Annual Fund-Raising Drive Time!
It’s that wonderful time of year again when I post our annual fund-raising drive.
If you enjoy your time spent here please consider donating via the Paypal link below. If you can’t do Paypal, shoot me an email if you’d still like to contribute.
For a while now I’ve been testing out some ads on site, but the trade-off is really not worth it. We make little to nothing off the ads and they’re not pretty to look at, so I’ve taken the ads down as of right now. Going forward we will continue with the donation model and abandon the advertising.
Once again, thanks to everyone in this community whether you’re writers, commenters, or silent readers. It’s really quite a thrill to see how far the site has come. We passed our five-million pageview mark the other day, which is pretty awesome.
P.S. Thanks to everyone who has donated already and a big preemptive thanks to those of you who surely will…we really do appreciate it!
Last tiem I donted, I was prmoed an editopry for corroitng typos, no t tha t i nrrd own.Report
Is there any way to get an Edit function without requiring commenter registration (I would think not)?
While I would love an Edit function, I am not as fond of registration.Report
Wait, we can get edit functions with registrations? How big a check do I need to write?Report
Several thousand dollars.Report
That may be out of the budget. I will do what I can regardless.Report
There are a number of edit plugins out there but none of them are ideal. So far I haven’t found anything that I think has pros that outweigh the cons.Report
Donated (probably not enough, considering all the nonsense y’all put up with from me here).
Thanks for providing this playground of the mind, Erik et al.Report
Likewise, on all counts.Report
Thanks to you both and to everyone else that keeps this place not only financially solvent but a playground to begin with…though I still like to think of it more as a bar…Report
Happy to chip in. Thanks for all you do!Report
Thanks!Report
I’ll be doing so as per usual.Report
Much obliged, as always!Report
DoneReport
Danka!Report
Donation has been donated. Now where is my damn totebag?
On a different note Puerto Ricp just voted to become state. Potentially interesting blogging topic, don’t you think. The other side note, for me, is that i’ve visited all 50 states. If PR becomes a state then i’ll have to go there. And i’m not all that inclined to visit PR although i do have a sister in law who is from there. Of course she lives in Boston now.Report
Now where is my damn totebag?
We really should have swag.Report
Hi-tech moisture wicking blogging t-shirts in one colour: Cheeto Dust YellowReport
I’ve donated more than two cents to be able to give mine. Thanks Erik & Co for a great reading experience every day. It’s much appreciated.Report
If you give me a snail mail address I’ll donate but don’t trust my paper thin veneer of anonymity to Paypal et al.Report
I’m kinda with ya there. I’d rather write out a check, if it’s possible.Report
Donated what I had, sorry it’s not much since I am one of those moochers on Social Security disability. Really enjoy the site.Report
Hey, the League’s a great use for my tax dollars. šReport
Hey, this is one of those “sticky” posts, right? If I post something tonight, aside from everyone having a heart attack, it won’t screw up this one being at the top?Report
I am, as always, delighted to be able to be a part of this.Report
Donated!!!!
Instead of a tote bag, we should get bowler hatsReport
Of course we should.Report
Thirded.Report
Thanks for keeping the lights on Erik.Report
Donated.Report
Monday Trivia alone makes makes my donation worthwhile. In addition, the quality of the blog posts and commentary is quite good.Report
Man, I’m having an awful time with the League. Every time I come here instead of loading the page my antiquated IE at work tries to download files from it instead and I can’t get into the blog or the sub blog at all. Massively frustrating and I have no clue why it’s happening. Any comp geeks have any suggestions?Report
Um… if I said “have you tried Firefox”, would that be condescending rather than helpful?Report
Somehow I suspect that the corporate drones that command the work machines software image wouldn’t look kindly on such attempts.Report
Now *THAT* is something that can be worked around with a simple bribe. Is your IT department nearby? Take a cheese tray, leftover halloween candy bucket, or 12-pack of (whatevs) and stop by, put the item on the desk, then say “I have a question about installing Firefox”.
You’ll find an amazing amount of goodwill for the low-low price of calories.Report
I’m in Minnesota, they’re in Atlanta. Maybe I can MAC mail em. I will try emptying out the cache and try to get some work done despite the withdrawal shakes.Report
North, if you need me to send donuts over to them, let me know.Report
That’s strange. IE works for me and I haven’t heard any similar complaints. Maybe try clearing your browser cache. If that doesn’t work, you can always try smacking the side of your computer really hard. Or…Firefox/Chrome/Opera, etc….Report
Yeah, work computer. Control over the software on it somewhere a little above setting the desktop wallpaper and below controlling the screen saver. I’m just gonna hope whatever it is goes away.Report
Complaining that you can’t slack off on company time the way you want? Gotta love it. šReport
You smile, so I assume jokiness, but there are some pretty strong arguments against what North’s employer is evidently doing.Report
James: Believe me, no sense of entitlement here. Indeed, were I to suspect in -any- way that the corporate powers that be were concerned with my visits to the League* I’d cut it out of my daily routine without hesitation and visit on my evenings as I’m doing now.
Will, there’s no reason for concern. The error I’m hitting is blatantly not the result of the Corporate blocking the League. Rather it’s an institutional inertia thing. The IE we use on our corporate machines is quite outdated. The League’s coding routinely clashes with it. I am highly confident this is one of those instances.
