I was interviewed last week by Erik Kain at the League of Ordinary Gentlemen. You can read it here.
All About Me
This post is in: Blogospheric Navel-Gazing
All About Me
Reader Interactions
151Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Second rate reporter says what?
It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.
There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.
The Supreme Court cannot be allowed to become the ultimate, unaccountable arbiter of everything.
Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.
Fani Willis claps back at Trump chihuahua, Jim Jordan.
An unpunished coup is a training exercise.
Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.
If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!
DeSantis transforms Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.
Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.
“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!
Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.
The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.
Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.
A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.
The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.
The willow is too close to the house.
‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’
And so it is for the politically and morally bankrupt Kevin McCarthy.
If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.
Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.
Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.
So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.
You are here: Home / All About Me
J. Michael Neal
I got dibs on being the local gold bug.
General Winfield Stuck
Ah, just so sweet. Hanky please.
MikeJ
Fuck you Norm.
Brian J
I saw this last night, but wanted to wait until more people would see it. I bought of Atlas Shrugged years ago but I don’t think I ever finished it, or even read most of it, so I can’t speak for Rand’s specific beliefs, but her supporters today are definitely annoying. It’s worth it to click the link for picture of Rand with Alan Greenspan between her legs and the whip in her hands.
On another note, apparently, we’re all wrong about Sarah Palin’s book. You see, according to one reviewer who isn’t Rich Lowry, “this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in [his] lifetime.” Read the entire review, if you’d to travel to an alternate universe where Palin is a victim of the media, is more of an environmentalist than Al Gore is, and supposedly had a solid reason for resigning as governor. This is truly crazy shit.
John Cole
@Brian J: I hope TBOGG sees that Ziegler review.
funluvn
That was a good interview, John. I enjoyed the read and I truly agree with you regarding your take on the last 8 years when we could have had either Gore or Kerry in the White House and things could have been far better than what we inherited from the Bush administrations.
pcbedamned
I had to laugh at this line because that is me to a t. I sit in awe at my 15 year old who can text me about 5-7 times before I can get an answer to her (she is the only reason I even have texting activated on my phone). Now she at least knows to wait a few minutes before thinking I’m not answering!!!
Excellent interview John.
donovong
“The biggest reason is that our website has morphed into a community of sorts. Granted, a dyspeptic, curmudgeonly, and off color community, but a community nonetheless. Think of an “R-rated” Cheers, if you will.”
We love you too, JC.
MikeJ
I think that should be *can’t* solve.
Face
Just what the fuck are you fucking talking about, you pansy-ass shitbag? Just cuz we can turn your ears red dudn’t mean we’re dyspeptic. Tempestuous, perhaps. Gritty…natch. But dyspeptic?
/looks up word in dictionary
Trinity
Great interview John. This is my favorite blog. I’ve learned and laughed a lot here.
Also, Tunch is King!
R-Jud
Same here. I can’t bring myself to say things like “l8r”, and the T9 thingy that guesses what words you’re writing always guesses wrong for me. What’s sad is that I am only 16 days over 30, so am supposed to be all tech-savvy, and get a lot of grief from friends for it. I was once asked if I had lead thumbs.
gogol's wife
Very nice interview. I’m going to send it to all my friends who keep saying, “What exactly do you mean by Balloon Juice?”
Brian J
Actually, now that I think about it, I had been meaning to tell you this. A guy I work with, who is an ABD in political science and who largely shares my political views, actually reads this blog fairly frequently, as I found out when we were talking one day. He likes a lot of blogs, but he loves this one. He says you are the best thing the Republicans have ever given us, no joke.
RedKitten
Awww…now I’m feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. I love our dyspeptic, curmudgeonly and off-colour community, and love John for giving us all a virtual home.
/wipes away a little tear
Sentient Puddle
I absolutely refuse to text. If you’re going to pull out a phone and use it to somehow or another communicate with me, fucking call me. It’s a lot faster than typing out something on a tiny keyboard, and you aren’t going to inevitably make a total mockery of written language (that one’s a sore spot for me).
Punchy
Nice libtard interview, Johnny. It’s clear that had you been asked about newspapers you read, or what the McPalin Doctrine wuz, you’da been made the chump and clowned for the next 3 news cycles. Instead, just softball questions from a stupid lefty. What’s next…..a book?
Brian J
@Sentient Puddle:
I don’t particularly care to text, especially if there’s actually something to talk about, because then it’s just annoying. But I really don’t like talking on the phone, so if I need to ask something simple, then texting is actually easier.
Max
@Sentient Puddle: I prefer to text. It communicates info quickly and succinctly without all the extraneous stuff that goes along with a phone call.
It’s especially helpful with work when trying to reach people quickly. A text is more likely to be seen in real time, over an email that depends on someone to check their blackberry.
If people need to reach me, texting is the best way. If you want to talk to me, text me and tell me what about.
RedKitten
@Sentient Puddle: The only time I’ve ever texted (and the only sensible use for it), is if I’m in a situation where it’s just too noisy to use the phone. It was handy when a bunch of us were at a crowded bar and letting another friend know where we were, because there was no way we would have heard each other on the phone, and it was pouring rain out, so going outside to talk would have been awful.
Other than that, though, I’d much rather talk — it’s faster.
The Grand Panjandrum
Thanks. That’s some high praise coming from The Heater.
ellaesther
This made me so happy! First of all, isn’t it funny how different a person sounds when talking to someone else, vs. expressing directly onto the page (screen)?
