Pat Burke 🇺🇦
@patburke.bsky.social
Music, theatre, movies, that sort of thing. I’ll try not to be intemperate. Really.
I swear, every time I hear the words “property ladder”, I internally correct it to “property pyramid scheme”.
February 13, 2026 at 9:36 AM
I swear, every time I hear the words “property ladder”, I internally correct it to “property pyramid scheme”.
Amused, listening to this week’s Culture Gabfest, to hear the panel’s consensus that one reason for the success of The Rest Is History podcast is that everyone finds British accents inherently charming, attractive, and authoritative. YMMV, I suppose.
February 12, 2026 at 4:00 PM
Amused, listening to this week’s Culture Gabfest, to hear the panel’s consensus that one reason for the success of The Rest Is History podcast is that everyone finds British accents inherently charming, attractive, and authoritative. YMMV, I suppose.
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
Happy birthday to legendary director Costa-Gavras, who turns 93 today!
(pictured directing Missing)
(pictured directing Missing)
February 12, 2026 at 2:57 PM
Happy birthday to legendary director Costa-Gavras, who turns 93 today!
(pictured directing Missing)
(pictured directing Missing)
Listening to Jenin Younes being interviewed about free speech by David Remnick:
“I thought RFK gave the most moving defense of free speech I had ever heard…”
“I was very disappointed in RFK…”
“Perhaps I was naive…”
Dangerously thick or mind-bogglingly disingenuous? Hard to tell.
“I thought RFK gave the most moving defense of free speech I had ever heard…”
“I was very disappointed in RFK…”
“Perhaps I was naive…”
Dangerously thick or mind-bogglingly disingenuous? Hard to tell.
February 12, 2026 at 10:42 AM
Listening to Jenin Younes being interviewed about free speech by David Remnick:
“I thought RFK gave the most moving defense of free speech I had ever heard…”
“I was very disappointed in RFK…”
“Perhaps I was naive…”
Dangerously thick or mind-bogglingly disingenuous? Hard to tell.
“I thought RFK gave the most moving defense of free speech I had ever heard…”
“I was very disappointed in RFK…”
“Perhaps I was naive…”
Dangerously thick or mind-bogglingly disingenuous? Hard to tell.
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
One of the ways I know there's no God is that a _British_ person can use the word 'colonised' like this and not immediately got vaporised.
'The UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
'The UK has been colonised by immigrants', says INEOS boss and Man Utd co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe
Britain has been "colonised" by immigrants, who are draining resources from the state, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, one of the country's richest and most influential men, has told Sky News.
news.sky.com
February 11, 2026 at 5:36 PM
One of the ways I know there's no God is that a _British_ person can use the word 'colonised' like this and not immediately got vaporised.
Fianna Fáil have gone particularly Fianna Fáil recently. 2006 kind of Fianna Fáil. But I’m sure it will end well this time.
The exchange between the Taoiseach and the Sinn Féin leader prompted Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy to appeal for a "respectful" debate, given that the visitors' gallery was full.
jrnl.ie/6953584t
jrnl.ie/6953584t
'You couldn't care less': Taoiseach gets defensive as rent reforms face criticism
His outburst prompted the Ceann Comhairle to warn TDs to be “respectful”.
jrnl.ie
February 11, 2026 at 4:25 PM
Fianna Fáil have gone particularly Fianna Fáil recently. 2006 kind of Fianna Fáil. But I’m sure it will end well this time.
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
I see the Gray Zone Boyz are in "you gotta hand it to Noam Chomsky" mode.
February 10, 2026 at 8:03 AM
I see the Gray Zone Boyz are in "you gotta hand it to Noam Chomsky" mode.
February 10, 2026 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
Plans to invade Greenland have just been cancelled after this
February 9, 2026 at 6:42 AM
Plans to invade Greenland have just been cancelled after this
Decades of being told that this fella alone perceived what the rest of us were too dim to comprehend when he had all the judgement of pantomime horse.
Noam Chomsky's wife says he was 'ensnared' and 'manipulated' by Epstein - https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/noam-chomskys-wife-says-he-was-ensnared-and-manipulated-epstein
Noam Chomsky's wife says he was 'ensnared' and 'manipulated' by Epstein
The veteran left-wing intellectual met and corresponded extensively with Epstein, newly released files reveal
www.middleeasteye.net
February 8, 2026 at 5:11 PM
Decades of being told that this fella alone perceived what the rest of us were too dim to comprehend when he had all the judgement of pantomime horse.
“Have you sent that RA/MS in yet?”
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"Always wash your hands before you leave the lab"
"Always wash your hands before you leave the lab"
"What's the method variability?"
February 8, 2026 at 3:59 PM
“Have you sent that RA/MS in yet?”
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive.”
February 7, 2026 at 1:08 PM
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive.”
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
A man who killed a 12-year-old boy with his van after using WhatsApp and Snapchat while driving, and who drove while eating food with a fork and spoon, has been given a suspended sentence and banned from driving for 16 months.
