I can post a comment without a proxy. This makes me happy. Don’t have anything I particularly want to say, mind, but anyway – congratulations.

November 3, 2005 @ 1:29 am | Comment

Yeah, looks like things are back to normal!

November 3, 2005 @ 1:33 am | Comment

Oh bugger. Seems the censor was reading my comment. Had to move back to a proxy. Sigh.

November 3, 2005 @ 1:34 am | Comment

I am still getting very mixed signals about the availability of my site. One reader wrote to me earlier today:

This is weird. Yesterday morning, Nanny was stomping on TPD. Afternoon, no problem. Now again
this morning, blocked.

Now one peculiarity, is that if I use the back door of “anonymouse”, I CAN get, say, Running Dog and Asiapundit – but TPD and CDT flicker and then fizzle out in that unmistakable Nanny way. So there seems to be some kind of special
grievance against you, but I don’t know why it’s so erratic. I’m beginning to think the inconistency has more to do with technological flaws than with human decision. I think they really do want to stamp you out but their technology is not quite reliable.

So what the hell is going on? A dear friend known and loved by all of us was gloating on another site yesterday that he believes his machinations inspired a petition by the well-known Amanda Liu to close down my site, and that it obviously worked. Considering that the inestimable Ms. Liu doesn’t exist, I find this hard to believe, but something’s definitely going on. I’ve received three separate emails today from very different parts of the country indicating TPD is still blocked.According to one blogger on Shanghai it was on again/off again throughout the day. Another in Hebei province says it’s totally inaccesible.

November 3, 2005 @ 1:49 am | Comment

It’s often not accessible in the morning here, but i can always get it in the afternoon. this morning it was available briefy.
my guess is that after lunch, the people watching the net take a nap, and then probably go home early. we are talking about a state-run thing here, ya know, and we all know how those work, haha

November 3, 2005 @ 2:19 am | Comment

Interestingly…I can only access http://www.google.com with anonymouse. Maybe there is something bigger going on than trying to shut down the Duck?

November 3, 2005 @ 2:21 am | Comment

I have had no problem from Beijing at any time over the past few days.

November 3, 2005 @ 2:22 am | Comment

No trouble with Google from Beijing either. Whatever is happening seems to be regional in nature.

November 3, 2005 @ 2:24 am | Comment

Well at the moment I’m having no problem downloading this site. But it’s been on and off for me as well.

I’m inclined to agree with what Kevin said, above. I’m all the more inclined to think Kevin might be right, considering that IF this is all due to what human monitors are doing in real time, then it’s really petty shit for them, not something for them to be zealous about.

November 3, 2005 @ 2:31 am | Comment

Totally inexplicable. Another reader from Beijing had to use a proxy yesterday, but he, too, said it was on and off. And i heard similar tales about China Digital Times.

November 3, 2005 @ 2:32 am | Comment

But I see, a guy named Mark STILL has no problem keeping flowingwaters.blog.com open. (Because, as we know, he has connections in high places.)
I wonder if there might be some interesting comments there in the near future.

November 3, 2005 @ 2:33 am | Comment

Oh, so he’s posting again? This I’ll have to see.

November 3, 2005 @ 3:32 am | Comment

When I saw what MAJ had written on bingfeng teahouse the other day I was horrified, and I had to sit on my hands not to reply to him (as many people have noted, if you reply to him you just encourage him). Interesting to see that bingfeng has closed his comments today. Well done bingfeng!
Flowingwaters is, umm, flowing again, but the thing that gets me is all the comments he’s got. Apparently lots of people are going there to have calm, polite debates about things like Trotskey’s law of uneven and combined development. WTF? Am I just cycnical, or do other people suspect that MAJ may be talking to himself again?
Whatever else, I will say that the boy is brave. (Insane, mind, but brave.) After the stunningly hilarious parody that somebody (I think richard knows who, but I don’t) perpetrated with Flowingwaterstale, MAJ has just gone back to being his old self again on the same url, as if it never happened.
By the way, flowingwatersboy, whoever you are, did you save those parodies? Can you put them up for us somewhere else? I just loved, “Ganbei they said. Ganbei I replied,” and the poems. Please put them up again. Pretty please.

