Thursday, June 16, 2011

Late for Supper

Well, it’s been just about a month now, just after the Baron got back from that Geert Wilders event in Tennessee, since we began the Spring Quarter’s Fundraiser. As of last week, everyone should have received their thank-you acknowledgment. Yeah, I know it takes me longer and longer to get to everyone; that’s how it goes these days. I’m just glad to be able to write each person… and if you haven’t heard from me, please let us know.

Despite my resolve to limit these endeavors to a week, once more we had an octave of blegging. See, what invariably happens is that a number of donors show up at the last moment, and since it’s become our custom to list the places our donors hail from, the bleg ends up extended for another day so I can have the pleasure of showing the numbers of places where you can find Gates of Vienna readers (including Vienna). To heck with it: from now on we’ll do an Eight Day Wonder — as in I’m left full of wonder that we’re read in so many climes and time zones. Amazing.

Below the fold you’ll find our dear Vlad’s thank you note to everyone who gave during this past fundraiser. Those who were paying attention back then will remember our mention of a new plan: from now on we will give our video guy, Vlad, a portion of our total because (a) his expenses increased suddenly and exponentially, well beyond his ability to pay for them, and (b) his work adds value to our blog on an almost daily basis, and (c) I have this feeling we’re supposed to give him the money.

However, before handing over Vlad’s epistle to you, I need to attempt one last time to clarify what I said in the comments the other day. I don’t remember my exact wording, but I do recall that it appeared to some of those folks in the thread that I said we were being paid to write stuff. Yeah, really. Like somebody in Tel Aviv gives us lots o’ dough and then we write whatever they tell us. Zionist Robots ’Я’ Us.

Exactly backwards. I will repeat what I said then, though I doubt it will be believed by those who read my words through some filter which twists what I say. As Peter Drucker said, “communication is the act of the recipient”. If that guy needs to think we’re in the pay of some person who rules our subject matter, this is just micturating into the wind…

Here’s the deal: we write first and then our readers donate afterwards. It’s a feedback loop of sorts. If people aren’t interested in our subject matter, then they wander away and that’s the end of that. Why do people donate to Gates of Vienna in the first place? Because we offered the choice: ads on the blog or donations. It was unanimous: no ads.

My apologies to those who thought they saw something nefarious wiggling under the rug. ’Tain’t so, boys. Sorry. We’re not in the pay of anyone; the only nefarious group that has us in its clutches is the IRS. Which reminds me: yes, we do indeed declare our donations income.

As for our other income: the Baron’s editing — and occasional programming — brings in some extra money. But our main source of living expenses is what we saved while the Baron was employed. In other words, we rob his retirement plan. We get away with this because our income is so low and he’s now old enough to withdraw from it. Both of those factors allow us to steal from ourselves without penalty.

We’re radicals:

  • No debt.
  • Old cars… make that car. We gave away the really, really old one (1993) to someone even poorer than we are. We couldn’t afford to keep two cars on the road anymore. Just about the time we’d figured that out, a poor person without a car showed up. No-brainer there. (Oops… some brains were required; he did have to wire part of the muffler thingy to the car to get it out of here.)
  • We own our home free and clear, and have for many years.
  • No expensive habits or desires. The Baron would like to travel now and again; he also pines on occasion for a better quality of espresso coffee. Me, I miss Amazon books and giving lavish birthday presents, plus I can think of a bajillion things I’d like for the garden. Beginning with a gardener.

Those are our dreams laid bare. In other words, if the economy depended on our spending habits, it would’ve tanked long before it actually did

When the Baron was a starving artist it required some creative caulking to stay afloat. I remember being taken aback once when a friend asked if we’d ever had our electricity turned off for lack of payment. I was amazed they thought us to be that poor! We had problematic “credit” back then but only because we didn’t have any. Credit, I mean. We’ve always paid cash or done without except for one time when we got a loan to build on a handicapped room for my mother. Our “lifestyle choices” — not having a television, a cell phone, movies, etc. — put us in some strange boring fringe that makes people’s eyes glaze over.

