Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

So many bastards, so little time.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

RIP Zandar. We are still here fighting the stupid, now in your honor.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

The GOP is a fucking disgrace.

Republicans don’t trust women.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

It’s easier to kill a dangerous animal than a man who just happens to have different thoughts/values than one’s own.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickle?”

The new temporary speaker of the house is a spiteful little shit.

There are no moderate Republican – only extremists, and cowards.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy hour blogospheric navelgazing discussion

Happy hour blogospheric navelgazing discussion

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This post is in: ,

A commenter who is new to the place asks:

I’m just curious as to what this blog sees as its identity. It has no particular activist focus, nor any particular policy area of interest or expertise. If I had to describe it, I would say its a media criticism site for the aging online population. Hence the generally shallow and frightened tone on a lot of topics, plus the frequent pet and gardening posts.

What is this blog’s identity? Or is it — and by extension all of you — what Lee Siegel and Alessandra Stanley call “post-identity”, like Lady Gaga?

Reader Interactions

161Comments

  3. 3.

    ericvsthem

    …there was plenty of activism during the Year of the Death Panel. Not as much during the Year of the 9/11 Mosque.

  5. 5.

    jacy

    Aging online population? I suppose the next step is we’ll be rounded up to appear before virtual death panels, where they’ll summarily trample on our First Amendment rights to yell at them damn kids to get off our virtual lawns.

    Harumph.

  7. 7.

    Chad S

    Kinda of an absurd claim from the commentator frankly. He started out criticizing BJ for not getting on a story that broke on most of the blogs late yesterday/early today.

    As for the “media criticism” description, I count 5(maybe 6) out of the 32 posts from yesterday and today that could be honestly considered “media criticism.” Thats not enough to generalize a “media criticism” theme here.

  10. 10.

    John O

    I think it’s a Beacon of Hope and venting and humor in an ever-deteriorating country, and a reflection of the people who write on it, like all good blogs.

  12. 12.

    eric

    generally pragmatic, pissed-off, bitchfest at some of the more obvious events demonstrating our soon-to-be Rome-like fall. with a sprinkling of ‘changey-hopey’ when confronted with the joy of pets, eating, and a certain sort of comraderie that allows us to get through the shitstorm that is american public life.

    or, see cleek, above.

  14. 14.

    scav

    @morzer: eh Shakespeare simplified his poem for the twitterati, so there are only three ages to man, gaga, post-gaga and re-gaga, with a pre-gaga possible for the strict Catholics among us.

  16. 16.

    cincyanon

    “…media criticism site for the aging online population…”
    Guess the stance on net neutrality is old fartish and gets no love; and that media and politics aren’t directly linked and affecting all ages. Kids today can just get off my lawn!!

    Damn! Jacy got there first with the lawn comment.

  17. 17.

    djork

    Fix your blog! I damn near had to be productive at work today. ON A FRIDAY!

    This will not do.

  18. 18.

    Warren Terra

    Sure, there’s a lot of meta-bitching. But there has also been some activism (it’s months ago now, but there was quite a bit of drive to call your Congresscritters and tell them to Pass The Damn Bill Already on Health Care) and a lot of discussion about the need to defend and to promote liberal social and policy ideas (progressive taxation, health care, civil rights for sexual and religious minorities, rejecting oligarchies and aristocracies, etcetera). OK, I’ll concede that the “defend” gets more attention than the “promote”, and usually in a “what is the world coming to”/”look at these idiots” vein, but is so that so wrong?

    The Pet Blogging, the Food Blogging, the AMC television shows, the photos, the travel, and the sports are just signs that we are a community with diverse interests and not just a bunch of ideologically dedicated automatons.

    P.S. since this is an Open Thread, check out this scary AP report at the New York Times:

    Army Probes Soldiers Skipping Christian Concert
    __
    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Army is investigating a claim that dozens of soldiers who refused to attend a Christian band’s concert at a Virginia military base were banished to their barracks and told to clean them up.
    __
    A Fort Eustis spokesman confirmed the probe Friday to The Associated Press.
    __
    Pvt. Anthony Smith told AP that he was among those who objected to attending the May concert by BarlowGirl. Smith says the soldiers were pressured into going to the show and when they didn’t, they were ordered to return to their barracks.
    __
    The Military Religious Freedom Foundation says several soldiers complained to the watchdog group.

