Ever since Ian Parker-Joseph, leader of the UK Libertarian Party commented on the 1984 entry, I have been reading about Libertarians in the UK and the Libertarian Party .

Having lived in Germany, but also as a qualified police agent in my home country, the 1984-issue is a sensible one for me, but also an issue of mixed feelings.
I actually do have NO problems with the gouvernment collecting my data. Get over it, but there’s no issue with a compulsory ID card, nor is there with handing over all my internet logs to the authorities. The problem only arises when this huge data collection can create paranoia, when there is no law protecting the privacy of citizens.

I must admit that when I came to the UK, the thought of being almost 24/7 on CCTV was a scary one, but soon I got used to this new form of Big Brother spying upon me. Especially since I had just left Germany, a country where it is NOT allowed to log IP addresses. The same country where a law regulates that internet providers log the login to the internet, emails and VOIP calls. This combined with a stringent set of laws on regulating the protection of personal data. The UK is not alone, Big Brother is watching you all over, in any country, and I seriously doubt that most so-called privacy anal-retentists browse online anonymously or avoid cloud based services such as GMail and Google Web History and consequently block cookies from third parties such as ad providers, statistics programs and many more. Probably most of them have at least one credit card, and maybe even participate in several bonus card systems in their favourite shops, thus allowing everyone and their neighbours to analyse their spending patterns.

Your privacy is an illusion. I’m drifting. Back to the Libertarians.

Wikipedia offers, via the Internet Encyclopedia of Psychology, following definition of Libertarianism:

Libertarians are committed to the belief that individuals, and not states or groups of any other kind, are both ontologically and normatively primary; that individuals have rights against certain kinds of forcible interference on the part of others; that liberty, understood as non-interference, is the only thing that can be legitimately demanded of others as a matter of legal or political right; that robust property rights and the economic liberty that follows from their consistent recognition are of central importance in respecting individual liberty; that social order is not at odds with but develops out of individual liberty; that the only proper use of coercion is defensive or to rectify an error; that governments are bound by essentially the same moral principles as individuals; and that most existing and historical governments have acted improperly insofar as they have utilized coercion for plunder, aggression, redistribution, and other purposes beyond the protection of individual liberty.

Noble words, as is the case with almost any ideology. The principle of liberty has been forgotten in most parts of our world and has become the same illusion that your privacy is. A visit to the UK Libertarian’s website makes the ideology sound even better:

At long last there is another way forwards for our country; one which puts you, rather than the corrupt politicians at Westminster, firmly in charge. Our policies provide real-world solutions to the real-world challenges that we all face today, and do so whilst putting government and the State back in their rightful place as the servants, rather than the masters, of us all.

Who would not immediately want to become a member of this Party?
When you start reading their manifesto, feelings might chance be reinforced even more, depending on what your favourite movie is. Did you take the Red Pill and do you believe in The Matrix?

If you answered both questions with Yes go now and apply for your membership.

If you also are a firm believer in the morals of the movie Fight Club, you will have even more sympathy for the LPUK:

We will amend the Firearms Acts to repeal the pistol ban, which has both completely failed to reduce armed crime and crippled our country’s ability to compete in the pistol shooting events in the Olympic and Commonwealth Games, while depriving law-abiding householders of the ability to defend their homes with one of the most suitable weapons available. [From the LPUK Manifesto, topic Law and Order]

Things become interesting here, especially when we hit over to The Devil’s Kitchen, a funny and well-written thought-provoking blog, started by one of the LPUK co-founders (Warning: common offensive language). Actually a political blog right down my alley.

Today’s entry seems to fit the provoking, but also _scary_ mentality of the LPUK:

We might instead say that if we impose systems under which children are only forcibly separated from their parents under the very worst of circumstances, and under which parents are not always and unequivocally treated as evil abusers if they fail to live up to ideal standards of parenting, then sometimes this will mean that children will suffer horribly and die – but that it will avoid a far larger number of children suffering horribly by being taken into council care without good cause.

And fuck, if we’re libertarians rather than just blathering cunts, we might say that this is the *right thing to fucking do*.

A very powerful but dangerous message, prone to be understood wrongly. Ad rem and also bordering the style of propaganda which always will be listened to when countries experience negative economic downturns. The same style of propaganda alike style, which made the secessionist Vlaams Blok popular in the Belgian 1991 elections. The style of propaganda which could lead to a bump in popularity, because in a country driven by binge drinking a petty crime, isn’t it true that everyone has the right to defend themselves? And we admit:

Allowing people to carry firearms certainly will lead to the death of several people on the compulsory Friday after work binge drink, but at least the victims will have had the opportunity to shoot back.

Libertarians of the LPUK, let’s rehearse the populist blogging style once more please.

