Their Teats Were Swollen With Human Kindness
And that’s a good thing. Because it’s time to remind patrons that this rickety barge is kept afloat by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant a while longer, and remain ad-free, there are three buttons below the fold with which to monetise any love. Debit and credit cards are accepted. If what happens here is of value, this is a chance to show it.
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For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last seventeen years, in over 3,000 posts and 200,000 comments, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start – in particular, the end-of-year summaries, which convey the fullest flavour of what it is we do. A sort of blog concentrate. If you like what you find there… well, there’s lots more of that.
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By all means consider this an open thread.
Oh yes. The buttons:
Jordan Peterson interviews Tommy Robinson: “Why the Establishment Hates this Man”
Not yet censored on YouTube.
This. And the No-no square thing (which was from a couple years ago). People put so much effort into demonstrating their stupidity that it is rather hard to believe that they’re serious. Then you see the clowns that they vote for…
Ye’re an armless, boneless, chickenless egg /
Ye’ll have to be left with a bowl to beg /
Oh Johnny I hardly knew you.
There was a sixties novel about a girl with huge thumbs.
Even Cow Girls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins?
Again, thanks to all who’ve chipped in so far, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon link, including all those much too shy to say hello. It’s much appreciated and is what keeps this place here.
Yes, that was it. I recall nothing else about it, indicating that it made no serious impression. But then, that’s true of many 60’s and 70’s novels that were “highly recommended” at the time.
I recall nothing else about it, indicating that it made no serious impression.
That novel came out in 1976 and was made into a Gus Van Zant movie in the early 90s, Canadian recording artist k.d. lang did much of the soundtrack. I was in my teens and early 20s for most of Tom Robbins novels. They were, to say the least quirky. They were labelled serio-comedies, but for the most part they were absurdist and surreal. They appealed to my early faux-iconoclast side. I haven’t read (or re-read) anything since Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas and I skipped his last two novels entirely. It just all got a little tiresome.
The state of public education explained.
Millionaire socialists: You don’t hate them enough. You think you do, but you don’t.
I’m just workshopping this idea at the moment, haven’t really got all the details down, but hear me out: helicopters.
The cognitive dissonance is quite a thing.
“Lizzo is beautiful.”
“You look just like Lizzo.”
It’s not cognitive dissonance. It’s just lying. As I’ve mentioned before, this kind of behaviour is a civilizational shit test and we’re failing. Badly.
I recall explaining to my former Young Charge that decent men don’t actually like clown-cloured hair, and she went on a bit of a rant about how women don’t colour their hair for men, they do it for themselves, which ended with “Besides, I didn’t start doing it myself, my mom did it first when I was thirteen because she said the boys-” followed by abrupt, wide-eyed silence and a rapid exit from the room.
A small token of appreciation.
Agreed. I was being overly charitable. It’s my only vice.
Bless you, sir. May your butter be spreadable, but not overly so.
Every man needs a redeeming vice or two.
I’m also quite indulgent of excited dogs. Though I’m not sure that counts as a vice.
[ Tries hard to think of any other personal shortcoming. ]
Bear with me.
Education…
Should I be pleased that Randi Weingarten is illiterate as well as corrupt?
David, how large are the fees taken from PayPal donations?
I despise Hollywood.
Not enough. It could never be enough.
Institutionalised coprophagy.
Hilariously satirized in John Varley’s novel Demon.
“Ageism and ableism”.
Ricardo Cortez was the ultimate Sam Spade.
They need affirmation, I think, because they know they haven’t changed sex.
It’s from 2020, from the city of Oulu (with some background info). https://x.com/MonokulttuuriFM/status/1233493251140849668
For x non-users https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc5lUbNlTtY
I knew it looked familiar. I think that’s even somewhere in the archives. But I’m not complaining: it’s a classic of comedic cluelessness.
As I may have commented here (or possibly elsewhere), perhaps the intent was to make the would-be attackers laugh so hard they collapse.
Ping. BTW, does 30 pounds still buy anything in these post election Labour times ?
I’m also quite indulgent of excited dogs
That’s more of a kink than a vice
*ping*
I think it varies depending on the currency and where in the world you are. But basically, if someone donates, say, £20, then I receive between £18 and £19. There is an option for the sender to cover the transaction fee.
Bless you, sirs. Should you find yourself in a jewellers and having a new watchstrap fitted, may you remember to have the battery changed while you’re at it. Thus sparing yourself a second visit barely two weeks later.
[ Resumes gathering of sandbags, canned goods, candles. ]
Hey, I can’t help it if dogs are happy to see me.
A watchstrap you say?