Man given suspended sentence after death of boy by careless driving
Aaron Webb was struck by a van on Friday 11 December 2021 and later died in hospital.
www.bbc.co.uk
February 6, 2026 at 4:33 PM
A man who killed a 12-year-old boy with his van after using WhatsApp and Snapchat while driving, and who drove while eating food with a fork and spoon, has been given a suspended sentence and banned from driving for 16 months.
The bins in our canteen are now adorned with signs instructing “Please don’t throw metal spoons or forks here”, in case you were wondering how civilisation is holding up.
February 6, 2026 at 11:39 AM
The bins in our canteen are now adorned with signs instructing “Please don’t throw metal spoons or forks here”, in case you were wondering how civilisation is holding up.
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
Derry Girls and Edmund Burke's concept of Tolerance. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/06/d...
Derry Girls and Edmund Burke’s concept of Tolerance.
I had an idea yesterday. This is itself a rare enough of an event to warrant some celebration but the spark was all the more interesting insofar as it occurred while I was actually giving a lecture…
conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:08 AM
Derry Girls and Edmund Burke's concept of Tolerance. conradbrunstrom.wordpress.com/2026/02/06/d...
“If Ireland are to win, it’s likely to be a bare-knuckle ride.” I know what a white knuckle ride is, and also a bare-knuckle fight. Almost afraid to ask what a “bare-knuckle ride” could refer to.
February 5, 2026 at 12:47 PM
“If Ireland are to win, it’s likely to be a bare-knuckle ride.” I know what a white knuckle ride is, and also a bare-knuckle fight. Almost afraid to ask what a “bare-knuckle ride” could refer to.
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
A driver shouted at me yesterday something about not seeing me on the pedestrian crossing because I was behind a bus when I was actually literally in front of the bus because the bus let me pass so no I don't think making people wear a hi-vis would do much
February 5, 2026 at 11:48 AM
A driver shouted at me yesterday something about not seeing me on the pedestrian crossing because I was behind a bus when I was actually literally in front of the bus because the bus let me pass so no I don't think making people wear a hi-vis would do much
Watching Peter Pan with the kid, I’m reminded that my Nana’s maiden name was Smee. Not a single one left in Ireland now, I believe.
February 4, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Watching Peter Pan with the kid, I’m reminded that my Nana’s maiden name was Smee. Not a single one left in Ireland now, I believe.
Good thing it’s quiet there right now.
February 4, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Good thing it’s quiet there right now.
Flight back from Amsterdam, someone has misplaced a small bag. Passenger behind me claims it. Flight attendant asks to confirm the contents. An audibly exhausted but suddenly panicked voice: “Eh… baggies and… cigarette papers and, eh… Amberleaf tobacco and, eh…”
“Yes, ok…”
“Yes, ok…”
February 2, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Flight back from Amsterdam, someone has misplaced a small bag. Passenger behind me claims it. Flight attendant asks to confirm the contents. An audibly exhausted but suddenly panicked voice: “Eh… baggies and… cigarette papers and, eh… Amberleaf tobacco and, eh…”
“Yes, ok…”
“Yes, ok…”
I’m not at all an aggressive driver, but as a pedestrian I’m extremely confrontational about this.
Once again left standing at a pedestrian crossing unable to cross, despite the green man showing, because of drivers continuing to go through on the red light. What is wrong with people? How do we get them help?
February 2, 2026 at 9:36 AM
I’m not at all an aggressive driver, but as a pedestrian I’m extremely confrontational about this.
Reposted by Pat Burke 🇺🇦
DOCTOR: I told him he needed to get out to a show, that was how he would cure his depression.
CHOTINER: So you learned this technique in school?
DR: No, not— listen it was good advice. Pagliacci was in town.
C: Right. Is it standard to give advice before learning a patient’s name?
DR: Now look
CHOTINER: So you learned this technique in school?
DR: No, not— listen it was good advice. Pagliacci was in town.
C: Right. Is it standard to give advice before learning a patient’s name?
DR: Now look
February 2, 2026 at 3:58 AM
DOCTOR: I told him he needed to get out to a show, that was how he would cure his depression.
CHOTINER: So you learned this technique in school?
DR: No, not— listen it was good advice. Pagliacci was in town.
C: Right. Is it standard to give advice before learning a patient’s name?
DR: Now look
CHOTINER: So you learned this technique in school?
DR: No, not— listen it was good advice. Pagliacci was in town.
C: Right. Is it standard to give advice before learning a patient’s name?
DR: Now look
This has always struck me as being so likely as to be totally uncontroversial.
Ironic - I feel - people do this thing about it being about race and even the ones who don’t think he’s meant to be “a person of colour” think he’s a gypsy or a traveller or whatnot when I offer a more simple explanation: the foundling from Liverpool portrayed as wild and passion driven is *Irish*.
The extent people have hallucinated a completely different novel based on a film version a decade or so ago and earnest online influencers will never not be fascinating to me
February 1, 2026 at 11:23 AM
This has always struck me as being so likely as to be totally uncontroversial.