  20. 20.

    growingdaisies

    @jacy: You’re being shallow and frightening. Also, you forgot about the Muslim conversion brainwashing that will take place first, during which all of our bodily fluids will be replaced with verses from the Koran. Totally true. I read it in an email.

  21. 21.

    bleh

    I suggest some nonsensical concatenation of concepts — like “meta-bitching” per cleek, or “trans-criticism,” or “pseudo-thought” — or something more deliberately self-contradictory and Zen — like “empty meaning,” or “aggressive lack of direction,” or “cooperative argumentation,” — or even something overtly Dadaist, like “Blargh!” (oh no wait, the Tea Party took that one already…)

  22. 22.

    YellowJournalism

    @Warren Terra: Hmm…that probably had less to do with religion and more to do with the fact that Christian bands generally suck.

    ETA: I like that “cooperative argumentation” description in the post above.

  23. 23.

    General Stuck

    This used to a place where the fighting was fierce and sometimes ugly, but always with a decent respect for facts when presented.

    And now it’s populated by the Loblaw’s of the internets, who just can’t come out and say old people suck, but has to wait for a mistermix “ageist” thread about “tote baggers” and other bigot musings.

    My word for the current character of the blog.

    Jock Rot.

  24. 24.

    LM

    I think of this as a place to read laudably cranky opinions I agree with, opinions that aren’t exactly like most opinions on most other lefty blogs I read. I like the pet and baby photos because they make me feel lucky I’ve raised mine and can be lazy now. But my favorite thing here is the unrestrained calling out of echo chamber/circular firing squad BS. I love all the posts signed ‘John +4’ or above. I’m not sure how to describe them in terms of blog identity, but in terms of how I feel, it’s kind of like sitting in an unpretentious bar full of funny smart-mouthed people while across the street guys who look like David Ignatius pay three times as much for watered down drinks.

  26. 26.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Michael Bersin: Wot he said.

    And, this commenter (if it’s Bob Loblaw. I already pied him, so I can’t be sure) has been around long enough to pretty much sneer derisively in every thread without adding anything of value so whatever. I think we are a bunch of curmudgeons of varying ages who need to vent about things in a snarky yet constructive (for the most part) way. In addition, it is a place for dialogue if you can ignore the white noise. And, as pointed out, there was a hell of a lot of advocating going on, spearheaded by Tim F. during HCR.

  27. 27.

    chaseyourtail

    I’m just curious as to what this blog sees as its identity. It has no particular activist focus, nor any particular policy area of interest or expertise.

    I come to this blog to get away from condescending bullcrap like this.

  28. 28.

    Bnut

    @Warren Terra:

    At boot camp, I went to religious services on Sunday only because we had to clean the barracks if we chose not to go. This probably wasn’t punishment. Notice it says he was at a training school. I’m guessing there were just not enough instructors to watch everyone. Hell, at infantry school during a hurricane all the instructors went home and we got locked in the barracks with lockers pushed against the windows for 2 days.

  31. 31.

    soonergrunt

    What is this blog’s identity? Or is it—and by extension all of you—what Lee Siegel and Alessandra Stanley call “post-identity”, like Lady Gaga?

    Who the fuck is Alessandra Stanley, who gives two shovels of horse shit what sprezzatura thinks?

  32. 32.

    cathyx

    I’d agree with that description except the shallow and frightened part.
    I think we’re more aware of what’s going on than most.
    O.K., maybe because we’re more aware, we are frightened. But shallow? Name 10 things we demonstrate shallowness over.

  33. 33.

    mantis

    Disillusioned and cranky, vacillating between optimistic and pessimistic about, well, everything. At least that’s the way it seemed when I first found the place.

  34. 34.

    Sheila

    Can the commenter give an example of an activist site or a site with a particular policy area of interest or expertise, as I have yet to find one, at least one that is effective.

  38. 38.

    soonergrunt

    @Bnut:
    That was how Infantry OSUT was for us. The first chapel service was mandatory because it was a class on the mission and role of the Army Chaplain, which included the fact that the Chaplain is there as a counselor and mentor for anybody, regardless of religion or lack thereof.
    My platoon skipped all of the other Chapel services, and we cleaned barracks. As a result, we won the ‘barracks maintenance’ streamer, which was terribly important to us at the time for some reason that I can’t remember now.