The ‘Harsh’ Facts

• I like thought provoking, harsh and highly aggressive opinions if based on factual truths.
• I must admit that The Devil’s Kitchen could quickly become my favourite UK blog
• DK has the potential to bring the highly offensive blogger madbull back.
• I consider myself a Libertarian.
• I like to provoke and select quotes just to ridiculize things. Fisking?

iCult, I love you.
Unrelated: my work Vista PC still hasn’t crashed, frozen or whatsoever. Since November 2006.

Mac OS X obviously is smarter than Windows. After having installed both Mac OS X 10.5.2 and Leopard Graphics Update, I was greeted with this message when I wanted to install the third update Apple released today. The Security Update 2008-001. That secure that it even can’t be installed.

Reminds me of Windows, except I can’t remember a monthly Windows update with 3 (Three!) required updates.
Although those updates are free, they don’t rejoice me as much as a working and stable OS.
But maybe they meant that the 2008-001 Security Update already contained is in Mac OS X 10.5.2. Terrific user experience!

Did I already mention that BootCamp doesn’t want to install, because the drive is fragmented?
True, my bad, Mac OS X doesn’t need any defragmentation!

It is true that Internet Explorer has been increasing in market share from 1997 to 1999. But I predict that IE will never reach the same market dominance as that enjoyed by line-mode, Mosaic, and Netscape from 1991 to 1996.

— Jakob Nielsen, Designing Web Usability, page 37, 1999

So I went to the Apple store in the Manchester Arndale Center for the first time.

Loaded with cash.
Plastic cash.

I had lots of plans.

Although the conversion to Mac OS X came with several problems, and certainly missed Windows (network) features, I had decided over the last days to refocus on video… and now wanted some decent equipment. The MacBook is fun, cool and easy to carry around… but lacks in power. So I was going to get a MBP. Updated or not.

And a 2.8Ghz iMac as well.

And a new phone. Funnily enough I broke the screen of my shitty LG Shine yesterday afternoon and now I needed a new phone too.
Only two models made it past my initial internet quest: the iPhone and the Samsung U900 Black.

But I needed more. Since I already have sold the Dell notebook, I wasn’t going to feel bad about buying some superfluous stuff for everything and decided I wanted some stuff.

• A black iNcase sleeve for both MB and MBP.
• As every music fan, I wanted more and better than the standard iPod (touch) earbuds and had dropped my eye on a pair of Sennheiser in-ear buds;
• Because we do (almost) everything at the computer, the set of matching iSkin keyboard protectors.
• The obvious MiniDVI to DVI-D converter
• Some cases and scratch protectors for both iPod Touch and iPhone;
• A certain book about Final Cut Pro;
• Last but not least Mac OS X 10.5 for the MB, which was configured with Tiger when it arrived.

All these items are available over the Apple store and since the Arndale Center store one of the less than 10 shops in the UK is, i expected them to have everything obviously. Even the iPhone.
I already had decided I couldn’t be bothered by offering the Carphone Warehouse or O2 the commission and would buy everything from Apple directly. In person. Physically.
Not online.

I made an error.

Contrarily to most switchers, when I arrived at the Apple Store and a salesmen jumped at me, even before I had enjoyed 30 seconds of time to browse, I did not as to speak to a Genius. No, I knew what I wanted and Google had helped me with all the other stuff last days.
Suffocated as I felt, I first asked for an iPod touch case. ‘We’re sold out, but here’s a store card and feel free to ring us to check if we have new ones in stock. We’ll gladly put one aside for you.’

Dumb ass, I thought. There are no official iPod touch cases yet, other than the Socks, but whatevah.

My next question was a harder one. I wanted a Toslink wire to connect any device, mainly the soon to be bought MBP with my kick ass stereo.
Why have a Mac and only enjoy sound over crappy built-in speakers?

Again I was confronted with the same answer: ‘We’re sold out.’
Luckily I had drunk MY kool-aid before I went to the Arndale Center and lassively I answered ‘No worries, I’ll order them online.’

I honestly was starting to doubt the so raved about Apple service. Especially when after walking and browsing some in this Ikea designed store puristic designed store, with way too many people in it, I found my Toslink cable and also the MiniDVI to DVI-D adapter I had asked for in between grumbling teeth.

At a totally different spot than where the interim employee with the Faster Than Shadow Apple Store Card Move^TM looked.

Of the 3 people who read here, luckily there’s no one who doesn’t know that I’m a bitch^TM, so I guess you all can imagine my appetite for more Apple stuff was gone. Even the iPhone appetite.

End result? I left the store with a Leopard install pack, a Toslink connector which fits every MP3 device, except the iPod touch, the iSkin protector I wanted, the iNcase sleeve in Khaki because obviously no black one was available, my wanted MiniDVI to DVI-D connector and iPhone socks.
The iPhone, iMac and MBP? Maybe I’ll get some next week when I’m in the Arndale Center again, but today the awesome customer service killed my mood to splash money.
Even if it were only an interim employer, just there because of the launch of the iPhone… the Apple Store is that big and has that many items that I knew where everything was within 20 minutes.