Give No Quarter?? Nope. More Like “Give Every Quarter, This One Included” [UPDATE 5]

Note: This post was originally published on February 13, and was “sticky” all week. Scroll down for more recent posts.

The recent speech by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is particularly recommended. It is one of the finest speeches of our time.

Also: See Emmet Scott’s latest essay discussing anti-Trump hysteria.

Winter Fundraiser 2017, Day Seven

February 19: Update from Dymphna

Since the Baron has to play most of the innings here it’s always a relief (to me) when I feel well enough to pick up the bat and take my turn.

Oops…an unfortunate phrase, that. Probably due to reading about what playing with bats means now in rural Germany.

Sometimes it hurts simply to read our blog.

Tip jarWe’ve been around more than ten years now, and often the Baron is so busy just keeping on keeping on, we fail to take note of the passing anniversary of our advent here. Or perhaps we have simply decided we’re here for the duration and that’s that.

Which ‘duration’? Heaven knows; we sure don’t. I thought we’d be locking the Gates when old Hildebeest rumbled toward the Oval Office but my fear was misplaced. It feels as though we’ve been granted a reprieve since Trump was elected, but again we grow concerned as the deep state seems to be working in concert to ruin him. Like the rest of the country, we can only watch and wait. And in our case, pray. [I don’t want to argue about whether or not prayer “works”; it gives me something to do whilst waiting to see what happens].

The Baron promised I’d relate our tale of The Skunk Parade, so here goes.

…As ‘problems’ go, it’s relatively mild considering the creature under discussion. And we both think it’s occurring right now (i.e., this past fortnight or so) because of our too-mild winter. Only one snow and that one not very deep. No ice, and only one period of deep freezing — surely not enough to kill off most of the Japanese beetle grubs, darn it.

One reason we let the skunks be is that they clean out grubs when the ground is soft (as it is now) and they especially enjoy going after the underground nests of yellow jackets.

So skunks have their uses, especially when it comes to their enjoyment of yellow jackets. If only skunks weren’t so fragrant, they’d be ideal companion animals for removing the things gardeners don’t like. During this winter I’ve caught several glimpses of them near the side porch at twilight. I wondered if there was a family of them, though it seemed an odd time to be nesting, and they don’t usually come so close to the house. Since the few I’ve seen didn’t see me, all was well. Or so I thought.

All “was” well, that is, until ten days or so just past. Due to the warm weather, we think “our” skunks are in their mating season a month early and the males are obviously doing battle. Perhaps there aren’t enough females? Perhaps they’re polygamous, and only one male to a particular territory, and for some reason their population has enlarged to include two rivals? Could the females have dropped a litter already and are scaring off the possums, dogs, and bears in order to protect their young?

Whatever the problem, it’s nocturnal in nature. We’re beginning to learn that if we don’t have to get out the candles by ten p.m., that whatever the source of the problem, it’s not going to materialize on that particular evening. Fortunately (or not), due to the sometimes uncertain nature of our electric connections, we lose power, usually due to some outage in those big lines coming down the mountains. That means I have quite a candle collection. Thank heavens.

But this isn’t an easy problem to solve. Although they’re obviously not near the house when the battles royal begin, you’d think they were under the windows when the smell permeates the rooms downstairs. The B has looked in all the possible places and there is not a sign of them near our foundation. Nor has he found any other signs out in the various thickets of forsythia and mock orange and lilacs and mountain laurel that mark the edges of what he considers our mowable yard.

The further reaches, past our property line, have been clear-cut by companies that specialize in buying forested land whose taxes have become delinquent, and then harvesting the wood. That clear-cutting has changed the habitat out past our property line. We can barely see those changes, and then only in the winter when the light is stronger through our own trees to the south than it used to be.

That may be the solution to our mystery of “why now?” I plan to call the County Extension Agent and ask him this week. If it’s going to be an unseasonable Winter or an early Spring ritual from now on until the pines grow back, I’ll make sure we have enough candles to see us through.

And those skunks? They’re going to eat those grubs and yellow jackets, or explain why.

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Our donors on Saturday came in from:

Stateside: Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia

Far Abroad: New Zealand and the UK

Canada: Ontario

Australia: Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, and Victoria

Today is the final day! The Baron will write a wrap-up tomorrow, but otherwise we’ll be giving it a rest… until spring.

February 18: Update from the Baron

Well, folks, here we are going into the sixth day of our quarterly fundathon, in which we use all the techniques of hip persuasion to induce our readers to hit the tip cup on our sidebar.

Or, to use the shorter version: we beg.

Y’all have been very kind to us this time, and I thank you for your generosity. And the thank-you notes are going out faster than usual; I’ve kept my New Year’s resolution on that so far.

The photo at the top of this post is from the winter of 2009 here at Schloss Bodissey — late winter, actually; it was in March. I include it here because it’s seasonal, but the weather is NOT like that so far this winter. Just one snow, and it didn’t last long. It’s been fairly mild most of the time.

I have a suspicion that the nasty cold isn’t done with us just yet, but I’ll enjoy this while it lasts. And the daffodils have started blooming, those optimists.

If Dymphna gets to write the update tomorrow, I’ll remind her to tell you about the skunks.