  41. 41.

    jeff

    I consider this place a non-sanctimonious and smart place to see meta type stuff on politics/media. Most of all, it’s completely different from Daily Kos, which is one of the least pleasant places on the non-right, for all the good stuff that occasionally shows up there. Plus, even though John is kind-of cranky, he has a personality. And the pets. . .And, more recently, the cobloggers are often awesome.

    I think that the presence of former conservatives, or conservatives who cannot tolerate Republican style “conservatism” sets BJ apart. (Also limits the pious leftism that so grates at lefty sites.)

  42. 42.

    chaseyourtail

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I think we are a bunch of curmudgeons of varying ages who need to vent about things in a snarky yet constructive (for the most part) way.

    Very, very well said.

  44. 44.

    Spaghetti Lee

    Hell, I just see it as a place to diddle away the time.

    Is “Bob Loblaw” an alliterative play on “Blah Blah Blah”, btw?

  45. 45.

    FlipYrWhig

    @scav:

    Don’t worry, if we’re aging online, I think that means we’re getting younger offline.

    I think that’s the plot of _Dorian Gray 2.0_. His Facebook just keeps getting more and more decrepit.

  46. 46.

    Bnut

    @soonergrunt:

    which was terribly important to us at the time for some reason that I can’t remember now

    I can still head the DI’s: EVERYTHING you do at boot camp is done for a reason. Still trying to figure out the 9th dimension chess of making us all take off our underwear and pass it to the guy on the left and then put it on. Team building?

  49. 49.

    stuckinred

    @Warren Terra: When I was in Korea, 67-68 you went to Sunday service or you went on police call. If it moves, salute it, if it doesn’t move, paint it. FTA

  51. 51.

    jacy

    @Spaghetti Lee:

    See Baio, Scott in Arrested Development.

    And since this is happy hour, shouldn’t it be fuzzy navelgazing?

    eta: geez, you people are awfully fast for being so old.

  52. 52.

    DougJ

    @LM:

    an unpretentious bar full of funny smart-mouthed people while across the street guys who look like David Ignatius pay three times as much for watered down drinks.

    My favorite so far.

  53. 53.

    danimal

    Jeez…40 posts on this blogs identity and the words “hippy punching” haven’t surfaced. Maybe we are aging.

  54. 54.

    Linda Featheringill

    Well, the guy has a point about the activism.

    If The Front Pagers are hot for a project we get all kinds of pep talks and encouragement.

    If TFP don’t care about the issue, it can just go to hell and we are “blessed” with tons of media criticism [that no real person cares about] and television shows [that no real person cares about] and animales [that we all love].

    The real problem is that TFP haven’t gotten hot for an issue in a long time.

    And if an issue is brought up by one of us Great Unwashed, that issue is roundly ignored.

  56. 56.

    magurakurin

    This blog seems to be a gathering spot for refugees from other blogs that had assumed to much “identity”. I often recognize a screen name from somewhere else.

    Blogs gather birds of a feather, even if it’s birds that seem to defy easy identification. It’s always amusing when a bird of a different feather is annoyed when they feel alone at a particular blog nest.

    To that commenter I can only say

    “and, your fucking point is…what?”

  57. 57.

    pragmatism

    Dennis: I’m 37.
    King Arthur: What?
    Dennis: I’m 37. I’m not old.
    King Arthur: Well I can’t just call you “man”.
    Dennis: Well you could say “Dennis”.
    King Arthur: I didn’t know you were called Dennis.
    Dennis: Well you didn’t bother to find out did you?

  59. 59.

    jb

    Re this blog’s identity: It’s like when Kramer and Newman retooled their version of the Merv Griffin Show–scandals and animals.

  60. 60.

    Anoniminous

    This is SO obviously a troll for “BJ is Super-Duper GREAT! And a big pile of Freedom Fries, too! (Also)” comments I, for one, refuse to play.

    I read, and occasionally, comment because YOU ALL SUCK!!! I hate you, Hate You, HATE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! I despise and loathe the ground you walk on.

    “Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”

  62. 62.

    DougJ

    @Anoniminous:

    I read, and occasionally, comment because YOU ALL SUCK I hate you, Hate You, HATE YOU! I despise and loathe the ground you walk on.

    It was actually more of a troll for comments like that.