Did you ever read that blog, “Things White People Like”? I went there once; my turn to be bored. Why would anyone care about “stuff” that much?? Maybe you have to have a television (and watch it) to get the point of the blog. It sure will make an interesting artifact in a few hundred years. For about five minutes.

We got a great stash o’cash last year from a donor. Or rather, I did. The giver stated it was just for moi! It had been originally designated as his own “fun money” for going to Atlantic City, so my job was to have fun with his gambling stash. I’m still doling it out for small luxuriances, things like a tiny space heater for my feet because my desk is near the door. A reading device that lets me “hold” heavy books. And a Kindle! I bought a Kindle and stocked up on a lot of the freebies. Jane Austen and her successors for the Brits. Come to think of it, all my freebies are Brits. I’ve gone through all of Anthony Trollope, and am moving on to George Eliot.

Our current situation: Times are hard, but so far donations are holding steady. It has turned into more donors and smaller increments (though some folks are able to give the same generous dollop every single time). Expenses have risen some, but not horrendously.

The future: Our plan A is to keep blogging as long as the Baron’s energy and stamina — both considerable assets — maintain. Our blog will remain advert-free as long as the donations continue in their present form. Plan B involves eventual advertising in the event Plan A collapses. However, should that happen, we’ll probably haul out Plan C, which is some kind of local paid employment on the Baron’s part. As I’ve mentioned before, I asked him not to commute because my health is so dodgy. Or maybe he refused to commute because my health is so dodgy. I forget. Plan C would leave us with the same income, more or less, that we have now, but it would mean the curtailment or closing of our blog. Gates of Vienna takes most of his waking time as it is. Paid employment would obviate that real quick.

I hate to disappoint the paranoids but there are no wealthy supporters hiding under the bed, Jewish or otherwise. As for our editorial content, check back to our first few posts; the mission statement for Gates of Vienna hasn’t changed, and way back then we never dreamed of blegging for a living.

It’s as simple now as it was then: we stand with Israel. We always have and always will, no matter what happens.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

Below the fold is Eeyore’s thank you note on Vlad’s behalf. Eeyore is what Vlad is called when he posts on Vlad Tepes blog. But we always call him “Vlad” — everyone does.


Dear Donors to Gates of Vienna:

It is with a great deal of humility that I write to thank so many of you for helping me out at Vlad this past funding drive.

When I started the blog I felt it was my duty to do what I could for what appeared to me to be unprecedented historical times. Forces, new and old, were joined in making a new threat to everything that matters to me — and clearly matters to all of you as well.

It has also been my great privilege to be able to work with people like the Baron and Dymphna, as well as KitmanTV and a large crew of very hard working people who believe this cause is worth any sacrifice we make so long as we make progress in the defense of Western civilization, its history and values.

Eeyore I never expected to be read much, nor to find the niche I work in now -- mostly video and visuals in aid of the Counter Jihad. However that happened, I am thrilled to have readers come to Vlad’s. I’m touched that so many of you think enough of my work to help me out, especially now. My expenses have grown ten times what they were when I started; this rise is due to resource use on the servers where my various sites are reside. The price of success?

Thank you to all who read the site or watch the videos.

Thanks to those who think enough of my work to forward your favorites along to friends.

Thanks to all the members of our team who provide me with information, tips and links of incalculable value.

Thanks especially to the people who contribute to Gates of Vienna.

And much gratitude to the Baron and Dymphna for coming to the rescue with their idea to tithe their donations to keep those videos coming. It’s a real load off my mind to know they’ll be sharing their donations from here on out so Vlad’s can stay in business.

Gratefully,
Eeyore for Vlad Tepes blog

16 comments:

bewick said...