Anyway, richard, you say Ms Amanda Liu does not exist. Thus, how seriously do we take that petition he keeps going on about? Any ideas?

November 3, 2005 @ 4:00 am | Comment

I continue to have no problems reaching the Duck Pond from my humble hut here in Shanghai.

November 3, 2005 @ 4:09 am | Comment

Hm, well about that OTHER site, flowingwaters.blog.com, the one dishuiguanyin has called a “hilarious parody” in his above comment:

Well, dishuiguanyin (can’t you get a shorter handle? 🙂 you got my attention and I’ve looked at it again.
And now I see, there are a LOT of new comments on that site. Many great poets like Walt Whitman and William Butler Yeats have contributed!

Thanks, dishui, for the head’s up on this! I recommend that other site to you, to take a look at the new comments!

November 3, 2005 @ 4:34 am | Comment

The fact that things are up and down leads me to believe that this is more likely to be your site timming out due to heavy raffic through the firewall than due to direct flitering or blocking.

I think that your blog is probably being held in a que waiting for for a yes/no from a filter, but by the time that it gets through the server has not heard from it for so long that it presumes that the site is out and gives a null back.

November 3, 2005 @ 4:42 am | Comment

I can opnly access this site with a proxy (I use Ultra Surf) and it takes ages for the page to load. The fascists banning all these sites are causing no end of grief to my students who need to conduct legitimate research.

November 3, 2005 @ 4:57 am | Comment

And Keir is in Beijing, where Will says it opens in a snap….

Dish (that seems like a sensible abbreviation), for the record, I had nothing to do with the parody rancid water blog, but I certainly have been enjoying it. It’s there and will not be goping away from what I understand.

I’m certainly not worried about the non-existent Amanda Liu, and those “commenters” who all congregat to discuss Marx and Trotsky — how would they all know to go there and discuss such things? Why do they all use 4-syllable words and talk in the same voice? Just a coincidence, I know. Why have they never ever commented on other Chinese blogs? (By tomorrow, they’ll all have miraculously commented here and at Simon’s World.) Just wondering…

November 3, 2005 @ 6:25 am | Comment

Ivan, ganbei!Have bookmarked it now.
Richard, sorry, didn’t mean to imply it was you, just meant that you might have been able to guess from the ip address left on your blog.
Dish or Dishui are both fine. Take your pick.
Oh, and Ivan… I’m female.

November 3, 2005 @ 7:33 am | Comment

I don’t know. I haven’t had much contact with MAJ, but he seems like a decent sort. Pedantic and wordy, sure, but not nuts enough to conjure up imaginary friends.. I’m assuming Amanda Liu does exist, and is a real-life friend of his.

Glad I’m not in China right now and subject to the vagaries of the Great Firewall. Peking Duck is biased, yeah, but heck, it’s a blog, and most people here are reasonable enough. Saying it is a hate site is laughable.

He does write some pretty bad poetry. The latest gem was some kind of panegyric to a one-breasted deity. My personal opinion is that one shouldn’t publish poetry online unless one is sure that one is the next coming of Keats or Tagore. Anything less is just embarrassing and makes me end up wincing in sympathy for the English language.

November 3, 2005 @ 7:49 am | Comment

dish,

You’re female? COOL! As you may have guessed, I’m the Last Cavalier!

(Well, the next after the last. Jackie Kennedy wrote a poem saying JFK was the Last Cavalier, but I’m the next one.)

