Sean Gabb -
Director's Bulletin
9th November 2009
I would have written this Bulletin several weeks ago. However, I can
supply many excuses for not having lifted a finger. The most convincing –
and perhaps the truest – is that I have been installing Windows 7
Professional 64 bit. Mr Gates wrote to me at the beginning of October,
offering me a copy of his latest operating software at the hard to refuse
price of £30. So I paid him and downloaded the software. Installing it
went like a dream. I didn’t have to download a single driver. It then took
several weeks to get the whole system working as I wanted. But I have now
been able to fit 8Gb of RAM and give myself what may be more computing
power than NASA had in 1969. Many of my friends are hostile to the idea of
intellectual property rights. So, for that matter, am I. No doubt, though,
Mr Gates does make exceedingly good software. On this occasion, he well
deserved his £30. So here goes with the Bulletin.
The LA Conference
Our London conference went off very well. As usual, we were solidly
booked, and we had to turn away a few last minute arrivals. The speeches
were uniformly good. Guido Fawkes gave an interesting and entertaining
speech at the dinner. This year, moreover, we seem to have got the video
recording right. I bought a Canon HG10 high definition video camera late
last year. This gave me something like television quality video footage.
As with all cheapish video cameras, however, the sound quality was rather
drossy. So, a few weeks back, I bought a Rode external microphone. This
perked the sound up no end. I didn’t get round to hiring the builders’
lights that I kept promising myself. Even so, I think the quality of the
video footage is remarkably good. Many thanks to Mario Huet for manning
the camera.
You can see the video footage for yourselves by going here:
http://vimeo.com/channels/65328
Other Video Files
Now that I can process high definition video at better than real time
speeds, I’ve decided to start taking full advantage of the Vimeo account I
bought earlier this year, and to upload much better versions of stuff I
first made available via Google Video. So please keep an eye on my Vimeo
account - http://www.vimeo.com/seangabb. I plan to upload 5Gb a week of
video. This will include the celebrated Botsford Archive.
The Chris R. Tame Memorial Prize
You may recall that this year’s title was “Can a Libertarian also be a
Conservative?” I had a number of interesting submissions. After much
thought, I decided to award the prize to Antoine Clarke. I thought his
submission was the best. What most impressed me was that he went beyond
the reading matter that I suggested, and he used a quotation from Lord
Acton in a most relevant way. We shall publish his essay just as soon as
our Editorial Director has found the time to set to work.
Personal Message
At the Conference, I met two people who turned out to be neighbours of
mine here in Deal. One of them must walk past my front door every time he
goes to the chip shop. Well, with the Baby Bear now jabbering away and
insisting on endless viewings of Eddie Cantor in Keep Young and Beautiful
and Melina Mercouri in ta pa?d?? t?? ?e??a?? (both courtesy of YouTube),
Mrs Gabb and I aren’t up to much entertaining. But we can certainly offer
coffee. So do please get in touch.
Libertarian Outreach
In the past month, I have written articles for Gay Times and for VDare.
The first was about drug legalisation. Sadly, Gay Times doesn’t put it
stuff on-line. So, if you want to read my case, you’ll have to put on dark
glasses and brave the giggles of Miss Patel in her school uniform as you
shamble round your local newsagent – unless, of course, you already
subscribe. The second you can read here: http://www.vdare.com/gabb/index.htm
I’m rather pleased with this and with my other articles for VDare. What
I’m trying to do is to make a case against the British National Party that
doesn’t rely on smears. I don’t believe the BNP is nowadays a national
socialist party. Much of what it says – and almost certainly believes – is
attractive to millions of people in this country. I admire Nick Griffin
for his courage for standing his ground in our post-modern police state. I
doubt if I’d be half so brave were Libertarianism to become as unpopular
with the authorities as white nationalism is. This being said, he and the
entire leadership of the BNP are tainted by what they used to believe. It
would be a shame if they were to become the only alternative to the
political cartel that now governs England. And I am able to say this to an
audience that has not so far been exposed to honest criticism of the BNP.
Other than this, I’ve done quite a lot of radio. And I do promise, now my
computer is so wonderfully powerful, to start recording and uploading all
this again.
Libertarian Alliance Meetings
Our friends over at the other Libertarian Alliance continue with their
monthly meetings. I can hardly ever get up to London to attend these. But
they always look very interesting, and I receive endless reports of how
interesting they have been.
The next meetings are:
On Monday, 9 November David McDonagh will talk on “Why Classical
Liberalism faded after 1860.”