That’s about all I have to say tonight (or this morning), except for the list of exotic locales:

Stateside: Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas

Far Abroad: Germany, New Zealand, and the UK

Canada: British Columbia and Ontario

Australia: New South Wales and Victoria

By the way — we’ve seen a heck of a lot of donations from Michigan. I don’t know why — it’s a populous state, but so is New York, and we don’t get anywhere near as many from there.

See you (*yawn*) later today…

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February 17: Update from the Baron

I hope everyone got a chance to watch Donald Trump’s press conference last night. It looks to be very entertaining, and I’ve only seen the first fifteen minutes or so — I hope to have time to watch the rest tomorrow (or rather, later today).

Oops, I should have said: We are moving into the fifth day of our quarterly fundraiser. This post is sticky, and is being updated in the wee hours every day this week by either Dymphna or me. Scroll down to read what we said in previous updates, and also to see the geographical breakdown of where donors came from.

For new readers: These quarterly blegs are how we keep Gates of Vienna going. No ugly, flashing, annoying ads here! Instead, four times a year we ask our readers to drop a modest amount in the tip cup on our sidebar.

The image at the top of this post is a golden oldie.

Almost eleven years ago, in reaction to some public figure who complained about “Islamophobia”, I photoshopped a button with the slogan “Islamophobic and Proud of It”. If I recall correctly, I used an “I Like Ike” campaign button for the source graphic, or it may have been a Nixon button from 1960. The figure at the center is taken from an engraving of Jan III Sobieski, the king of Poland who led an army to the Wienerwald above Vienna on September 11, 1683 to break the Second Siege of Vienna and save Christian Europe from the forces of Islam under the Ottoman Empire.

Back in 2006 we didn’t have all that many European readers, but we had enough that some Germans discovered the button and spread it through their Islamophobic forums. I found out because a German wrote me and asked me (using Google translate to write in English) where he could buy the button; he really wanted one.

I wrote him back (using Google translate to put it into German) and explained that the button was only a virtual image, and had no actual existence.

But the fact that someone actually wanted to purchase such a button was one of the incentives for us to open up our little Café Press store. I recreated the image at a much higher resolution — just the letters and Sobieski — and had CP put it in the store as a button. Over the years people have actually bought some of them (I’m not sure how many), but I’ve never seen anyone wearing one.

The image that you see above is the original, however. It’s the one I photoshopped on a whim back in 2006 using an Ike or Nixon button.

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This is the roster of places for Thursday’s donors:

Stateside: California, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, and Virginia

Far Abroad: Czech Republic, New Zealand, Norway, and the UK

Canada: British Columbia and Saskatchewan

Australia: New South Wales and Victoria

Thanks to everyone — and there are a LOT of you — who has chipped in so far.

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February 16: Update from the Baron

Well, here we are starting up Day Four of the quarterly bleg. We’ve rolled the stone to the top of the week’s hill; now let’s watch it go thundering down the other side!

A reminder: This is a newfangled sticky fundraiser post. If you haven’t been to it before, scroll down to see what Dymphna and I said on previous days.

Last night Dymphna mentioned the peculiar business model we use here to keep this site going. We rely directly on our readers to fund our venture; no middlemen are involved. Those who like what we do and consider it important put money in our tip cup when they can afford it. But there’s no paywall — everyone can read what’s here free of charge.

At first it was kind of scary to raise money this way, and it’s still a little nerve-wracking if I stop and think about it. No one to write us a paycheck — what’s going to happen to us??

Yet every quarter people pitch in, each giving a modest amount. It’s a distributed process commonly known as “crowdfunding”. The ups and downs even out over the quarters, always leaving us enough to get by on. Somehow.

Besides — when you lead a paycheck-based life, you’re always only one executive decision away from sudden penury. So this nerve-wracking quarterly bleg isn’t all that bad an alternative, really.

The illustration at the top of this post is obviously a cigarette ad from Soviet times. I’m not very good at transliterating Cyrillic, so I can’t give you any useful information about what it says. I’m assuming the State found it helpful to push cigarettes to the comrades because (a) smokers are more productive, and (b) they die sooner, saving the State pension money.

Are you listening, Baby Doc Trudeau? How long will it be before the People’s Republic of Canada urges its citizens to “Smoke a Carton of Kools to Help Women, Minorities, and LGBTQ+”?

The graphic was in a big folder of Soviet art that someone gave me years ago. Most of the rest of the images in it are fabric art — patterns for curtains and bedspreads and whatnot, showing proletarians driving tractors and working in factories. Some of those are beautifully executed; it’s fascinating stuff.

I’m determined not to let my thank-you notes get so far behind this quarter, so I’ve been burning the midnight oil a little later than usual to send them out. I hate it when they get delayed for a couple of months.

Here’s where everyone came from yesterday (and thank you all so much):

Stateside: Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, North Dakota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming

Far Abroad: Finland, Indonesia, and the UK

Canada: British Columbia and Ontario

Australia: Australian Capital Territory and Victoria

Finland and Indonesia are pretty rare (maybe unique) on the “Far Abroad” list — it was an unusual day.

