Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Our messy unity will be our strength.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

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

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

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

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

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

You cannot shame the shameless.

Petty moves from a petty man.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Here’s Another Open Thread Because Now I Am on the Bottle And Blah Blah Blah

Here’s Another Open Thread Because Now I Am on the Bottle And Blah Blah Blah

by | 230 Comments

This post is in: ,

Sposed to be people coming over, but it appears they are running late, but that is ok because I have been pre-gaming for the last hour.

At any rate, I was thinking, “do the Balloon Juice readers really care what blogs I love? I mean, there is the blog roll over there, but do they really care what the first sites I visit every day are?”

And because I am drinking and my judgement is impaired, I decided that yes, you do. So here they are:

1.) The Washington Monthly
2.) Atrios
3.) Tbogg
4.) Rumproast
5.) The Booman Tribune
6.) Wolcott
7.) Oliver Willis
8.) LGM

I basically check those pretty much first thing when I log on, then do the newspapers, memeorandum, and then rock through other blogs.

Why do I tell you this? Because after two glasses of wine, I am convinced that YOU CARE. Also, because I have the power. Just like I have the power to post this:

It’s on, bitches. Post your bad videos and music below.

Reader Interactions

230Comments

  1. 1.

    Gravenstone

    Please tell me that’s not boxed wine you’re partaking of. Otherwise, we may have to perform an intervention to keep you off the Althouse path.

  3. 3.

    MikeJ

    You still haven’t moved Sully to monitor and mock. DougJ said he would have done it if he could figure out the computer box thingee. I might suggest Prof Winebox for the same category.

  5. 5.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Kevin over at Rumproast wrote the single funniest thing I’ve ever read on the internet back during the primary. I still giggle when I recall it.

  6. 6.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I read Atrios daily because I have a fear of getting lost in Philly and not knowing which train to take.

  10. 10.

    Phoebe

    Here’s Peggy Lee’s not-remotely-depressed-sounding version of “Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay”.

    It’s not the bad music you requested, but she’s sittin’ on that dock like she owns it, so I believe it fits tonight. I dedicate it to ABL.

  12. 12.

    debit

    Oh, honey. It’s cute that you think we care.

    @ thread: I’m years late, but I finally signed up for Steam and am now downloading Dragon Age: Origins. I guess we’ll see if it cures my video game ennui.

  13. 13.

    Sentient Puddle

    Thanks to the suggestions of everybody from yesterday, I am now currently brewing a honey hibiscus wit beer. This promises to turn out interesting.

    Unfortunately in the process, I somehow managed to get into an argument with someone who is ostensibly a beer connoisseur and says that you do not boil hops while making beer. I honestly don’t know what to make of this.

  14. 14.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    .
    .
    Global Climate Change – your days are numbered. President Obama, having solved the coal problem, the fracking problem, the nuclear problem, and the the offshore oil drilling/pollution problem, will kick your ass by announcing today his plan to open part of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska to oil drilling.

    All aboard this man’s wide, wide shoulders and let him carry us to a brighter, sustainable energy future!
    .
    .

  15. 15.

    Nellcote

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange now makes his associates sign a draconian nondisclosure agreement that, among other things, asserts that the organization’s huge trove of leaked material is “solely the property of WikiLeaks,” according to a report Wednesday.
    …
    “You accept and agree that the information disclosed, or to be disclosed to you pursuant to this agreement is, by its nature, valuable proprietary commercial information,” the agreement reads, “the misuse or unauthorized disclosure of which would be likely to cause us considerable damage.”
    …
    The confidentiality agreement (.pdf), revealed by the New Statesman, imposes a penalty of 12 million British pounds– nearly $20 million — on anyone responsible for a significant leak of the organization’s unpublished material. The figure is based on a “typical open-market valuation” of WikiLeaks’ collection, the agreement claims.
    …
    Interestingly, the agreement warns that any breach is likely to cause WikiLeaks to lose the “opportunity to sell the information to other news broadcasters and publishers.”

    linky

  16. 16.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Phoebe:

    It’s not the bad music you requested, but she’s sittin’ on that dock like she owns it, so I believe it fits tonight. I dedicate it to ABL.

    If we’re dedicating songs to ABL, here’s my submission.

  19. 19.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear:

    Tbogg is the single funniest writer on the internets. Bar none.

    Agreed, that’s what makes commenting on his site so frustrating. He’s already mined all the good material in his post.

  22. 22.

    cbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead: He used to have probably the most interesting comments section evah before he moved to FDL. That place was my original “home” and really interesting threads used to run to 2-300 comments.
    Memorably, Goldstein dropped by a couple of times and was alomst driven to suicide by the pwning. Good times.

  26. 26.

    4jkb4ia

    @General Stuck:

    The bullpen is an illusion. That is all. Never mind that McClellan lost the game today fair and square. And I have learned never to trash talk on this blog again.

    And BREAKING : Huckabee not to run.

  27. 27.

    Shoemaker-Levy 9

    1. I so stopped reading Washington Monthly in 2009.
    2. I so stopped reading Atrios in 2007.
    3. I so stopped reading Tbogg in 2010.
    4. I so stopped reading Rumproast after the Mongolian primary.
    5. I so stopped reading Booman in 12 BC.
    6. I so stopped reading Wolcott during sweeps month.
    7. I so stopped reading Oliver Willis for Lent.
    8. I so stopped reading LGM when I realized what the L stood for.

  28. 28.

    Dennis SGMM

    @cbear:

    He used to have probably the most interesting comments section evah before he moved to FDL.

    Agreed: his Blogspot place was the first blog where I was a regular commenter. Whether it was FDL’s registration requirement or plain blog fatigue, the comments have never been the same since he moved.

  29. 29.