  64. 64.

    Anoniminous

    @DougJ:

    You’re welcome.

    (My bill is in the mail.)

    BTW – with reference to comment Up Thread – passing underwear around sounds more like a way to spread crabs and other gonadal diseases than Team Building.

    Unless the point is synchronized scratching.

  65. 65.

    morzer

    I read, and occasionally, comment because YOU ALL SUCK I hate you, Hate You, HATE YOU! I despise and loathe the ground you walk on.

    More, please. My masochism hasn’t felt so gratified in years. Now, I need to get on with constructing a giant badger…

  66. 66.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    Why doesn’t this n00b just read the rotating tag lines?

    Seems to me that “vicious jackals”, “shock troops in the Unitarian Jihad”, people who “survived the Breitbartpocalypse”, etc., etc., sum it all up pretty well, not to mention the most important one of them all: “Consistently wrong since 2002”.

  67. 67.

    JGabriel

    Bob Loblaw:

    I’m just curious as to what this blog sees as its identity.

    Curious question, coming from someone who self-identifies as a sitcom character.

    Anyway. I come here to snark about politics in a bar that’s less crowded than Wonkette and Sadly, No!

    .

  69. 69.

    jl

    Balloon Juice’s identity? Who gives a sh*t?
    WTF is this nonsense?

    The comment was probably a John Cole sockpuppet fishing for ideas on how to advertise the blog.

    Tunch isn’t keeping Cole busy enough, is what the problem is.

    But this ‘commenter’ wants an answer I guess, so I would suggest

    http://www.gutenberg.org/files/600/600.txt

  71. 71.

    Warren Terra

    @FlipYrWhig:

    @scav:

    Don’t worry, if we’re aging online, I think that means we’re getting younger offline.

    I think that’s the plot of Dorian Gray 2.0. His Facebook just keeps getting more and more decrepit.

    This is clever, and funny, but sadly it is wrong.

    Despite the way it’s remembered in the popular culture, Dorian Gray wasn’t principally about a man who refused to age while his portrait did it for him – it was a bout a beautiful man who committed himself to dissipation and to unadulterated evil and yet could retain his appearance of youthful, innocent, and untroubled beauty while his portrait showed a face that betrayed all the ravages of his lifestyle, and in the portrait his cruelty and evilness were plain to see. Not aging is indeed a part of it, but the story spans only 18 years; the fact this his lifestyle hasn’t affected his appearance is the more important part.

  72. 72.

    Downpuppy

    Is there a male equivalent of “Cat Ladies”?

    If not, Balloon Juicers has its place in the Urban Dictionary.

    (Yeah, I’m old, white & have a cat)

  73. 73.

    demo woman

    WTF… It’s Friday night and we are doing some type of pscho babble because someone thinks we need an identity.
    I will say that the site is filled with laughter and tears. When we get in a heated discussion we might still disagree but we will at least consider what the other person said.

  74. 74.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    @DougJ:

    I started off at an activist blog dedicated in large to getting Eric Massa elected. I’m not doing activist blogging again, not for a while

    This is what’s known as the Tickle Down effect.

  76. 76.

    scav

    @Warren Terra: Actually, that’s interesting, but it’s also funny how sometimes an idea or plot is stronger than its creator and goes off to have a life of its own. Conan Doyle couldn’t kill off Sherlock.

  77. 77.

    Beauzeaux

    Hence the generally shallow and frightened tone on a lot of topics…

    What an extremely shallow and frightened comment.

  80. 80.

    DFH no.6

    @danimal: You can go right ahead and punch me, if you’d like. I was an actual dirty fucking hippie (the proper spelling) a long time back so I’m pretty used to it (in my heart of hearts I still am, even if I sold out to The Man some while ago and could now pass as John McCain’s better looking and somewhat younger brother here in sunny Snobsdale, AZ).

    Thus the moniker.

    Oh, and this condescending Bob Loblaw douche can suck on these little Chinese nuts.

    Really, Bob, find a blog worthy of your deep and unfrightened attention and go fuck yourself with it.

  81. 81.

    Suffern ACE

    @Linda Featheringill: To be fair, there hasn’t really been an issue since finance reform that can be wrapped around. Since the oilwell blew in May, media pseudo issues and state primaries…

  82. 82.

    danimal

    @DFH no.6: DFH–a lot of us are actually pretty left-leaning here, but get accused of hippie (or hippy) punching when we point out strategic differences for passing legislation.