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February 15: Update from Dymphna

Despite not being able to write much anymore, I still do a fair amount of visiting other blogs, on both sides of the spectrum.

Oh, wait: there are many more than two sides now. Given some of the ideas floating by in the intertubes the last few years, one begins to get the sense that some of these notions escape any linear description; they enter more obliquely. Thus, instead of a spectrum what we have among some of the more chaotic fringes is an array of spectres (see Emmet Scott’s latest essay for an example of a spectre that will not die).

And not for nothing are those two words — spectrum and spectre — related. So don’t stray too far: as Little Orphan Annie warns, “the goblins gonna getcha if you don’t watch out.”

Out and about in that worldwide web the Baron and I have both noticed that our form of “monetizing” our website exists in only one other place: Wikipedia. It, too, depends on donations — though it no doubt captures a far wider audience with deeper pockets. It sure has more languages! That aside, the rest of the websites I read are either non-profit trusts, or paid for by the Bigs, or are stuffed with ads, or the writers have day-jobs to keep the sheriff away. Even The Drudge Report is full of ads. Yes, I know about ads and yes, I use an Ad-Blocker, but if, say, the Forbes site asks me to pause my A-B, I do so for the moment.

I’m glad our readers promised to donate if we’d forego ads. I like how quickly Gates of Vienna loads. And I noticed in Director Blue’s list of best conservative sites, he set aside a few as being worthy but so full of ads he left them off the awards list.

[You can see our “Fabulous Fifty” award on the side bar; it will take you to Director Blue’s list of awards. When I start on my daily patrol, I begin at his main page. Right now he has the gory details of the political assassination of Mike Flynn. It’s sad and creepy.]

I’m not saying there aren’t blogs and websites out there that devote part of their energy to fund-raising. What I mean is that aside from some small monthly amounts at Amazon from click-throughs on our sidebar, our Quarterly Fundraisers are our only income from the site. And no one else (including Wikipedia, which doesn’t ask for help consistently) places that trust in its readers. I’m so glad we asked our readers first, back at the beginning of the end of the Baron’s work life (when the IT field tanked in concert with my health — which meant he couldn’t do any more of those commute jobs) what they wanted. I was sure y’all would say, “do ads”. Goes to show, hmmm?

There is one form of advertising that’s often tempted me. It’s what Wretchard does and it works for him because he limits his (excellent) output to several essays a week. But after each essay is a short list of related books at Amazon which readers can click through to examine. For the same reason Wretchard does it — because I’m a bibliophile and insatiably curious — that would be fun advertising. However, while I’m not a technophobe, I can’t figure out how to make our blog put a little “Book Tail” at the end of my infrequent essays.

[Since I can’t do that, I’ll mention a book right here, the notice of which appeared in my mail a few hours ago. It’s Ezra Levant’s Trumping Trudeau: How Donald Trump will change Canada even if Justin Trudeau doesn’t know it yet. I belong to Bookbub so I’m reading it for free. I plan to learn a lot about the nutz’n’bolts of Canadian politics…]

Thanks to everyone who came by today to donate. “Amazing, really amazing”, as Trump would say…and he means it. So do I.

Stateside: California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, and Virginia

Far Abroad: India, New Zealand, and the UK

Canada: Ontario

Australia: Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales

The response was YUGE!

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February 14: Update from the Baron

The first day of our Winter Fundraiser went very well, and I thank everyone who came in to clink the tip cup. It’s always surprising and gratifying to see the response — even after almost ten years, we haven’t really gotten used to it.

The image at the top of this post is a cropped detail from a digital design I’ve been working on for a number of months. It’s called “Solutrean Sunset”, and I include it here for no particular reason — I just happened to have it handy.

I always give a shout-out to our translators during fundraisers, and this one is no exception: we owe a great debt of gratitude to everyone who slaves away translating videos and articles into English. The problem is, we now have so many on the team — we’ve added several since last time — that it’s difficult to list them all.

First the recent additions: FouseSquawk for Italian, Sandra Solomon for Arabic, and Stefan cel Mare for Romanian.

The rest of the team (I hope I’m not leaving anybody out):

  • Hungarian: CrossWare.
  • German: JLH, Rembrandt Clancy, Oz-Rita, Nash Montana, Egri Nök, Ava Lon, Silentium Voces, and K. from Germany.
  • French: Ava Lon, Oz-Rita, and Nathalie.
  • Scandinavian languages: Tania G.
  • Dutch: H. Numan and Simon XML.
  • Czech and Slovak: Xanthippa, Margita, Raduit, and Marian CZ.
  • Polish: Ava Lon, Green Infidel, and PJ.
  • Russian and Hebrew: D@rLin|{.
  • Bulgarian: Tanya T.
  • Spanish: Fausta.
  • Slovenian: Andrej Turjaški.
  • Finnish: KGS.

Also: Dymphna forgot to mention that we tithe from our donations to Vlad Tepes, without whose extensive video work this site would not have such breadth and reach. Those who want to increase Vlad’s portion are advised to visit his site and donate there.

Last but not least, these are the locations from which Monday’s donors came:

Stateside: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia

Far Abroad: Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, Thailand, and the UK

Canada: British Columbia, Newfoundland, Ontario, and Saskatchewan

Australia: Queensland

See you all tomorrow!