    Hawes

    Did anyone catch the sickening story about the head of the IMF raping the hotel maid in NY? In addition to the horror visited upon the woman, could there be a better metaphor for the sociopathic world of powerful bankers? Sodomizing a minimum wage worker and then skipping off to JFK to catch a flight to Paris?

    I always assumed that calling the banking class sociopaths was a form of metaphorical exaggeration, but I think in a lot of cases it might be true.

  30. 30.

    General Stuck

    Can’t help but love this blog, in spite of myself. We’ve had what amounts to a blog race riot raging for several days on multiple threads, and the blog owner is drunk as skunk fishing for compliments on his blog roll. There ought to be a Pulitzer for blogging in the “believe it or not” category.

  35. 35.

    gogol's wife

    Why isn’t Wolcott on the blog roll? I always want to go straight from here to there.

    And you have to put Oleg Menshikov on the blog roll. (Just kidding, it’s in Russian, but I love Oleg Menshikov.)

  37. 37.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @General Stuck:

    Can’t help but love this blog, in spite of myself. We’ve had what amounts to a blog race riot raging for several days on multiple threads, and the blog owner is drunk as skunk fishing for compliments on his blog roll. There ought to be a Pulitzer for blogging in the “believe it or not” category.

    You better love this blog or I’ll drop the banhammer by proxy on you. A drunken John is easily my best buddy.

  38. 38.

    srv

    Hey John, could you get on that secret cool-bloggers chat room and ask WTF happened to The Poorman? No posts since December.

  39. 39.

    ruemara

    Why you gotta hate on Snap? Other than that, it’s a boring night, I can’t drink and the raid went down the tubes while the raid leader has a QQ about people failing to be geared. Think I’ll go make some jewelry or write something.

  42. 42.

    Dennis SGMM

    @Hawes:

    I gotta go with the FDL hassles.

    You did have to jump through some hoops. IIRC, there were some teething problems with authentication as well. To add to the woes, early adopters could have their nick as a link to their personal blog while latecomers could not.

  44. 44.

    Epicurus

    1) Atrios
    2) Josh Marshall
    3) FDL (just for the front page)
    4) TBogg
    5) et al.: Mostly off Mr. B’s blogroll

  46. 46.

    Dennis SGMM

    @cbear:

    I’d have to go back and dig through the archives to find it. I think that it was just “Dennis P.”

  47. 47.

    Southern Beale

    That’s actually interesting info, I’d like to hear what other places folks check first thing when they log on. I have to say it changes sometimes depending on what’s happening in the world … when the whole Wisconsin thing was in full-throttle I’d check First Draft every morning first thing because they had a blogger on the scene covering the protests.

    In general the places I hit first thing when I log on are:

    1-Twitter
    2-Here
    3-Used to be Huffington Post but not so much anymore, it’s gotten kinda lame… I’d say probably ThinkProgress

  50. 50.

    ROSSINDETROIT

    I’m still at work after 10 hours. Do that riot thing over for me. I wanna see what I missed.

  51. 51.

    Galileo126

    (1) Steve Benen @ Washington Monthly (new site threw me for a loop)
    (2) Dependable Renegade (Watertiger)
    (3) WTF is it now (sparse postings)
    (4) C&L
    (5) D-kos
    (6) Rightwingwatch.org
    (7) Media Matters
    (8) TPM
    (9) Cesca (love me some B&E)
    (10) last, but not least – Digby (and her movie reviews)

  52. 52.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Balloon Juice has become my default blog
    TPM and Think Progress
    Washington Monthly
    Greg Sargent
    Krugman
    Chait and Ezra Klein for the leftish establishment view
    Attaturk and Dependable Renegade for snark
    The Guardian

  53. 53.

    Hawes

    Fallows is good now that he’s back from wherever.

    Bonddad’s Blog is good if you can get over not understanding half the crap they’re talking about. Same with Delong’s blog.

  54. 54.

    ROSSINDETROIT

    1) MakeBlog. My pals, who are The Telegraph’s #1 rated educational site.
    2) Josh Marshall because he’s often been ahead of the curve on big news.
    3) Here because I’m a mean bastard & like suffering
    4) Ten Se*y Ladies
    5) K-Thug

  55. 55.

    4jkb4ia

    I’m impressed the Huckabee thing was already posted. Even Taegan Goddard didn’t have it.

  56. 56.

    cbear

    @Dennis SGMM: That sounds really familiar. I was chris c.
    I was a regular there and at Atrios’s and Digby’s and very early FDL. I honestly feel like those sites kept me sane during those years when everything I thought I knew about my country and our values was turned upside down.
    I think I ended up here because it was the closest thing to the original tbogg I could find.

  57. 57.

    Dustin

    Since this is the thread for lists:

    – Ballon Juice: because I just can’t quit you guys

    – Little Green Footballs: another reformed former republican turned rational attacker of wingnutistan

    – Think Progress: pretty much a liberal cnn in my books

    – Wherever Steve Benen happens to be blogging: because he’s been a god amongst bloggers for as long as I can remember

    – Pharyngula: hardcore scientist and GNU atheist… yep and yep

    – And of course a cursory glance of both memeorandum and techmeme just to see what the latest freakouts of the day are, because I hate my blood pressure to get too low.

  59. 59.

    Southern Beale

    @Dustin:

    Little Green Footballs: another reformed former republican turned rational attacker of wingnutistan

    Yeah when the fuck did that happen? I remember we used to call LGF “Little Green Snotballs” over at Atrios’ place. Then all of a sudden the dude started making sense. What the fuck happened?

  60. 60.

    eemom

    um, not to alarm anyone, but the blog is unravelling.

    Please click calmly on the nearest exit link.

  63. 63.