    I prefer to live in a world without violence and don’t want to punch you.

  83. 83.

    Quicksand

    @DougJ:

    I started off at an activist blog dedicated in large to getting Eric Massa elected. I’m not doing activist blogging again, not for a while.

    Pheh. You probably just need a nice, long backrub.

  85. 85.

    Onkel Bob

    Was tun Sie hier?! Ihren Ausweis, raus!

    I think he’s pining for the good ol’ daze in the Gesamt Staatspolizei…

  88. 88.

    demo woman

    @Quicksand: I did mention that the site was filled with laughter and tears and some comments cause both. Poor Doug.
    Fortunately, I’m not quite at the depend age.

  90. 90.

    Anne Laurie

    @asiangrrlMN:

    I think we are a bunch of curmudgeons of varying ages who need to vent about things in a snarky yet constructive (for the most part) way. In addition, it is a place for dialogue if you can ignore the white noise.

    Yes, I have used the phrase “the left-of-center bloggers’ version of Cheers” to try and describe this place. (I get dibs on the Rhea Perlman character.)

    Incidentally, while I am no doubt below the lofty purview of the Very Serious Loblaw Activist, my front-pager status refudiates the claim that none of us are “old enough” to qualify for true Get Off My Lawn geezerhood.

    I propose we are all participants in the Universal Congregation of Eeyores. We know that the best we can expect in the way of gifts from this universe might be a tattered rag that was once a balloon and a pot that used to be full of honey. But we’ll find a way to entertain ourselves with those poor second-hand toys irregardless!

  91. 91.

    Allan

    I like to think of this community as a place where an arrogant young whippersnapper who poses passive-aggressive attacks disguised as questions will find himself quickly fed through a woodchopper and used as chum for more interesting trolls.

  92. 92.

    Quaker in a Basement

    If I had to describe it, I would say its a media criticism site for the aging online population.

    Get off our lawn! And pull up your pants!

  95. 95.

    frosty

    @scav: Ooooh, I like it. That must be the reason all my blog comments sound like they’re coming from an 18-year old.

  97. 97.

    quaint irene

    I will say that the site is filled with laughter and tears.

    Yes, but with a song in our hearts!

  98. 98.

    soonergrunt

    @Bnut:

    I can still head the DI’s: EVERYTHING you do at boot camp is done for a reason. Still trying to figure out the 9th dimension chess of making us all take off our underwear and pass it to the guy on the left and then put it on. Team building?

    NEVER had to do anything like that.
    We did get encouraged to blanket-party a guy in our platoon who went to Mormon services on Sunday morning while we were cleaning because he clearly wasn’t a team player.

  103. 103.

    frosty

    @soonergrunt: Streamers. I just got a letter from my son in his second week of Basic. His platoon won the obstacle course streamer. It reminded me a lot of going with him to Cub Scout summer day camp.

    Even though it’s a streamer, it’s cool. Doesn’t matter what the reward is, or what the challenge is, it feels good to get it.

  104. 104.

    DFH no.6

    @danimal: Nah, I got the reference, and I understand the environs hereabouts pretty well. I’m pretty far left in my worldview, but I don’t find most of the accusations of any “hippie-punching” around here to have much merit (IMAO, Atrios is more on target with that when criticizing the mainstream media).

    I’ve been regularly reading John’s blog here since back when he was a Bush-supporting but reasonable (as far as that goes) “conservative”, as the lefty sites referred (and linked) to him in those halcyon days.

    It was as gratifying to me seeing John move on over to the side of the angels as it was seeing my long-time Republican businessman brother-in-law do the same (including attending Hussein X Obama’s Inauguration on The Mall with me).

    That’s a large part of why Loblaw’s bullshit so pissed me off.

  105. 105.

    Suffern ACE

    I think “mature” is better than aging. I got tired of quite a few sites and this is the last general site I go too. I got tired of people telling me to be angry that we lost, be angry that we continue to struggle and be very, very, very, very angry when we had a small victory. That last one never made sense. (Obama did something good. What an outrageous slap in the face!)

  106. 106.

    ksmiami

    Aging media criticism site? FU. 40 is the new 20. Besides, BJ commenters are the last sane ppl on the internets except for BOB, but he has been gone a long time now.