On Monday 14 December, Kristian Niemietz will talk on “20 Years After: The
Fall and Rise of Socialism in East Germany”
On Monday 11 January 2010 Antoine Clarke will talk on “The Wisdom of
Crowds”.
Contact David McDonagh for details: mcdonagh_d@yahoo.co.uk
Libertarian Holidays
With my two women, I went on holiday in September to Crete. This was my
own fifth time there, and Mrs Gabb’s second. This was the first time we
had a child with us, and that would always have made it a more difficult
time. However, the Baby Bear behaved herself remarkably well. Our problem
was the Greeks. They joined the Euro on the basis of massive false
accounting, and an optimistic rate of exchange, and then allowed an
inflation of costs to continue that has now made their price level into a
joke. A result of this was that Crete was almost empty of tourists. Most
of the coastal resorts were almost empty. The historical and
archaeological sites were abandoned. Unfortunately, rather than cut prices
in an attempt to attract the remaining business, the response of the
taverna proprietors has been to rip off every foreigner who steps through
the door. We spent a fortnight paying about three times more for
indifferent kebabs than the Turks round the corner charge here in Deal.
Also, I find myself increasingly dismissive of the modern Greeks. When I
was first out there in 1987, I found that they could mostly understand me
if I spoke slowly in their strange pronunciation. Nowadays, they seem so
pleased with the ugly patois they call Greek that they cannot even follow
quotations from the New Testament. Indeed, on our second Sunday, I
insisted on attending a church service. The church was empty except for
some German tourists. The priest responded to my carefully phrased
greeting with the sort of stare you get from a caged animal. He and his
deacon raced through the service as if they were trying for a record, then
ran out of the church. Mrs Gabb and I stayed awhile to look at some
decidedly sub-Byzantine icons and much evidence of mind-rotting
superstition. Then we went shopping.
No, my dear readers, if you want a holiday in the Mediterranean, my advice
is to avoid Greece. The people nowadays are too degenerate and the prices
too high. A better place by far is Bodrum in Turkey. The Turks in general
are a fine people – proud and clean and brave. Bodrum in particular is a
superb holiday resort. Within a five hour radius of the places, you have
Ephesus, Miletus, Hierapolis, Laodicea and Aphrodisias, and many other
places of note. There are golf courses, shops, watersports, bars,
restaurants, and at least two branches of the Migros supermarket. The
moderately Islamic government there has decided to squeeze the taxpayers
with high duties on drink. But cigarettes are still a pound a packet, and
the Turkish police usually leave foreign tourists alone who break the
Euro-style public smoking ban.
And the jewel of Bodrum, in my view, is the Hotel Karia Princess. Owned
and run by libertarians, this is a five star establishment, boasting a
swimming pool, gymnasium, Turkish bath and some of the best cuisine in the
Eastern Mediterranean: http://www.kariaprincess.com
The summer season in Bodrum can be rather oppressive, wherever you choose
to stay. But, outside the summer season, I can think of no better place to
stay than the Hotel Karia Princess. Try it out. If you haven’t been there
already – and I have stayed there four times now – you will be astonished
and delighted. My friend Mr Blake even tells me that, once his Blood of
Alexandria has made him filthy rich, he will become a permanent guest there.
Any Other Business?
I think the Libertarian Alliance is holding a Christmas reception in
December. Stand by for announcements on this. I shall be speaking to some
undergraduates at Warwick University on the 19th November. My subject will
be something like “Libertarianism: Left or Right?” I plan, between now and
Christmas, to convert twenty audio tapes of interviews that Chris Tame
conducted with Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon and upload these to the Web.
I will give much moral support to Mr Blake while he works on The Sword of
Damascus, which is a long novel about weapons of mass destruction during
the early wars between Byzantium and the Caliphate. Like everything else
he writes, this will all be in the best possible taste.