    Dollared

    @cbear: Actually, at the 2004-05 peak of desperation, Wonkette was the only place that delivered enough snark. I loves me some Digby, but she would make so much sense it would make me cry – and then I’d have to run back to Wonkette to make it absurd enough. And Anna Marie sold out, and has not been heard from since…

  65. 65.

    John Weiss

    Two glasses of wine? Pussy! I don’t get maudlin ’til after a couple of glasses of rum!

    ‘Course I am a Texan.

  67. 67.

    4jkb4ia

    EW: The Archive. A big piece has just been published in the WaPo about Rahm. It seems very trivial now, although there was a cute line about Rahm’s reaction to criticism being to slam down the phone.
    Political Wire
    DK Elections
    538
    Greg Sargent

  69. 69.

    General Stuck

    I don’t have much interest in independent thinkers these days coming from bloggers. The only thing I want to know is how to beat the godddam wingnuts. It may be pretentious, but the blogger I trust most is me. And most of what I learn is in comment sections, but not all of it, of course. When Cole gets halfway serious, he can be near brilliant in dissecting wingnuttery down to it’s frightened shivering core.

    Dougj is good, and can be incisive and brilliant in his thread posts, and thought provoking, if we can pry his eyes away from the village soap opera long enough.

    I have come to really like mistermix, after not so much when he first arrived and some after. He has his head screwed on very well at this point, imo.

    I wish Dennis G posted more, it is mostly a mind meld on ideological political takes of the right wing these days.

    Kay is my unconditional internet friend, and is the class of this place.

    And ABL, what can I say, a bundle of smarts and energy and flaws, synergized into fearless ventures through the mind fields of race relations in this country. Not many willing to take up that radioactive mantel.

    Tom is a most excellent writer as well, and Anne Laurie, bless her heart, she means well, mostly, and likes critters and is a library of knowledge on dogs and cats.

    the comment section currently, is a cross between a romper room and Dante’s inferno. There are some brilliant commenters here, and I wish I could tune the bad ones out more than I do. I like it, that for the first time in a long time, people are linking to music again. I hope that is a good sign for the future.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jay Newton Small from Time tweeted the following

    JNSmall Jay Newton-Small
    OMG: Huck had Donald Trump pre-tape an endorsement of his non-candidacy???

    did anybody watch the Huckabee show? Is this serious?

  72. 72.

    scav

    @General Stuck:

    I like it, that for the first time in a long time, people are linking to music again. I hope that is a good sign for the future.

    Given the very next thread? ? ? umm.

  73. 73.

    cbear

    @Dollared:

    I loves me some Digby, but she would make so much sense it would make me cry

    Too true. I stopped commenting at her place because I almost felt it was disrespectful to sully her beautiful writing with my flamethrowing (and often scatological)comments.
    Had the pleasure of meeting her and Mr Digby last year in Vegas and she was incredibly gracious and friendly. I felt like a 10-yr-old girl at a Bieber concert when she actually knew who I was and made reference to some stuff I had written.
    I hope to evolve to her level of humanness some day, but seriously dounbt I will ever make it.

  74. 74.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear:

    I felt like a 10-yr-old girl at a Bieber concert when she actually knew who I was and made reference to some stuff I had written.

    I can’t imagine being appreciated for something I wrote. That must have been disconcerting.

    I love Digby and read her everyday but man, her commenters are a sack of crazy. I feel bad for her every time I open comments.

  76. 76.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Allan:

    That’s encouraging. It suggests you have a greater level of self-awareness than I would have otherwise surmised.

    Do you make a prissy “Hrrmmph” sound when you comment? Because I always imagine that when I read your comments.

  82. 82.

    Dollared

    @cbear: I share your fan-boy emo, and envy you for meeting her. And yeah, her commenters do tend to prove the continental tilt theory. Glad you could hang in there with them. I’d rather just bait the General.

  83. 83.

    Dollared

    @General Stuck: Remember, we all are here because nothing is more important than beating the wingnuts. It may make the disagreements about strategy heated, but we are all talking about parallel paths to the same goal.

  84. 84.

    cbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead: To be clear, it wasn’t her appreciating some incisive brilliant piece I had written but more an acknowledgement of who I was and that I had had something to say that she had taken note of. Like I said, extremely gracious lady.

  86. 86.

    Cliff

    For the most part I like Steve Benen’s work, but his “Republican X is deeply confused” schtick (where X = whatever wingnut said the most recent stupidest fucking thing ever) gets on my nerves.

    It would do my blood pressure wonders if he just started calling out lies and the filthy fucking liars who tell them.

  87. 87.

    Elroy's Lunch

    1- Balloon Juice
    2- Steve Benen/Washington Monthly
    3 – James Fallows
    4 – K-Thug

    + 4, Malbec

  88. 88.

    4jkb4ia

    I Kissed A Girl(Katy Perry). This and “Buy You A Drank” are so bad, I have actively changed the radio station. The first one is also an active insult to a very good song by Jill Sobule.

  89. 89.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear: Either way..

    At any rate, she’s one of the few bloggers that consistently sees what she’s looking at and not what she hopes is there.

  90. 90.

    fordpowers

    to be sickly honest. your list isnt that much different from mine – but i would add BJ as one of the top 5.

    That is all

  94. 94.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear:

    That’s probably one of the most incisive descriptions of her I have ever heard/read. Srsly.

    I believe this is the definition of wisdom.

  96. 96.

    General Stuck

    I don’t remember who posted the recipe for coating Brussell Sprouts in Olive Oil and baking them in the over. But I want to thank them, just cooked up a batch that way and they are just simply delicious.

  97. 97.

    Dollared

    @Cliff: Yeah. Kinda has that high school debate feel. The problem is that the only real way to deal with wingnuttia is mocking, and Benen has to live in DC. The rest of us just mock away, from afar.