And I must say, this blog is one of the reasons that I stopped fearing the blogosphere, and ultimately, one of the reasons I started blogging myself. Back when I used to comment on Jezebel (sigh. Things change!), I would counsel people to only ever read the comments here, Boing Boing, and Ta-Nehisi Coates — lest their hair catch on fire. Now, this is where I comment the most.
Aside from anything else (like intelligence, humor, and sheer good looks), this place is proof that “curmudgeon” doesn’t mean “mean-spirited,” and as a curmudgeon, that is something I lift my hat to every day.
I raise a mug of coffee to you all!
JenJen
That was a really nice read! But I wanted to see a Bengals-clad Tunch, not a naked Tunch.
Lily, as always, is off the hook.
PeakVT
Granted, a dyspeptic, curmudgeonly, and off color community,
We’d be nicer if you posted more action-packed videos of His Tunchness.
R-Jud
@Max:
This. It’s a good way to instantly get someone’s attention, which is the only reason I bother with it at all. I have clients/colleagues in a couple of different time zones and usually get return contact quicker when I text and say “I need to call you about X; is this a good time?”, or “Please read the e-mail I sent about Y; waiting for reply.”
SGEW
It’s been a long, strange trip, eh Mr. Cole?
And you really read Tapper every day? Wow.
Also: I thought we were an R-rated Cute Overload nowadays? Tho’ our drunken commenting does still have a whiff of Cheers . . . .
The Grand Panjandrum
@RedKitten: Heh. Beat me to it. As you can see I got all misty eyed over that one too … maybe we should all have a big virtual hug. (OMG! Do I feel a round of holding hands and singing Kubayah coming on?)
Mirthless Chopper - Frmrly TheFountainHead
Clearly, it’s time that John Cole’s counter-tops are more thoroughly inspected.
Punchy
@Sentient Puddle: Try making that phone call at a music concert, or in a library. My mom used to feel the way you do, until she realized she could condense all the extraneous hellos and how-are-yous necessary in a phone call into a very concise 2 word text.
MikeJ
The protocol overhead on voice is just way too high for a lot of transactions.
“Hello. ” – pure protocol, no content
“Hi, it’s Mike” – protocol
“I’m on the way” – msg packet
“Ok, see you when you get here” – protocol
vs the text msg
“OTW”
With a text the thing I need to worry about is the message. Receiver doesn’t have to stop what she’s doing to handle message. It’s a big win all around.
Just Some Fuckhead
That was a good read, John. You came across pretty savvy and a lot more interesting than you are in real life. ED Kain must be a genius.
ellaesther
@The Grand Panjandrum: Watch it. Someone’s gonna get smacked. They don’t call us curmudgeons for nuthin’.
jeffreyw
@R-Jud:
LOL
“I clocked you texting back there, goin 50wpm in a 30 zone, what’s the matter bub? You got lead thumbs?”
R-Jud
@jeffreyw: More like 4 wpm in a 30. I am the texting equivalent of the short-waisted, 97-year-old semi-blind Nun in a cadillac who’s somehow drifted onto the interstate.
ellaesther
@MikeJ: Please tell me you’re kidding. Pretty please? Even if you have to lie to me?
I mean, I have blogged about how much of a neo-Luddite I am and how much I want never, ever want to text or “tweet” (oy! Tweet? Really, people?) — and yes, I do enjoy the absurdity of blogging about a fear of new technologies, thanks for asking — but I do recognize that these both can be very useful technologies, and that further more, are thoroughly enjoyed by many people who are not me.
But “protocol” is civilization! It’s humanity! Doing away with it when we need to is one thing, but “the protocol overhead on voice is just way too high for a lot of transactions“… It’s, it’s, it’s… I don’t even know what to say here! Protocol is what makes the whole human interaction thing work!
Please tell me you’re exaggerating to make a point? Please, please, please…?
pcbedamned
@RedKitten:
The only one I do text is my daughter. She has a tendency to text me while at school usually to ask if she can stay after, etc, and I can let her know right away. The reason I had to get text on my phone (until DD, I refused and had it blocked) was because one time I called her, thinking she was still on lunch (it was 11:55am) and it turned out she was already in Science class. I guess when the teacher heard her phone ring she looked at him and said “It’s my Mom”. He told her to answer it, but I guess she got quite a bit a grief from fellow classmates thereafter (‘your mommy’ kind of stuff). Now we text…
Mirthless Chopper - Frmrly TheFountainHead
Are you from the Future? Who else but a time traveller could have described Sarah Palin’s destiny in such detail??
jeffreyw
@R-Jud: Yeah, the meaning of lead thumbed is 180 from the old lead foot concept, but there is just no accounting for what tickles my funny bone these days.
Da Bomb
I am so proud of you John Cole. You are becoming a “star”.
Make us proud!!
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
A few years ago you did a radio interview thing and gave us a link to listen in, online. I listened in, online. Being something of a voice nerd, able to identify instantly and accurately just about any voice I have ever heard before in my life, and hearing things about people in their voices that reveal the inner person, I declared that I had heard your voice and had you figured for a Nice Guy,and said that you ought to do more radio.
Now this interview, which pretty much seals the Nice Guy classification in my head. So, that’s settled.
Also, the blurb about conservatism is pretty good.
Also, plus, and moreover, there was no picture of you.
inkadu
JMC in the ATL
I love that Lily and Tunch got prime billing.
And now you have a nice summary of “John Cole Used to be a Republican” that you can link to when it comes up.