So, a kiss on your hand…. 🙂

Ah, oh what the hell. Since I’m being histrionically chivalrous now, let me share one of Ivan’s sonnets:

I wrote this some years ago (1992), not for Dish, but now I dedicate it to Dish:

No vision sees itself,
but only seers
Imersed in Odin’s grail, and so,
Half blind, and half besotted
wanderers can find
Themselves, whose eyes from
ravens’ talons peer.
No eye for eye is ransom for
a face,
Which – peerless, as I’ve warned –
is ransomless,
And I can give no face its right
redress,
But I for I, when seen,
is peerless grace.
So I will be your vision,
in your eyes,
And I will be your charge,
and you my guide,
And we will follow,
side by stumbling side,
And we will see ourselves,
when vision dies.
Cause vision, once its born
is meant to die,
And visions cannot conquer you,
nor I.

(Hm. And so, let’s go back to the flowingwaters parody blog, and enjoy some of the poetry among the new comments on flowingwaters.blog.com
🙂

(PS, well, Richard, you said this blog is a “peculiar hybrid”, so I presume it’s OK for us to share some poetry here…. 🙂

November 3, 2005 @ 7:53 am | Comment

Oh Good God. Just after I posted the last comment, I saw what nausicaa said.

“…MAJ, but he seems like a decent sort.”

No. He is not decent.

And about what nausicaa said about avoiding posting poetry unless one is like Keats or Tagore:

Keats was a very gifted adolescent.
He was talented but his poetry is for age 25 and under. He’s a great poet for teenagers.

Which leads me to deduce, that nausicaa is either very young or else not very widely read in British and American poetry. 🙂 🙂

November 3, 2005 @ 7:58 am | Comment

PS,

One of the best American poems of our time, the 1990s, was written by a cowboy. (Sorry to admit that I don’t remember his name at the moment.) Cowboys write great poetry.

He wrote something about his saddle, and how the two things he loved best were horses and women’s legs, and so, when he dies, he wants to be reborn as a woman’s saddle on a horse, so that he can be:

“Between the two things I love best!”

Worthy of Shakespeare! 🙂

November 3, 2005 @ 8:02 am | Comment

Yeah, whatevs. I know your type. I bet you also stick up your nose at the Kahlil-Rumi-Rilke trinity and label their work as “Poetry for Dummies” or some such. 😛

I randomly picked the names Keats and Tagore. Substitute the names of other poets if you like.

I was an English major. And as Eliza Bennet would say, “I’m not one and twenty.” Patronize me again about my literary tastes and I’ll start critiquing your “sonnet”.

As for whether or not MAJ is a decent chap…I really have no idea. My observation was based on my own limited knowledge of him. Anyway, seeing as how you’re the ghostwriter behind the spiteful (but admittedly hilarious) parody blog, you’re hardly fit to be the arbiter of morality. 😉

November 3, 2005 @ 8:14 am | Comment

Extemporaneous Sonnet for Nausicaa:

Exempt, and far away from
PSB,
Enjoying all the privileges of my
Safe haven, in America, shall I
Go on to whore myself, without a
fee?

I call myself “Chinese”,
but, truth be known,
I’m just a Yankee: Full of
facile scorn
For any criticism of the home
Which I pretend to slight.
But I am torn

Between my aspirations of
difference
And my true love of this fair Yankee
land,
America, which generously took my
hand,
And so, my propaganda makes
no sense.

No sense. I have no sense. I just
have words,
The CCP gives me, like
glistening turds.

November 3, 2005 @ 8:21 am | Comment

Sorry, Canadian.

November 3, 2005 @ 8:24 am | Comment

Damn. I should have been born Black. I missed my vocation as a rap artist. 🙂

November 3, 2005 @ 8:28 am | Comment

ganbei, Ivan

November 3, 2005 @ 8:31 am | Comment

Nausicaa, you have previously identified yourself as a “Beijinger.”
I have a good memory.

And the privileges you have in Canada, are identical to the privileges of America.

You are a North American Chinese who enjoys the privileges of life in the liberal democracies in North America while you write nonsensical propaganda full of scorn for the very same system of freedoms which you enjoy.

