Rashly, He Appealed To Their Better Nature

As some of you may be gorged on bank holiday goodwill, now seems a good 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 for a while longer, there’s an orange button below with which to monetise any love. 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.

For newcomers wishing to know more about what’s been going on here for the last decade, and in over 2,000 posts and 60,000 comments, 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

[Josh]

Keep up the great work.

[Daniel Ream]

{jingle}

[sH2]

Still can't believe I've been reading your blog for 10 years...

Tip jar hit.

[R. Sherman]

Threw a few coins into the hat. Get the henchlesbians something nice.

[Mike]

Asked my wife to do her Amazon shopping via your link.

[David]

Thanks to all who’ve chipped in so far, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon links. It’s much appreciated.

Get the henchlesbians something nice.

There’s now a heated debate over whether to get a set of razor-sharp shuriken or a kitten. It could go either way.

[PiperPaul]

I guess a nice male bellydancer would be right out.

[Y. Knott]

I guess a nice male bellydancer would be right out.

- He's what the shuriken are for.

[jabrwok]

I think if you flang a kitten, it would do a pretty good shuriken impression.

[Pete]

Thanks for the laughs. Pinged.

[Ian]

At the risk of exposing myself to comment, of all the news-y bookmarks in my browser yours is the one I most look forward to seeing new stuff from, therefore I am happy to pay you to continue reinforcing my subconscious biases. They don't just reinforce themselves, after all.

[David]

They don’t just reinforce themselves, after all.

I do try quite hard to bring out the worst in people. Or so I’ve been told.

[WTP]

Done. Moar Nite Trane poor fa voar.

[RS]

There’s now a heated debate over whether to get a set of razor-sharp shuriken or a kitten.

Related.

[David]

Moar Nite Trane poor fa voar.

There are times when I understand barely half of what goes on here.

[David]

Janice Fiamengo on the moron children of Marcuse.

[Darleen]

More crab bucket

[sk60]

Pinged.

[Spiny Norman]

There are times when I understand barely half of what goes on here.

Night Train Express.

Just about the cheapest of cheap drunks.

[Spiny Norman]

[ pinged ]

[Spiny Norman]

Oh, by the way, that website, bumwines is pretty damn funny (that's "bum" in the Yank sense of "tramp"). And yes, even though Cisco has the reputation of making a drinker temporarily insane, Thunderbird is still the king of bum wines. "What's the word? Bird is the word!".

[Fred the Fourth]

Oh yes. T-Bird.
The code name of my first post-degree project was Thunderbird. One of the marketing folk gave us a bottle of T-Bird, which had a place of pride on top of the lab bench.
Until, that is, some Legal or HR weenie saw it and freaked out 'cuz our insurance (naturally) forbade alcohol in the labs.
We cautiously opened it, sniffed, and poured it into the chem waste disposal.
Then the weenie said we couldn't keep even the EMPTY in the lab. (These were computer HW labs, not chem or medical.) Buzzkill. Rule-follower. Worm.

[Spiny Norman]

Then the weenie said we couldn't keep even the EMPTY in the lab... Buzzkill. Rule-follower. Worm.

Any wagers that he's today a federal government bureaucrat, shamelessly kissing the asses of his superiors, while tormenting his cubical farm underlings?

[Min]

Ping!

[David]

More crab bucket

Wow. I’m not sure how to judge who wins that kind of chest-puffing competition. As realism and coherence seem almost entirely sidelined, I’m guessing it hinges on whose pretensions are the most contrived and grandiose. Though the spectacle of an author invoking “critical race theory,” as if the very mention of it should induce deference and trembling, was inadvertently funny.

[LH]

Rarely comment but always read.
Jar tipped.

[McN]

I enjoy your posts on academia. :-)

[Fred the Fourth]

crab bucket

Read about a quarter of the comments (of which there are hundreds).
The Looking Glass world is clearly well funded. My tax dollars at work.
I was disappointed by the non-appearance of Majicthise. He'd fit right in.