Oh – and is there anyone out there who has a socket 775 quad core
processor he no longer wants? Donate this to me, and Mr Blake will send
you an autographed copy of his Terror of Constantinople. You may recall
that this received a most flattering review in The Daily Telegraph:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terror-Constantinople-Richard-Blake/dp/0340951141
Best wishes to all,
Sean
Sean Gabb
Director, The Libertarian Alliance
sean@libertarian.co.uk
Tel: 07956 472 199 07956 472 199
http://www.libertarian.co.uk
http://www.seangabb.co.uk
http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk
http://libertarianalliance.wordpress.com
FREE download of my book - Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How
Conservatives Lost England, and How to Get It Back
Wikipedia Entry
Libertarian Alliance home
Professional 64 bit. Mr Gates wrote to me at the beginning of October,
offering me a copy of his latest operating software at the hard to refuse
price of £30. So I paid him and downloaded the software. Installing it
went like a dream. I didn’t have to download a single driver. It then took
several weeks to get the whole system working as I wanted. But I have now
been able to fit 8Gb of RAM and give myself what may be more computing
power than NASA had in 1969. Many of my friends are hostile to the idea of
intellectual property rights. So, for that matter, am I. No doubt, though,
Mr Gates does make exceedingly good software. On this occasion, he well
deserved his £30. So here goes with the Bulletin.
The LA Conference
Our London conference went off very well. As usual, we were solidly
booked, and we had to turn away a few last minute arrivals. The speeches
were uniformly good. Guido Fawkes gave an interesting and entertaining
speech at the dinner. This year, moreover, we seem to have got the video
recording right. I bought a Canon HG10 high definition video camera late
last year. This gave me something like television quality video footage.
As with all cheapish video cameras, however, the sound quality was rather
drossy. So, a few weeks back, I bought a Rode external microphone. This
perked the sound up no end. I didn’t get round to hiring the builders’
lights that I kept promising myself. Even so, I think the quality of the
video footage is remarkably good. Many thanks to Mario Huet for manning
the camera.
You can see the video footage for yourselves by going here:
http://vimeo.com/channels/65328
Other Video Files
Now that I can process high definition video at better than real time
speeds, I’ve decided to start taking full advantage of the Vimeo account I
bought earlier this year, and to upload much better versions of stuff I
first made available via Google Video. So please keep an eye on my Vimeo
account - http://www.vimeo.com/seangabb. I plan to upload 5Gb a week of
video. This will include the celebrated Botsford Archive.
The Chris R. Tame Memorial Prize
You may recall that this year’s title was “Can a Libertarian also be a
Conservative?” I had a number of interesting submissions. After much
thought, I decided to award the prize to Antoine Clarke. I thought his
submission was the best. What most impressed me was that he went beyond
the reading matter that I suggested, and he used a quotation from Lord
Acton in a most relevant way. We shall publish his essay just as soon as
our Editorial Director has found the time to set to work.
Personal Message
At the Conference, I met two people who turned out to be neighbours of
mine here in Deal. One of them must walk past my front door every time he
goes to the chip shop. Well, with the Baby Bear now jabbering away and
insisting on endless viewings of Eddie Cantor in Keep Young and Beautiful
and Melina Mercouri in ta pa?d?? t?? ?e??a?? (both courtesy of YouTube),
Mrs Gabb and I aren’t up to much entertaining. But we can certainly offer
coffee. So do please get in touch.
Libertarian Outreach
In the past month, I have written articles for Gay Times and for VDare.
The first was about drug legalisation. Sadly, Gay Times doesn’t put it
stuff on-line. So, if you want to read my case, you’ll have to put on dark
glasses and brave the giggles of Miss Patel in her school uniform as you
shamble round your local newsagent – unless, of course, you already
subscribe. The second you can read here: http://www.vdare.com/gabb/index.htm
I’m rather pleased with this and with my other articles for VDare. What
I’m trying to do is to make a case against the British National Party that
doesn’t rely on smears. I don’t believe the BNP is nowadays a national
socialist party. Much of what it says – and almost certainly believes – is
attractive to millions of people in this country. I admire Nick Griffin
for his courage for standing his ground in our post-modern police state. I
doubt if I’d be half so brave were Libertarianism to become as unpopular
with the authorities as white nationalism is. This being said, he and the
entire leadership of the BNP are tainted by what they used to believe. It
would be a shame if they were to become the only alternative to the
political cartel that now governs England. And I am able to say this to an
audience that has not so far been exposed to honest criticism of the BNP.
Other than this, I’ve done quite a lot of radio. And I do promise, now my
computer is so wonderfully powerful, to start recording and uploading all
this again.
Libertarian Alliance Meetings
Our friends over at the other Libertarian Alliance continue with their
monthly meetings. I can hardly ever get up to London to attend these. But
they always look very interesting, and I receive endless reports of how
interesting they have been.
The next meetings are:
On Monday, 9 November David McDonagh will talk on “Why Classical
Liberalism faded after 1860.”
On Monday 14 December, Kristian Niemietz will talk on “20 Years After: The
Fall and Rise of Socialism in East Germany”
On Monday 11 January 2010 Antoine Clarke will talk on “The Wisdom of
Crowds”.
