Apparently, I was in error when I stated that the Althouse wineblogging whatever-Vlogging the stars videos were edited. My apologies, Ann (Update – Apparently apologizing for errantly alleging she edited the tape is not enough for Ann. At least this update throws the post over 353 words, which apparently is a major cause for concern.).
As to the worst blog posts entry, Kevin has the official poll here. While it is funny, you all took the opportunity to point out some of my worst posts (this has to be one of the worst), I should probably just shut up so I am not collateral damage in the yuk fest. This post is pretty damned funny, as well, and I remember being in pain for a week.
On a serious note, if there was one post which is not only a black mark on this blog, but also a low point for me as a person, it has to be this one from a year and a half ago, in which I completely, out of nowhere, divined that Juan Cole is anti-semitic, smeared him as such, and then continued to defend my baseless accusations in the comments. I have no excuse, and the only explanation I can come up with is that I was still completely un-moored regarding my politics at the time (2005 until now has been a weird time for me regarding what I thought I knew and what I thought the GOP stood for), and I lashed out at what I felt was a safe target.
It is embarrassing, because I like to think of myself as a good person despite my launching pointed barbs from time to time, but this truly was a shameless and vicious post. That post had the potential to do real damage to someone’s integrity and reputation, it was completely unwarranted and baseless, and I am truly ashamed for writing it. If you are reading, Juan, and you probably are not, I apologize. It was disgusting, I was wrong, and there is no excuse. I hope you and the readers forgive me for that disgraceful performance.
Enough serious- we still need more nominations for the best blog posts. They can’t all be John Rogers, folks.
capelza
Fafblog..any. Please come back Fafnir… ;(
John…(all motherly cause that’s how I roll)…the main thing, I believe, that has separated you from the GOP is that your decency outweighed your loyalty. Loyalty is a strong thing (I know… I am still a Democrat despite their less than stellar profile in courage). Would that every politican do the same.
That was a nasty post, btw…but unlike many in your former party, you allowed new information to enter your brain and most unlike your former party, you apologised. “I was wrong”..how hard is that? GOP and Democrats could learn something from it.
Keith
That line predates my readership of your blog, but wow, I would never have thought that you would have said something like that. But you’re 100x the adult that the MMs/HHs of the world are, who will never, ever refuse to admit that something they said is worthy of ridicule.
kid bitzer
sweet jesus, john, that is one of the most egregiously decent, shamelessly humble, and flagrantly honest things i have ever seen in the blogosphere.
man–my hat is off to you. that is real class like doesn’t come around often.
dbrown
You are officially no longer a republican – you can admit making an error and taking responsibility for it – good for you. Welcome to the human race and the real world of honesty, logic, facts and truth.
Dug Jay
Come now. You flatter yourself if you think one of your posts – which typically have all the gravitas of the hole in a donut – could possibly do any more damage to the reputation of that other Cole than he does day in and day out with his own writing.
andante
You are truly a classy guy.
Don’t feel bad about the pickle jar. My sister-in-law was out of work for a week because she pinched a nerve in her neck twisting an ice cube tray.
And I’ll never forget having to take my 4-yr-old to the pediatrician to fish a wad of bread from deep within in her nose.
Elvis Elvisberg
Somehow, one of those links at Kevin Drum sent me to this post from 2003:
That seems to be what you did to Juan Cole– he was saying politically incorrect things, so you decided he had to be a racist.
Andrew Sullivan has done an awful lot to rethink his mistakes and excesses from when he supported the war. But his old bluster, ignorance, and hatred of imaginary leftists resurface whenever he writes about Hillary Clinton or entitlements. As one war supporter to another, let’s stick to the facts.
Great post.
Michael van der Galiën
Don’t feel bad John, we’ve all made that mistake. It’s because blogging is all about publishing things fast, reaction fast, etc.
About Andrew Sullivan: sure he lashed out at critics – and continues to do so, but he’s one of the best bloggers on the net (and he wrote a good book about conservatism).
Ted
Has Jules Crittenden always been that much of a colossal asshole?
