It’s What Keeps This Place Here

As today is this blog’s ninth birthday, it seems as good a time as any to have one of the quarterly fundraisers that keep this rickety barge afloat. If you’d like to help it remain buoyant for a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love for this low establishment. Debit and credit cards are accepted. For those wishing to express their love regularly, there’s a monthly subscription option top left. Additionally, any Amazon shopping done via this link or the search widget top right, or for Amazon US via this link, results in a small fee for your host at no extra cost to you. Now you can indulge your consumerist lust and feel saintly while doing it.

For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last nine years, and in over 2,000 posts, the reheated series is a pretty good place to start. If you can, 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. 

Again, thanks for the support, the comments, and the company. 

Comments

[Shiggz]

Ninth bday. Umm ya I'd abort that imagine the money from the parts!

[J.M. Heinrichs]

No little puppy of persuasion?

Cheers

[WTP]

Done. Thanks for the gum balls.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qyYghCaXSRo

[Tman]

You've got a damn fine corner of the world wide web here Mr. Thompson and had I more to give I would do so.

Happy Blogiversary or whatever they are calling it these days.

[Mr S]

Happy to.

[Sam]

Tip jar hit. 9 more years.

[McN]

Making my way through your 'reheated' series. Have a drink or two on me.

[G]

I'm indulging my consumerist lust and feeling saintly while doing it. :-)

Thanks for many hours of entertainment (and education).

[David]

Thanks to all who’ve chipped in so far. It makes a big difference to how much time I can idle away with you ne’er-do-wells.

Meanwhile, in the publicly funded arts, “water artist” Janet Laurence is “creating awareness.” So we should be thanking her.

[_]

Two years of lurking is worth a few quid. Love the takedowns of academia, btw

[David]

Tim Worstall is understandably boggled by a Guardian column by Mr Paul Mason, a man who champions Laurie Penny as a thinker of the age, is a fan of Occupy, and who earns a living as the economics editor of Channel 4 News. Apparently, the most pressing housing issue is “How much space are people entitled to live in?”

[sH2]

Apparently, the most pressing housing issue is “How much space are people entitled to live in?”

"Entitled"? Still amazed this man is C4's economics editor.

[David]

“Entitled”?

It’s an odd priority, and a somewhat loaded choice of word. Perhaps we should call it “doing a Monbiot.”

[David]

Bullet dodged.

Via Damian.

[R. Sherman]

Thanks for keeping us entertained. Oh, and sorry for the wine stains over by the bookcase.

[David]

Oh, and sorry for the wine stains over by the bookcase.

Those aren’t the stains I’m worried about.

[ Surveys room, raises eyebrow. ]

[[+]]

Bullet dodged.

Snork. Love monetized.

[R. Sherman]

Well, I finally figured out Paypal. The nice thing about paying stuff in foreign currency is that we all know it's not real money, right?

[David]

The nice thing about paying stuff in foreign currency is that we all know it's not real money, right?

Absolutely.

[Watcher in the dark]

Contribution made, albeit small. But every little helps, right?

[David]

But every little helps, right?

There are plenty of things I turn my nose up at. Money isn’t one of them.

[R. Sherman]

Via Ace O' Spades.

[John D]

Thanks, David. Tip jar hit.

[sk60]

Ka-ching!

[Joan]

Consider it a wine voucher. :-)

[A]

Happy to contribute, David. I've spent many hours reading your blog.

[Jonathan]

Tosses coin. Now clear orf or I'll 'ave the law on yer!

[David]

Via Ace O' Spades.

They’re so… guarded.

[David]

Via Ace O' Spades.

The Other Half is loudly amused.

[Steph]

I've been reading your 'The Year Reheated' post. My husband wants to know why I keep laughing.

Consider your tip jar hit.

[Flynpigranch]

Seven Alans and 1 anal.

[dicentra ن]

If you have not yet added this magnificent word to your vocabulary, YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST DO IT NOW: retromingent

It shouldn't make me so happy that such a word exists, but it does. Shows you what this world has come to.

[Em]

Twitter turns into MumsNet.

https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/697170552801357824

*kerching*

[David]

Twitter turns into MumsNet.

It’s the “speaking truth to power” bit that made me laugh - and which, I think, gives the game away. And so Twitter’s “Trust and Safety Council” features Anita Sarkeesian, a woman whose definition of “harassment and abuse” includes, indeed begins with, people who dare to point out when she’s wrong or telling lies.

It’s like hiring Laurie Penny as your Head of Factual Accuracy and Logical Rigour.

[Quint&Jessel, Sea of Azof, Bly, UK]

Happy Nine! May it always have more!

[David]

Happy Nine!

When I started doing this, largely because of being frustrated with the scope of freelance work, I had no idea I’d still be at it almost a decade later. I didn’t imagine there’d be a readership.

May it always have more!

Now there’s a mixed blessing.

[Hedgehog]

Tip jar hit. Thank you for providing a forum for my occasional curmudgeonly elucubrations and for otherwise informing us of the folly of the world.

And as small in-kind contribution, ponder this:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-10/why-does-the-government-pursue-student-debtors-in-prison

[mojo]

A nice illustration of what happens when the Progressives don't get their way.

http://www.weaselzippers.us/255999-huffpo-furious-racist-sexist-xenophobe-won/

[mojo]

"It’s like hiring Laurie Penny as your Head of Factual Accuracy and Logical Rigour."

what he said.