  107. 107.

    Anne Laurie

    @soonergrunt: Media critic for the NYTimes. Notorious for being, well, kinda like Megan McArdle, if McArdle were better informed & better looking & a better writer, and talking about Hollywood and Cannes instead of economics. She’s wrong a lot, but she’s charmingly wrong about stuff that’s basically unimportant.

  110. 110.

    Politically Lost

    @Allan:

    That was poetry of the highest order.

    I would describe balloon-juice as my demographic.

    Oh, shit…I am getting old.

  111. 111.

    frosty

    @danimal: From one who’s hair fell out just as he was starting to grow it long, I need to emphasize that it’s spelled “hippie”. Hippy refers to being a little broad in the beam. Please make a note of it.

    frosty +2 …. curmudgeon +infinity

  113. 113.

    DickSpudCouchPotatoDetective

    Or is it—and by extension all of you—what Lee Siegel and Alessandra Stanley call “post-identity”, like Lady Gaga?

    Yes.

    And in keeping with my recent post on John’s follow thread, that too. Identity TBD. Which is what makes it interesting.

  115. 115.

    Belvoir

    @soonergrunt: Alessandra Stanley is the New York Times writer who is always, always wrong. She holds some sort of world record for the most corrections issued by any NYT writer ever, (ten for one article alone a while back) and her name is shorthand in snarky circles for “always wrong”. But she was Caroline Kennedy’s roommate at Harvard or something, so she gets away with it.

    Oh, and when the then-corrections thing happened, the ombudsman told readers that from then on Alessandra Stanley’s columns would receive extra-special scrutiny and editorial oversight. But she still screws things up somehow. Thankfully she mostly writes about fluff , TV, and “culture”, she’s not a hard news reporter.

  116. 116.

    LGRooney

    Okay, who among the readers are in the DC area? We can get together and do an identity video for this blog… let’s recreate “Alejandro.”

    JC, can the server handle that load?

  118. 118.

    That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)

    @Anne Laurie:

    I propose we are all participants in the Universal Congregation of Eeyores.

    We are what Eeyore would be if Eeyore had a foul mouth and pets.

  120. 120.

    Svensker

    plus the frequent pet and gardening posts.

    He shoulda been here when John was talking about his interior design and scented candles. Totally HGTV.

  124. 124.

    DougJ

    @soonergrunt:

    She’s the tv reviewer for the Times is always blathering on about some new word she made up and how it applies to Lady Gaga and Mad Men.

  126. 126.

    mcsey

    The point of this blog is to make John Cole rich… well, WV rich anyway.

    How else is he going to us about when he falls down?

  127. 127.

    DCinME

    I’m just curious as to what this blog sees as its identity.

    What the fuck??? People read this blog to hear the musings of the contributors and to keep up on Tunch, Rosie and Lily mania. You need more identity than that? I suggest you pay a visit to the Rude Pundit and you’ll have whatever the fuck identity you are looking for.

    It has no particular activist focus, nor any particular policy area of interest or expertise.

    So then why are you here? Were you fellating Mike Allen when he spat out he reads Balloon Juice to counter all his inner schadenfraude?

    If I had to describe it, I would say its a media criticism site for the aging online population.

    Who in the fuck cares what you think? This is the intertr0ns and all of us who read Balloon Juice are aware of all internet traditions ™ and could give 2 flying shits what some new visitor thinks about the blog, it’s contributors or commenters. You fall squarely into the The Asshole Dissenter category.

    Hence the generally shallow and frightened tone on a lot of topics, plus the frequent pet and gardening posts.

    For FUCKS SAKE – you were obviously misgoogling for the American Enterprise Institute, Jonah or Bernard Goldberg wisdom and landed here (anyone have a clue how this happened?) Whatever the case GTFO and go blab to your inbred country club parents and siblings about the horrors you’ve seen on the internet. As for us? We’ll be just fine, but thanks for your “concern.”

  129. 129.