Wow.
Andrew
Yes.
Duane
John, I cried a little reading that.
S
I think you go into things with a strong passion. I usually think that moderation would be better in the long run, but it makes for some comedic dialog.
Duane
Now if Tim would just apologize for his bout of blog censorship and thought-policing, I could really kick back and enjoy Minnesota’s victory over the Chargers.
sevenleagueboots
John
That’s quite a cathartic dump you just took, but I applaud the crude attempt at atonement.
Ah, devil ether. It makes you behave like the village drunkard in some early Irish novel. Total loss of all basic motor function. Blurred vision, no balance, numb tongue. The mind recoils in horror, unable to communicate with the spinal column. Which is interesting because you can actually watch yourself behaving in this terrible way, but you can’t control it.
Ted
Yes
Not having read him(?), I was under the impression he(?) was of the more sane conservative bloggers. Not Malkin-esque…
John Cole
RE: Jules
I think I have only linked him 4-5 times ( I think), the first time favorably for setting the record straight about GI’s targeting journalists in Iraq (he was embedded at the time), the other times just jabbing at him for minor hackery.
I really don’t know much about him.
Tim F.
If you link to it, people will know what you’re talking about. Or cry in your beer. I’m fine either way.
jake
John, if you hadn’t switched to D the Rs would have tossed you out for the unforgivable crimes of admitting you were wrong; laughing at how wrong you were; and apologizing to the other J. Cole in the active voice.
laneman
I’ll throw in that kim and his wife, wile attempting to understand writing, have no clue.
I was banned from their site for exactly the same reason about not understanding ‘humor’ – mine was simply talking about cooking food.
laneman
*while
Michael
John,
Whether your recent affiliation with the Dems and slightly less-recent affiliation with the reality-based community puts you on the “Left” or in the “Middle,” I think it’s pretty clear that your mea culpa above shows you cannot possibly be considered a blogger on the “Right”. Admitting you were wrong – and not just splitting hairs about it – is just not something the Right does. It shows class, humility and a capacity for growth as both a writer and a person.
Hat’s off to you.
Cinderella Ferret
Andrew Sullivan linked to Crittenden’s post about your supposed conversion to being a rabid liberal. With the exception of your rejection of the imperial Presidency, his war, his abrogation of the 4th Amendment and the his condoning of torture what has changed? You still seem to be steeped in realism a hallmark of traditional conservative thought. The current crop of deadenders–who continue to support the Former Cheerleader and his gang of thugs–espouse a crazy idealism that advocates military force to spread Democracy in the Middle East, seem to have departed from traditional Conservative thought. The old “I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Party left me’, as it were.I won’t even mention the crazy drunken sailor attitude toward fiscal responsibility! The Democrats in Congress will probably continue the spending binges, but we can only hope that an alliance of reformed Republicans and strong minded Democrats (which excludes much , but not all, of the current Democratic Congressional leadership) can form an alliance to bring the ship of state back to a Constitutional course and a more reasonable budget policy.
I find it fascinating how individuals are pigeon-holed for a small number of issues. Ask me about my 2nd Amendment beliefs, and I am a conservative. Ask me about my beliefs on abortion, and I am suddenly a liberal. Ask me about my opinion of Bush’s crazy war, and … well you get the idea. Ask me about my beliefs on National Defense, and I am a hawk. Ask me about my beliefs …. Ask me about the imperial President, Unitary Executive Theory, and suspension of habeas corpus on American soil and I am a red-blooded American. I Don’t Want No Stinkin’ King (or Queen)! We fought a war over this shit!
Keep up the good work. Because, I have NEVER said anything that I have later regretted, and ALWAYS been of sound mind when thinking through the issues, I will say that … well would you like to by this bridge? I promise to respect you in the morning.
Jonquil
You, sir, are an honorable man.
Ted
Indeed. Looking through the links in Kevin Drum’s Most Wingnuttiest blog post nominees, I saw a great example of this with the Doughy Pantload:
1. Pantload makes Katrina joke (just prior to landfall): “ATTN SUPERDOME RESIDENTS: ….grow gills…” among other cute pieces of advice.