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The way we did the Quarterly Fundraiser last autumn was so much simpler — and better — that I got the Baron to agree to adopt it as our new template going forward…unless we hear otherwise from y’all, that is.

I doubt our donors much care how we do it, so long as there’s some sort of reminder that it’s donation time again. Comparing the old version with this Quarterly Fundraiser 2.0 reminds me of how much of GoV is ad-hoc and organic (I mean it grows from the ground up and requires great gobs of manure to keep it alive and growing).

Our Fundraisers, no matter how we format them, are vital to our existence.

It wasn’t always this way. Why, I can even remember when the Baron financed his own trips to Europe for the Transatlantic Counterjihad meetings. Those days of being flush and middle-class are over, and they’re not coming back in our lifetime (at this point should I mention the lamps going off all over Europe? The thing is, if you’ve lived long enough to have hindsight throw a sufficiently lengthy shadow, you’ve no doubt noticed they never truly came fully back on. Or perhaps we retreated to Plato’s Cave without noticing?)

Even though the Baron spends most of his waking hours oiling those Gates to make sure they stay open, the fact of our existence as a website still surprises me. After a dozen years now you’d think I’d take it for granted, but it remains a kind of mysterious being, something that has assumed a life of its own — an assisted life, but a life nonetheless.

For those who remember becoming parents, didn’t you often look back at your pre-parent days and wonder what you did with all that time? You look at your kids — even the hairy, unwashed ones — and their very existence seems a kind of miracle. Or at least, a mystery. This is especially true for two kinds of child-being: the small, sleeping ones you can hold in one arm, and the huge things that somehow grew to tower over you when you weren’t looking.

In some ways, Gates of Vienna is our child, but more so the Baron’s than mine. It took on a life of its own and as my health faded, it continued to grow, becoming far more than either of us imagined when we were setting out.

In other ways, Gates of Vienna just happened… we envisioned it as something far smaller than it became — just as children get bigger and smarter than their parents can imagine starting out.

Though Gates of Vienna happened to us first, it is also part of our readers’ lives too… for us our child, the one we adopted when our son grew up and then when my daughter died. Some people get a dog to cover up that hole from their previous existence; we got a blog instead. Now we get to share it with thousands of readers every day.

With this adopted “pet” of ours, few and far between have been the piles left in the garden or smelly stains on the rug. Though it did become a close thing after the Breivik massacre. That’s when some of the rude and crude Swedish professoriat appeared suddenly in our website’s doorway spouting the worst language ever uttered here and leaving muddy prints on the floors. Before that, we’d never had to monitor comments. After Breivik that chore became mandatory, or Schloss Bodissey would’ve turned into a sewer.

There have been many forks in the path of our existence here. And ad hoc or not, the shortcut fundraiser has now morphed into the Quarterly Fundraiser 2.0. This is actually better than the original form, especially given the fast-paced nature of the Baron’s work.

As a rule, we don’t do “breaking news”. That’s for deep pockets and blogs manned by more than the one-and-a-quarter administrators who run things around here. As in necessity being the father of… or is it mother of… invention. Probably both, unless maybe you’re dealing with immaculate conceptions.

As Malvolio remarked about greatness, sometimes you just have change forced upon you. I give the credit/blame for this one to (a) the Baron’s characterological persistence. I’ll bet his first words out of the womb were, “the show must go on”, because, by Jove, we need a quarterly fund-raiser to survive so it was gonna happen, period. It’s a character trait I admire, since I am much more likely to sit down on the curb and claim I can’t go on. It’s not so much that I’m a quitter. Think of me as the Postponer.

But blame Donald Trump for this change. The biggest and most transformative occurrence was the November election; even members of our team living closer than we do to the edge of Greenwich Mean Time stayed up to learn who would be America’s next president. Now here we are in February and it still seems like a miracle whenever I say “President Trump”. Or rather, the true miracle lies in knowing I will never have any cause to moan about “President Clinton”.

Someone called that November 2016 experience “The Flight 93 Election”. Most Americans would understand the brilliance of that title. For those who don’t get it, read
this essay written two months before we voted.

Each time I re-read that post I am reminded again how shudderingly close we came — “we” as in Gates of Vienna and other like-minded websites — to being dissolved in leftist acid. No, I’m not being dramatic; I seriously doubt we would’ve been permitted to simply close the gates and leave quietly. As the author says in “Flight 93” (written in September, when it looked like the next president would be Hillary) [my emphasis]:

A Hillary presidency will be pedal-to-the-metal on the entire Progressive-left agenda, plus items few of us have yet imagined in our darkest moments. Nor is even that the worst. It will be coupled with a level of vindictive persecution against resistance and dissent hitherto seen in the supposedly liberal West only in the most “advanced” Scandinavian countries and the most leftist corners of Germany and England.

Thus, after the election, when that overdue Quarterly Fundraiser would admit no further delay or else, we were exhausted from the stress of worrying about our almost-future under Hillary. Had she won, we wouldn’t have needed to do any fund-raising unless it was to buy a new identity — New Zealand was looking better all the time.

