The popularity of Big Brother probably says more about us than it does about the show itself. And it doesn’t mean it should be ignored, either, or the people who watch it treated as idiots.

As for AWH – even as a fully fledged RWDB and member of the VRWC, I sometimes find AWH excessive in invective or in its proposals and recommendations (which is why I never wrote there). However, John Ray actually finds an enormous quantity of interesting material (from books, journals and elsewhere) out there for examination, and also picks up on a lot of foreign news (especially from Britain) which we don’t get in Australia. And he is one of the few guys who actually goes and genuinely researches his refutations of other bloggers, and comes back with reasonably detailed replies. So he is worth reading, even if you (and I) don’t always (or in your case, along with Christine Keeler and Tim Lambert, ever) agree with him.

Wry amusement at the idea of blog popularity aside, and arrogantly presuming that Blair even gives a shit what random CT commenters think, his format always felt to me to have the same problems as that of Media Watch, espicially back in the Littlemore days. Short excerpt of Other Media Story – preferably from one of the hosts many favourite and obsessively tracked targets – followed by some bitchy snark. I remember Littlemore used to devote whole minutes to spelling flames as well.

Like I said, he doesn’t give a shit what I think, but he is as boringly predictable as his mirror image, Jeremy Sears.

Phillistine doesn't go even half-way to describing the man's irrelevance.

That is not surprising since I was not aware that Philistine had anything to do with relevance. Skepticlawyer seems to have a much firmer grasp on 'relevance' than you

That aside, his blog is enormously popular (and, unlike many people, I take popularity seriously, rather than writing it off as 'too mainstream'). He is also a very good writer, with great control and economy of expression.

Here

Now do you people see why leftists need to be killed? Do you? This call
to ban the flag is a direct result of their influence on society.

Australia
is long overdue for a civil war. The US is long overdue for a second
one. The West as a whole is in desperate need of one. It will be a
civil war between those who treasure our society and way of life and
want to keep the greatest and most successful civilization in the
history of this little planet and those who want to destroy it. The
filth of the treasonous left has been allowed to fester for too long,
and it has now become so bad that the wound can no longer simply be
drained of pus. The whole limb must be excised.

Check it out for yourself

Then there's this enlightened contribution:

Last night A Current Affair had the story of a stupid bitch who married
a muslim pig, had a child with him, and then watched as said muslim pig
kidnapped her daughter and stole her away.

I propose legislation that any non-muslim
woman converting and/or marrying a muslim should be stripped of her
citizenship and deported to a muslim shithole of her owner’s…sorry….
her husband’s choice. That way there is no need to steal any children
because they are already there.

Like I said, it's a hate site.

 Missing Link is designedly a "broad church", in a way the Liberal Party hasn't been at least since John Winston Howard assumed the federal leadership.  Thus, if you want to object to the inclusion of any particular post in a Missing Link edition, our answer (in the politest possible tone) is: tell someone who cares.

You may hate AWH and JF Beck (although I'd hope you're mature enough to hate their views, and not their persons). The feeling's probably mutual, to be fair.

Just because some people find them, or Leftwrites (a site I've linked to in the past, and where there have also been grumbles) offensive doesn't mean I'm going to suddenly stop linking to sites members of the ML team select. I'll happily take responsibility, though – I'm the editor, and the buck stops with me (or Ken, for the editions he edits).

You do not have a right to freedom from offence.

/libertarian rant

FdG: I edited the swearing because Troppo is a somewhat more decorous place than Catallaxy, where, ahem, a rather large amount of swearing goes through to the keeper. I just like being able to read blogs in chambers. Too  many swear words mean the filter thinks I'm looking at pr0n.

Sessional work pays well, but once you average it out over the year, the pay-rate sucks. If, however, you're doing sessional tutoring on top of an APA scholarship, then the pay rate is excellent. Scholarships are tax free, which means that you finish up with a tax-free threshold of around $20,000 rather than $6,000.

You hear that editors? No editorialising.

God, some people would argue about a fly walking up a wall.