2. The next day, after learning of the death, humanitarian crisis, and partially demolished city, admits “I probably could have waited for the levity.” (Because a month later it would have been funny?)
3. Pantload receives very nasty mail about his “levity” and responds “Despite apologizing for the undue levity, mail has kept pouring in.”
Being a wingnut means never having to say you’re sorry, apparently.
BARRASSO
On the subject of anti-semetism I have to ask has anyone really encountered an anti-semite, I have to say I haven’t, of course I live in Idaho so I don’t know many jews, the ones I do I occasionally accuse of controlling banking and ruining my credit, but I have never met anyone who thinks seriously that “The Jews” are behind something. Is this a form of racism on the outs or is it still alive and well in the nuttier places on earth?
borehole
Oh my god, is that a real apology? I’ve heard stories about them, but I don’t think I ever actually saw one before.
This was cool of you, man. Honor, textbook def.
(Leaves on that note rather than get a little dig in at John “Twice” Cole’s expense, because this thread is special)
The Other Steve
Well attacking jews went out of fashion years ago.
Today they are referred to simply as “Hollywood”.
The Truffle
The Democrats under Clinton were more responsible, fiscally, than the current borrow-and-spend assclowns on Capitol Hill. The Republicans are allowing the Dems to steal the “fiscal responsibility” meme right out from under their noses.
Good for you for apologizing, John. I’m sure the other J. Cole can forgive you.
jake
Hell, I knew a well-placed bureaucrat right here in DC who swore “Teh Joos” control everything. If you can stomach a few minutes with Louis Farrakahn’s drones you’ll hear the same bullshit.
vetiver
It is embarrassing, because I like to think of myself as a good person despite my launching pointed barbs from time to time, but this truly was a shameless and vicious post. That post had the potential to do real damage to someone’s integrity and reputation, it was completely unwarranted and baseless, and I am truly ashamed for writing it. If you are reading, Juan, and you probably are not, I apologize. It was disgusting, I was wrong, and there is no excuse. I hope you and the readers forgive me for that disgraceful performance.
John, the line between good people/bad people isn’t determined by who does shameless, vicious, unwarranted, and damaging things. Every single one of us, without exception, engages in shameless, vicious, unwarranted, and damaging behavior. Repeatedly, throughout our lives. Good people learn (slowly, painfully, shamefully) to recognize that, make whatever amends they can, and move on. Bad people don’t. They continue with their shameless, vicious, unwarranted, and damaging bullshit until they’re dead.
MayBee
Perhaps just as you were once to quick to judge those on the left, you are now too quick to judge those on the right harshly. It seems that one side or the other has to be demonized.
THeDRiFTeR
Wow, that attack on Juan Cole was really shitty. It had a Bryan Preston / Michelle Malkin twisted smear quality about it. You musta been quite a piece of work in your wingnut days.
The Other Steve
Naw, they have to be demonized. It’s the only way to convince the moderates to kick the fuckers out.
r€nato
you are a good person. Sadly, it’s human nature to not have the integrity to openly, frankly admit when one is wrong. You’re certainly a better man than many of your former right-wing comrades, for whom admission of error is akin to self-castration. OTOH some of the weakest, most cowardly people I’ve ever known are those who resolutely refuse to admit error in even the smallest matters.
r€nato
David Broder called. He wants his meme back.
Thers
Althouse, Altshoush.
For the connoisseur, there is only Altmouse.
Kyle
“On the subject of anti-semetism I have to ask has anyone really encountered an anti-semite … I have never met anyone who thinks seriously that ‘The Jews’ are behind something.”
Yeah. I live in Montreal and you can find old-fashioned anti-semites up here. A good buddy of mine is convinced that “the Jews” took over Germany and “reduced the Germans to slavery.” He’s against the death camps and all, but “at least Hitler got his country back.” We’re friends because he has many fine qualities, along with being a drunk and a high school dropout, and because he stays off the subject 95% of the time. The rest of the time we have fights.
