• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Please don’t feed the bears.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

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

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

It’s the corruption, stupid.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

The revolution will be supervised.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

Relentless negativity is not a sign that you are more realistic.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

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

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

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

Mobile Menu

  • Four Directions Montana
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19 Coronavirus
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2024 Elections
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread

Open Thread

by John Cole|  July 30, 201112:16 pm| 75 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

Got a phone call from my mother this morning: “Your readers are very upset about the Reply button. They were reading you the riot act. Are you ever going to fix it?”

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Wisconsin recall bleg
Next Post: Drunken wrestling is probably fine, even encouraged, but the kids in the car will do him in »

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    eemom

    July 30, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    yay Mrs Cole!!!!!

  2. 2.

    jon

    July 30, 2011 at 12:19 pm

    If you do it, you’re a Mama’s Boy. If you don’t, you’re an asshole.

    Now you know how John Boehner must feel.

  3. 3.

    Canuckistani Tom

    July 30, 2011 at 12:21 pm

    But both sides do it!

  4. 4.

    Carrie

    July 30, 2011 at 12:22 pm

    Your Mom’s the best!

  5. 5.

    cathyx

    July 30, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    So if we want you to do something, do we have to ask your mom?

  6. 6.

    Trollenschlongen

    July 30, 2011 at 12:26 pm

    I am horrified that the presumably lovely and talented Mrs. Cole reads the vulgar profanity put down here by some of your commenters.

  7. 7.

    Yevgraf

    July 30, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    If you were a better son, you’d fix it.

  8. 8.

    jwb

    July 30, 2011 at 12:27 pm

    cathyx: Notice that John didn’t say he was going to fix it. I think he also knows very well that if we didn’t have the reply button to bitch about we’d find something else to bitch about. You could practically see the smirk on his face when he posted this.

  9. 9.

    cathyx

    July 30, 2011 at 12:30 pm

    @jwb: And he didn’t give us his mom’s email address or phone number either.

  10. 10.

    gene108

    July 30, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    One thing I learned this summer is you never forget to ride a bicycle.*

    I started riding mine after a long, long time and took to it instantly. The only downside is I always feel like I’m going uphill. The hills here in southern New Jersey aren’t very steep, so you can’t coast much on the downhills and for whatever reason it makes me feel like I’m always going uphill, because I’m always peddling (which I guess is good for me).

    * Only applies, if you learned to ride as a child. My mom learned as an adult and stopped doing it for a couple of decades. She can’t do it anymore.

  11. 11.

    Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937

    July 30, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    At least someone cares about us.

  12. 12.

    peej

    July 30, 2011 at 12:32 pm

    Why don’t you tell her that Tunch sat on it and broke it.

  13. 13.

    Roger Moore

    July 30, 2011 at 12:33 pm

    Which just goes to show that your mom cares more about your readers than you do.

  14. 14.

    cleek

    July 30, 2011 at 12:35 pm

    i blame Obama

  15. 15.

    BalJu Commenter #2401

    July 30, 2011 at 12:36 pm

    OMG I set up a website for my mom and boy that was a mistake! “Where are my stats? Wherearemystats?? Mystats???” Bless her sainted heart. I did so much eye-rolling that I cured my amblyopia. Good times, good times.

    Well Anonymous pantsed a defense contractor named ManTech. With Dick Armitage on the BoD, I wonder what kind of dirty secrets will be chummed up?

    As a responsible adult I can’t condone random-acting hackers kicking over any server they don’t like, but as a political animal I can’t help but enjoy the fallout.

    So sue me; I’m human.

  16. 16.

    Davis X. Machina

    July 30, 2011 at 12:37 pm

    @gene108: Your rolling resistance is the same, going uphill or down, being a function of the mechanical friction in the bike itself, the tires, the road surface, etc. Aerodynamic drag, too, and that increases logarithmically with speed.

    You don’t notice these two much when you’re going uphill, because then, to a much greater extent, you’re fighting gravity.

    But you’re always fighting something.

    I recommend a negotiated settlement and UN peacekeepers beer.

  17. 17.

    ruemara

    July 30, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    Dude, your mom reads your blog. #squickish

    also too, I didn’t join the bitchfest, but sunovabich (not you, Mrs. Cole) get it done already.

  18. 18.

    donnah

    July 30, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    I think it’s cool that Cole’s mom reads his blog. It reminds me of Sharon Gless’ character in Burn Notice.

    “Michael, someone needs your help”.

  19. 19.

    kansi

    July 30, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    Mrs. C Rox!

  20. 20.

    debit

    July 30, 2011 at 12:44 pm

    My theory is that maybe if we’re good, we’ll get the reply button back. Frankly, I don’t see it happening any time soon.

  21. 21.

    misterbones

    July 30, 2011 at 12:45 pm

    cathy x, a photo of her countertops would be sufficient. /stalkinmalkin

  22. 22.