Obviously, of course, I can’t call up IT and say “Dammit, update explorer. The old versions are impeding my ability to slack at work!
*At peril of hubris I assert that I’m one of the better producers in my group so the League is an indulgence I that feel little guilt in partaking in.Report
If IT isn’t keeping IE patched, they’re leaving serious security holes wide open. You’d be doing them a service explaining that.Report
Probably, but Erik fixed it for me with his suggestion.Report
there’s always firefox portable off of a usb drive, presuming your work doesn’t block mounting such devices.Report
happy to contribute. you’re one of my 6 or so daily reads.Report
I will never give a donation. As this blog has so helpfully informed me, libertarians oppose charity.Report
See it as paying protection.Report
Maybe it’s time for a post on the basic, rough and ready, outlines of libertarianism so that we can all link back to it when the crazy erupts. I mean, there are some real disagreements about real issues, and then there’s the silly stuff.
I’m getting tired of the silly stuff, myself. And if I’ve contributed to it, I’m gonna stop!Report
I’m tired of the silly stuff too. It indicates that I have failed as an advocate, because the people with whom I disagree don’t simply disagree with me. That would be okay and even understandable; we all in a sense play to the audience, not each other. But generally speaking, my interlocutors find me a worthless, useless, contemptible, malevolent idiot.
It’s fairly clear to me, in other words, that my time here has been a complete failure, and I really need to think about different blogging and possibly career options.Report
Don’t let them dump mercury in your stream, dude.
The silent readers out there surely notice who writes essays and who smugly asks about Libertopia a fifteenth time. They surely notice who answers questions and who says “I don’t have to answer those questions.” They surely notice who is saying “let’s try something else” and who is saying “let’s double down on the things that didn’t work the first time because we didn’t care enough.”
Some of your seeds will fall on the path, and some in the weedy soil, and some on the rocky soil, but some will land in the good soil and someone out there will use an analogy that you gave in a comment in a discussion they have at work… and the other folks they talk to will never have thought about it that way before.
Keep it up.Report
Hm.Report
Please Jason…we know libertarians believe in charity, so do liberals. I both support uni HC and donated to the LOOG. Does that make me a left-libertarian or liberal or a traitor to any and all causes. L’s and L’s are never going to agree on everything. We would be better off if everybody toned down the heat in the threads but i don’t see that happening sadly.Report
But supporting a blog that publicizes the Kuznicki brand is in your self-interest. So you can give, and not even Rand herself can accuse you of apostasy.Report
My next blogging project, if I have one, will be pseudonymous.Report
Oh, please cut the ‘woe is me’ stuff. So some people on the Internet have said less than wonderful things about you or the policies you support. Welcome to the Internet.Report
Things did used to be different here. I warned Erik that I can be a polarizing figure, and I don’t blame the others for finding me polarizing. It’s not them, it’s me.
I’m also not looking for sympathy. I would gladly take suggestions as to how I might communicate more effectively, if you have any. But that’s all.Report
Well, I picked a random month and year (06/2009) and went to the archives and picked some articles that seemed to be “controversial.” Something on the CRA, cap ‘n’ trade, and so on. One story got 40 comments, another got 20-odd, and another got I believe 35. It’s easy to be nice to each other when it’s maybe six or seven people trading comments and even the CRA post got a little testy.
This is a bigger site now with a more ‘diverse’ audience, both of temperate and political leanings. That’s going to lead to things getting a little more grimy.Report
Update – I found a post where ED put forth his idea of a “free market” health care plan. This was as Obama was releasing his HC plan. So, surely a big time issue. This weighty important topic got…80 comments, of which, about 25 were Michael Cain and some guy from England arguing about the idea of ‘free’ health care.
So in short, mo hits mo problems.Report
This is more helpful than you realize.Report
Then you’d better donate to it anonymously, unless you want to be called up in front of the Committee.Report
You know, I actually argued with myself over the whole “should I post a comment about how I donated” thing.
I was torn between not commenting because of the whole “when you pray, do not pray like the hypocrites” thing. I donated, I know I donated, that should be enough.
Then I thought about how my just saying “I donated” would communicate group membership, group solidarity, and all that crap. The point wasn’t whether I did, but communicating to the group that I did. Hey, maybe it’d inspire someone else to do it. (What if it inspires someone else to say “I don’t need to, Jaybird did?” Well, I’d hope that the fact that the post is still locked at the top would dissuade them from that particular argument being sound.)
Then I thought about one of those Curb Your Enthusiasm clips that someone in the ‘sphere posted talking about how “anonymous” donated a wing but how everyone was talking about who “anonymous” really was and how he’s getting the benefits of everyone knowing he donated and everyone knowing that he did so anonymously.
And then some stuff happened.
And then I saw your comment.
And then I posted this.Report
Did you think I was serious? As is (or should be) well known, the notion that the nanny state crowds out private charity is one of the standard libertarian criticisms of the former.
But I do like the idea of a Libertarian Committee that disciplines the members for not being individual enough.Report
No, but some of my best jokes are the ones that leave a bruise. I assume that there must be some others who are the same way and I figure that at least a small sub-set of those others would end up here too.Report