  107. 107.

    Martin

    Raided the kitchen for a drink and gave rum and lemonade a whirl. Damn, I could get used to this.

  108. 108.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Allan:

    This doesn’t involve you.

    lmao

    You sort of involved him when you called attention to his appreciative comment, doncha think?

  109. 109.

    shortstop

    @Cliff: I mostly gave up on him because of that…and because of his inability to give more than cursory attention to policy issues when there’s any juicy Republican gossip (some of which is delicious, too much of which is sad) around. I also noticed that only about once every two-three months was I finding something on his blog that I hadn’t already read (with far more substantive analysis attached) several other places. I think most of the people who still really enjoy him don’t read any other political blogs and use him as a headline aggregator.

    It’s too bad because he’s clearly a nice guy who cares about progressive principles, but he seems to be hoping to ride that super-mildly sarcastic, unshrill Democrat bit to bigger, much more mainstream things. And I say that as someone with less than no patience for firebaggers of any kind. I don’t love blogger hysteria and self-drama. I do love blogging spine and I like snark to be strong enough to count.

    I do find it a little strange that Cole still loves him so, but maybe it was unshrill folk like Benen who helped John come over from the dark side.

  111. 111.

    BGinCHI

    Late to the thread because, you know, I have a life, but: 2 glasses of wine and he spills it?

    What’s harsh interrogation, Jagermeister?

    You are a national security threat, Cole.

    Waterboarding in WV: they turn on the shower. NO!!!!

  113. 113.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Allan:

    You’re still dodging the question. How did it feel when a stranger on the internet praised something you wrote?

    Me and ceeb go back years so I’m not sure I’d characterize him as a “stranger on the internet.”

  115. 115.

    cbear

    @General Stuck: Uh, at one time I think practically every mother in America told their kids to eat their brussel sprouts and wash behind their ears, Stuck. Your comment about brussel sprouts just reminded me of that long ago stuf from my own mom.

    Were you looking for something controversial?

  116. 116.

    Crusty Dem

    @General Stuck:

    Toss them in a mustard cream sauce for an extra-fattening treat. I spent 10 years in the South, I can turn anything healthy into a fatty Southern dish (hint: bacon, cream, and butter are your friends), this would earn me my own show on the Food network if I were a cute woman with bouncy cleavage…

  117. 117.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear: While you were out hobnobbing the world with the blogerati, we got ourselves a whole new type of troll: the hallmonitor troll. Thankfully he doesn’t have any real power outside of that which he imagines.

  118. 118.

    shortstop

    @Allan: Where are you going with this? I have no dog in this fight, but you may want to put down that shovel.

  121. 121.

    freelancer

    01) Balloon Juice (der)
    02) Steve Benen
    03) TNC
    04) TBogg
    05) Phil Plait
    06) Hemant Mehta
    07) Maddowblog
    08) Wonkette
    09) Emily Hauser (Ellaester to you)
    10) C&L (Susie Madrack notwithstanding)
    11) PZ Myers
    12) Radly Balko

  125. 125.

    Dustin

    @Southern Beale:

    Yeah when the fuck did that happen? I remember we used to call LGF “Little Green Snotballs” over at Atrios’ place. Then all of a sudden the dude started making sense. What the fuck happened?

    I’m not sure, mostly because I started following him largely after his ‘conversion’, but from what I’ve seen the guy has zero tolerance for anti-science jackassery and corruption. He reached his breaking point and now he’s one of the best sources out there for ripping into teabaggers and the religious right. The fact that many of the “old-time” Righty bloggers see him as a Judas figure who betrayed the cause just makes it all the sweeter, and it offers a perspective not many outside of our very own Cole can provide.

  126. 126.

    cbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Yeah, I picked up on that—unfortunately the virus seems to be mutating and replicating. I realy wish these people would wear condoms, but I think it’s probably too much to ask.

  127. 127.

    shortstop

    @BGinCHI: Hey, B. I’ve been following sex-ay Italian cyclists around the lake district from the comfort of my rented Fiat. Occasionally I would throw them little bottles of water (frizzante, of course) and, on particularly nasty hills, badly conjugated words of encouragement.

    This place does seem to have taken a sharp downward spiral. I can’t get through most of the threads right now. Since I didn’t add anything of value to them anyway, this affects only me, but I’m still a little bummed about it.

  129. 129.

    shortstop

    @Allan: Pssssst…I think your “dog” is invisible to everyone except you. But carry on if you feel strongly that you’re accomplishing something.

  130. 130.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear:

    Yeah, I picked up on that—-unfortunately the virus seems to be mutating and replicating. I realy wish these people would wear condoms, but I think it’s probably too much to ask.

    All we can do is love and teach others how to love. That’s all we can do.

  131. 131.

    BGinCHI

    Che forza!

    Expect an update on travels via secure channel.

    I want to hear about your IT travels. I miss the tifosi and all the belle macchine….

  134. 134.

    Ghanima Atreides

    @Dustin: Basically Charles switched sides over Expelled. There was a cleave event that turned wingnut against wingnut.
    It was Charles against Instapundit in a bloody battle that rent the very fabric of wingnut reality. Even staunch oldskool conservatives like Pixy Misa defected to the left.
    It was a blogstorm of epic proportions.
    Then Charles caught some Becktards advocating burning books on evolution.

    A little known fact is that Pam Geller, famous toilet blogger and shrieking harpy was once one of Charles most favored blogfriends.

  137. 137.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Allan: I’ve done my damnednest to bring you into the mainstream here but you absolutely insist on being a prissy little douchebag. If you ever get tired of yer tragic shame spiral, I’m here for ya.