    Yevgraf

    July 30, 2011 at 12:46 pm

    Cole’s mom should definitely be a front pager. A good son would see to it that she would get a prominent spot, and would take her opinions to heart.

  23. 23.

    WeeBey

    July 30, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    Cole’s Mom is a Hippie Puncher.

  24. 24.

    karen marie

    July 30, 2011 at 12:49 pm

    This helps McCain, doesn’t it?

  25. 25.

    Citizen_X

    July 30, 2011 at 12:50 pm

    Damnit, Cole, listen to your mother!

  26. 26.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    July 30, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    .
    .
    Mr. Cole is obviously discriminating against me because I’m black and a Safarian.
    .
    .

  27. 27.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 30, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    I can imagine your mom dolefully shaking her head, wondering just exactly where she screwed up in raising you that the reply button is still broken.

  28. 28.

    Amir_Khalid

    July 30, 2011 at 1:02 pm

    @Trollenschlongen:
    Some of that vulgarity comes from you.

    In any case, I’m not worried about Mother Cole’s sensitivity towards the saltier prose sometimes deployed here. If she were upset about that, she would have said so. She certainly knows how.

    As for the reply button, who knows when John Cole will get around to heeding his mother’s advice. I have applied MonkeyBoy’s fix, so I’m good. You should too.

  29. 29.

    Maude

    July 30, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    Thanks, Mom.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    July 30, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    @Amir_Khalid:

    I have applied MonkeyBoy’s fix, so I’m good. You should too.

    I tried, but Firefox decided it needed to upgrade to 6 Beta, and Stylish isn’t available for it yet. Just fix the reply button on the site itself, for FSM sake.

    BTW, is anyone else wondering about Mrs. Cole’s pseudonym? I have this amusing idea in the back of my mind that she’s one of the site’s more notorious trolls, like m_c, which is why John is so lame about controlling them.

  31. 31.

    cathyx

    July 30, 2011 at 1:25 pm

    @Roger Moore: Is her first name Sarah?

    We’ve never seen John, maybe she’s Angry Black Lady.

  32. 32.

    Chad N Freude

    July 30, 2011 at 1:27 pm

    @jwb:

    if we didn’t have the reply button to bitch about we’d find something else to bitch about

    We bitch about the reply button and everything else. We don’t have to find something, we’ve already got it.

  33. 33.

    Chad N Freude

    July 30, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    @Roger Moore: You can replace the update with the previous version.

  34. 34.

    General Stuck

    July 30, 2011 at 1:28 pm

    Mitch Mcconnell is on the Senate floor lying his ass off and he and his republicans will block the Reid bill, which is mostly Mcconnnell’s legislation.

    Mitch was the one who rejected any more negotiation with Obama, is now telling everyone that he will only negotiate with the president. pathetic. They are and have declared a civil war that is barely disguised by legalities. It is nothing short of a covet insurrection to bring this country down to its knees.

    They want default, or everything they want. period. And banking on, imo, the fact that Obama is a black man and therefore will get blamed for whatever destruction happens to the economy. They wouldn’t be doing this with a Bill Clinton, or any other white dem president.

  35. 35.

    nancydarling

    July 30, 2011 at 1:30 pm

    Your Mom and I are near the same age and with the same number of years mothering experience. You should listen to her because Moms are always right.

    Because I said so!

  36. 36.

    The Other Chuck

    July 30, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    Does your mom know you’re the top hit for “skull fuck a kitten”?

  37. 37.

    PIGL

    July 30, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    Can your Mom make the add for Ann Coulter’s “Demonic” go way? And while we are involving your family, maybe Tunch could bestir himself to eat the dried-up bitch?

  38. 38.

    The Other Chuck

    July 30, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    @gene108:

    Get a lighter bike. And make sure your tires are fully inflated.

  39. 39.

    SRW1

    July 30, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    Does that mean all hope for a reply button are now gone cause Cole junior has to demonstrate to his Mom that she stepped over the line?

    Or is there a chance that a reply button will appear with a note of “This one’s for you, Mom”?

  40. 40.

    TooManyJens

    July 30, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    I can’t stop laughing about this. The other parents at my kids’ gymnastics class now think I’m a crazy person.

    #TeamMamaCole

  41. 41.

    nancydarling

    July 30, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    Chuck @ 36. Moms don’t like tattle tales very much.

    Ditto for PIGL’s suggestion.

  42. 42.

    matt

    July 30, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    @cathyx: Randomly picking on this comment to show that via Firebug, or presumably Greasemonkey, one can make the hidden reply button visible again. This technique be added to the pie filter, for example. [Edit: Monkeyboy has already done it.]

    ht to all those who pointed out that the problem is the visibility attribute of the yarr class.

  43. 43.

    suzanne

    July 30, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    I officially adore your mother.

    While you’re at it, could you fix the mobile site? I have to type in my email address for every comment. LAME.