Ash Can
Who needs pictures of John when there’s a picture of Tunch and Lily
giving each other the fisheyepeaceably coexisting at the top of the article?Belafon (formerly anonevent)
I’m making that my sig at GOS.
jeffreyw
Not near enough food threads these days. Is everyone on a damn diet?
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
R-rated? We need to kick it up a notch! Cheers? I thought we agreed that this place was a total dive and that was what attracted us.
Great read John but when are you going to be interviewed by The League of Slightly Off Kilter Gentlemen? When that happens then you know you have arrived!
Just don’t ask where you are.
geg6
It is obviously the star power of Tunch and Lily that gets you all this fawning publicity, Cole. Don’t let it go to your head.
Seriously, good on ya in the interview. I hope Rachel Maddow sees it and calls you for your big media debut soon. I’m dying to know what you look like when not dressed as a deranged hobo clown.
Keith G
We live in interesting times when strangers (?) can become become close by reading messages off a screen.
When childbirth or run-a-way kitties urge one to constantly check back for a progress report.
When a heretofore unknown guy’s instant love for his adopted pup moves me to tears.
Interesting times.
Little Dreamer
John, I find it interesting that you defined your length of time blogging as a result of 9/11. While I will never believe 9/11 changed everything, I think it greatly affected this thing we call blogging.
Good interview!
Brian J
Here is some incontrovertible proof our society is doomed. After seeing this, I wish I were dead. Via Sadly, No!.
MikeJ
@ellaesther: Nope, not kidding.
Let’s look at the situation above. If I was going someplace for work, all they need to know is encapsulated in the text message. I have my own life and my own friends and the only reason why I’m showing up at your place of business is because I know how to do something none of your staff does. I’m not coming over for fun and I’m going to bill you a shit load. I could chit chat with you, but your shrink could feign interest better and cheaper.
If the message was personal, I’m going to see a friend. I’m going to devote all my attention to her when I’m there. I assume that whatever she’s doing right now before I get there is important to her and I gave her the info I’m on the way with the least distraction.
If you multitask a lot, the way you’re able to stay courteous to people that you’re with is to be quick with those you’re not with.
inkadu
I’ve been seeing “GOS” for a few days, and I had no idea what it meant. I realize today it must stand for Great Orange Satan. Google still hasn’t caught up and when I enter “GOS” with another search term, it returns “goes” or “go.” Carry on.
Little Dreamer
@JMC in the ATL:
Not nearly as fulfilling as reading the original screeds, but it will do.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@ellaesther: Actually, I have to agree with MikeJ. The only reason for the phone protocol is that there are no clues over the phone that someone has picked up, is listening, or is about to hang up. That is their only purpose, so both sides don’t have to guess, just like you would say “over” when talking on a radio. Which is why it was so funny that Calvin picked up the ringing phone and proceeded to order a pizza. Texting renders all of these pieces of protocol unnecessary.
Rick Taylor
Brian J:
I think this is my favorite part of that review
These people are such a joke.
Shinobi
This was my favorite blog when I was a republican, and it is my favorite blog now that I am not a republican. I think there was a brief 6mo period where I wondered what John was smoking, but otherwise I have always loved BJ.(s)
JenJen
@Brian J: lmfao lmfao rofl lmfao! Good stuff!!
Stooleo
O.T.
Neo Nazi group crash Teabagger protest. Well, color me shocked.
bago
Texting is an asynchronous messaging protocol. Handy when busy.
scav
@ellaesther: Don’t worry, protocalls are negotiated, situational and can change. A thing developed between me and a friend has now spread to my family which is a just a ping. The content is just the thought “hey, you there?” or, “I’m thinking of you” and all we need to send/say is “ping”. Protocall is, all you need to to is ping back. It’s also morphed into the descriptor for “this is a just a short conversation to touch bases” sort of affair. We all know what it means and it fills a need (sort of the brief pat you give someone as you leave the room), even if it’s stripped way down.
Shinobi
@MikeJ: I completely agree with your protocol argument, but I never had a good way to frame it.
Especially if you communicate with the same people a lot during the day, do we really need to say Hi and goodbye 4 times a day? Isn’t it much easier if we just text the other person what they need to know?
Plus, you don’t spend half your time saying “WHAT?” in text, (that is if the other person isn’t completely leotarded and writes in words.) I usually have to ask people to repeat themselves at least once in a cell phone conversation, due to service, mumbling or my own inability to hear.
Annie
@MikeJ:
LOL.
John sounds so erudite. I imagine him sitting there, with a pipe in one hand, and a whiskey in the other, educating the uneducated on the mysterious and pleasures of blogging…
Just Some Fuckhead
@JMC in the ATL:
I still think it’s more interesting that John Cole used to be a cat lady. Call me weird.
Brian J
@Rick Taylor:
Yes, they are.
General Winfield Stuck
@Annie:
More like slurping down some Hola Fruta while hunkered over a Neti Pot.
Max
@MikeJ: I agree, however, I expand this sentiment into my personal life.
My friends and I have even stopped leaving voice mail messages for one another. It’s a pain to listen to voice mail, and with cell phones, everyone can see their missed calls. Along with texting, this is my favorite progression made in communication protocol.
Randy P
@R-Jud:
Well, I’m over 50 and texting has become a predominant mode of communication during the day between my wife and me. And I write in complete sentences, with punctuation & whole words.
The T9 thing is OK if you pay attention to what it’s putting in, and you use the “next word” feature. It’s a little annoying to keep switching modes to put in numbers (a lot of my communication is about what train I expect to be on) or symbols. But I’m still reasonably fast.