  139. 139.

    shortstop

    I am looking out the window at some poor dude struggling with two bassets in the cold, driving rain — as we well know in this household, no hound will be hurried in locating a late-night pee spot — and TBogg appears like MAGIC. Oooeeee.

  140. 140.

    Allan

    @Just Some Fuckhead: If you were actually representative of the mainstream of any community of people, there’s no way I would want to be part of it. It’s the extent to which you are an outlier, an embarrassment to the proprietor, and a pariah among the decent folk who read and comment here that I retain some hope for BJ. Slim, yes, but hope remains.

  142. 142.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan: And yet, you’re the clown who kept asking some stranger on the toobz “How did it feel?”

  144. 144.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Allan:

    If you were actually representative of the mainstream of any community of people, there’s no way I would want to be part of it. It’s the extent to which you are an outlier, an embarrassment to the proprietor, and a pariah among the decent folk who read and comment here that I retain some hope for BJ. Slim, yes, but hope remains.

    I’m not pitching myself as the mainstream. I’m saying yer so out there on the other side that you make me look like a sympathetic character. Let that sink in.

  145. 145.

    shortstop

    the decent folk who read and comment here

    Awesome. A little heavyhanded, but parody is hard. Serviceable effort.

  146. 146.

    Allan

    @Corner Stone: Earlier tonight, Fuckhead indicated that he doesn’t get that kind of validation of his writing. So when he got some, I wanted to know how it felt. I wondered if Fuckhead was brave enough to acknowledge experiencing an emotion. I got my answer.

    You’re not afraid to admit that listening to Adele makes you weep. That’s an indication that there might actually be a human with a conscience lurking somewhere inside you, and why I’m generally content to spar with you. You even made me laugh tonight with your Rosie comment.

    But you run with a sick fuck, and someday he’s going to mock you for crying over music and make you feel bad for having revealed that here at BJ.

  151. 151.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan:

    and someday he’s going to mock you for crying over music and make you feel bad for having revealed that here at BJ.

    He’ll never betray me like that! Never!
    That kind of heinous action would make him some kind of…fuckhead. Or something similar.

  152. 152.

    shortstop

    @Allan: You’re not a parody? Ooooeeeee. Wait, wait — are you that guy Cole describes as sending him endless scolding emails demanding that he ban character A and bad actor B? Or am I thinking of someone else?

  153. 153.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @shortstop:

    I dunno about sympathetic, but of the two of you, you definitely come off as the asshole people would rather have a beer with.

    Stop it before you make me cry.

  156. 156.

    shortstop

    Thanks for remembering so uncharitably.

    Well, there’s also the fact that, not remembering you, I thought you were a hamhanded parody tonight. So you’ve actually made an impression on me in two different ways!

  157. 157.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @shortstop: I don’t have a dog in yer fight with Allan but I can tell you from experience you should just back away slowly before you get a link that explains your bad behavior.

  159. 159.

    freelancer

    @TBogg:

    You know, it’s frightening. The Soros smear. Yesterday, I read terrorist interrogator Matthew Alexander’s new book Kill or Capture, and though short, it was brilliant. It laid out a story and history of 2006 clusterfuck Northern Iraq in the wake of the manhunt and death of al-Zarqawi, and how the best interrogators in the military used the passions and principles of Al Qaeda’s most ruthless against them in a mental chess game to get them to devour their own. And it worked. Great story, and you understand why the whole way through.

    But then at the end, you get to the acknowledgements and you see that Alexander was able to write this book due to a fellowship from Soros.org. Doesn’t matter that Alexander’s account represents a written history of what happened and how Army special forces and a special task force wiped Al Qaeda in Iraq off the face of Mesopotamia in the wake of Zarqawi, it’s the Soros bucks tainting the truth, and torture is now it’s very own Shibboleth. Just as the Bible and American History have received their very own whitewash so as to correct “liberal mistakes” that betrayed current principles of conservativism, I predict that such works portraying torture an absolute evil such as those in Poe’s Pit and the Pendulum, Dumas’ Man in the Iron Mask, William Goldman’s The Princess Bride, and last but most prominently, Orwell’s Room 101 will eventually get it’s own conservative rewrite.

    When 1984 gets edited for a certain crowd to portray Room 101 as “enhanced interrogation”, and the Ministry of Truth is modified so that it describes the proverbial lamestream media, the Wingularity will have occured and the stupidity will collapse in on itself, creating a new, alternate universe that parallels our own, yet eating away at itself in perpetuity.

  160. 160.

    Yutsano

    @Corner Stone:

    Man From Snowy River may be one of the top 5 most rewatchable “all audience” movies of all time.

    The book is fucking amazing. And it’s my mom’s favorite flick too.

  162. 162.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @shortstop: I feel like you and I had a real breakthrough tonight after years of quiet resentment. I think we have Allan to thank for that.

  163. 163.

    Allan

    @shortstop: Sadly, I can’t seem to place you at all. So I have nothing with which to balance the ugliness and mean-girl act you’ve displayed this evening, and am left with rather a bad first impression of you as well. I do hope that over time you’ll exhibit some good qualities and I’ll find a way to overcome my initial judgment.

  166. 166.

    shortstop

    @Allan: Oh, Allan. You don’t really want to venture into gender-specific insults, do you? I feel certain that that violates some principle you fervently believe that you actually hold. It may feel good now, but you’ll hate yourself in the morning.

  167. 167.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan:

    I do hope that over time you’ll exhibit some good qualities and I’ll find a way to overcome my initial judgment.

    She doesn’t fit into any of the DFD profiles? Or maybe another site with detailed explanations of the horrors people visit upon each other online?
    You disappoint me. I thought I could count on you.