When Mr. Trump won, we scrambled, reacting to the exigencies of the moment by adopting what I now call “The Sticky Post Ad Hoc Quarterly”. We took that course last November because we didn’t have the necessary number of functioning brain cells left to traverse the traditional route. Trump seems to move in fast-forward mode, and we struggled to keep up. Fortunately, our synapses have recovered since then, but it was a close call for what seemed like an interminable space.

Trump has continued to change the tenor and the range of the zeitgeist. I don’t care a whit if he is the clumsy oaf his detractors claim, or even if he is infinitely worse than they can conjure: It. Doesn’t. Matter. Trump can be worse than the scariest Leftist nightmare, but he remains the only person currently standing between average Americans and the chaotic darkness of a spent, dead-end Left. And the more he is rejected by those who have taken over the megaphone of journalism, academia and justice, the more average Americans look to him as the last hope for our country.

The fate of Europe seems to hang ever more loosely on its final threads, though there are bright spots. None of us can imagine what event will be the tipping point, because you can never know it till you’re past it. Some Gavrilo Princip may be even now waiting in the wings. On our side, who knows which particular scum in the pay of whatever darkness is out there will make the first attempt on Mr. Trump’s life. No, I’m not being dramatic; the Left still holds academia, and they have children doing make-believe assassinations in school.

Whatever happens, I want these dozen years the Baron has worked (even as friends walked away, dedicated people came to take their place) to continue to stand as part of the historical record. It will mark where Americans and Europeans and Anglosphereans (Anglotropes?) are standing together in the breach. That’s why our comment threads are important. Many of the people who show up to have their say speak with experience and knowledge. It has been like that since our beginnings.

So this is our Winter Quarterly Sticky Post Fundraiser, at the top of the blog… where it will stay for the week, suitably modified and updated each day. I hope our donors like the new arrangement. If it generates comments at the same level our first 2.0 version did, I will be happy. It was truly a Gathering at the Gates…

The old method was eight days of posts by alternating authors, each based loosely on some theme or other. Umm… “loosely” is the key word, since we often lost that ball in the thickets and our so-called theme just as often as not got away from us. We had great illustrations, though. And it was fun to list out all the states and countries who’d donated on a given day.

The new method, born of necessity last November, was a focused sticky post: only one post for the whole week’s Fundraiser. It turned out to be far better than the method we’d used since the first fundraiser. For one thing, readers didn’t have to sort through the day’s offerings, looking for the real posts. And if, before jumping past our Sticky Pleas, you’d glanced through that Fundraiser effort, you’d have a much better idea of the surprising diversity of your fellow donors because there you all were in one place. And every day there was a different illustration at the top, loosely reflecting whatever came up in the daily updates.

The best part for us in the ad hoc version was the way in which having only the single post for the week generated far more comments than the old way, i.e., seven or so separate posts. It was as though having a Gathering of Donors made people more open to discussing our aims and purposes going forward. While the Baron is the energy behind this process, it is his ability to draw a team together for tasks plus his no-drama sense of discernment that has kept this these Gates open and the posts flowing.

So here we are, Winter Fundraiser 2017. This time tomorrow the Baron will be updating this post with a list of all the locations of donors who chipped in the first day.

See you then!

The tip jar in the text above is just for decoration. To donate, click the tin cup (or the donate button) on the sidebar of our main page. If you prefer a monthly subscription, click the “subscribe” button.

45 thoughts on “Give No Quarter?? Nope. More Like “Give Every Quarter, This One Included” [UPDATE 5]

  1. If I click donate, I get a PayPal page for “Natural Intelligence of Central Virginia”? Is that Gates of Vienna? Also, does the $15/month subscription have any purpose beyond just a donation option?

    • Yes, NatIntel is us. It was my business name as a sole proprietor before we started blogging.

      The $15/mo subscription option is just an alternative, for people who prefer to give that way.

    • Indeed it is. And it can be yours, too, if you use Google images to search for Berber quarters.

      Oops, make that “Barber quarters”.

      I guess I should have said “Pennies from Heaven”? Hmm…a thought for the next one.

    • Barber quarters, actually. Barber is the name of the designer — during the same period there were also Barber dimes and Barber half dollars. That was before we started putting presidents on coins.

      I borrowed the image from a site that sells “junk” silver.

  2. Pay day is Friday so I’ll make a donation at that time. Thanks for the effort that goes into GoV.

  3. Are you the same Ned May that Charles Johnson 5 years ago wrote about? I just read that, due to my efforts to find an address for you. Never mind, I know all about Charles Johnson from that period (a nutcase).

    I am still trying to figure out how I can donate to your efforts. Maybe I will find that piece of paper with your address. . .

    • It has been a strange winter so far. I love the petition in The Book of Common Prayer, one which merely asks for “seasonable” weather. A reasonable request, but difficult to parse – even for those adherents of the AGW faith.

      I started to respond to your remark upon letting it in but got distracted by something or other. I wanted to say that being in the more-or-less “upper middle zone” of the Piedmont, our winters are as unpredictable as our distinctive red-clay soil is unworkable. The day before this Quarterly Fundraiser started, it was an unwelcome 81F. Today – “today” being the 3rd day, it is again 40s and 50s.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piedmont_%28United_States%29

  4. and you will have a room in your home where the collected funds are placed that will be you “Guest Quarters,” pun intended and I wish you a successful campaign and hope that you have a lot of ‘fund’.