But the real secret I discovered: Drop the phone you expected to get a few more years out of, so you have to go back to the phone store and get a new one with a QWERTY keyboard. I’m completely addicted to that thing. Plus I keep playing with the flip top, trying to figure out how the heck they did that two-way hinge thing (it is hinged in one corner and opens both vertically and horizontally).
arguingwithsignposts
Well that worked out great, dinnit? I spotted at least four spelling/spacing errors.
arguingwithsignposts
@Max:
Agreed, although apparently Google Voice will translate the speech to text and send it to you as a text message.
flukebucket
Great interview. Thanks for sharing it.
I started reading Balloon-Juice back in 2004 and since that time there has not been one day that I have missed provided I had access to a computer and an internet connection.
I can read Balloon-Juice on my Kindle but it still pisses me off that I can’t read the comments on it.
Nothing like an open thread without access to comments.
But still worth a buck a month.
Randy P
@Punchy:
Exactly. I know I can get a message to my wife, and I won’t hear later that she had to make a mad dive to shut off her phone in the middle of a meeting or while standing in front of a classroom.
Plus, you can send & receive messages when your battery is nearly dead or you are in an area of bad reception.
edmund dantes
@arguingwithsignposts: I just loved the semi-haughtiness that comes out of it even though I know John doesn’t feel that way.
Yes you will clean up my mistakes and you will not complain. (or off with your head peasant!).
Lol
superking
Hey John, in the interview, you talk a little bit about institutional blogs that are still good. What do you think of the blogs that started as blogs but are now institutionalized? Primarily, I’m thinking of TPM. The other big ones, Kos, Atrios, etc, do alright most of the time in my view, but TPM is generally worthless.
I think Josh Marshall wanted to start an internet newspaper, but it never works for me. There are basically no external links on that site–if he has a link in the main blog to something, it links to post somewhere else on the site, and those posts tend to be uninformative because they don’t provide any background. His people never really provide any insightful commentary, though they do sometimes dig up bits and pieces of minor scandals. That may be the real problem–they’re too focused on these minor scandals. Case in point is the top post right now which includes a photo of some obscure figure of Florida politics meeting with Charlie Crist. Can anyone explain why I should care?
Ugh. Anyway, I hate teh TPM. Anyone care to justify it’s existence?
geg6
@General Winfield Stuck:
Or mopping naked.
The Grand Panjandrum
@superking:
I read it. Therefore, it is. Q.E.D.
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Text v voice is not really about protocols. It’s about hearing the actual human being, and information that is not present in text (or email). The voice tells all. Text hides all.
Randy P
@superking:
Good original reporting. He pays people to actually do journalism. The attorney-general-firing scandal came from TPM’s persistent digging over a period of months, and they continued to talk about it for months before it ever saw print in the dead-paper media.
Just Some Fuckhead
@superking:
Very good election coverage. They were the place to be during the Obama-Clinton primary scrum, for instance.
scav
@The Grand Panjandrum: seconded.
inkadu
I was never much of a TPM reader, but I notice he “publishes” once a day. Content doesn’t change for at least 24 hrs; which is an incredibly backwards way to do things.
But it wouldn’t be a bad place to go to know what’s going on. I know what’s going on because I read the blog cloud and watch the Daily Show. But if I only had a few minutes, I might go to TPM.
Or, to be more accurate, if I had a few minutes AND I sincerely cared about what was going on, I would go to TPM. With just a few minutes, I always look for the thread about Sarah Palin.
Little Dreamer
@RaptureReadyAndLovinIt:
Funny that the person who said this is the same person who taught me how to text. ;)
547737 (ha!)
scav
@Little Dreamer: Funnier that it comes up in a comment string at least partly about how we’ve become a very crotchety community without the benefit of seeing or</b? hearing each other.
scav
hearing each other. Must have missed a tag.
MazeDancer
While my political junkie-ness has actually, gratefully, been shortened to, basically, reading this blog with some NY Times, PBS, & a little Kos thrown in (And only BJ on the daily schedule) two universal points intrigued me most from the excellent read.
1) Great blogs, no matter the subject, with brains, heart, and respect for divergent opinions make communities.
Everything you said about BJ could be said about blogs on a wide range of subjects. Sports, knitting, music, entertainment, art. People come for the info. They stay for the connection. Even if, like me, they mostly lurk. Openness and intelligence in such abundant degrees, with no severe penalty for risk, creative speculation, or new ideas, is not found in the same way in ReaLife.
2) “The Republicans are the only alternative…”
What if the media, under their own financial pressures, thinks a better “show” is having more alternatives? Starting with some 3 way races in small places? Cable news, if it desires, could create 3rd & 4th party narratives. And when the day comes that their current coverage isn’t WWF enough, seems likely they will.
The Republicans are an alternative because the media gives them a percentage of public airwaves two to three times their popularity. And focusses on the haters because it’s good TV. Or web hits. When Cable TV & Internet & magazines is all StreamBoxTubes with 10,000 stations, equally available on whatever is Apple’s electronic pocket implant of the fiscal quarter, who’ll control the narrative then? “Good TV” will be a bigger brawl.
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
@scav:
That’s actually a good point. It is much harder to avoid contention when the voice is not present to carry background information about the message. So email and text tend to degrade more quickly into argument, contention, or outright hostility, than you would get with voice communication.
One might think that voice leaves out the body language stuff, but actually, the body language stuff is usually in the voice, if you learn how to really listen to it.
But anyway, text leaves out all the nonverbal cues, which are where we get our real communication. Communicating with symbols is a whole different ballgame.