  168. 168.

    cbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I’m guessing this may be the last time we explore our feminine sides here, bro. Some people just can’t handle two robustly hetreo guys having a quiet conversation in a corner without hurling accusations and innuendos and such shit. Sad really.

    Say, you bringing anybody special to the big rally tomorrow night? I put aside my grief over that last girl I lost and went out and got myself a new girlfriend—she’s clipped and dipped and ready to get a holler on.

  169. 169.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @shortstop:

    Oh, Allan. You don’t really want to venture into gender-specific insults, do you? I feel certain that that violates some principle you fervently and smugly believe that you actually hold. It may feel good now, but you’ll hate yourself in the morning.

    That’s gonna leave a mark.

  171. 171.

    Allan

    @shortstop: Interesting response. Remember, I don’t know who the fuck you are, so I have no basis for ascribing a gender to you. Do you believe that only females are capable of “mean-girl” behavior?

  172. 172.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear: I won’t let an online bully stop me from forming convenient internet relationships with anonymous strangers for temporary tactical benefit. If that makes my tough guy bonafides suspect, so be it. I feel strongly about this.

  173. 173.

    Corner Stone

    @shortstop: Derailing For Dummies.
    It’s a website people who are unable to form cogent arguments use to point people to they disagree with.
    It’s a shorthand for lazy people. IOW, Allan and his ilk think it’s the bee’s knees because they like to redirect conversations and arguments away from actual topics and discussions they can no longer handle, ie “win”.

  175. 175.

    shortstop

    @Allan: I know — it’s not a question of “belief” — that people of both genders are capable of being mean, and that persons not seeking to specifically use someone’s gender as an intended weapon can say so without gender-loaded language. Can you provide me with some examples of you ascribing “mean-girl” behavior to a man? Can you show me instances in which you’ve seen someone else do it?

    You’re going to have to hurry with those links, because I’m about to turn into a pumpkin here. And remember, as we established earlier, the mere act of continuing to dig does not mean you’re still in the game.

  176. 176.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Corner Stone: Have you checked it to see if there’s an entry for Allan’s behavior? I think that may actually help more than simply mocking him.

  178. 178.

    cbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    @shortstop:

    Oh, Allan. You don’t really want to venture into gender-specific insults, do you? I feel certain that that violates some principle you fervently and smugly believe that you actually hold. It may feel good now, but you’ll hate yourself in the morning.

    That’s gonna leave a mark.

    I’m kind of picturing him staggering away from his computer with a stiletto heel jammed into his eye.

    I’m not sure who this shortstop lady is but I like the cut of her jib.

  179. 179.

    Allan

    @shortstop: Actually, I just called your behavior “mean-girl” with no knowledge of your gender, so I don’t think I need to provide you with more proof of my comfort with using that term to describe your hateful and exclusionary actions toward a stranger you have deemed to be an other.

    And you’ve clarified for me rather nicely that you are not only a mean and hateful person, but one who happily associates with bullies and cowards. So you just run right along and turn into a pumpkin, secure in your cocoon of like-thinking assholes.

  181. 181.

    shortstop

    @Corner Stone: Ah. So, in a nutshell, Cole had him perfectly pegged. I thought that might be the case.

    But it’s fun to see him hoisted on his own petard. Get people of this mindset a little rattled and they’ll always reach immediately for the barb that betrays their prejudices. They’re horrified later, of course, to see it laid out bare, but there it is.

    Assuming (with some confidence) that those links from Al will not be forthcoming, I wish all of you a good night.

  182. 182.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan:

    to describe your hateful and exclusionary actions toward a stranger you have deemed to be an other.

    Maybe another e-mail to Cole? Mebbe an e-mail? An email? Hmmm?

  183. 183.

    Allan

    @cbear: You might want to spend less time fantasizing about committing acts of violence against other people. It’s probably bad for your soul, if you have one.

  184. 184.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear:

    I’m not sure who this shortstop lady is but I like the cut of her jib.

    Seriously? shortstop has been commenting here for, I’m thinking at least six years.

  186. 186.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Yeah, I’m following shortstop to bed. After the connection we made tonight, it only seems appropriate.

  187. 187.

    Allan

    @Corner Stone: I emailed Cole when m_c was making his blog unreadable. These commenters aren’t making it unreadable. They’re just ugly, hateful, bitter people who enjoy ganging up on someone for sport. I’m only staying around to give them a target, and to see who else is a sadist and can’t resist throwing a punch when they’re sure they’re in the comfortable majority. Like you.

  188. 188.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan: Kid, I will bring it to you and your patron any day of the week you little weaksauce punk.
    Just admit it. You’re a sad little 5th rate remora sucking hind teat on a 4th rate blogger here.
    No one else acts like they have any kind of imprimatur here except for clowns like you.

  189. 189.

    cbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead: Dude, you seem to forget—I’ve been away away engaging in more lofty pursuits and it’s really hard to remember all the little people.

    Srsly, has she always posted as shortstop?

    Hey shortstop, my apologies for not remembering you. I was on a vision quest for a while and everything got a little murky. JSF is guiding me back into the light and I’m slowly but surely finding myself again. The man is a godsend and I truly can’t understand all the hate and homophobia and assholery that he’s subjected to and that has come to dominate so many of these threads.

  190. 190.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @cbear:

    The man is a godsend and I truly can’t understand all the hate and homophobia and assholery that he’s subjected to and that has come to dominate so many of these threads.

    It’s the cross I bear, ceeb. I think ultimately it makes me a better person. They say that which does not kill you makes you stronger, after the whole almost dying and being in intensive care for a year followed by years of rehabilitation and learning how to walk again and eat with a spoon all over again. But I’m here to tell ya, it gets better. Actually Dan Savage said that but I’m claiming it as my own.

  191. 191.

    Allan

    @Corner Stone: It’s really kind of simple. I’ll try explaining it again.