We had one fight where, reaching for common ground, he came up with this piece of world-historic Broderism: “The Holocaust. There was terrible harm done to humanity — on both sides.” It’s one of the funniest sentences I’ve ever heard, but admittedly the humor is a bit hard to enjoy.
jake
It’s official:
Spoof
Is
Dead.
Sirkowski
I once got a elbow tendonitis because of a muscle spasm during my sleep.
SPIIDERWEB™
Gotta take my winger shot. Got him.
The difference between your post and wingers is you’re forthright. We all post stupid things at times, but wingers always hedge in their apologies. “I was wrong, but…not really”.
Great post. Kudos to you, John.
ATS
Antisemitism has been redefined by the ADL. Once upon a time an antisemite was someone who hated Jews; now an antisemite is anyone Abe Foxman does not like.
Memorable from the AIPAC dinner: The Israeli ambassador to the US . . .
“Some say–and it is perhaps true–that not ALL muslims are antisemites . . .”
Diplomacy at work.
a reader
Nothing to add to what everybody else has said except I’ve never read anything like this on a blog before and IMHO it proves you are a good person.
filkertom
Long-time listener, only once or twice poster — not because I have a problem with you or anything, I just haven’t done much active political blogging this year. But yours has become one of the sites I read daily. And your evolution from right-winger to rational person has been fascinating and ennobling to watch. I sincerely hope Prof. Cole accepts your apology, because, man, you have become an eloquent voice. And you did it the old-fashioned way… you were willing not merely to see the truth, but to look for it in the first place.
feral1
John,
I’m so happy to see your apology for accusing Juan Cole of antisemitism. I participated in that thread and was pretty upset that you would smear him like that, especially because a reputation of antisemitism for someone like Juan Cole has real consequences. I continued to read Balloon Juice from time to time since then and while I was encouraged by your evolving political transformation, I never forgot about that thread and I continued to think less of you for it.
Now I can read you without having it colored by that misstep.
Raenelle
Thank you for that genuine apology. I’m an asshole a lot, and I always benefit from good examples of true humility, acceptance of bad behavior and its consequences and the willingness to make amends. Well done.
Nikki
John,
Re-reading that comments thread, I see that I was one of those who happily piled on your wrongheadedness. It takes a good man to admit when he is wrong and to apologize. You know what you are.
The Other Steve
This is one of my favorites.
It’s been edited since initial publication, but it used to read like this:
D-Chance.
BTW, don’t forget to revisit that 2007weblogawards.org page and vote (again). The spread between 2nd and 5th in the “Best of the Top 250” category is only 32 votes. And Gateway Pundit has less than a 300 vote lead, so they’re not too far away to catch.
Also, for some really pathetic reading, check out the weblogawards forum for the pjcomix contoversy. And then go to the funniest blog category and vote for Sadly, No!
Atilla the Hun
Controversy breaking out in the biggest thread ever at the Weblog Awards Forum:
Topic: You have a hate site nominated as “Funniest” (Read 2,584 times)
It’s not far off either. Since this thread was posted around 10 hours ago, DummieFunnies has gone from being ahead of SadlyNo! by 200+ votes to being down by 400+ votes. SadlyNo is going to wipe the floor with this idiot, who should have never been a finalist to begin with, after this gets spread around.
To summarize: Well just see Here and Here and Here…. or really just go read SadlyNo’s front page and check out the 3 posts about this hateful loser who spent the last days of a dying cancer patient’s life posting screeds of hate and slime, possibly libelous, as what he likes to call “comedy”.
Vote SadlyNo! just to make this DummieFunnies idiot scream for the next year. He’s part of the Scamdy crew referring to Andy Stephenson and his bout with cancer that the freepers spent months in trying to prove a fraud in trying to raise money for needed surgery…. and then he died.
This idiot should never have been a finalist in the Funniest Blog category because his site is, as Gavin puts it, “nonfunny”. But now that this new info about what a hateful creep this guy is has surfaced and been put into the public sphere for those of us who didn’t make the connection, good god what was Kevin thinking?