November 3, 2005 @ 8:31 am | Comment

bingfeng,

Thanks man. I don’t alway agree with you but I do respect you.
🙂

November 3, 2005 @ 8:32 am | Comment

TPD works quite well in shanghai now, seems the trouble not caused by the skeletong carrying a broadsword

November 3, 2005 @ 8:35 am | Comment

I’m a Beijinger by birth, Canadian by citizenship, and I’m currently studying in the States.

I’ve being back to the PRC many times, both to visit my extended family and for internships. I’ll be going back in the future.

Show me where I’ve expressed scorn for the rights and freedoms I currently enjoy in North America, and where I’ve disparaged liberal democracy.

November 3, 2005 @ 8:36 am | Comment

Ivan, umm, thanks for the dedication. I guess.
You know the only other man who’s ever dedicated a poem to me was this *ahem* sexually frustrated old man who used to follow all the waitresses in the cafe-I-was-working-in-as-a-student around.
Your poetry is better than his was.

However, just because MAJ is a dangerous insane scarey, sad idiot, you don’t have to start a fight with nausicaa. All she did was say that he “seems like a decent sort”. Which he possibly does, if you have only glanced at one of his comments. It isn’t until you’ve realised how much he goes on and on (15 comments on Bingfeng’s post so far), how much he self-justifies, and how he seems to regularly comment/troll his own site/other sites under a huge variety of personas that you start to worry.

Yes, flowingwaterstale is spiteful, but, it is also hilarious, and it makes me laugh. As someone who didn’t care very much about MAJ until blog-city got banned, I say bring on the spite towards him. (But you don’t have to attack everyone else unless they’ve really earned it.)

November 3, 2005 @ 8:58 am | Comment

nausicaa

MAJ didn’t just invent an imaginary friend, he invented an two or three imageney people who he pretended to be.

He also publicly condemed my blog and two others on a Chinese website that he knew full well would delete any messages that we put up to try to defend our selves. He’s not a decent person, he’s a vindictive troublemaker.

He also badmouthed my blog without even bothering to read it by stating that I was anti-CCP, when I have only once even mentioned the CCP in two years of blogging, and that was a pun to rhyme with DVD.

November 3, 2005 @ 9:00 am | Comment

Out of interest.

Who is trying to access PKD through http://www.pekingduck.org and who is trying to access it through pekingduck.org, maybe this has something to do with the differnt firewall responces?

November 3, 2005 @ 9:00 am | Comment

For those of you who were interested in the Blog-City Ban, here is a copy of the email I received from the owner/manager regarding the sites responsible for the ban:

—– Original Message —–
From: Ceri *****
To: Gordon (The Horses Mouth)
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 4:02 AM
Subject: Re: [Civilservice] .quiet.

Im told that there are two blogs they banned for, yours and anti.blog-city.com…so looks like its permanent sadly.

-Ceri

Gordon (The Horses Mouth) wrote:

> No Ceri, unfortunately I don’t have any ideas on this one.
>
> I’m guessing the CCP was targeting a few selected blogs, but found that too difficult and decided to ban the entire domain much like they did with Blogspot.
>
> I’m not sure how Typepad managed to go about getting unblocked. Perhaps it was only temporary for one reason or another.
>
> The censors here in China aren’t very rational anyway. They actually have people who patrol the internet cafes here to monitor people’s activities and the net bars are required to keep strict records that detail every website visited.
>
> Fun stuff.
>
>
> Gordon
>
>
> On 8/23/05, *Ceri * wrote:
>
> Gordon,
>
> Do you have a recommendation about the best way to go about requesting to be unblocked? I think typepad managed it…
>
> -Ceri

November 3, 2005 @ 9:47 am | Comment

dish:

1. Lighten up, my friend. I have many poems in store. I just wanted to have some fun here. (And I like to show off.) And don’t flatter yourself by comparing me to the “sexually frustrated old man” who used to send you poetry. I know that old tune – it’s a tired old thing many Western women do to flatter themselves…… 🙂 Some of us men just like to show off sometimes, get it? Got it? Good!
🙂

2. You said I don’t have to start a fight with nausicaa. Technically you’re right, but: The truth is that MAJ is f—ing psychotic AND DANGEROUS to anyone who runs afoul of him, AND

….at first I wrote more in this comment but then I decided to censor it. It’s better if I don’t tip MAJ off to…..