    I emailed Cole because m_c was horrible, derailing every thread with rants about EDK. Cole and the other FPers actually post a link to their email up at the top of the blog, and I took that as an invitation to offer feedback.

    I watch people on blogs and in real life piss and moan about the things they hate and the things they wish would change, and I just laugh. Because I do basic research and find the most senior person at that company or institution with which I have a beef and communicate my dissatisfaction directly to them. And it feels good to offer my candid feedback.

    And sometimes, it even gets results.

    Cole resisted my feedback, but ultimately decided all on his own to ban m_c. I didn’t feel that I was responsible for it, and am confident that I am not the only person who communicated my annoyance to him.

    I’m just the only one with the guts to come out in the comments here and say that I did.

    That’s why I am called a hall monitor and a scold and a prim prissy moralist and all the other terms that get people upset when they’re applied to Glenn Greenwald, whose writing style I enjoy emulating here at BJ because the proprietor is inordinately fond of GG, and I find it kind of amusing to tweak him that way.

    And m_c is back now, under a new identity, and she’s much better now, and she and I are getting along great these days, which is a demonstration of how I’m able to actually change my perception of people when I see them make an effort to be better.

    And if I ever saw you step away from the clot of scum with which you’ve aligned yourself and make an effort to be a better person, I bet you and I could get along as well.

  192. 192.

    cbear

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I hope it was before he got into the whole Santorum thing cause even making that up had to have been a messy business. Pls tell me you washed your hands?

  193. 193.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan: That isn’t why you’re called those things Allan. You’re called a prim, prissy, hall monitor because of the bullshit you yourself pull on this blog. Your repeated attempts to shut down rough debate, redirect to ABLC or DFD or some other amateur psychology site. As some substitute for standing in and waging blog war as every other poster here does.
    No one here is falling for that. At ABLC you have the over weighted position, which is how you like it. You don’t care to stand straight and give/take. Given the opportunity you’d ban dissent. No one who’s ever read a comment here by you could argue the truth of that. You’d reign as a smug little tyrant, and lord your position over anyone who stopped by.
    This blog isn’t your local pharmacy chain, where you can find a timid asst mgr and bully him into giving you some of his time. You have to stand up and bring it, repeatedly. No one here cares if you’re going to take your business elsewhere.
    Shorter: you’re a fucking punk who can’t stand the light of day commenters on this blog bring in your sad direction.
    Fuck, shortstop who’s one of the most get-along-and-go-along good natured people here just saw through you in about 3 seconds flat. Or less.

  195. 195.

    cbear

    @Allan:

    ….Because I do basic research and find the most senior person at that company or institution with which I have a beef and communicate my dissatisfaction directly to them. And it feels good to offer my candid feedback.

    And sometimes, it even gets results.

    …..

    And m_c is back now, under a new identity, and she’s much better now, and she and I are getting along great these days, which is a demonstration of how I’m able to actually change my perception of people when I see them make an effort to be better.

    I think I’ve placed you now—-you played Nurse Ratchet in the movie, right?

    *formatting, how does it work?

  196. 196.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    Let me go, Corner Stone. Let him make you a better person like he did for Matoko Chan.

    *stifled sob*

  197. 197.

    Allan

    @cbear: That was better. At least you managed to keep your homicidal fantasies in check for the duration of that response.

    You’re thinking of Louise Fletcher. Lovely actress, and a child of deaf parents. Great movie.

  199. 199.

    Allan

    @Just Some Fuckhead: It’s up to Corner Stone. I played no role in making m_c better, that was all her choice. I merely changed in how I interacted with her once it was clear that she was making the effort.

    I know many of the commenters here at BJ are suspended in amber, eternally frozen at the moment of their initial impression of other personalities, and forever bitterly clinging to some slight or affront they endured years ago. So I’m not sure that CS wants to change, as he’s especially fond of dredging through the archives.

  200. 200.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    @Corner Stone:

    No! No, you bastard! We’re going to beat this!…together

    You’ve got a chance to be somebody better! Don’t let me hold you back – I could never forgive myself! I could never forgive us.

  201. 201.

    Allan

    @Corner Stone: Is this the comment that was stuck in moderation? Glad it was retrieved for you.

    You certainly do spend a great number of words talking about how no one here gives a fuck about me.

  202. 202.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan: I don’t need the archives. I have the entire history of BJ tatted out onto my pen!s.
    Just the left side, of course.

  203. 203.

    Corner Stone

    @Allan: No one does. But for some reason you keep fooling yourself that you’re a special entity here.
    You aren’t. Things will go better for you here when you realize that.

  205. 205.

    Allan

    @Corner Stone: I think it was Fred, in his infinite wisdom, who advised ABL that by posting about the stupid awful racist things that people do, she was actually rewarding them, and that she should just ignore them and walk away and not give them the satisfaction of letting them know they had struck a nerve. This, he counseled, is the best approach for dealing with unpleasant people.

    That’s not my style. I’m a talker. I like to talk through differences. But you might want to follow Fred’s advice if you find me so unpleasant. Choosing not to respond to me, or talk about me, would be a great way to indicate that you don’t want our dialogue to continue.

    Who is special, and how is that determined? The blog host certainly thinks you’re special. He’s even singled you out from the crowd on occasion to directly address you. How special is that? And he’s done the same with me. So it appears to me that you and I are equally special in our own special ways.

  206. 206.

    cbear

    @Allan: My homicidal fantasies????

    Look you fucking twit, I don’t know whether you got taken off the tit too soon or whether the toilet training at your house was a little too rigorous, but you can take your childish delusions and projections and neuroses and shove ’em up your keister.
    Do you have any idea how much of a good little German you sound like?

