourself sorted for a place to crash and pointers to where the craic is.
I’ve been out on such a night and have decided I should compose several short stories rather than write one long and disjointed article.
Due to the format, you are reading the introduction last… so just pretend you started here.
It is rather surprising, in the year 2002, to find someone expressing the thoughts noted in this article to which the Opinion Journal’s handy e-mail newsletter directed me.
The Associated Press reports on the proliferation of anti-Semitic propaganda in the Egyptian press, whose editors are appointed by the government. Al-Akhbar, one of the three leading dailies, published a piece last spring paying tribute to the 20th century’s leading evildoer: “Thanks to the late Hitler, who took revenge in advance for the Palestinians on the most vile criminals on earth, though we blame Hitler because his revenge was not quite enough,” Ahmed Ragab wrote.
I think someone should warn Mr Ragab of what we did to the Nazi’s the last time around.
Note: If anyone has a link to photo’s of the hangings of the Nazi war criminals, I would appreciate it.
The Demopublicans are at it again. A campaign ‘reform’ law we all thought was born dead has been revived. It’s a congressional effort to deflect attention from the fact virtually every member raked in the Enron largesse while it lasted.
The rhetoric is they are reforming. The truth is they are passing a law aimed at holding onto the Demopublican power monopoly. Jim Babka of Real Campaign Reform reports:
Shays-Meehan (the House version of the McCain-Feingold bill) and any alternative bills will be debated in the House of Representatives Tuesday and Wednesday, February 12 & 13.
Shays-Meehan is a terrible bill that restricts your 1st Amendment rights. There are several dreadful provisions included in it, but in this message I’ll just focus on one of them.
Shays-Meehan provides for 90 days in every election year when you and organizations you belong to will be prohibited from running any ads on radio or television that might influence a federal election campaign. In other words, there will be 90 days when you will be denied the right of free speech regarding election campaigns.
And the penalty for violating this law could be as much as $25,000 or five years in prison.
Of course Samizdata’s ruling elite are not in the USA, so we’ll back the Libertarian Party candidates all we want up to election night. Perhaps we’ll add a raised finger logo after our VOTE LIBERTARIAN posts to show our opinion on the collective intelligence of Washington.
Americans can send messages to their congresslime via the Real Campaign Reform web site.
Since I made the reference to Tom Lehrer it is only fair to explain it. Or rather, let Tom Lehrer explain it in his own words.
Smut
I do have a cause, though, it is obscenity. I’m for it! Thank you. Unfortunately, the civil liberties types who are fighting this issue have to fight it, owing to the nature of the laws, as a matter of freedom of speech and stifling of free expression and so on. But we know what’s really involved: dirty books are fun! That’s all there is to it. But you can’t get up in a court and say that, I suppose. It’s simply a matter of freedom of pleasure, a right which is not guaranteed by the Constitution, unfortunately. Anyway, since people seem to be marching for their causes these days, I have here a march for mine. It’s called:
Smut!
Give me smut and nothing but!
A dirty novel I can’t shut
If it’s uncut
and unsubt–le.
I’ve never quibbled
If it was ribald.
I would devour
Where others merely nibbled.
As the judge remarked the day that he acquitted my Aunt Hortense,
“To be smut
It must be ut-
Terly without redeeming social importance.”
Por-
Nographic pictures I adore.
Indecent magazines galore,
I like them more
If they’re hard core.
Bring on the obscene movies, murals, postcards, neckties, samplers, stained
glass windows, tattoos, anything!
More, more, I’m still not satisfied!
Stories of tortures
Used by debauchers
Lurid, licentious and vile
Make me smile.
Novels that pander
To my taste for candor
Give me a pleasure sublime.
Let’s face it I love slime!
All books can be indecent books,
Though recent books are bolder.
For filth, I’m glad to say,
Is in the mind of the beholder.
When correctly viewed,
Everything is lewd.
I could tell you things about Peter Pan
And the Wizard of Oz — there’s a dirty old man!
I thrill
To any book like Fanny Hill,
And I suppose I always will
If it is swill
And really fil–thy.
Who needs a hobby like tennis or philately?
I’ve got a hobby: rereading Lady Chatterley.
But now they’re trying to take it all away from us unless
We take a stand, and hand in hand we fight for freedom of the press.
In other words: Smut! I love it.
Ah, the adventures of a slut.
Oh, I’m a market they can’t glut.
I don’t know what
Compares with smut.
Hip, hip, hooray!
Let’s hear it for the Supreme Court!
Don’t let them take it away!
For those who are unfamiliar with Mr.Lehrer’s work, the preceeding is from the CD “That Was The Week That Was”. He was a solo piano/vocalist performer of his own biting and hilarious satirical songs; wrote music for the TV series “That Was The Week That Was” (Tee Dubhu Three); and who could ever forget his stunning songs for Sesame Street like “Ly”?
If you aren’t familiar with him, you should be. Go forth and purchase.
Erratum: a reader points out it was “The Electric Company” and not “Sesame Street” for which the “Ly” was written.