Dymphna
Your post has made me feel seriously humbled. I must have missed , perhaps because I was away or otherwise distracted, your original description of your circumstances which actually reminds me of the poverty (didn’t know that at the time – it is all relative) of my formative years in the 1950s.
You’ve actually made me feel rich and almost ashamed for contributing so little. Shall try harder. I DO though spread the message and I hope that some of my friends and relatives have also contributed as a result. Pennies make pounds as we say here , but you already realise that.
Then again you have a minor advantage over me since you own, lock stock and barrel, your land and home. I don’t yet - because of divorce- but I DO own lock stock and barrel the attached land.
For the living bit I have an “interest only” mortgage, which must be paid off in about 3 years and the fund which should have supported that has failed. (haven’t they all?) BIG problem and big worry but I think I have it under control. Until I remove that worry I still live in a simple way and take care over how I spend. Hardly ever treat myself.
Your description of your living conditions? Well, do you know, my heating system failed just before the coldest winter I can remember in 60+ years. At the time I didn’t have the cash to have it replaced so I reverted to what I knew and experienced during my childhood. I survived pretty well and was rarely uncomfortable. The outside temps were -14 but my house never got below 5C at worst. I can live with that.
Know what? My monthly payment to the energy company has almost halved and I am well in credit. Lesson there I think. Such as should I even bother replacing the system? (yeah I shall and can now afford)
The current generation are too mollycoddled and might have difficulty surviving if they had to “make do”. MY generation always had to “make do”. Guess that so did yours.
Bottom line is that I really don’t wish you to go to “option C” so I shall continue spreading the message. Plan B? Don’t care. I never look at adverts. If they are prepared to pay then let them.
As I’ve already told Ned you need to secure the continuation of GoV by implementing a “plan D” which involves getting someone to take it over if the worst happens.
What you do IS important but, with serious luck, and the waking up of politicians, maybe, just maybe, you won’t even be necessary in 10 years because the West will, finally, have woken up.
To my horror. Yesterday I accompanied a Sikh friend to a major DIY store. She needed advice and help.
I saw, for the first time ever in the North East of England, a woman in the full black burkha. It was a very seriously well cut and tailored burkha but a burkha nonetheless. I was horrified but my Sikh friend told me that they are common in the nearby major shopping complex. I go there sometimes but have never seen. Then again I tend to go when the kids are in school and of course Muslim women wouldn’t be there at that time because they couldn’t go unaccompanied.
Keep well
Regards
Bewick

bewick said...

PS
The bloke wasn't unattractive. His wife was probably very attractive. she certainly moved well and her burkha was flattering. Would that I could see her face. Doesn't "flattering" defeat the objective?

I was seriously tempted to confront the bloke but, with the current UK legal preference for Muslims I didn't really fancy being arrested for a "hate crime".
Just saying

Homophobic Horse said...

I like Dymphna posts. Next thing I know I'll probably start liking the new "My Little Pony".

"I love this show... What's wrong with me?"

Dymphna said...

@Bewick--

Divorce means that you get to live on Poverty Street for a loooong time. The main reason it's so destructive aside from the fact that no one should be allowed to walk around in the world knowing that much about you...

The Baron knows I'll never go thru another divorce. I'll shoot him first...being a widow must be easier.

-------------

@ Homophobic Horse--

I didn't understand that video. Nor did I grok the comments. However I did suss out a bit o' irony here & there.

Those pastel ponies reminded me of Obama for some reason...

I am a Hello Kitty fan, however, as you can see from this post four years back:

I Want This Gun

A commenter (Fellow Peacekeeper) turned his nose up at this treasure, making comparisons to the bad taste of "Saddam's gold plated Kalashnikovs"...

I'm allergic to cute. Mostly. But there is something so near to kitsch that when my granddaughter turned down that "Hello Kitty" wallet (a decision she later regretted), I began using it myself. Still have it & it's still drawing comments from strangers...

MissC said...

You have achieved what is truly a free press.

We have done without television for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one was intellectual value.

I think Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin would be proud of you. I know I found your blog a few years ago, and would surf in from time to time to read, think, and ponder. I am not a liberal, but I was stunned to find this lone voice, howling in the wilderness.

