Overheads
Or, Return of the Honesty Box.
With domain renewal looming, along with umpteen other behind-the-scenes expenses, now seems a good time to remind patrons that where you are right now is made possible by the kindness of strangers. If you’d like to ensure this place exists a while longer, and remains 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.
If one-click haste is called for, there’s a QR code in the sidebar, at which you point your phone camera, and my PayPal.Me page can be found here. As requested, there are SubscribeStar and Ko-Fi accounts, via which love may also be monetised, whether as one-off donations or monthly subscriptions. Should you be gripped by an urge to express encouragement via currency, by all means succumb.
Additionally, any Amazon UK shopping done via this link, or via the button in the sidebar, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you.
It’s what keeps this place here.
For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for close to nineteen years, in over 3,500 posts and hundreds of thousands of 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.
Do take a moment to poke through the discussion threads too. The posts are intended as starting points, not full stops, and the comments are where much of the good stuff is waiting to be found. And do please join in.
As always, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company.
Oh, and consider this an open thread. Share ye links and bicker.
Lookee, buttons.
Are you in need of a miracle?
[ Holds up staff. ]
There’s just one thing you must do first, my son.
[ Beckons mohel to step forward. ]
I’ll have a large one, barkeep.
And (ping!) have one yourself.
Bless you, sir. May you know where your air-fryer timing guide is.
And 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. I sometimes forget how many of you are lurking in the bushes, being very, very quiet.
It’s much appreciated and is what keeps this place here.
:::ping::: Think you can see your way to new bar towels? 😉
Nonsense. Plenty of mileage in these. It’s just…. natural discolouration.
Bless you, madam. May your cupboards be orderly, and your drawers.
[ Muffled sniggering. ]
That green colour is a reflection from the piles of dollars.
Funny, the photo at the link looks like a standard photovoltaic solar farm, not the field of mirrors at the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility. [ Laments the carelessness of journalists. Finds it increasingly difficult to resist day drinking. ]
If each film depicted just one 24 hour period MAYBE but, for the love of God, not one of those films covers just a day-in-the-life-of 007.
The so-called medical Journal of Australia should be shamed out of publication.
Likewise the British Medical Journal, the Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine.
According to Grok, the shortest in-universe timeframe is roughly a week, in Casino Royale, with adventures typically occurring over two or more weeks, the films generally being more compressed, time-wise, than the novels. And with each drink, or sip, generally occurring on a different date in a different location, often on a different continent, which rather implies some passing of time.
But saying Bond sipped an alcoholic beverage 4.5 times over some weeks seems unlikely to turn heads or induce fits of gasping. Which I’m assuming was the intent.
Let us not forget the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Pournelle’s Iron Law of Bureaucracy strikes again.
In full:
That second group is composed not merely of drones but increasingly of malevolent actors devoted to subverting the organization into purposes entirely at odds with its original legitimate purpose. Hence all the bullshit published nowadays by these prestigious medical journals. Hence the decline of Scientific American.
Drops all pretense, says the quiet part out loud: “White people shouldn’t exist.”
[ Returns from glancing at other blogs. ]
David, I marvel at the lack of trolls and spam here at your Fine Establishment.
Thanks for posting the Debussy link. It’s always interesting to hear that the composer interprets his own stuff differently than everyone else.
And I frankly like the other versions better.
Long live this blog. Ker-chinged.
Bless you, sir. May you always have sufficient zip-lock freezer bags.
Since moving to the new blog in late 2022, over 25,000 malicious login attempts have been blocked. So far this month, 1,056 attempts at spamming have been blocked and I expect the same again over the next couple of weeks.
In the background, unseen, there’s an ongoing robotic war. Security and keeping this place free of unsolicited adverts for implausible ways to earn $25,000 a month is a non-trivial overhead. Hence the fundraising.
As for trolling, I’d guess that’s a matter of tone as much as anything else. I doubt the typical troll would fare well in this neighbourhood.
[ Adds fairy lights to tip jar. ]
Though (mostly) civilised discussions do tend to affect trolls much as red flags affect bulls.
I suppose in part it’s a question of whether trolling will result in angry engagement, lots of barking, which seems to be the goal, or whether the outcome would be weary disdain and remarks regarding the troll’s sadness and inadequacy.
Out of curiosity, I’ve asked Grok several questions to which I already know the answers, and the results offered have on occasion been the dubious but politically fashionable ones. Sometimes to a degree that’s quite misleading, or simply wrong. If pressed, however, and asked to strip out waffle about “privilege” and “systemic racism,” etc., Grok will generally correct its initial answers with something much closer to the truth.