    • Ah, we do have such a room. I think I will rename it from “the office” (sometimes it’s the box room making it a “box office) and call it “the computer quarters”.

      Fortunately for all concerned this octave of fund-raising will fly by and things will be back to what passes for normal ’round here.

  5. The comment about the lights having gone out and never having come fully back on is interesting. Of course I know the reference is to what some British Lord said at the outset of WW I. But for the great bulk of the population, on both sides of the Atlantic, the lights went on for the first time after WW II. The achievement of general prosperity in almost every western nation in the second half of the twentieth century was, is, simply astounding. General prosperity. Former ages could only dream….

    Once realized you would think it would be so precious, so prized, that every effort would be bent on maintaining it and fending off internal and external threats to its maintenance. Does anything prove more conclusively that Man is driven not by reason but by madness that the cup is seemingly being refused?…or dashed.

    Or maybe it’s just complacency. Maybe if I were a baby boomer born to comfort I too would say “Meh” to general prosperity.

    Okay, rant over.

  6. I was already one step ahead of you and went to the bank on Friday, so that our contribution can be on its way today. As always a big thank-you for the outstanding work both of you and your many helpers do.

    • HAHAHA!

      I’ll bet *you* can find anything in the intertubes. Amazing…The B. is having his Baronial rest – I” be sure to have him look at this when he’s up and running again.

      The image he used for this post was one he’d saved from previous fundraisers, but surely it’s the same pooch? Same floor? Different bowl?

      The B loves collecting images. That’s several steps down from actually painting them but his eyes can’t do that kind of focusing anymore so finding pictures kind of satisfies some of that itch.

      I remember a painting he did many years ago…the interior of an old screened summer porch. Part of its attraction (at least in the painting) was the way he captured its broad, somewhat warped wooden boards. Boards just like those, but through his eyes, each and every particle/splinter of wood was memorialized. The painting has long since been sold, but I can still see that magic floor.

      The only thing missing is the smell of the turpentine and paints and the sound of cicadas.

  7. Does the Baron not paint anymore? That is sad if true. I remember one of your articles/essays on going outside to paint — years ago. But also some items about the declining eyesight as well. So sorry.

    I hope you are having a successful fundraiser, btw. I don’t recall the pooch but he or she is sure cute!

    Oddly I am reading a novel that is placed in WWI right now. What a waste of human life that one was or so it seems as I read. WWII was different in my opinion. It had to be fought. Hitler had to be defeated. As a result of WWII, my mother and us two kids came to America in 1950. And I will have to say that I’m proud to be an American! Oh, dear I hear the music in my ears right now. TIme for bed.

    I do not pretend that I understand what caused WWI — more study will be required and I hope I am up to it. I love history and trying to understand the underneath layer of it all. What caused WWI? Sarajevo? Or am I mixed up? Never mind, I’ll reseaerch it tomorrow — anything to avoid housework!

    • As long as you stay curious, Mariadee, you’ll be lively. One thing at a time, though: look at the Bill Warner links I sent you. Understand Islam’s threat and the effect it is intended to have on people like you and me. I’ve got some further free links to other areas, too.

      Never thought I’d say “lucky you” but I miss being able to do housework. There is something about creating order that is satisfying beyond words. The same goes for cooking: creating healthy delicious food for others is more difficult now; I’ve learned to break it down into its individual steps, with rests between them.
      And gardening. The rules of what will grow where fascinated me from an early age. My mother gave me charge of the nasturtiums and black-eyed Susans to keep me out of the rest of her garden. It worked.

      Though I’d rather do my digging in the climate of England than that of Virginia. I often think of those first Jamestown arrivals (who got here more than a decade before the frosty Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock). The coast of Virginia is mild enough and has a much nicer soil than here, but the place is a swarm of mosquitoes… those early pioneers must have suffered.

      I can’t garden anymore, either. But I still plan on figuring out ways to get my hands in the soil in early Spring. Not for long; it taxes the heart. Just enough so my brain stays in touch with the material world. I search in the parts of the garden whose soil I’ve worked for many years, looking for earth worms to transfer to the areas that need to be broken up. If I put them down in the soil with plenty of shredded brown paper, they’re in earthworm heaven.

      Wish I had a place inside where I could stash an earthworm farm. It would be great fun to watch. Hmmm…maybe I could lay down some plastic in our box-room-office-guest QUARTERS and have it there…with no TV, they’d be great entertainment. OTOH, what worms eat is also attractive to those little four legged critters, so maybe not…maybe YouTube has some answers…

    • A good starting point to understanding the causes of the First World War is the excellent book by Barbara Tuchman; “The Guns of August”. Another great book that follows a good preceeding 75 years or so of history leading up to WWI is “Dreadnought” by Robert Massie. It brings to life the formative years of all the major personalities that eventually plunged the world into war, and the court politics and admiralty policies in both Germany and England that led to the naval arms race and ultimate rivalry between both nations. Fascinating; what I imagine Game of Thrones to be like, minus the gratuituous sex and set in Victorian times. Both are excellent books and go a long way to putting the reader into that long lost era that was reaponsible for molding the modern world.