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
@Little Dreamer:
I think I just presented a text opportunity, and you learned it on your own.
Cyrus
Good interview on both ends. I haven’t been around much (mostly just because I’ve been using tvtropes.org to procrastinate while at work, instead of blogs), but yeah, an R-rated, sort-of-political-now-and-then “Cheers” sounds apt.
What breed is Lily? She’s all grown up, right? Because I didn’t think about it until I saw that picture with the interview, but either Tunch is freakishly big (I know the jokes) or Lily is very small. I can’t think of any dog that’s not of a specific toy breed (pug, terrier, chihuahua, bichon frise, etc.) that’s smaller than a cat.
Also, I wasn’t going to go around hyping this on blogs, at least not until and unless we get organized and serious about it, but the line in the interview about “insane babble about ‘In God We Trust’ onthe coinage” reminded me of something. Last night my roommate had the idea that if you don’t like having those bits of ceremonial deism on your money, just black it out with a marker. It actually seems like a good idea to me. He wasn’t serious about it because he thought a cashier would soon refuse to take your money and make a federal case out of it, but really, who looks that closely? People write on cash all the time; very few people will pay attention to what’s blacked out or what messages are written on it if they aren’t already in the know. I’m not sure how serious we’ll be about this (Web site? Stamp?); it wouldn’t be the first hare-brained-scheme-while-drunk we’ve come up with. However, I’ve already blacked out the phrase on the money in my wallet.
Napoleon
@superking:
Josh Marshall is IMO the single most insightful blogger on the left, so for that reason alone it is worth going there for when he opines on something. Plus like no where else on the left they have done original reporting that has mattered. The entire Bush DOJ scandel was single handedly uncovered by that site.
CynDee
@ellaesther: You should not worry yourself for one moment about this. Just keep doing what you are doing — preserving civility / civilization. It’s an important job.
The three columns that prop up civilization are:
1. Plumbers (drains)
2. Librarians (information on how to make a drain and other things)
3. People who engage one another in lively language for enlightenment, encouragement, personal/social progress, and just the heck of it
Without these, we would all be living dirty on the ground in crude ignorance and no way to raise our expectations.
scav
@RaptureReadyAndLovinIt: but, then again, we can probably do it, we can evolve protocalls to do it, we just haven’t maybe needed to yet. Emoticons and the whole suite of html-derived tags (/snark) self-organized in contexts where we started using text as real-time communication.
inkadu
@RaptureReadyAndLovinIt: I’m so used to being sarcastic on blogs, it gets me into real trouble when IM’ing with non-bloggers. On the flip side, sometimes I am feeling dismissive, angry, or cruelly sarcastic and that comes through in my tone of voice even though I’m trying my best to keep it out.
GReynoldsCT00
@R-Jud:
What kills me is needing reading glasses to text (also a new thing for me). Getting older ain’t for pussies.
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
@scav:
No, several zillion years of instinct and nonverbal communication are not going to be replaced by mechanical “protocols.” First of all, to do that effectively, we’d have to elevate all that subconscious info processing into conscious processing, and I don’t ever see that happening, at least not in our lifetimes. And then we’d have to learn how to codify all those thousands of things into the text stream.
Easier just to make a damned phone call.
jibeaux
2 things:
1. Texting is also very good for real-time flirting with your sweetie during working hours.
2.
Good grief. We are all Helen Thomas now, apparently, even Katie C. So did they say which interview during the whole VP process they DID think went really well, and put that transcript in there…?
GReynoldsCT00
Perfectly said RedKitten… this is a virtual home… kind of like sitting at the family kitchen table drinking beer, enjoying the home cooked food and solving the world’s problems.
Thank you for that John (and Tunch and Lily)
SiubhanDuinne
@geg6: Mindmeld, geg6. The last few nights last week I was thinking how cool it would be for Rachel to give Cole (or his agent) a call inviting him on her show. But of course it would have to be on a non-football night.
MazeDancer
@Cyrus: So here’s the trap: Beck surrounded by a bunch of Sharpee un-deified currency – some no doubt enhanced with smut, Nazi graffitti, and who knows what cringing garbage by his minions – using the e-z imagery, sound bites & phoney outrage to basically hand Palin her next round of interviews: Liberals Hate God.
They want God not just out of the schools and Friday Night football huddles but out of our lives completely. They want an American Without God. Look what they’ve done!
Five minutes later: Will Obama defend God? Does Obama want an America Without God like his supports do?
Freedom of religion is just another phrase for Islamic terrorist.
As monstrous as they are, IMHO, the more we react to the crazies’ sound bites, the more we fuel their ability to create traction and steal air time.
MazeDancer
oops, sorry, no edit: America Without God. Whole country could be their rallying accusation at marked up money. Not just one American.
Little Dreamer
@GReynoldsCT00: True stuff. Without John, my life would be completely different (and I mean ALL aspects of it).
Thank you, John!
Martin
Racist.
scav
@RaptureReadyAndLovinIt: Well, I’ve got more confidence in the malleability of the human brain that you seem to have. I’m not talking about mechanical protocalls, I’m talking about symbolic representation of human protocalls. It won’t exactly replicate spoken communication but it will likely be richer than what we’ve got going now. And I believe it will have a niche of its own – there’s simply no way I’d ever make a damned phone call to everyone at BJ. Especially since I hate phones with an utter passion.
CynDee
@MikeJ: Thank you. Your quick lesson teaches me a lot. As a sheep in the jungle and a non-texter so far, I have a lot to learn. I can see that texting as you do it honors my concept of civilization.