Just go to SadlyNo! and read the 3 posts they have up about this asshole. The newest one just went up. It’s unbelievable.
Then go to The Weblog Awards Forum thread on this topic and weigh in.
Zuzu
Re: The Althouse “vlogs”:
Oh my God. They’re sort of weirdly fascinating in their utter inanity.
JGabriel
D-Chance: “BTW, don’t forget to revisit that 2007weblogawards.org page and vote (again).”
Yes, but don’t forget that it’s run by Kevin Aylward, the same guy who runs Wizbang, a wingnut site. The value of the Weblog Awards as anything other than a right wing ballot stuffing competition is fairly debatable.
AlanDownunder
Nothing but admiration as I watch you change, John, (or more accurately watch you perceive what the GOP now stands for) so please don’t be bugged if I return to this and suggest it’s worse than the Juan Cole howler.
How worse? Because it’s the sub-stratum of easily-accepted US craziness – the stuff that gets a free pass – that sustains the spectacular brain explosions. What do you want to do with what’s wrong with the US – prune it or uproot it?
Beware the really bad things that least bother you. The really bad thing being that not one member of the USMC from crew to command to HQ to website could see what was so much more deeply wrong in so many more ways than A company’s “Amber Lynn” – so much more than “boys will be boys”.
Your words were “extremely culturally stupid”. Add to that “pervasively and unselfconsciously” and ask yourself again if that’s no biggie.
Atilla the Hun
Alan, that link is bad.
Here’s the one you were going for.
Hold on A Minute
I agree with you in saluting John in his public transformation. There have been very few, in fact I can’t even think of another, who have admitted so much error with such humility over the past year and a half than John. Kudos to you, John. I’m a far left liberal and this is one of the reasons that you’re one of my 3 or 4 daily reads. Much respect.
chopper
see john, you’re obviously a jerk because you spend more words apologizing for calling someone an anti-semite vs saying that someone edited a video. yeah, totally.
The Other Steve
Yeah, it’s always been my impression that the weblog awards was a wingnut thing. Certainly obvious when you look at the sites that come up in the ballots.
HyperIon
good on you. i was outraged by this post and let you have it a few times. but you refused to give an inch.
i wish i understood how someone can so passionately defend a position one day and then months later renounce it completely. i’m serious about this….i’d like to understand the process. i’m not necessarily asking you to explain. but it seems to me that the torture discussions now are another case where i just don’t understand how someone can defend it…yet plenty of people do…passionately. what will cause them to change their minds?
however, again i say, good on you. particularly for the straightforwardness of the apology. i think many people underestimate how disarming a frank apology is.
les
Nice.
Renko
That took class; well done. Thank you. As noted above, a part of membership in the reality-based, democratic ‘left’ is the ability to recognize one’s errors, apologize, atone, and move on. I’m sure Dr. Cole will hear of this; if you write this apology to him personally, perhaps that could be considered atonement. I suggest this from personal experience (wherein I was at fault)and with nothing but tremendous respect for what you have already done. Thank you.
shaker o salt
Oh, it’s all coming back to me now! I remember this, from Juan Cole’s side. You are THAT John Cole. Hee hee.
I’ve enjoyed reading you since you’ve come to your senses. I’ve read Andrew Sullivan since he started looking at the GOP honestly, but he still says bonehead things I disagree with. You, not so much.
Good on ya!
DonkeyKong
Apologizing to Juan Cole (very upstanding), admitting getting your ass kicked by a pickle jar (the bulk kind, one you would’nt want to meet in a dark alley.)
All in the effort to be a better man. Holy smokes, you are a democrat!
Maybe even a liberal. Shhhh, I won’t tell anyone.
Nancy Irving
That you really are a “good person” is evidenced I think not just by the fact that you apologized to Cole, but that you have the cojones to leave the original post up, unlike some of our winger friends who stealthily take down (or alter) past, now embarrassing posts.
P.S. I once (after a particularly wine-soaked office-party) sliced off the tip of my finger trying to slice a tomato.