[David]

The Looking Glass world is clearly well funded.

I’m still processing the implication that if you regard Rachel Dolezal – a chronic fantasist and liar – as less than saintly, this is somehow evidence of hating transgender people.

I suppose it’s easy to get lost in the “social justice” word-pile.

[Em]

*kerching*

[WTP]

Just about the cheapest of cheap drunks.

Thanks! Re T-bird, another fave of the Climb the Tree and Finish the Bottle Without Falling game. I think we had another more interesting name for it but for some reason I've forgotten it. And when it comes to cheap drank, never forget The Mad Doctor, The Mad Dog, Mogan-David 20/20. I wouldn't let the H-L get hold of the latter. Unless you're planning to hire a wrecking crew anyway.

[Joan]

Dianne Abbott versus maths.

https://order-order.com/2017/05/02/diane-abbott-police-numbers-car-crash/

[David]

Diane Abbott versus maths.

Oh my. Like the equally inept Mr Corbyn, she’s the gift that keeps on giving. To the Conservatives, mainly.

I think the high point is Mr Ferrari’s note of incredulity as he checks Ms Abbott’s bewildering arithmetic and randomly changing numbers, and asks, “Has this been thought through?” To which she replies, indignantly, “Of course it’s been thought through!” All amid sounds of flapping papers and general disarray.

And we mustn’t forget the Green Party’s great articulator Natalie Bennett and her difficulties with numbers.

[R. Sherman]

Dianne Abbott versus maths.

Leftists/Progressives have a tendency to hide behind large numbers. It's magic. Once you've tossed out a figure--X million or Y billion--the public's eyes glaze over and it believes that somehow what's being proposed can, in fact, be done. Of course, such promises are lies and function solely to gain more cash to be redistributed among Leftists themselves.

[David]

It’s magic.

It reminds me of an activist and Guardian contributor named Zohra Moosa, who complained about being asked for evidence and practical details, when what she wanted was “a space where these ideas are a given.” These ideas being her ideas of how to spend “a lot of society’s money.” You see, justifying her “most basic principles” – explaining how they might work in practice, what problems might arise, how much they might cost other people – only “serves to distract.” From the purity of her vision.

[H]

"Education doesn't increase intelligence. It doesn't even appear, for most people, to do much in the way of increasing knowledge."

http://anepigone.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/coming-collegiate-collapse.html

[Trevor]

"Education doesn't increase intelligence. It doesn't even appear, for most people, to do much in the way of increasing knowledge."

This is as good a place as any to mention that Dianne Abbott is a graduate of Cambridge, supposedly one of the world's best universities.

[PiperPaul]

"as he checks Ms Abbott’s bewildering arithmetic"

"No, you're the mathematically-challenged idiot! 5 out of 4 of my millions of friends say so!"

[PiperPaul]

And it's like unsuccessful mimicry of competence - "Of course I'm right! These experts here with university degrees that I pay to confirm my predetermined outcome say so!"

Usually only works in academia, but then again with government funding and a credulous media you can get away with it for a very long time, evidently.

[[+]]

in over 2,000 posts and 60,000 comments

10,000 of those must be from Hal. ;-)

Tip jar hit, Mr T.

[David]

Heh.

[Spiny Norman]

"Education doesn't increase intelligence. It doesn't even appear, for most people, to do much in the way of increasing knowledge."

Quite the opposite, in fact.

[R. Sherman]

You see, justifying her “most basic principles” – explaining how they might work in practice, what problems might arise, how much they might cost other people – only “serves to distract.” From the purity of her vision.