Thank you for what you are doing.
The lights aren't out yet.

bewick said...

yup Dymphna . I KNOW what you mean about divorce. As it happens my pension was totally non-transferrable so, when I was stupidly honest, I in effect gave her 2/3 of what I owned with no further commitment and I'm still paying 20 years later.
. She hadn't ever contributed a penny and it was SHE who cheated, not me. No wonder I am so bitter.
~(have I revealed too nuch?)
Whatever - it now matters little apart from cost.
Glad to learn though just yesterday that she and her partner are selling up. Maybe they'll get the hell out of here. If they don't then maybe I shall return to my native Derbyshire.
Ooops, sorry, too much personal info.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for continuing to be.

Dymphna said...

@ Bewick--

Have you revealed too much? I don't know. Does this woman read Gates of Vienna? Maybe you should check your hand, see if any aces are missing?

------------------
MissC & Nickie G:

Thank you. Sometimes, though cyberspace sure does feel like a Neal Stephenson novel. Just never can tell what's gonna pop up on the next page and take aim at yer head...

Professor L said...

I can say this much Dymphna - I'd very much hate to see a plan C. You do valuable work here, and I don't think any of us would let you go under. We'd go without.

Yes, us yong 'uns too (we do exist bewick. Just not as common as we used to).

Dymphna said...

LAW Wells--

Have been meaning to ask you about your experience in college. Just saw the stats on my son's college and the profs are 90% left wing. So are the students, probably. Another leftist academic bubble.

In his senior year, he was fortunate enough to get three other right-leaning guys to share a dorm suite. Before that, lots of foam flecks on his glasses from the reasoned arguments of his interlocutors.

He learned some rote comebacks to at least stop the worst of it.

AMDG said...

The austerity and living values that you show are really laudable, but I find this is deplorable:

> we stand with Israel. We always have and always will, no matter what happens.

Then it is easy to foresee what will happen to you: you will fall with them.

It is pitiful to read it, but it is a personal decision that everyone should respect. Because there are many like you we find a country with 300 million citizens that has bound its exterior policy to the interests of a distant country with 6 million inhabitants. It is probably the most astonishing geopolitical blunder in the whole history of the West. The first empire to cramble down for supporting the interests of a small distant alien population.

Let us hope that the rubble falls only on your heads, and not on ours, as it has happened with serbs and Christian Iraquis.

Dymphna said...

@AMDG--

Our austerity was not virtue, though neither of us particularly like "stuff".

However, the limits were imposed by our inability to earn money in any way that would permit us to maintain a life out of the fast lane. For a few years, the Baron earned good money (thanks initially to the services of a good friend who offered him work). However, the cost of being gone from home for days at a time was too high.

So here we are, back where we started.

But we have the luxury which not many on earth have -- i.e., to choose to live this way and to live with the consequences of our choice...not all of them foreseen, but then no one has omniscience.

Yeah, we stand with Israel, but noitce that's only half our mission statement. The other half is to push back against the incursions of Sharia wherever we can, and to call attention to the socialist paradigm which has become Islam's fellow-traveler. They both yearn for Utopia -- that age-old cursed dream.

it's the lethal flaws in our global ecomony which will cause the Temple of Debt to leave us all covered in rubble, no matter who we are. Oh except for the well-positioned elites. They're all prepared w/ escape hatches out of the mess they've created.

At any rate, people like us are a minority and we are hassled for our viewpoint, as you have just shown by getting on this comment thread when you've ignored so many hundreds of other posts on GoV.

Do you really buy what you're selling here -- that 300 million Americans have tied their dreams to the continued existence to Israel? I suggest you visit any large university campus to disabuse yourself of that sad notion. Hatred of Israel is alive and flouishing across this whole country.

As for the Iraqi Christians, what exactly did they do to deserve their fate? They certainly hated the Jews as much as did their own persecutors. Too bad that hatred didn't save them, any more than it saved the Copts.

If your survival is the be all and end all of your existence, then I suggest you learn Arabic and Chinese. Then you're prepared for whichever overlord wins.

There are worse things than dying, AMDG. Surely your nic gives a hint of that?

AMDG said...