Not that you need anybody’s pronouncement on that.
Martin
@Napoleon:
Actually, the real gruntwork of getting the story rolling at the outset was done by traditional reporters – back when nobody was really sure if a story was there or not. The SD U-T broke the Carol Lam firing because she was throwing around subpoenas related to Duke Cunningham which the U-T was hip deep in covering. Josh, as I understand it, was the one who spotted the reporting in different markets on USA firings and pulled them together into one story and gave it prominence.
That’s another problem that the press media has – they actually do some really good reporting (at least some outfits still do), but it gets buried in their papers and never gets traction with the public until someone with a national audience champions it.
Little Dreamer
@scav: Somehow I don’t think text shorthand is an expressive expansion of our language, but instead a discourteous step down.
Perhaps hieroglyphics were a much richer form of language before our written one was created. Something I never really considered previously. Hmmm.
Napoleon
@Martin:
I think what you say is accurate. TPM’s original reporting was tying the stories together and the implication that it was directed from and part of a larger national strategy of the WH.
Still I think that is important and should not be considered some kind of mark against the reporters in the various differant markets.
geg6
@Martin:
This. This is, however, why Josh is so valuable. He seems to see these patterns on a regular basis and sends the hounds out to sniff around and see if there is a connection. He does this a lot, perhaps not so spectacularly as the USA firings, but it’s fairly common on the site. And he’s tenacious and patient.
I find TPM to be invaluable. There really isn’t much real journalism being committed these days, but Josh and Company do it. I can’t imagine why anyone would find it useless.
Martin
@RaptureReadyAndLovinIt:
Unless you are trying to hide that instinct and non-verbal communication. I’ve found that text/IM when I’m really pissed about something has made life a lot easier – especially when the thing I’m trying to communicate isn’t related to what I’m angry about.
Our language isn’t terribly well equipped for multitasking, yet that’s where our lives have gone.
MNPundit
I had never really thought of the naughty meaning to Balloon Juice. No I can’t get around it. Thanks.
I will say that Joe Klein DOES have commenters more like they are here and I submit it’s a big reason he has become much more readable since he started blogging. His readers began to challenge him and he had the courage to engage. I’m not saying he’s going to be a flaming liberal but he seems to appreciate different opinions a lot more than most of the dead tree media.
Otherwise, I always love reading you just lay into the modern conservatives. It’s a shame you dodged the “can conservativism fail?” question. Oh well.
WereBear
John, you sounded rational, thoughtful, and a bit philosophical. Not like a modern Republican at all!
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
@scav:
I’m not talking about “spoken communication.” We are not talking about the same thing.
I am talking about nonverbal, non-spoken communication that is carried in the voice and in body language and facial cues.
This flow is not only non verbal, it is mostly subconscious … you are not aware of it for the most part. It’s a little like the idea of pheramones. It’s below your conscious sensory radar.
You can read up on it, I didn’t exactly invent the context. There’s a lot of literature out there.
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
@Little Dreamer:
Yes, think of it as akin to Obama’s recent bow to the Japanese.
If we think that sending “I bow to you” as text is a replacement for the actual bow, then …. well, you either get the idea, or not. The actual physical bow conveys information that cannot be replaced via semantic abstraction. It’s the “you had to be there” idea.
People who think that we can replace human transactions with semantic ones are called “programmers” and ….
Enter your own programmer jokes here.
RaptureReadyAndLovinIt
Or if you prefer, if you think that cybersex is a replacement for real sex, then (a) you don’t get what I am talking about and (b) you are definitely a programmer.
GReynoldsCT00
@Face:
Re Dyspeptic: See Bill, Brick Oven
bago
As a programmer and someone reading the book on semantics, seeing protocol typos and people misunderstanding the concepts of synchronicity, sessions, and networking… It do bug me.
Svensker
Nice interview, John, and it looks like you got the kids all freshened up for their celebrity shot. But where’s the picture of you?
inkadu
@scav: I agree, but think all we need for conveying nuance in short form are words and letters. Language does a pretty good job on it’s own; there are so many different ways to say the same thing, each way has its own emotional mood. But the internet is making its own innovations: Re-writing “the” as “teh” is already quite popular as a marker of humor (it’s actually bleeding through into my spoken life).
Emoticons are cute, but other than a few — :-) :-( :-| :-0 — the heavy lifting is still going to be done with the traditional tools of language.
R-Jud
@Little Dreamer:
Oooo, I never considered this either, and I’ve been thinking about writing recently. I think on the one hand, this would be true: the various pictograms/ideograms would reference not just the sounds of your spoken language, but actual things important to your society.
However, there might be a lot more nuance lost in translation because of this: you wouldn’t necessarily relate as strongly to hieroglyphs if you weren’t from the culture that originated them, even if you could understand the language. The objects pictured in the hieroglyphs might be absent from your society or have different meanings assigned to them. Perhaps that’s why we have alphabetical writing now: to make it easier to make ourselves understood to non-natives.
ellaesther
@CynDee: And hey, my mom’s a librarian!
Royston Vasey
@Brian J: I think the phase “I just threw up in my mouth a little” is apt here.
ps Mr Cole, your site is by far the best read on the Intertubes!
John Cole
@Svensker: I’ve got a face for radio. Just imagine a pudgy guy in a Steelers jersey with blonde hair and thick glasses.
srv
Crap, I must have been tweeting Juan Cole this whole time.