Years ago, I blogged about a program which was being pushed by the Dems in Congress to provide government health insurance for a certain group of children based upon the income of their parents. At the time, private insurance for an unlimited number of kids if added to a parent's policy was less than $500 per year with a $2500 deductible. A private policy for an unlimited number children within the same family with no deductibles and a waiver for pre-existing conditions would have cost about $1750 per year on the open market. Yet, Congress was demanding $4000.00 per child to be insured and the families covered could make up to $80,000 per year. Bush the Younger vetoed the bill having previously offered a Ten Billion Dollar compromise which was still more than the cost per child on the open market.

Anyway I wrote about it, suggesting that an insurance company CEO would gladly agree to insure the all kids to be covered by the program sight unseen for a ten billion dollar check per annum and the taxpayer would still save money.

Suffice it to say, I had quite a few adverse comments, one of which accused me of wanting to "kick sick kids into a ditch." None of those commenters, however, took issue with the math, but merely the fact that having private concerns involved somehow made the whole enterprise tawdry and immoral.

It was really a fascinating discussion.

[David]

This.

Via dicentra.

[mike fowle]

The good news is I've just donated a huge amount. The bad news is that Diane Abbott calculated it.

[David]

The bad news is that Diane Abbott calculated it.

Heh. Hey, when people throw money in the jar, I tend not to quibble.

[David]

Diane Abbott versus maths.

That feeling when your morning interview to promote Labour policy is used verbatim, hours later, as a Conservative attack ad.

[Spiny Norman]

None of those commenters, however, took issue with the math, but merely the fact that having private concerns involved somehow made the whole enterprise tawdry and immoral.

You WILL be assimilated into the Collective, or else, Kulak.

You WILL learn to love Big Brother.

[David]

Diane Abbott versus maths.

Re Ms Abbott, this.

[G]

*chucks coins in bucket*

[bilbaoboy]

Have finally broken the secret code on my wallet. You lucky man, you!

Actually David, you along with M. Le Worstall, Anthony Watts, Matt Ridley, Steve Goddard/Mike Heller, Tim Newman (good to see you blogging), Jordan Peterson, Christina Summers (no sexism here please), Paul J. Watson and the lovely Milo (currently subdued but he will be back I'm sure) and a goodly number of others (including many commentators) provide an important counterweight to the outright utter tittery that prevails in the world today.

My thanks to you (and all the others).

Oh and special thanks to you for allowing the love of my life, Laurie Penny, to add something truly amazing to my education :-)

[David]

Oh and special thanks to you for allowing the love of my life, Laurie Penny, to add something truly amazing to my education :-)

Happy to oblige.

[PiperPaul]

"utter tittery"

*SEXISM KLAXON SOUNDS*

(For Micro: It's not me shouting, it's the klaxon being loud)

[W]

Top blogging. Tipped.

[Fay]

Rashly, He Appealed To Their Better Nature

And, rashley, she replied. Tipped.

[David]

Thanks to all who’ve chipped in so far. It’s much appreciated and is what keeps this place here.

[bilbaoboy]

Utter boll*cks?

[PiperPaul]

Can only afford a couple of lbs at the moment but hopefully it'll help to defray the bandwidth costs of all my posting of images-with-supposedly-clever-captions. Unfortunately, the psychological damage of viewing them can never be undone.

:(

[Clam]

Thanks for many hours of good reading. And some hilariously bad art. :-)

[Clam]

Tip jar has been hit.

[Connor]

My round. *ping*

[Daniel Ream]

Unfortunately, the psychological damage of viewing them can never be undone.

No refunds. Credit note only.

[Big O]

The comments here are always interesting. Donation to barge buoyancy fund on its way.

[Ian]

Hope I'm not too late. A little something for your trouble, sir.

[David]

Hope I’m not too late.

Happily, no. And thanks.

[Collin]

I've been reading your shredding of Everyday Feminism. Thanks for the laughs.

*hits tip jar*

[David]

Much appreciated. And again, thanks to all who’ve chipped in, or subscribed, or done shopping via the Amazon links.

[R]

Your appeal was successful. Keep up the good work.