….well he has reasons to be afraid now…. 🙂 ….(my phone bill to Russia has just gone up a lot….)

November 3, 2005 @ 9:53 am | Comment

Why is Ivan so fixated about MAJ? I believe Ivan should have a look at a mirror. From my perspective, having read his comments only, he’s “f—ing psychotic AND DANGEROUS” instead.

November 3, 2005 @ 10:50 am | Comment

You guys are still going on about whats-his-name? Sheesh. Glad the ladies are stepping in to try to change the subject.

Erm…..for some reason, PKD is still blocked in my part of Shenzhen, EVEN via the two web-based anony’s I usually use. I had to use Gordon’s super tools to get in the back door. My ISP will probably show somewhere in Europe.

BTW. What’s with half of Europe having race riots now? I thought they had this kinder, gentler thing going, with harmony for all!?

November 3, 2005 @ 11:44 am | Comment

ha, the poem by “Ivan” is absolutely priceless! even better than the MAJ parodies. “Imersed in Odin’s grail”!!! very funny. to be really accurate though you’d surely have to include something along the lines of “the mighty steppe”.
very smart the attack on Keats too, perfectly in character with the breathtaking arrogance and sheer missing-the-point-of-it-all.
nice one shane!

November 3, 2005 @ 2:08 pm | Comment

KLS, long time no read! How’re things?

November 3, 2005 @ 3:01 pm | Comment

Ivan- Concerning a few comments up, may I just submit that a Canadian citizen is anyone who gets off the plane with enough money.
Anyone read up on the laughable attempt the British have come up with a “Citizenship Test”? You have top score 75% (even Buck Palace couldn’t give an answer as to “Who’s the Head of the C of E”), and one of the questions asks for the words to the chorus of God Save the Queen. Well, the title itself gives you 75%, omitting a couple of well-placed adjectives.

November 3, 2005 @ 3:49 pm | Comment

Ivan, be more fair to Nausicaa – many of her (his?) comments here have been reasonable, open-minded and well written.

November 3, 2005 @ 4:19 pm | Comment

Nausicaa: I don’t know. I haven’t had much contact with MAJ, but he seems like a decent sort.

Wrong. Looking at his site you’d think he’s engaging, witty, warm, gracious and intellectual. To see the darker side of “Mr. Jones,” check out his own comments in this classic. He has been on a campaign to shut down blogs where he feels he’s been ridiculed (Gordon’s comment above is very revealing and upsetting, as it proves some of our worst fears about how destructive he – Madge – can be). But never take my word for it. Simply check out the link and read his own description of himself. Then, if you want to send me an email I can tell you the really nasty stuff. You wouldn’t believe it.

November 3, 2005 @ 4:28 pm | Comment

Richard, I’ll be honest – I didn’t know (and still don’t know, or want to know) much about Mark Anthony Jones. He sent me an email once, and mentioned something about the bad blood between you two, and urged me to check out his site, which I did, and obviously it’s different in tone from TPD, sort of dull in parts, but he seemed nice enough.

Thanks for the link. … so apparently MAJ’s a big honkin’ plagiarist? With an id who goes by the name of Anne Meyers, and an alter ego called Mark Anthony James…? (What is this, postmodern multiperspectivalist metafiction?) As well as a…pervert who requests pictures of penii…?

Oy. I’m not sure how evil that makes him, but he is pretty fucked-up then. Hm. I guess that means he and Amanda Liu could very well be one and the same.. I doubt he/she/they had enough pull to cause the recent blog censorship, though.

Interesting stuff, though not my business. Just hope those who are blocked from accessing The Peking Duck and other sites can do so soon.