Contact David McDonagh for details: mcdonagh_d@yahoo.co.uk
Libertarian Holidays
With my two women, I went on holiday in September to Crete. This was my
own fifth time there, and Mrs Gabb’s second. This was the first time we
had a child with us, and that would always have made it a more difficult
time. However, the Baby Bear behaved herself remarkably well. Our problem
was the Greeks. They joined the Euro on the basis of massive false
accounting, and an optimistic rate of exchange, and then allowed an
inflation of costs to continue that has now made their price level into a
joke. A result of this was that Crete was almost empty of tourists. Most
of the coastal resorts were almost empty. The historical and
archaeological sites were abandoned. Unfortunately, rather than cut prices
in an attempt to attract the remaining business, the response of the
taverna proprietors has been to rip off every foreigner who steps through
the door. We spent a fortnight paying about three times more for
indifferent kebabs than the Turks round the corner charge here in Deal.
Also, I find myself increasingly dismissive of the modern Greeks. When I
was first out there in 1987, I found that they could mostly understand me
if I spoke slowly in their strange pronunciation. Nowadays, they seem so
pleased with the ugly patois they call Greek that they cannot even follow
quotations from the New Testament. Indeed, on our second Sunday, I
insisted on attending a church service. The church was empty except for
some German tourists. The priest responded to my carefully phrased
greeting with the sort of stare you get from a caged animal. He and his
deacon raced through the service as if they were trying for a record, then
ran out of the church. Mrs Gabb and I stayed awhile to look at some
decidedly sub-Byzantine icons and much evidence of mind-rotting
superstition. Then we went shopping.
No, my dear readers, if you want a holiday in the Mediterranean, my advice
is to avoid Greece. The people nowadays are too degenerate and the prices
too high. A better place by far is Bodrum in Turkey. The Turks in general
are a fine people – proud and clean and brave. Bodrum in particular is a
superb holiday resort. Within a five hour radius of the places, you have
Ephesus, Miletus, Hierapolis, Laodicea and Aphrodisias, and many other
places of note. There are golf courses, shops, watersports, bars,
restaurants, and at least two branches of the Migros supermarket. The
moderately Islamic government there has decided to squeeze the taxpayers
with high duties on drink. But cigarettes are still a pound a packet, and
the Turkish police usually leave foreign tourists alone who break the
Euro-style public smoking ban.
And the jewel of Bodrum, in my view, is the Hotel Karia Princess. Owned
and run by libertarians, this is a five star establishment, boasting a
swimming pool, gymnasium, Turkish bath and some of the best cuisine in the
Eastern Mediterranean: http://www.kariaprincess.com
The summer season in Bodrum can be rather oppressive, wherever you choose
to stay. But, outside the summer season, I can think of no better place to
stay than the Hotel Karia Princess. Try it out. If you haven’t been there
already – and I have stayed there four times now – you will be astonished
and delighted. My friend Mr Blake even tells me that, once his Blood of
Alexandria has made him filthy rich, he will become a permanent guest there.
Any Other Business?
I think the Libertarian Alliance is holding a Christmas reception in
December. Stand by for announcements on this. I shall be speaking to some
undergraduates at Warwick University on the 19th November. My subject will
be something like “Libertarianism: Left or Right?” I plan, between now and
Christmas, to convert twenty audio tapes of interviews that Chris Tame
conducted with Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon and upload these to the Web.
I will give much moral support to Mr Blake while he works on The Sword of
Damascus, which is a long novel about weapons of mass destruction during
the early wars between Byzantium and the Caliphate. Like everything else
he writes, this will all be in the best possible taste.
Oh – and is there anyone out there who has a socket 775 quad core
processor he no longer wants? Donate this to me, and Mr Blake will send
you an autographed copy of his Terror of Constantinople. You may recall
that this received a most flattering review in The Daily Telegraph:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Terror-Constantinople-Richard-Blake/dp/0340951141
Best wishes to all,
Sean
Sean Gabb
Director, The Libertarian Alliance
sean@libertarian.co.uk
Tel: 07956 472 199 07956 472 199
http://www.libertarian.co.uk
http://www.seangabb.co.uk
http://www.hampdenpress.co.uk
http://libertarianalliance.wordpress.com
FREE download of my book - Cultural Revolution, Culture War: How
Conservatives Lost England, and How to Get It Back
Wikipedia Entry
Libertarian Alliance home
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