Sometimes the rethink is quite dramatic.
Woman talks to her bingo wings.
“Squishy-squish, boop-boop.”
It seems to me that Miss Bingo Wings has a choice. She can either get over herself, stop obsessing about her fleshiness, and accept whatever goes with that; or she can do what’s necessary to lose the weight that she obviously doesn’t like but which she pretends she’s okay with, badly.
But where she is now seems to be some unhappy limbo, an ongoing neurotic cope, which she feels a need to film and share, with neither of the obvious alternatives being engaged in.
Oh dear. As the OP asks, “Why are people like this?”
I imagine she used to be deeply ashamed of her body and had huge dysmorphia problems, but now she’s trying to “love herself” or something.
And yet the fact she’s performing for the Internet indicates Cluster B.
Where she is now seems like the worst option.
Speaking of the neurotic.
The showbiz kiss at the end is a nice touch.
Scroll down for her previous moment of fame.
Important reply.
That.
And PING.
Bless you, sir. May your supply of rock salt be adequate for any impending snowfall.
Well, it’s a fundamental problem for trans activists. Ultimately, for their own sake and ours, they must find a way to accept the unrealism of their claims, and to grasp the immorality of trying to coerce others to pretend things that aren’t true. Rather than trying to control the perceptions of others and bullying them to mouth lies, forever.
As seen, quite vividly, here.
In order for the activists to prevail, for their fantasy to triumph, they would have to make the world mad.
Other people have a right to say no, actually, thank you very much. Attempts to compel such pretending, whether by emotional bullying or by force of law, are immoral and illegitimate, an act of aggression, one that warrants pushback. However many tears ensue, and however many vases get smashed in fits of unearned rage.
They never get tired of being hypocrites.
I trust that 2-factor verification prevents all of them without any effort on your part. (Remember the days when passwords were short and two-factor verification had not been invented?)
That’s about 30 per day.
I get the impression that they are all blocked automatically, as I never see them. But that raises the question of false positives, and how much time you must spend un-blocking legitimate comments.
Given the amount of spam that appears on sites like Instapundit, combined with the fact that legitimate and innocuous comments are occasionally blocked with “held in moderation” notices, I wonder whether the folks at PJMedia can’t be bothered with such tasks and therefore set their spam filters to allow nearly all spam.
Good point, but I do get the impression that many trolls do enjoy any sign that they have caused annoyance. And some do it by posting the same obnoxious comments over and over.
[ Cheerfulness evaporates with reminder of impending winter. ]
Ignorant fool* blames “migration” on “global warming”.
I’m reminded of the numerous libtards I used to know, who called Rush Limbaugh a Nazi but had never actually listened to what he had to say.
* But then, most entertainers are. And comedians seem to be worse than average.
“Peace and love”
Remember all those sixties hippies with their “peace and love” slogans? They were notoriously intolerant.
Almost none, happily, beyond regular updating of the software. It pretty much does it’s thing and for the most part works very well. Except for when people use umpteen links in one post. Or Muldoon, of course.
The amount of spam I’ve seen over there is quite off-putting and it pretty much wrecks any attempt to create a sense of community. It’s not unlike graffiti.
[ Strokes enormous plastic sacks of rock salt. ]
Don’t forget the trolling.
To quote Bluebottle in the Goon Show “China Story”,
“Ying Ting Idinning PING!”
Bless you, sir. Should you be offered a snack of cheese on toast, may it be upgraded to cheese on toast deluxe.
I like bloggers who acknowledge error. Unfortunately rare, though.
What was it Jordan Peterson said about people who want to win arguments vs. people who want to discover the truth?
Or Muldoon, of course.
Sure, blame me because your coal fired computer and leopard print velour blogging thong create a static field that clashes with my polyester bellbottoms – I even drained the water and goldfish from my acrylic disco boots to see if that would help, not that you care that Finny McFinface now sleeps with the fishes, literally and figuratively.
[ Lights flicker and dim, teaspoons rattle in drawer. ]
Certainly, with a bit of effort, she can find or create even worse options.
white priv and benefiting from past slavery: so many lies. First of all, the entire North did not have slaves (mostly) and they were better off than the South. Second, most of us do not get intergenerational wealth. If our parents saved enough to not need our help, that is winning. Third, stats show that blacks do not save money but rather spend on showing off. Add to that lives derailed by crime and you have a lack of wealth. Fourth, the path to wealth of education or the trades (building contractor, plumbing business) is not followed. Around where I live it is hispanics who have embraced the trades and are doing quite well. By which I mean they own their own business.
From 2005: Three hours with the great Charles Murray