  8. Great opening monologue, Baroness!

    Perhaps we’ve all been rejuvenated by Trump’s victory. As you said, no matter how bad he may turn out to be, he couldn’t possibly be worse than we KNOW Lady Macbeth would have been. (I only hope I live long enough to see her and her husband incarcerated … but, realistically, we know THAT will never happen!)

    I’ve been enormously impressed with GoV lately .. I don’t know how you and the Baron manage to do it, but I just can’t keep up. I check in every day, sometimes twice a day, and find the daily News Feed invaluable. Having attempted to run a blog for a non-profit, I can (just barely) imagine how much time and effort Schloss Bodissey puts into this.

    And I (mostly) get your reference to the Swedish professoriate: I like to check JihadWatch regularly, too, but can’t abide the unmoderated comments, which so frequently slip off topic, and frequently into vile anti-Catholicism. On that score, GoV is a bastion of sanity, civility, and intelligent comment, that adds much to my enjoyment and education.

    In fact, I’ve been so impressed lately that it occurred to me to surprise you with an unexpected donation, outside of the normal quarterly week-long window. Fortunately, the Quarterly bleg caught up with and overtook my procrastination! (But I think this is the first time I’ve sent my few shekels along on Day One! Just wish it could be more. You deserve it.)

    • I like to check JihadWatch regularly, too, but can’t abide the unmoderated comments, which so frequently slip off topic, and frequently into vile anti-Catholicism.

      I didn’t know that. I’m surprised the Jew-haters aren’t rampant. They usually show up in unmoderated comments. I do know several people have been banned there for arguing with the blog owner, but I simply don’t have time to go over…the little time I do have goes to reading Wretchard because he often makes me think. I also try to keep up with DOug Ross and his aggregation of news from the right…His work is invaluable. Here’s the top report from this morning:

      http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2017/02/an-alleged-islamist-spy-ring-is-this.html#more

      Just the kind of detailed, sourced report I wanted to see:

      Shortly after Trump took office, and before Rex Tillerson was even confirmed as Secretary of State, a slew of State Department officials were removed from their positions (or were forced to resign) as part of an effort to “clean house” at the State Department. The whole affair was haphazardly covered by the media, especially by Jeff Bezos’s blog, which insinuated that the departures were “an ongoing mass exodus of senior Foreign Service officers who don’t want to stick around for the Trump era.”
      Further analysis revealed that the officials were actually removed from their positions shortly after Tillerson visited the State Department office in Foggy Bottom prior to his confirmation:

      “Any implication that that these four people quit is wrong,” one senior State Department official said. “These people are loyal to the secretary, the President and to the State Department. There is just not any attempt here to dis the President. People are not quitting and running away in disgust. This is the White House cleaning house.”

      And, just a few weeks after the fact, it appears we know why Tillerson was so quick to purge existing staffers: he just didn’t trust them. It also appears his mistrust was more than justified.

      On January 29th, United States Special Forces executed an operation inside Yemen, against al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), with the aim of gathering intelligence and killing leaders of the group. The raid was planned under the Obama administration, but the decision to execute the raid was “punted” to Trump, using the pretext of waiting for a “low loom” (moonless) night to execute the raid with maximum secrecy:

    • This Canadian is great!

      I just subscribed to his channel. Talk about down to the nitty-gritty. I’m going to leave a link on Vlad Tepes’ blog. He’ll be amused and intrigued, perhaps. Mainly because of the simplicity.

      Thanks for the link.

      • Vlad already knows him and we are both big fans. I spent 3 hours yesterday listening to his lectures. He is a free speech and truth warrior as well, putting his money where is mouth is and refusing being intimidated. I made my daughter listen to him several times, as I consider him a type of professor, each of us should have a privilege of meeting at least once during our youth.

  9. Given my social security payments (first established in 1953 on hourly pay of 50 cents an hour as the employer wasn’t inter-state and required to pay the minimum wage of 75 cents a hour) I donate very little — no churches, no formal charities, no schools, etc.

    I do donate to the veterans who send me more stuff like calendars and notepads with their occasional bid for a donation than what my donations are worth. At least those covers the postage and cost of materials for stuff I would have to go somewhere to buy anyway. (It’s hoped some of those disabled veterans realize they are still supporting some of the nation they were originally willing to support and not just bumming money.)

    While I realize every dime can help, I get online but if it costs anything at all I’m not interested. I’m sure there are other people in the same boat. And, I doubt that you would want funding from the likes of me.

    • Veterans come first.

      But anyway, Countess, it’s not within every reader’s ability to donate. Those who can and do give are our lifeline, but just because someone comments here doesn’t mean they are also donors. Just as you do, some of our readers live on small incomes

      If you purchase things on Amazon, a small part of your total is given to the charity of your choice. So when I buy vitamins and soap, etc., I’m also giving to Sderot – see their button on our sidebar. Amazon didn’t have it listed as a charity until I asked for it. Good customer relations – Sderot went on to their listing the day I asked. I can always hope others will see it and choose Sderot.