    …Because I do basic research and find the most senior person at that company or institution with which I have a beef and communicate my dissatisfaction directly to them. And it feels good to offer my candid feedback.

    You’re just the type of moralising authoritarian un-self-aware fucktard that typifies the goopers in this country, but the sad thing is you don’t have a fucking clue who you are and come here looking for some sort of validation that can only come from excluding others with whom you don’t agree.

    Fuck off.

  208. 208.

    cbear

    @Allan: That’s right, asswipe.
    I said exactly that, AFTER you got totally p’wned by shortstop, a LADY who nailed you on your false equivalency bullshit quicker than a duck on a junebug.

    Metaphors, how do they fucking work???

  209. 209.

    Allan

    @cbear:

    you can take your childish delusions and projections and neuroses and shove ‘em up your keister.

    Another metaphor?

    Just checking, because you seem incredibly angry about some words typed on a blog. I do hope you’re all alone wherever you are and that no people or pets are in danger of abuse at your hands this evening.

    Also, is it supposed to bother me for some reason that shortstop is female, and I am male, and that in your admittedly twisted, violent and perverted mind she bested me in our interaction? Perhaps you can articulate for me what her gender has to do with how I should feel.

  210. 210.

    Corner Stone

    @cbear: cbear! Watch it! You’re about to get a link to a website thrown at you!
    You’re derailing…or objectifying…or some shit. I don’t know, but I know you’re the bad guy!

  212. 212.

    cbear

    @Corner Stone:

    I don’t know, but I know you’re the bad guy!

    Yeah, mebbe so, but at least I got to tap Michele Pfeiffer before they blowed me and my weasel dust all to hell.

    And with that violent (yet somehow strangely stimulating) fantasy exploding off the page, I say, g’nite.

    Say goodbye…to the bad guy.

  215. 215.

    Kevin K.

    John, I’m at an undisclosed location celebrating a somewhat tragic birthday (I’m how fucking old????) and having my goofy blog make your list was the best possible way to start my day. It almost makes me want to come out of semi-retirement. Almost. But I’ve got one helluva crew holding down the fort and I’m sure they’re overjoyed about this as well.

    I don’t read many blogs since my Big Burnout, but I still check in here more than any other blog besides Rumproast. Also love me some No More Mister Nice Blog, TBogg, Digby, Wonkette, and, yes, Mr. Newell.

  217. 217.

    Jill

    You might want to consider expanding your horizons, John, especially when one of your top blogs is a guy whose idea of wisdom is to post things like “Open Thread” with the sole text being “Enjoy.”

    As an active participant in Blogroll Amnesty Day (™ the late, great Jon Swift/Al Weisel), I make it my business to discover new blogs whenever I can. Most of the new ones I’ve put on my blogroll are far more entertaining and insightful than most of those you mentioned.

  218. 218.

    General Stuck

    @cbear:

    Were you looking for something controversial?

    No, smartass. I never heard of cultural quip about Brussel Sprouts and cleaning behind ears, and didn’t know what you were referring to.

  219. 219.

    Lisa

    OMG I love that video. Sigh, I remember the awesomeness of the high-top fade haircut. And the running man. What? That shit was awesome.

  220. 220.

    Dustin

    So someone tell me, is Allan seriously a real person and not just a sock puppet designed to at like an overly prim and proper egotistical jackass? Because if we’re going to talk first impressions that’s pretty much what I get from every comment from him here. Everyone else? Mocking, humor, and sarcasm. But him? Yeah, not so much.

    Allan: you’re acting like you’re the privileged child, like you’ve got Daddy’s ear or something. Then you go and do your “mean girl” schtick which, if recent history is any judge, is pretty damn offensive all on it’s own. When called on it what do you do? You act superior and like we’re all the morons.

    Sorry, that shit don’t fly. Get off your soapbox, get back in the pit with the rest of us, and pull the telephone pull out of your ass so you can walk tall again.

  221. 221.

    gil mann

    @Kevin K.:

    I’ve got one helluva crew holding down the fort

    RR’s an embarrassment of FPer riches, no doubt, but I think I speak for everyone when I say that, if the plan was to establish a veritable murderer’s row over there so that your voice wouldn’t be missed, it failed spectacularly.

  222. 222.

    shortstop

    @cbear: Dead thread, but no worries — JSF is suffering from false recovered memory syndrome where I’m concerned. I’ve only been here a year or two, and I don’t visit all that often, so it’s often hard for me to keep the personalities straight.

  223. 223.

    Allan

    @Dustin: Thanks for your feedback. There seems to be a great deal of interest among the commenters here in jamming things into or pulling them out of my ass. I wonder why that’s the case.

  224. 224.

    Ghanima Atreides

    @Corner Stone: well….he did force Cole to ban me by threatening to deprive Balloon Juice of his presence.
    So he has power of a sort.
    /salutes Allan with respect

  225. 225.

    Phoebe

    Oh my sweet lard. I naively thought this was going to be 200+ links to bad music or videos, or maybe more dedications to ABL or people at least arguing about which is worse, or not really bad, or whatever, but dang. You guys are like my former foster daughter on facebook, but with less profanity. I’m in awe. But not in any hall monitor way: be yourselves!

    Fuckhead: your dedication (Ain’t no Sunshine) was perfect, though, ha!

  226. 226.

    Ghanima Atreides

    @Allan: shall we have a poll?
    My initial impression of you was that you have a corncob stuck up your butt.
    Praps’ its your propensity to lecture blogcommenters on “manners”.

  229. 229.

    Corner Stone

    @Ghanima Atreides: Um, I would suggest that *you* forced Cole to ban you.
    I’m pretty damned sure Cole doesn’t take direction from anon people who e-mail him that they are taking their ball and leaving until Cole performs some certain action.

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