    ColleenSTL

    I’m a long-time reader, infrequent commenter, and definitely cranky in response to this kind of bullshit. What I want to say is… get a whole life. I spend a lot of time at all the “activists” blogs, and the “policy” blogs and they all have their place. But I always wind up back here. The cranky old man makes me laugh out loud — particularly when he’s at his crankiest. This blog has all the best of life of a whole life: good food (thanks, Anne Laurie), pets, gardens, football, more football (thanks Randhi) and the kind of wonderful political snark that helps me believe that we are not quite yet on a high-speed rail toward hell. You are all my little oasis in the world of crazy and if you get an “identity” I will scream — loudly.

  130. 130.

    Lunarmovements

    @LM: I love your description:

    …it’s kind of like sitting in an unpretentious bar full of funny smart-mouthed people…

    Can we have a theme song a la “Cheers”?

  131. 131.

    parsimon

    Sheila at 34:

    Can the commenter give an example of an activist site or a site with a particular policy area of interest or expertise, as I have yet to find one, at least one that is effective.

    I’m not the commenter Bob Loblaw, and I haven’t been reading here long, but examples of generally liberal sites with particular emphases would be:

    Obsidian Wings: focuses lately on foreign policy, esp. Iraq and Afghanistan

    Crooked Timber: political theory

    Lawyers, Guns & Money: ranges into sports and other things, but emphasis on law, esp. constitutional law

    There are numerous others, fairly well-known, so this question surprises me a little. Are these activist sites? Not exactly. In any case, Balloon Juice strikes me as a let-your-hair-down kind of place, which is wonderful. There are fewer of them these days.

  134. 134.

    Zipperupus

    This place is the intertube version of The Iceman Cometh. A blog for those of us who are disappointed in a world run by sycophants and true believers.

    Bnut:

    The underwear switching is all part of identity removal. There is nothing about you in combat that is truly yours. It’s about erasing interpersonal boundaries to better facilitate small unit cohesion.

    So says I, Sergeant of Marines. But I could be wrong.

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @Zipperupus:

    The underwear switching is all part of identity removal. There is nothing about you in combat that is truly yours. It’s about erasing interpersonal boundaries to better facilitate small unit cohesion.

    Given the age of the people in basic training, it also seems like a really great way for the whole unit to get crabs simultaneously.

  137. 137.

    JGabriel

    @Anne Laurie:

    Yes, I have used the phrase “the left-of-center bloggers’ version of Cheers” to try and describe this place. (I get dibs on the Rhea Perlman character.)

    Fuck. I guess I’m Frasier, but less jowly and more four-letter-wordy.

    On the other hand, that means I get to date Bebe Neuwirth in her 20’s. Woot!

    .

  138. 138.

    LM

    @Lunarmovements:

    Can we have a theme song a la “Cheers”?

    We need a song titled John +4. If it had a better tune, we could change Feelings to Fee-Fees. Fee-fees, nothing more than fee-fees…

  139. 139.

    Brassknuckle Diplomacy

    In reference to the original dopey comment: can we take this opportunity to finally deny Lady Gaga as some sort of cultural watershed? Why do people insist on projecting such tremendous relevance on this bore? She’s essentially a series of costume changes set to bland 90s disco music. She is perhaps remarkable for managing to have absolutely no sex appeal despite never wearing pants…

  140. 140.

    Tom Q

    This seems like a thread where everyone ought to at least say a word or two (even though Loblaw came off to me like a jackass in previous threads, and I basically don’t care what he thinks).

    I come here to find people who react to the daily madness in much the same fashion as I do. There’s enough variance around the edges to keep it interesting — and an occasional noodge to make it annoying — but for the most part it’s a place to make me feel I’m not the only one furious at both the lunatic right and the bleating parts of the left. And to occasionally look at pet pictures.

    Oh, and it’s often funny. But maybe I only think that because I’m aging.

  142. 142.

    jewish steel

    I can tell you what it’s not. It’s not a photo gallery of rabbis in dirigibles, as I was led to believe.

    Sorry. I tried so hard not to post that. Really struggled.

  143. 143.

    LarsThorwald

    “What is this blogs identity?” is a question from a millenial, no doubt about it.

    And fuck you, old. I’m 39. Eat a stack of dicks.

  144. 144.

    Belvoir

    Alessandra Stanley’s TV criticism: “Handsome Dan Draper is a WWII vet now plying his trade as CEO of Stirling-Crouper. Curvy redhead Jean rules the office as she shows naive young Mormon Penny the ropes in the 1950’s” .*

    *Parody, but not far off the mark. There’s 8 corrections right there in two sentences.