  10. From my (very) limited Russian/Cyrillic:

    Smoke
    Cigarettes “Patchka”

    nowhere except in [Probably is Russian equivalent to: “Exclusively available at”]
    MosselProme (name of a sales establishment, I take it)

    But don’t worry, rampant obesity is taking the place of cigarettes in shortening lifespan, so our pensions are safe. They do create a lot of problems earlier on, though, so cigarettes were probably more economically beneficial on the overall.

    • The underlying factor in obesity (now called diabesity by some) is an endocrine disorder caused by eating/drinking too many grains and starches. Thus 70% of Russians die with high blood alcohol levels and they are opening pediatric clinics devoted to treating alcoholism in children. I’ve lost the source for those figures but remember being appalled. This wiki has some good links:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_consumption_in_Russia

      In the U.S. the Center for Disease Control and Permanente are working together to educate people about stress and eating patterns. They begin in childhood and show up beginning in the early 40s as auto-immune diseases. IOW, the slings and arrows begin hitting their mark early on and the result is a rampant, body-wide inflammation.

      https://acestoohigh.com/

      ACES (Adverse Childhood ExperienceS) has a lot of research behind it, and the clinical evidence is piling up. You can get your own ACES score here:

      https://acestoohigh.com/got-your-ace-score/

      On the bright side, they have a way to assess one’s resilience, too — i.e., the ways in which otherwise severely traumatized people are able to transcend their experiences. Of course, being human, that means connection.

      • Comparing Russian male and female life expectancy provides for a truly shocking statistic.

        I suspect that that part is mostly alcohol-related.

  11. Is GoV a 501? I kind of expect not since it seems that the stream is personal income, but I thought I’d ask.

    It makes no difference in what I will give, and thank you for reminding us to help as we can each quarter. It’s just that when I do my taxes I like to squeeze every last unearned dime that I can out of the rat [illegitimate born]. GoV is a unique and valuable information source, pleasantly devoid of adverts, and I know how devoted you both are to keeping it going. This site is a true service to truth seekers, though letting a bit more comment on domestic news in might be a good way to round things out a bit. More than anything this great window on the troubles of Europe is sort of a “don’t make the mistake I made” warning to Americans – and a depressingly large number of American rainbow warriors seem bound and determined to make exactly those same mistakes.

    And finally, it should be mentioned more often that Amazon purchases made from a link on the sidebar, basically the books, also modestly enhance your revenue stream. It’s just a couple of extra clicks and it doesn’t cost a thing to say thanks. I try to always remember to make my Amazon purchases that way. Several times I have forgotten to, and gone back to Amazon, cancelled my order, and replaced through this site. I kick myself when I forget.

    Jeff Bezos aside, Amazon itself is not evil, and I buy a LOT of stuff through Amazon.

  12. Hey, you have Russian speakers here. 🙂 And the comment above mine i s correct in giving the proper translation. Imagine my surprise when I saw something in Ryssian when visiting here lol

    • Did he translate all the words? I see something that looks like “papiros[?]i” above the “Patchka” (where the [?] is a character I don’t know) — or is that the word for “cigarette”?

      • “Patchka” is a packet (of cigarettes). The upper left “кури” means “smoke them”. The phrase “нигде, кроме как в Моссельпроме” means “nowhere except in Mosselprom. Tbe tall building in the photo was (is?) a famous avant-garde building in Moscow that used to contain tobacco companies, among other things.

        That is the extent of my russian skills; I am not a native speaker, but I understand the gist of the poster.

  13. We also have a regular parade of skunks, usually around 9:30 every night except in winter. When we smell them again towards spring, it simply means that they are coming out of hibernation. An animal control expert explained that they “wake up” when the lice nymphs begin to hatch, bite, and feed on their skin and blood due to spring warm ups. Yes, they are infested with live, so you don’t want them nesting under your porch! Best of luck to you! I am actually very allergic to their scent and it triggers asthma attacks.

  14. Beautiful picture of the skunks.

    15 years ago my sister heard a kitten’s intermittent mewling outside of her condo. She looked and looked for the stray.

    Finally, she found it underneath the deck safely ensconced with its skunk siblings and mother. My sister still has the cat the skunk family saved.

    • A few weeks ago, a skunk had crawled under the fence around Dub’s
      enclosure on the porch. It was standing right at Dub the Dog’s house
      with its nose pressed against the dog’s nose. Dub was frantic with no
      way to escape. – Fang (husband) plugged up the hole & so far, so good.

      It was odd. The skunk just barely emitted a tiny bit of odor and was
      very affectionate toward Dub. Animals are so funny!

    • 1931 Duesenberg. It’s in the “title” attribute of the image, which some browsers will show you when you hover the mouse pointer over the picture.

  15. Dear Baron/ess
    I have tried to donate but your tip cup isn’t active. The arrow just sits thereupon and nothing happens. I shall now suicide because I have failed
    Or can you help?

    • Are you using the tin cup on the sidebar? The image of the glass jar in the text of the post is just for decoration — it isn’t clickable. Go to the main page https://gatesofvienna.net/ and click the cup (or the “donate” button) on the left sidebar. If that fails, email us (gatesofvienna [at] chromatism [dot] net).

      And don’t suicide — the Counterjihad needs you!

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