They still have those?
Again, I think you can regard these bizarre ‘progressive’ contrivances – anti-rape dance moves to educate third-world newcomers – as a kind of displacement activity. A dysfunctional attempt to avoid the obvious, and to avoid the culpability that would go with any realism on the subject.
After all, the kinds of people who think that anti-rape dance moves are the solution to a surge in muggings, thefts and sexual assaults are likely to be the kinds of people who were thrilled by the prospect of those doing the raping and mugging arriving in vast numbers. And the same kinds of people who denounced any demurral as bigoted, racist, etc.
See also Bay Area commuters and their magic cardboard:
And this is where we are now. This is the game we’re supposed to play.
Pronouns in bio, obviously.
They’d rather do the ‘don’t rape me’ dance than vote for a party that would cut immigration from rapey shit holes.
Quebec socialist Nora Loreto, whose deep thoughts have amazed us before, is once again excited by theft.
Is it a flat fee or a percentage? Or, more to the point, how much gets charged when I make one £60 lump sum donation vs. a monthly £5 subscription?
including all those much too shy to say hello
It’s not shyness, some people just don’t like performative charity. Sometimes I grow tired of onomatic words. But I’m a killjoy, so . . .
It’s not a percentage as such, and the variables are numerous and fairly inscrutable; but in terms of transaction charges, larger amounts are better, for me, whether that’s in the form of a monthly subscription or a donation during fundraisers. By which I mean, a recurring £5 monthly subscription costs me around 50p or so in charges for every transaction. Ditto £5 one-offs. Whereas a larger sum, say, £50 – again, whether that’s a monthly subscription or a quarterly donation – costs me around £1.90 or so. A smaller proportion.
Again, the transaction cost varies according to the sender’s location, the weather at that particular moment, and the alignment of the planets, but not enormously.
I was told there would be no maths this early in the morning.
[ Adds more fairy lights and glitter to tip jar. ]
Re Pronouns in bio, I’ve been seeing a lot of this lately:
Along with the “Conservatives hate Socialism but they want their social security check” BS. Always delivered with a condescending, bet-you-never-thought-about-it-this-way tone. They have been raised and, more importantly, educated in a bubble of BS because people who knew better never challenged them nor the “authorities” who inform them.
But on the other hand, I find it easier to set up an automatic subscription than to get around to making larger annual donations.
Thanks. That’s sufficient to guide my decision-making.
I’ve known more than a few leftists who wanted to force everyone out of cars onto “public transportation” but who were happy to get rides from people who did own them. Explaining the advantages of cars to them was like trying to teach calculus to dogs.
It occurred to me, regarding the lovely Nora and her views on car theft, that not only should she be confronted with how factually and logically erroneous her opinions are, but also with how perverse and morally disgusting she is.
I mean, in Nora’s case, she’s not just wrong, as anyone might be about something or other. There’s an element of contrivance, of wilful perversity.
To quote one of her pet members of the criminal class, “You’ve been robbed? Oh well.”
Again, in Nora’s case, this isn’t just someone who’s bogglingly ignorant of subjects on which she opines, and who can’t be bothered to do even basic research or spend two minutes Googling relevant statistics before mouthing off. This is someone who positively exults in perversity, in doubling down, and in siding by default with thugs and habitual predators.
Because she thinks that makes her look good. If only among her equally fatuous peers. Her fellow revolutionaries.
Pronouns in bio, obviously.
How, exactly, does one “get rid of roads”, how much does it cost and who pays?
Also, not unimportantly, what happens to the businesses and people who are situated on those deleted roads?
Fair enough. Though the typed pings and other acknowledgements do make me look less of a Johnny No Mates – and more to the point, they do, I think, encourage others to chip in a few quid. So obviously, I’m all in favour.
What with the overheads, and the emotional wear and tear, and the cost of all this charisma.
Not to worry, the ambulance will be there shortly.
Encourage readers to add you to their wills, then dispatch the henchlesbians.
Can’t quite believe I got away with the charisma thing.
Can’t quite believe I got away with the charisma thing.
It may have something to do with whatever you laced the snacks with – the ones that didn’t walk away, that is.
In his city, Chicago, traffic lanes are being converted into bicycle and bus lanes. Encroach on those lanes at your peril. The rationale is to facilitate bike riding by making it safer, and to facilitate bus travel by making it impossible for buses to be slowed down by cars, but the number of bicycles seen has not increased and the speed of buses has not increased either (of course.) The true purpose, of course, is to simply make travel by car increasingly slow and difficult. Add the joys of encountering “homeless” and “vibrant” persons and the city becomes increasingly something to avoid.