Cyrus
@MazeDancer:
Oh boo fricking hoo. Someone says this every time anything even remorely activist from the left comes up. (And you’ll notice that the activism in what I suggest is very remote indeed.) They’re going to do this no matter what, and conservatives are happy to lie and fabricate something to be outraged about when nothing suitable is forthcoming from liberals. So we might as well do our thing and ignore the wingnut outrage.
Who said anything about reacting to the crazies? Not me; just that John’s remark reminded me of what my roommates and I were talking about last night. This is worth doing on its own.
Comrade Scrutinizer
@ellaesther: What you said.
Svensker
@John Cole:
And what’s wrong with that? (BTW, the Steelers jersey is an easy fix.) You’ve also described yourself as Lurch – so a tall, blonde pudgy guy with big feet and thick glasses? Sounds pretty cute to me.
Betsy
@R-Jud:
Oh god me either. I’m about to be 30, and although I find texting to be extremely useful in certain circumstances, I refuse to use that shorthand. I realize that this is not entirely rational, but every time I get a text from a well-educated, early-30-something friend of mine that addresses me as “u,” I can’t help cringing. It is so fucking ugly.
Sentient Puddle
Yikes, I step out to go to work, and I miss about fifty new posts on texting. I suppose I should elaborate a bit on my thoughts…
Yes, I can see how texting would be useful in a loud place, your concerts, your bars, whatever. But me, I’m the kind of person who has made clear to everyone I know that I’m not prioritizing my phone above everything else. If I were to get an incoming call or text in one of these scenarios, I’m likely to ignore it because (a) I can’t reasonably deal with it, and (b) I’m prioritizing this spot of entertainment over being jacked in. The people trying to reach me deal with it.
As for other random uses, well, for most of the other stuff I’ve seen mentioned, I’d be sitting in front of a full keyboard anyway. IM me and I can type a lot faster on a full-sized keyboard than I can ever hope to on my phone’s QWERTY, and I don’t have to deal with text message charges to boot. Matter of practicality here, really.
That all said, it’s still mostly about the debasement of the written language to me. Any medium that encourages a form of writing that’s worse than trade chat in Orgrimmar is pretty damn near absolute evil to me.
Common Sense
Text addresses, event dates, things you would normally have to write down. The hard record is invaluable.
Anne Laurie
As long as I get to be Carla, not Cliff.
John, you could chunk the whole interview into the FAQ here…
licensed to kill time
I’m going to post what I wrote the other night about BJ:
Why I love balloon juice
Woven through a serious discussion about the asshat State Senator who thinks it would be a good idea for babies to catch AIDS so as to teach their slutty mommies a thing or two, El Cid does his channeling BoB riff and that inspires Comrade Mary to propose marriage to him, adding that since she’s in Canada it doesn’t matter if he’s a dude or a lady or a hamster.
This inspires wedding gift suggestions, including Canadian Tire money, gold bullion, guns, ammo, canned food and hamster re-inflation kits (the latter has something to do with obesity on the rise in Canada and pcbedamned worrying about hamsters married to humans getting squashed).
Then Laura W informs us she would have totally married her hamster Fred if he hadn’t died right on her boobs in bed one night and whose subsequent necropsy revealed him to be a hermaphrodite anyway.
Which prompted Just Some Fuckhead to say he was pretty sure he had read about Laura and Fred in his issue of Pethouse Variations, and that Fred was rather taken with Laura, as he recalled.
General Winfield Stuck confessed that he’d once bought two hamsters and two months later had about a hundred of the things and that now his backyard is a veritable Hamster Graveyard.
pcbedamned had some kind of typing spaz and told us about developing an allergy to bunnies when she got pregnant with her first 16 years ago; also she was ragging on her kid and clarifying her wiring for some reason, after which she swore to lay off the meds and go to bed.
At this point I was laughing so hard in that stifled choking helpless kind of way that I wasn’t sure I’d ever catch a breath again and I thought “this is why I love Balloon Juice” and I had to write about that and then the comments went back to stuff like Christians burning in a lake of fire, Hell having a limited amount of real estate, PETA’s Klan rally at the Westminster dog show and “watch me fuck this goat!”
Sigh. BJ is a special place.
(from the thread “Where do they find these people?”)
freelancer
Heart you too, big guy.
/gay emo non-manly stuff.
MK
@John Cole:
You look like Drew Carey?
Kayla Rudbek
@Sentient Puddle: it’s a godsend for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. it’s like having a call relayed w/o the relay.
Bob K
Loved your interview. I started reading your blog last summer in the run-up to November. Just wanted to thank you for making Balloon-Juice one of my top ten websites to visit each day. :^)
Cain
@MK:
**chortle**
cain
oh really
More worthless? Since Kristol is completely, utterly, totally worthless it is impossible to get more worthless than he is. However, the same can be said for many blogs, especially Wingnut blogs.
On the other hand, Erick, Moe, Neil, and company at RedState are even bigger idiots than Kristol is. Admittedly, that’s very hard to do, but try to imagine what it would be like if Erick Erickson’s father had been someone politically prominent who would have automatically conferred legitimacy upon his son. There is little, if any, doubt in my mind that Erickson would have out-Kristoled Kristol had he had the opportunity.
As it is, neither Bloody Billy nor Erick ever appears to have a thought worth uttering out loud. And neither one appears able to shut up for even a second.
Orange
#52 Inkadu
GOS? Great Orange Satan – Secret Service code name for John Boehner?
freelancer
@Orange:
Y’all need to peruse the Lexicon.