Dymphna,

The fact that standing for Israel is half of the mission statement is already serious in itself. I wonder which half is more important, because it is not possible to serve two masters. In the same sentence you mention the socialist paradigm (you can see that I do not need to search very far away). Socialist paradigm is Jewish to its bones. Please check the ethnicity of “Russian” Bolsheviks or the intellectuals (and the sponsor) of the School of Frankfurt.

Israel has many meanings: Talmudic Judaism (so similar to Islam), the Jewry in general, the State of Israel. I agree that the latter can be an ally. Some individuals of the second (a minority) are also valuable allies, even if the organised Jewry is against us “racists whites and Christian bigots”. The first is as odious to me as Islam. Have a look to the blog of my favourite orthodox Jew.

I read most of the staff published in GoV, but I do not comment frequently in GoV. Mostly to disagree on specific issues, like this one. I do not have that much time left.

Speaking about hassle, in Spain we have a bookseller in jail for selling books that tell aspects of history that the Jewry does not like we read. It is sad that people are hassled because of their ideas, but I have serious doubts that GoV could survive if you showed any hit of Judeoskepticism.

I do not deny there is Israel-bashing in the USA, but I do not see to have much real influence. You may agree that any “white” country following a minority, immigration and border policy similar to Israel’s would be bashed and more than bashed at the Academia, and world fora. I am sure that you are aware that the Jewry is behind the open borders policy of those that once were “white countries”.

Iraqi Christians were not specially persecuted during Sadam times, but then some judeo-neo-cons thought that it would a good idea to bring democracy to Iraq, because “we have only one democratic ally in the area” (I have to say that I found it also a good idea in those days). Jew hate has not saved them, indeed, but the alternative would have been much, much worse. BTW, why is it that they have always been hated wherever they have settled? Is it possible that it is always goyim’s fault? If you were hated and rejected in all the neighbourhoods were you have settled? Would not you reflect upon your behaviour?

So, I see that you make standing with Israel a matter of principle. If you cannot dissociate support for Israel and fighting back islamization, then there is an issue. I am afraid that if you have to choose…but I know that you do not even envisage having to choose.

Together you will fall, because as a matter of fact you do not see any real chances but learning Chinese or Arabic. There are worst things that dying, I agree: And fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul.

Smut pedlers, champions of abortion, frontline feminist and homosexual activists… look at their etnicity.

Dymphna said...

Smut peddlers, champions of abortion, frontline feminist and homosexual activists… look at their ethnicity.. .

Unfortunately, I'd have to stand on a chair to look at them over the heads of our (protected) Roman Catholic pederasts, leftie Catholic feminists and abortionists (see Notre Dame's collusion with those folks & its arrest of pro-choice demonstrators), and the American seminary system, known to many as the "pink" palaces...

No religion, no ethnicity, no GROUP has an exclusive hold on evil. It's everywhere.

In fact, that’s the experiential knowledge behind the theological construct of original sin -- i.e., despite our good intentions there is a deep and fundamental chasm within each of us that shows in our behavior toward one another. Often the closer we are to one another the more hurtful we can be.

There are Jews over-represented in all those things you mention. Because, let's face it, Jews are smarter than average. At least the Ashkenazi Jews are so they fill out the Nobel Prizes in far greater numbers than would be warranted by their percentage of the populace.

They gave us the best and the worst of the modern world, George Soros being the epitome of arch-evil in the US right now.

Our other mission statement, to fight Shania’s incursions, is more important than our support of Israel because Sharia is a clearer and more present danger to everyone. Sad for us all, but those two battles have been deliberately intertwined by Islam itself, with its spittle-flecked anti-Jew hatred.

I can't battle Sharia without supporting the Jews because Sharia demands the death of Jews...and of infidels, too, but their target right now is mainly Jews -- perhaps largely due to the thin-skinned Mohammed's humiliation at the hands of Jewish scholars. He sure paid them back and then some for their lack of courtesy toward him.
------------------
Someone once said we can tell the character of a person by examining his hatreds. The only problem with that adage is we're always filtering someone else's enmity thru our own point of view.