Oh, and btw – Ivan, I’m still waiting for you to produce the body of evidence that shows I’m “full of scorn for the very same system of freedoms which [I] enjoy”. I mean, you can’t just lash out at a girl for coyly critiquing The Motherland in public while really spreadin’ ‘em wide for the CCP in the backroom, or something like, without any follow-up. (Men. Tsk. You guys don’t even have the excuse of being on the rag. >.Richard, I’ll be honest – I didn’t know (and still don’t know, or want to know) much about Mark Anthony Jones. He sent me an email once, and mentioned something about the bad blood between you two, and urged me to check out his site, which I did, and obviously it’s different in tone from TPD, sort of dull in parts, but he seemed nice enough.

Thanks for the link. … so apparently MAJ’s a big honkin’ plagiarist? With an id who goes by the name of Anne Meyers, and an alter ego called Mark Anthony James…? (What is this, postmodern multiperspectivalist metafiction?) As well as a…pervert who requests pictures of penii…?

Oy. I’m not sure how evil that makes him, but he is pretty fucked-up then. Hm. I guess that means he and Amanda Liu could very well be one and the same.. I doubt he/she/they had enough pull to cause the recent blog censorship, though.

Interesting stuff, though not my business. Just hope those who are blocked from accessing The Peking Duck and other sites can do so soon.

Oh, and btw – Ivan, I’m still waiting for you to produce the body of evidence that shows I’m “full of scorn for the very same system of freedoms which [I] enjoy”. I mean, you can’t just lash out at a girl for coyly critiquing The Motherland in public while really spreadin’ ‘em wide for the CCP in the backroom, or something like, without any follow-up. (Men. Tsk. You guys don’t even have the excuse of being on the rag. >.<) Plz, school me in my hypocrizy, sez the little grazzhopper.

November 3, 2005 @ 5:32 pm | Comment

Thanks for doing your research, nausicaa. No, Jones isn’t evil, just disturbed. Unfortunately, no one can ever believe anything he ever says nor can we assume any of the comments on his site are genuine, as he has freeely admitted he believes it is fair and legitimate to make up characters and “role play.” Normal people realize this is most peculiar and a sign of loneliness, but there it is the norm. I’m glad you now know. Oh, and all that stuff about the penis pictures and Dr. Meyers – it’s all true.

I suspect Ivan had you confused with another commenter., Ivan, you and nausicaa need to make up.

November 3, 2005 @ 5:41 pm | Comment

hmm, I have been reading that old post of Richard about MAJ…fascinating stuff. I did not know about that. It seems I need to revise my opinion. It makes clear what the Internet is all about I think. It’s good to be sceptical and don’t believe anything you read. A good lesson learned, very disappointed though.

November 3, 2005 @ 8:31 pm | Comment

I haven’t had any problems getting on to this site in Beijing, morning, afternoon, evening or night. Most curious

November 3, 2005 @ 8:45 pm | Comment

Ivanovitch,
Hey, I did at least say your poetry was *better* than his. 😛

November 3, 2005 @ 11:18 pm | Comment

You guys are really being very unfair of Madge. Did he not offer to help you financially Richard, when you were coming to China, as he says he did on Bingfeng’s teahouse? And did he not express an interest to donate 10,000 RMB to the big head boy in Chengdu? His ex-students in Shanghai all speak very highly of him too, they say he always give money to beggars and stuff. You guys don’t don’t really know him, so I thinks its fair to judge him by his past internet behaviour, which was bizarre at times, but hardly evil or even particularly bad.

November 4, 2005 @ 12:23 am | Comment

Well, he hasn’t tried to destroy YOUR life, Greg. My God, how about doing a quick bit of research on this guy like I did first before defending someone to one who’s been attacked by him? Have you just come to this site?
I give tips in restaurants but that doesn’t make me Mother Teresa, and promising the moon isn’t the same as delivering.