GOS – Great Orange Satan, AKA the Daily Kos.
gogol's wife
@inkadu:
I had this problem the other day with “FTFY.” I googled it and got “fixed that for you,” which made absolutely no sense in the context of the thread. Then I looked at the Balloon Juice Lexicon and got the correct citation.
CynDee
@Anne Laurie:
Ooo. That’s a good idea.
CynDee
@ellaesther: There ya go!
binzinerator
@Punchy:
Nobody’s got any damn business doing any thing with a cell phone at a concert. Ditto for presentations or movies or plays. Turn the goddamn thing off. Go out of the hall or auditorium at intermission or between acts, sets or movements and then check your messages and return calls there.
If you think might have to respond an emergency call, then why the hell are you at a concert?
Liberty60
I have both Balloon Juice and League on my daily must-read list, and enjoyed the interview.
I was also a staunch Republican like John, but my tipping point came a bit earlier, during the Lewinsky scandal.
But what is still bewildering to me is to find myself being called a “liberal”.
My views haven’t changed so much that I can tell- the notion of a government that only does what is necessary to keep things moving, while being restrained in its power, still seems like a commonsense position.
I can’t be the only one who thinks that the ones who call themselves “conservative” today are anything but- the nearly unlimited power of the Unitary Executive, the massive collusion between Wall Street and Washington, the crabbed and intolerant Christian Right…These all seem to make a mockery out of what once was a sensible and reasonable movement.
asiangrrlMN
Haven’t read whole thread, but some of it. Cole, I knew it! You are a thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate man wrapped up in a crusty exterior. Ok, that sounds gross, but you know what I mean. I gotta agree, though, that we are rated N-17 rather than R.
Texting: I do not do it because one, I have one of those phones where you have to punch a number 1,2,3, or 4 times for a letter. Don’t tell me to get a keyboard because I use Dvorak, so a Qwerty keyboard is useless to me. Plus, I refuse to write something like, “c u l8er” unless it’s as a joke. The only time I will text is if I’m at a ballgame or some place super noisy. Then again, I very rarely use my cell, so it’s pretty much a moot point.
You know why I like this blog? It’s like one-stop shopping. Where else can I pick up esoteric music, recipes and food pr0n, fake hubbies who are gay, pictures of animals, politics, sex, and humor? I don’t dislike you guys! Hugs all around.
asiangrrlMN
@binzinerator: Yup. I agree. Put the damn thing on vibrator and leave the room if you have to take the call. I don’t even keep my cell phone on. I was forced to get one (by concerned family members), and my revenge is that I don’t use it.
gbear
What is this ‘it’ blogging and why is it so much fun. Is Mr. Cole holding something back from us?
mandarama
@licensed to kill time:
I love this. I’ve been reading BJ (haha) since spring 2008, when the primaries were getting so het up. Your tribute is a terrific distillation of why this commentariat is a must-read!
I don’t comment much because you people set a high (low?) bar for the snark. But I’ve often thought that John Cole might be my long-lost twin, based on being irascible and speaking heatedly and sometimes needing to be walked back and saying “god damned” a lot when pissed.
And I feel silly for saying so, but what the hell, it’s a confessional lovefest. Watching John Cole adopt Lily gave me the impetus to say yes to my husband and kids’ pleas for a dog. One rescued Golden Retriever later…I don’t know how I ever lived without this dog. My cats are less thrilled, but they’re adapting.
pcbedamned
@licensed to kill time:
Oh Lord. I just got home after a four hour round trip to sign my life away for another 5 years (mortgage renewal time) and since this page was up on my computer, continued to read the thread. My kid is looking at me funny because I was laughing so hard (the boy – his wiring is ok so far, well except for the fact that last night his older sister came out to the kitchen freaking out because there was a hole in her wall. Yep, you guessed it. Peep hole from his room to hers so he could spy on her friends when they are here. No more George Lopez for that boy!!!)
Back to the point, being, that now that conversation just sounds crazy when put in the short form.
Gotta love BJ!!! (sometimes I wish I were a man…)
On to the next threads.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
I think John Cole is really Michael Moore!
Comrade Mary
Aww. I just came into this thread to beg someone, somewhere for that link to John’s radio interview, and here I find that lovely tribute to BJ from licensed to kill time, where I got namechecked.
shyly punches fist into arm You guys!
(And “now watch me fuck this goat”? BWAH! I have to get back into that thread. It’s been so damn hectic up here this week …)
licensed to kill time
@mandarama:
@pcbedamned:
@Comrade Mary:
Thanks to all of you for mentioning my lovepost! I really enjoy the political/serious part of BJ, but for me reading the weird sidetrips that wind in and around those topics are what make BJ unique. The commentariat here is topnotch and feels like a slightly dysfunctional but nevertheless loved family. John Cole has done us all a great service by providing this place for us to bitch and moan and laugh, and I thank him and everyone here!
AngusTheGodOfMeat
@binzinerator:
Just thought I’d respond, speaking as a person who is basically on call 24x7x365.
Those of us who live in the OnCall world like to go out and do things like the normal people do, the people who can leave their jobs and forget about them until the next work day. We would also like to go to movies and concerts like everyone else. We take our laptops with us almost wherever we go so that we can get online and respond to whatever is happening, at any time, from anywhere.
We really don’t appreciate the Celphone Police suggesting that we don’t have a right to go out and live a halfway normal life just because we have jobs that require rapid response around the clock.
Of course, in most situations, we can put our Blackberrys on Stun so that there is no ringing when the Big Giant Head sends a message. I’ll give you that.