Natalija and Kathy’s point that two women are on the ‘pro-porn’ side while two men are on the ‘anti-porn’ side has interesting connotations.
Forty or fifty years ago it would have been different. Nice girls were prim and proper and never thought of such things so guys read Playboy… or so guys were brainwashed. But then came the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, Tom Lehrer, Supreme Court Decisions, Free Love and Feminism.
Radical Left Feminists have always been basically anti-pornography. Because of it, they have often found themselves in bed with the Extremist Right Christians. This has caused a role reversal. Women were liberated from old stereotypes and seem to have promptly used their new liberty in the pursuit of happiness. Meanwhile, Left men were brainwashed by the feminazi’s that porn is demeaning to women and should not be allowed. Right men were just beaten even harder with the same Old Testament whip.
This time around the girls get to lead the charge against the establishment.
I think our lasses have already started rolling up the left flank…
The idea pornography is responsible for rape is just plain silly. Of more interest is the very strong case that arming women decreases rape by a huge factor (see Multiple Victim Public Shootings, Bombings And Right To Carry Concealed Handgun Laws: Contrasting Private And Public Law Enforcement“ by Lott and Landes).
The gist of this seminal (no pun intended) study is hidden carry laws substantially decrease crimes against persons and decrease rapes by an even larger amount. Even a small number of woman with concealed weapons is enough to cause a significant drop in the rape statistics.
On February 1st, XCor’s team of test pilots continued pushing the envelope of the world’s first general aviation rocket plane. Dick Rutan, also known for his non-stop around the world flight with co-pilot Jeanna Yeager, was at the controls.
The purpose of this test was an attempt to touch and go; however one engine failed to relight after touchdown so Rutan allowed the aircraft to roll to a stop.
Such problems are no big deal for EZRocket. The engineers will work on it, fix the problem, learn from it… and they could have flown again the next day if they had chosen. Test flights, from rolling EZRocket out of the hanger to rolling it back in again take about an hour.
With a small amount of investment, perhaps $10M or so, XCor could build a general aviation craft capable of several suborbital hops a day. They are also prepared to build flyable rocket powered reproductions of the Me163 and the Bell X1A using their now well proven engine.
So if any pilots out there have a yen for the unusual…
Be watching for a full page ad in the New York Times tomorrow, Sunday, February 10, 2002. We The People Foundation has purchased one in the main news (first) section of the nationwide edition, titled “IRS and Department of Justice: Why Won’t You Answer Our Questions?“
You may remember the organization leader, Bob Schulz, who fasted last summer to force a congressional hearing on the legality of the US income tax. He and many, many others have long held this tax is unconstitutional and passed into law under very shady circumstances.
Mr Schulz was prepared to fast unto death but was reprieved near the end. The government agreed to a hearing under the requested terms. Then came September 11th… Mr Schulz quite reasonably agreed to a delay, as would any decent and honourable man. According to Schulz, the delay has turned into an unadmitted cancellation:
[January 28, 2002] Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Assistant Attorney General Dan Bryant, and IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti have broken their written agreement with the American People and have betrayed the United States Constitution.
While I cannot speak to the correctness of Mr Schulz’s legal arguments, I can comment on the character of the people he is dealing with. They are liars, cheats and scoundrels whose word is of no worth.
To those brought up as I was, a man whose word is no good is not a man at all.
Greg Nemitz, one of the founders of TransOrbital has reported in the Artemis Society e-mail digest that Paypal will be going public early next week, possibly Monday. What is particularly interesting about this IPO over others is Elon Musk, the largest shareholder of Paypal, has dedicated his wealth to opening Mars.
Paypal presently has 12-13 million members.
I thought Microsoft had plumbed depth’s of tastelessness none could match. But the Opinion Journal has pointed me to a cartoon from the Concord (N.H.) Monitor (clipping courtesy of PoliticsNY.com) that takes the prize.
Where are the rocks these people crawl from under? Wherever they are, we should build a parking lot there so they’ll be an endangered (or even better an extinct) species.
Just the other day I finally got a box out of storage, one which contained all of my old photographs. Now the truth can finally be shown.
I prefer going for accuracy over rate of fire. It’s all a matter of situation and appropriateness to the purpose at hand.
Today’s Opinion Journal newsletter has an interesting quote from the Axis of Evil:
Iranian Ex-Prez: We’ll Nuke the Jews
Anyone who thinks Bush was wrong on the merits in calling the Iranian government “evil” should consider a speech ex-president Hashemi Rafsanjani gave on the occasion of “Jerusalem Day” last month. He said that the Islamic world will soon have nuclear weapons: “On that day, the strategy of the West will hit a dead end, since a single atomic bomb has the power to completely destroy Israel, while an Israeli counterstrike can only cause partial damage to the Islamic world.”
While his statement is true as far as it goes, he neglects to include the response from elsewhere. I humbly suggest the US could spare a volley from a Trident or two without even raising a particular sweat.
It would be such a lovely memorial fireworks display. Mister Rafsanjani could watch it and ponder his errors… during his last .00000001 seconds.
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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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