Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Tide comes in. Tide goes out. You can’t explain that.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Consistently wrong since 2002

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

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

You cannot shame the shameless.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

The gop couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

“Cheese and Kraken paired together for the appetizer trial.”

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Happy Veteran’s Day

Reader Interactions

56Comments

  1. 1.

    El Tiburon

    Post office? When do you go there? After you churn your butter and ask Mabel the operator to connect you to Sherriff Hayseed?

    Let me ask you: when you want cash, do you write a check at the grocery store?

  3. 3.

    John Cole

    @El Tiburon: You are actually closer to the mark than you think. We have no delivery, just the post office, and until the general store put in an atm a few years ago, yes, we did write checks to them for cash. In fact, I have a charge account at the general store that uses only my first name on the slip, and every time I want something, they write it down and add it to the total, and every two weeks or so, I go in and pay it off.

    Don’t mock it. It works.

  4. 4.

    John PM

    So, will you be going to Applebee’s for your free veteran’s dinner, or to Outback Steakhouse for your free Bloomin’ Onion? According to David Brooks, Applebee’s has a killer salad bar.

  5. 5.

    Violet

    @John Cole:
    This is the most awesome thing I’ve read all week. Your life sounds like a WV Mayberry. Does Andy Griffith wander through town every so often?

  6. 6.

    stuckinred

    Happy vets to you John, soonergrunt, sgmm (sp) and all you other squids, dogfaces, jardheads, flyboys and whatever endearing phrase there is for the Coast Guard.

  9. 9.

    Violet

    Forgot to mention, I’ve lived in a couple of small towns without mail delivery and the post office becomes a neighborhood meeting place. Everyone has to go there to get their mail, so you always end up seeing people you know and chatting for a few minutes. It’s really great.

  10. 10.

    stuckinred

    FWIW I’m not going to one of these joints that make vets day part of their advertising campaigns. I don’t begrudge any one who does but it ain’t for me.

  11. 11.

    cleek

    @Violet:

    Everyone has to go there to get their mail, so you always end up seeing people you know and chatting for a few minutes.

    this is why the Plain Brown Wrapper was invented.

  15. 15.

    ThatLeftTurnInABQ

    This would never have happened if you didn’t have soshulist mail service. If you had 5 different private postal companies all competing for your service, at least 4 of them would be neglecting the memory of our hallowed dead be open for business as usual today.

    For that matter, why don’t we just get the government out of our holidays? Privatize them and let them compete with each other for influence – Wall St could collect fat fees managing the subsequent mergers, acquisitions, and IHOs. Don’t sell your stock in arborday.com until you hear how the merger talks with theeasterbunny.com are progressing.

  17. 17.

    El Tiburon

    Don’t mock it. It works.

    As a kid we had charge accounts at the little restaurants and stores in the small town I grew up in just like that. Cash rarely was exchanged. It was great as a kid to wander in, eat a big chicken fried steak, then just sign your name.

  18. 18.

    Ash Can

    @John Cole: I love the city and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else, but when we take trips up to West Nowhere, WI we run across places like you describe, and they’re absolutely enchanting for us city folk. They’re a pleasant and relaxing change of pace. And you’re right, the system does work, so why mess with it?

  19. 19.

    danimal

    I can see the wingnuts now….”Cole doesn’t care about those who’ve served our country, he didn’t even know it’s Veteran’s Day…”

    Remember, in wingnut logic, actual service isn’t nearly as important as strutting around thanking those who’ve served.

  20. 20.

    stuckinred

    @Neutron Flux: I’m watching the Enemy Below right now. I just finished reading “The Measureless Peril” about the war for the Atlantic and this is a great supplement. My old man was a converted 4 stack apd sailor in the Pacific so I’ve always payed more attention to that theater. I also know a guy who was on that US Sub that cut the Japanese ship in half when it surfaced off Hawaii.

  21. 21.

    Svensker

    Happy Remembrance Day.

    (I wish there was a Peace Day, or a “I didn’t start a stupid war” Day, but I’m an unrepentant DFH and a Quaker, pffft.)

    OT — Morzer, you out there? What do you think of the Chad/Chad switch? Penny’s got glass arms, so I’d be worried, but I always did like the kid.

  22. 22.

    Svensker

    Also, too, I’m a veteran, in case anyone thinks I’m not sufficiently patriotic.

    And also, also, too, what happened to the edit function?

  26. 26.

    ruemara

    Wait…you have to buy your own calendar? Happy Vet’s Day! Sorry your fellow countrymen keep screwing with your pay and putting you in shitty unplanned wars!

  30. 30.

    Comrade Mary

    Happy Remembrance Day! I have to find a place to put my poppy (which I actually didn’t lose or stick myself with this year).

    No Canadian World War I veterans at the ceremonies in Ottawa today. John Babcock, the last of them all, died earlier this year.

  36. 36.

    asiangrrlMN

    Cole, didn’t we go through this before? Oh yes. Columbus Day. You really do need a calendar of federal holidays.

    P.S. Thank you for your service, and thanks to all the others out there who have done the same.

    @lovedog: Uma is a beautiful and sweet dog. My deepest condolences on your loss.

    @stuckinred: Well, I had to be different. It’s how I roll.

  37. 37.

    JPL

    @stuckinred: Thanks for posting the story about Moina Michael. I had no idea where the custom came from. Many of us were lamenting the fact that you just didn’t see people selling or wearing poppies on Veteran’s Day anymore.

  40. 40.

    Laura W.

    @lovedog: I am SO sorry to hear this. I sent John the photo of your Uma when I received it from you because I found it so moving. I titled it: “Soulful says it all”, and it did.

    I posted that photo on the calendar blog under September.

    She was clearly a very exceptional being.

    Speaking of Sept, I blew it big time and did not get stuckinred’s two darlings into the original calendar. I have since redone September’s page so the new calendars are a bit different for that month in terms of the collage layout. You can see the current Sept on the blog. And thank you to stuckinred for being so gracious and understanding about my error.

  45. 45.

    ruemara

    @lovedog:

    So sorry for your loss.

    Open Thread question, is Congress in session or something? It seems the White House and Congress have approved the Bush Tax Cuts, cut SS and Medicare and taken over Afghanistan. Which I thought would take more time since the Pres is at G20 and Biden’s honoring vets.

  47. 47.

    MattR

    I think I have mentioned this before, but shortly after moving into Manhattan close to 15 years ago my roommate went to the post office only to find out it was closed for Veteran’s Day. As he was muttering and complaining to me, a woman started to lecture him about not having proper respect fot the troops and honoring their service. I think she was expecting him to be mortified, but instead got the response of “I’m a veteran and they could honor my service by selling me some stamps so I can mail this letter”. I can’t remember if she said another word or just slunk away. Coincidentally, today is also that same friend’s wedding anniversary.

    A thank you to him, to John and to all those others who have served to protect us and our freedoms.

  48. 48.

    asiangrrlMN

    @MattR: I love that story. I have to laugh wryly, though, because I read your last sentence as, “…served to protect us FROM our freedoms.”

    @stuckinred: DO NOT LIKE! We’ve had unseasonably warm weather here (sixties), which makes me VERY grumpy.

  50. 50.

    Face

    @stuckinred: Retired, or just a shiftless societal scumbag sucking the resources of all of us 7-to-5ers as we fund y’all 99ers’ netflix rentals and Old English scuds?

    Mmmmmm…..malt liquor.

  56. 56.

    Yutsano

    @stuckinred:

    and whatever endearing phrase there is for the Coast Guard.

    Coasties. There’s an HQ office in my building. Some of them make decent eye candy.

Comments are closed.