November 4, 2005 @ 1:05 am | Comment

I reread that link to his zaniest hits, Richard. What were those pics that he in his Dr. Anne days sent you and Gordon? And I missed the time he requested pictures of “peni”…

November 4, 2005 @ 1:11 am | Comment

The penis pics were requested by “Dr. Myers,” if i remember, way back in another thread. Very strange. He did send a number of us photos of himself – lots. As though we wanted them. That was my first sign that something was not quite right upstairs, and I simply deleted them without comment.

November 4, 2005 @ 1:19 am | Comment

Greg, I just read you’re comment! You’re obviously new around here. Madge also said he was a 64-year-old woman doctor, that he was a product of a “creator” and had multiple identities. He never offered me money. He sends me unsolcited emails after i tell him to leave me alone, he writes about me all over the internet and he has tried to cause me and at least two others personal harm. He is always here, always lurking though he swears he never comes here. Did you read the fantabulist thread carefully? Tell us, what do you think about it?

Update: I think Greg is madge. Caution strongly advised.

November 4, 2005 @ 1:25 am | Comment

I knew it. Who else would have access to his “former students” (“fellow patients” I’d say)? Who else would follow him around like a Boswell, jotting down his acts of charity?

I went to his site (I feel dirty having doubled his visitor list for today) to read the comment mentioned earlier where, of course, he justifies the fascists blocking any site they don;t like, and calling those that disagree with it racists who hate Chinese.
He ‘censored’ one comment about you:
Congrats to all patriots and foreign friends who worked tirelessly hard to get that [deleted] Peking Duck banned, and I hope that [deleted] Richard [deleted].
Written by: Baolin at 2005/11/04 – 07:58

EXACTLY FIVE MINUTES LATER he just hapened to come across this comment and immediately type up the following sanctimonious drivel:

“Sorry Baolin, but I have censored your comment above. You are more than welcome to contribute to my blog by expressing your thoughts and feelings here about China-related issues, but please respect my Guest Book policy. It’s fine to criticise other people’s views, and their blogs, so long as you respect people’s feelings by not insulting them with the use of unnecessary expletives, be they adjectives or nouns.”

Hence censoring two adjectives having it both ways- moralistic nonsense about respecting your feelings while making damn sure that the message is not lost to anyone.

November 4, 2005 @ 1:35 am | Comment

Good eye, Keir! That’s just the sort of thing he does best – “arguing” with himself to strategic effect. Don’t hang out over there too much, it’s totally surreal. Alison Bridgewater. Sheesh.

November 4, 2005 @ 1:41 am | Comment

Yeah, I went there, and I wondered, where does he get these fucking names? Is there anyone actually named Paul Smith? If you’re gonna make up names, at least do better. Also, about names, why is it that on his site, most everyone uses their last names, just like he does? On other sites, no one uses their last names in their comments. I’ve never had a commenter list his last name on my site, except him. haha, what a joke! Seems like he should try harder to cover his tracks.

November 4, 2005 @ 1:58 am | Comment

Hey guys aren’t ther more important issues than Madge? What about this for example:

“The austere refinement and discreet assistance long associated with a traditional English butler is now a commodity available globally. In the past decade, Robert Watson has taken his business – training aspiring manservants in ettiquette, wine-tasting, table-dressing and other skills – to numerous continents. Watson’s latest expansion is in the Far East, where Chinese authorities have tapped him to help instruct locals on the art of serving the super-rich. Experts predict China will become the world’s number one tourist destination in just 15 years, and local officials are keen to make good on the promise of their five-star service industry. The nation’s economic boom, Olympic bid, and large foreign population make China an attractive arena for developing this industry. As a marked departure from the values of the communist era, private wealth has become more mainstream. This cultural shift could change the perception of social hierarchy in China.”

http://tinyurl.com/d6sga

November 4, 2005 @ 4:21 am | Comment

Oh yes, Mrs. Amanda Liu – the graduate cum laude from Harvard Business School, married to one of China’s top-ranking PLA officers, dutiful mother of one … and product of an unbalanced mind.