  145. 145.

    Church Lady

    Wasn’t Alessandra Stanley also the woman that regaled the masses with the story of her in-vitro attempts?

  148. 148.

    fourmorewars

    The guy who asked this is ‘Bob Loblaw’? Dammit, *I* was Bob Loblaw. On this trivia blog I used a pic of the character as my avatar, since I loved AD. Naturally, whenever this one wingnut argued with me, he would call me ‘Chachi.’ So, I posted back that since he was unable to differentiate the actor from a role he played decades ago, my nickname for him would be ‘Tiger Beat.’

    I held onto the avatar, defiantly. In the end, though, I was destined to be disillusioned. Ron Howard, the show’s producer, is a lib, so’s Henry Winkler, who was great as the family’s incompetent lawyer. But it turns out Scott Baio is some sort of wingnut, conservative Xtian division. Sigh.

  149. 149.

    alicia-logic

    BJ is a good place for members of the “aging online population” like myself to lurk, because inevitably someone else posts exactly what I was going to say anyway, like this:

    @freelancer:

    You had me until “irregardless”.

  151. 151.

    Chad N Freude

    @alicia-logic: Ballon Juice: Pedantry über alles! It is the BJ way.

    ETA: I yield to no one in my pedantic comments on the grammatical and orthographic errors of commenters who are not me.

  153. 153.

    JenJen

    @TooManyJens:

    Dunno about identity, but I like this place because everyone here is as cranky and pissed off by all the bullshit as I am.

    Late to the party, but pretty much this.

    Also:

    @debit:

    I can’t believe no one mentioned the real purpose of this blog: football.

  155. 155.

    Daulnay

    Thoughtful (or at least moderately skeptical) politics and the best snark on the web. Oh, and pets.

  157. 157.

    DPirate

    its a media criticism site for the aging online population. Hence the generally shallow and frightened tone on a lot of topics, plus the frequent pet and gardening posts.

    Hahah, complete! This may be the true-est thing I’ve ever read on Balloon Juice. Damn, but it kind of sucks to be described as a member of the online agers.

  158. 158.

    Cat Lady

    I guess I’ll get the last word on this dead thread, but BJ’s identity could be put on a t-shirt:

    We’re with Crankypants.

  159. 159.

    Glen Tomkins

    “Hence the generally shallow and frightened tone on a lot of topics, plus the frequent pet and gardening posts.”

    If you’re not frightened, you’re not paying attention to much that is going on in the wider world. The pet, gardening, and eating (The guy fails to note the frequent posts about eating. A sane person notices little else besides what’s for dinner.) posts are to provide balance, some places that aren’t frightening.

    I’m not sure what a shallow tone would sound like, but if the point is that this site, any site like this that comments on the political discourse in our society, doesn’t do in-depth analysis very well, point taken, but quite irrelevant. You can’t start digging yourself out of a hole until and unless you recognize you’re in a hole. The task of just repeating back the juicy bits of the balloon juice that passes for serious political discourse in this country, is a worthy and neccessary task. The idea is that maybe people might be shocked into recognition of the frightening pass we find ourselves in, that idiots and idiocy such as this rock our world and rule our public discourse.

    Accomplish that, get people to quit diging the hole deeper, and then we can start the task of rebuilding. Admittedly shallow snark, snark that is inherently as shallow as the political discourse it describes, won’t be very useful in that reconstruction. When and if we get to that point, when we reach the point where non-balloon juice dominates public policy discussions in the wider world beyond pets and gardens and whats’ for dinner, useful discourse will have to move beyond snark, and shed its shallowness.

    But, you know, that day is not this day. Shallow on, Garth, shallow on.

  160. 160.

    twiffer

    well, “aging” can technially mean anyone. my son is 3, but he is still aging, simply because we experience time as a linear progression.

    anyway, if you take it to mean old, well i don’t know how old everyone is here. i’m 34, so i don’t think i qualify as old to anyone but teenagers and younger.

    as for identity, what, it needs one? blogs are places for people to write about what is on their mind. the informal nature is part of the appeal. frankly, this is a bit more focused than most personal blogs (for instance, mine is infrequent rants about work, traffic and baseball. with occassional photos of the boy and random bouts of poetry), but still, it’s a place for somewhat like-minded people, flung about the globe, to gather and converse. or just yell.

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