[David]

And as small in-kind contribution, ponder this

Ah, Cecily McMillan. Someone who spent $100,000 of taxpayers’ money on worthless degrees in leftist boilerplate with no regard for how that debt might ever be repaid. Because hey, she’s entitled, baby. And of course she’s an Occupier and a self-styled socialist. Oh yes, and someone who viciously assaulted a police officer, lied about it repeatedly, despite being caught on film, and then feigned shock at the consequences of her own actions, predictable as they were.

I’d say Ms McMillan has a habit of choosing poorly.

[David]

I see Milo Yiannopoulis is making his presence felt on campuses across America:

Student protesters, reportedly from the group RU Speak Out and other organizations, stood up in the middle of Milo’s speech after one protester screamed, “This man represents hatred!” and then started smearing fake blood all over themselves.

Ah, the intellectuals of tomorrow.

[Hedgehog]

I’d say Ms McMillan has a habit of choosing poorly.

Undoubtedly. What really gets me, though, is not the antics of the felonious deadbeat, but the fact that an ostensible business publication (albeit one owned by a man who, in the words of one quipster, doesn't like any drinks that are taller than he is) uses her story to drum up sympathy for the cause of jailed deadbeats everywhere.

[Mags]

screamed, “This man represents hatred!” and then started smearing fake blood all over themselves.

Lol. Do they even get they're making his point for him?

[David]

Do they even get they’re making his point for him?

That would require a level of self-awareness that I doubt the protestors possess. Still, I should imagine Milo’s having a whale of a time.

[David]

Do they even get they’re making his point for him?

Oh good. There’s video.

Short version: Nasty non-leftwing man said we can’t handle unflattering non-leftwing ideas or even debate rationally, so we smeared paint all over ourselves and screamed so that no-one could hear what the nasty man said. Then we walked out, giving everyone else the finger. Because we care so very much about everything.

[witwoud]

Something for the quad bike fund...

[Henry]

Oh good. There’s video.

A month or so ago, Milo Y tweeted something along the lines of "Europe's finished, I'm off to the US"

I wonder if he still feels that way.

[Trevor]

Ah, the intellectuals of tomorrow.

Do you imply that they are not already sagacious beyond belief? And by this reference to 'tomorrow' do you suggest that people should think of the future and plan ahead?

That's code, that is. And it could get you in the naughty book.

[BD Sixsmith]

When I first found this blog I thought, "Y'know, this is funny and all, but aren't these academics and students kind of irrelevant?"

Ho ho ho. My mistake.

[David]

That’s code, that is.

That patronising farce was the handiwork of Dr Caprice Hollins, mentioned here previously.

[David]

Ho ho ho. My mistake.

The Long March in action. And look upon its glory.

[brilton]

And this just in. A Canberra university professor tells us that we are all hapless drones, too unsophisticated to withstand the heavy-handed persuasion of all those corporations that force us against our will to buy things that we don't need. The horror! Well, I suppose it keeps him in a nice job.

http://thisiscanberra.com/the-love-of-things-fix-and-make/

[Watcher in the dark]

"“[Rutgers groups] should not be inviting anyone like Yiannopoulos because what we stand for is inclusion and diversity,” student activist Nyuma Waggeh told The Daily Targum."

But surely Mr Yiannopoulos is the very essence of what Rutgers' students love: he is diverse from the perceived 'wisdom' of a small minded small sect and has views that include others.

[David]

The Yiannopoulos protest drama now has its own thread.

[Don]

*stuffs foldable drink voucher in tipjar*

[Hal]

The hazards of funding limitations . . . .

[R. Sherman]

Meanwhile, The Patriarchy's "Research Division" is keeping itself busy.

[David]

Meanwhile, The Patriarchy’s “Research Division” is keeping itself busy.

It’s hard not to be impressed.

[Liz]

A few quid for making my commute bearable. :-)

[[a]]

Tip jar hit. Thanks for lots of great reads.

[T]

the reheated series is a pretty good place to start.

Spent the last hour reading (and laughing). Think I can stand you the price of a drink.

[Len]

Your tip jar has been hit, David.

the reheated series is a pretty good place to start.

I see I've a lot of catching up to do.

[Lancastrian Oik]

Retromingent and sacofricosis.

That's why I'm a subscriber.

[David]

That’s why I’m a subscriber.

Please report to the VIP lounge for coke and hookers. Big Julie at the bar will arrange your usual.

[Mike]

Thanks David. Tip jar hit.

[Hal]

Please report to the VIP lounge for coke . . .

The soft drink can be perfectly fine, but might there be a ginger beer in some fridge corner or 'nother?

[Jacob]

Just before Christmas my dad saw me reading this blog and now he reads it every week.

I'm confused. Is reading it still cool?

Tip jar hit.

[David]

I’m confused. Is reading it still cool?

Um, yes.

But your dad is now cooler than you.

And thanks again to all who’ve chipped in, or subscribed, or shopped righteously via the Amazon links. I now feel all uplifted and beloved.

[RY]

Sorry to be late.
Tip jar hit.
Thanks for great blog, David.
Here's to another nine years.

[AJ]

Tipped, David. Thanks for some top blogging.

[James]

Really enjoy the comment threads here (and the posts). Tip jar has been hit.

[Nu Here]

Late contribution. Hope it helps. Great blog.

[Ian M]

Why have I only just found this place?

*tip jar hit*