The Jews are not innocent; no one is. But they aren't yet bent on world domination qua Jews.

OTOH, socialists (whether they be intellectual Jews trying ot fit in, or foolish trustafarians or affirmative action folks like Obama or dim-wit anarchists) are fundamentalist true-believers when it comes to their notions of Utopia. In this malevolent ideal, theyn are joined at the hip with Sharia Law.

I'd rather live in Israel as a goy than in ANY Islamic state. At least in Israel I'd have only second class status. In Islam, my life expectancy would be quite short.

This is my last response to you, AMDG. As I've said before, we speak across such a wide chasm of differences that dialogue isn't possible.

You may have the final word and then I'm closing the thread. It's a dead-end anyway.

AMDG said...

Dymphna,

Once more, I can see that Judeophiles lose their minds when the behaviour of the Jewry is put under the spot light. You seem to lose the sense of reality, the sense of fairness and sometimes the sense of civility.

That the wrongdoing of Catholics does not let you see the subversion of the Jewry is among the most hallucinated statements I have read recently. I would not recommend you to try to stand on a chair, but I would urge you indeed to take your head out of the sand. Curiously enough, those despicable Catholics have sprung like mushrooms after a council aimed at reconciling the Church with “Modernity” (just before its collapse, good timing indeed!) and with the Jewry. You will not see that behaviour in the “judeophobic” Catholic tradis. Ironies of history. Or it may be better considered revenge.

In any case, let me help you with the first point: ( cannot enter the html code, please search it in Google) Nathan Abrams on Jews in the American porn industry.

If no religion, no ethnicity, no group has an exclusive hold on evil, then there is no one above criticism… Then I take the opportunity to state that the Jewry has had a leading role in the subversion of our societies. I am open to discuss the extent of that role (you, and the Judeophilliacs, are not; not open and not able to do it in a civilized manner). And I am of course open to discuss the extent of the role of Catholics. If you prepare a list of the Catholic champions of porn and abortion industries, and Catholic feminist and homosexual activists, and Catholic Marxist intellectual and revolutionaries, etc. I will replay with the list of Jews involved. We will then compare their role, there influence, etc. It is just a rhetorical challenge. We all know that no Judeophilliac is so obtuse as to take the challenge. You are blind, not silly.

“I can't battle Sharia without supporting the Jews because Sharia demands the death of Jews...” That is an awkward fallacy indeed (nothing strange, we have seen that Judeophilliacs are unable to reason when the behaviour of the Jewry is at stake). Because Sharia demands the death of Jews, if you battle Sharia you are supporting the Jews as a result, but you can of course battle Sharia without directly supporting the Jews. It should be the other way round, because you fight Sharia, the Jewry should support you. It is not the case, with some exceptions.

Are you sure the Jews are not bent on world domination? Why should not they if they are so gifted? Is not Judaism a supremacist ideology? For the moment being they have dominate the culture, the finance and the exterior policy of the USA (and your mind). Not that bad.

I'd also rather live also in Israel as a goy than in any Islamic state, at least as far as the orthodox are a minority that is kept in check. But that a false alternative, because I prefer to leave in Europe or the Americas. Do you dream that we would be given asylum in Israel in the case? I know that you tell each other that if Israel fails then we fail. That is utterly ridiculous. It is the other way round: Israel is not sustainable if the USA fails. Another fallacy.

Reviewing the ethnicity of the leading Marxist intellectual and revolutionaries and the leaders and sponsors of the subversive movements may tell you something. Assuming that you wanted to hear (you do NOT).

I know the three comments rule. You can close the thread and put back the head in the sand. The view is not very exciting, but principles are principles. Principles? Let me finish with some Jewish humour, we deserve it after this hard answer: 'These are my principles and if you don't like them...well, I have others'

I do not want to have the final word. First because I have used heavy ammunition, second, because this is your blog. But I can understand that you are tired.

Dymphna said...

AMDG has had his final response.

The thread is now closed.