Maybe you can ask “Greg” about her. 😀

November 4, 2005 @ 8:13 am | Comment

(Scrolling up, “groan”):

Alright I admit I went over the top on nausicaa a few days ago. Sorry about that.

November 4, 2005 @ 6:52 pm | Comment

Richard, are you this Ivan character? Having read his comments, I cannot believe it’s a real person. Anything is possible in China blogs I have learned.

November 5, 2005 @ 6:14 am | Comment

Do you honestly think I could make Ivan up? He’s real. While he may be an acquired taste for some, he’s actually shockingly smart.

November 5, 2005 @ 6:40 am | Comment

No harm, no foul, Ivan. If you’ll stop posting while piss drunk on vodka and baijiu I promise never to foul the hallowed air of TPD with mentions of that angst-boi Keats again (in fact, what I really meant to write was Yeats…yeah, that’s it…quelle horreur, such typos, tsk), and we’ll each go our merry way – you will find someone else to bully and dedicate dubious poetry to and I’ll continue my free whoring for the CCP, the pimpdaddiest of ‘em all.

Onward, comrade!

November 5, 2005 @ 7:35 am | Comment

hi Lisa, I’m remarkably well thank you, I still potter around here occasionally, but was only moved to comment by Ivan’s hilarious poem – the one with “Imersed in Odin’s grail” and “ravens talons”! more of that please!!.
anyway, I see the chap I nicknamed “Madge” continues to exercise commenteers greatly, which seems like a phenomenal waste of time for all but the most directly affected.
speaking of comments, I note too that a new bunch of “anti-revolutionaries” have stood up to be slapped back into line by the self-appointed political commissars.
much more importantly though Richard & you & Martyn appear on good form with what you’re posting. good to see Richard got out east. hope you’re all well.

November 5, 2005 @ 9:36 am | Comment

KLS, I’m doing well also. Too busy to post much lately. Running off to Chinese class right now.

November 5, 2005 @ 9:49 am | Comment

KLS, good to hear from you again. Was it you who came up with “Madge”? If so, thank you – it was a stroke of genius.

MAJ is almost never discussed on this site anymore, and the only reason he’s in this thread is because TPD has recently been blocked in parts of China and the multi-personality Marxist has been gloating that it was his doing, in collusion with his imaginary friend Amanda Liu. If there is any truth to his claims, it shows people just how dangerous and obsessed he is. If the claim is totally false, it shows everyone just how troubled and out of control he is. Either way, it’s not a pretty sight.

November 5, 2005 @ 9:53 pm | Comment

Testing, testing what the hell Nanny is doing in my part of the Middle Kingdom……

November 6, 2005 @ 4:14 am | Comment

Ah, so, now I see, Nanny has not completely cut me off. It’s been erratic, where I’m at.

November 6, 2005 @ 4:15 am | Comment

yeah the name was mine, surprised so many took it up!

November 6, 2005 @ 4:31 am | Comment

1. A handshake to nausicaa, and thank you for being big about this.
Thank you, nausicaa, for accepting my apology.

And thanks to everyone else here for being so tolerant and forgiving of my occasional bad behavior.

2. As far as Madge goes:
Wait for it, MAJ. You pissed off the wrong person. I don’t like it when I get cut off from my favorite internet sites.
Wait for it, MAJ. It will come to you in the Russian way, when you least expect it.
Madge, you call yourself a “Leninist.” HA! HAHAHA! You know nothing about Lenin’s legacy.
Wait for it, Madge. It will come to you when you least expect it. You asked for it, your sack of shit. Wait for it, for a few years, MAJ.

November 6, 2005 @ 5:28 am | Comment

typo error in my prior comment:

I wrote, to MAJ, “your sack of shit”

I meant to write “you sack of shit”

November 6, 2005 @ 5:46 am | Comment

Okay, next thread, please. Let’s try to keep it madge-free.

November 7, 2005 @ 2:53 am | Comment