  44. 44.

    Punchy

    July 30, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    Why’d she have to call when all she needed to do was open up the door to the basement and shout it down to you?

  45. 45.

    hildebrand

    July 30, 2011 at 1:41 pm

    I have read in a number of corners of left blogistan that Obama….

    Nah, never mind. I was going to ask a couple of probing questions about motives and assorted whatnot, but decided that I would receive only thundering denunciations of the President instead of actual reasoned discussion.

    As I said, never mind, dealing with some of the most ardent critics around here (giving a great deal of the benefit of the doubt with using that term) is like dealing with the Tea Party types in the House.

  46. 46.

    trollhattan

    July 30, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    Any time I want to get a message to Mrs. Cole I attach it to Rosie’s collar and set her loose.

  47. 47.

    Ben Cisco

    July 30, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    @The Other Chuck:

    Get a lighter bike. And make sure your tires are fully inflated.

    Soshulist!

  48. 48.

    shortstop

    July 30, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    Yeah, John’s mom! Not your fault that your son is a barbarian!

    Notice how Cole passes along Mom’s remark without any indication of whether he’s ever going to fix it. Commenting here is like eating at one of those restaurants where the servers are famous for being rude to the customers. Except the food at those places is never any good, and the FP posts/comments threads here are.

  49. 49.

    Yutsano

    July 30, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    @suzanne:

    I have to type in my email address for every comment. LAME.

    Okay that makes me feel better. Until I read that I thought it was my Torch that was being the problem child.

  50. 50.

    shortstop

    July 30, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    Roger Moore:

    I have this amusing idea in the back of my mind that she’s one of the site’s more notorious trolls, like m_c, which is why John is so lame about controlling them.

    That made me laugh vigorously.

  51. 51.

    suzanne

    July 30, 2011 at 2:00 pm

    Nope. Same on my iPhone. Pisses me off.

  52. 52.

    matt

    July 30, 2011 at 2:10 pm

    Or, follow the instructions (say) here:
    http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/clf2-nsi2/tb-bo/acch-aacc-eng.asp

    and put in userContent.css the snippet

    @-moz-document domain(www.balloon-juice.com)
    {
    .yarr {
    position: relative !important;
    visibility: inherit !important;
    }
    }

  53. 53.

    ABL

    July 30, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    @cathyx: John Cole was born a poor black child.

    ETA: Hey! I finally got that reply button thingy to work. That’s the only semi-productive thing I plan to do today.

  54. 54.

    RossInDetroit

    July 30, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    Now I understand why John keeps posting about the meals he cooks. Mom has to be convinced that he’s getting proper nutrition and not just filling up on Cheetos and Bud.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    July 30, 2011 at 2:23 pm

    Thanks for all the laughs.

    It started with John’s post, and the comments just kept rolling along. Several were laugh out loud funny, but if you made me choose, I might have to go with the Burn Notice reference.

    Oh, and BattleCat, if you’re out there, check your email.

  56. 56.

    Jewish Steel

    July 30, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Dear Mrs. Cole,

    Sorry about all the swears.

    Sincerely,

    J. Steel

  57. 57.

    Warren Terra

    July 30, 2011 at 2:46 pm

    jwb – July 30, 2011 | 12:27 pm · Link
    __
    cathyx: Notice that John didn’t say he was going to fix it. I think he also knows very well that if we didn’t have the reply button to bitch about we’d find something else to bitch about. You could practically see the smirk on his face when he posted this.

    The weird thing here is that, as we don’t know what his face looks like, we can picture the smirk but only the smirk. Like a Cheshire Cole.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    July 30, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Jewish Steel

    I would never apologize for the swears to my mom.

    Who do you think taught me to in the first place?

  59. 59.

    blackfrancis

    July 30, 2011 at 2:52 pm

    @jwb: does it work?.

    Oh my stars and garters!

  60. 60.

    BattleCat

    July 30, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    @WaterGirl:

    BattleCat is always here. He’s absolutely purrfect.

  61. 61.

    Mustang Bobby

    July 30, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    My mom not only sends me notes about what people are saying on my blog, I occasionally get “How come you didn’t write a post like that nice John Cole boy?”

    Guilt is the gift that keeps on giving.

  62. 62.

    Violet

    July 30, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    Your mom is awesome! Go Mrs. Cole!

  63. 63.

    Uncle Clarence Thomas

    July 30, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    @matt:

    .yarr { position: relative !important; visibility: inherit !important;}

    So far, this seems to work in Safari 4.0.4 / 10.5.8 / MacIntel. Saved as text file and selected via Safari / Preferences / Advanced… / Style sheet. Hasn’t affected any other settings.

    Thanks and kudos to Matt!
    .
    .

  64. 64.

    fraught

    July 30, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    How are your mom’s tomatoes and did she vacuum today? These are the questions that our country needs answers for. Also, does she watch White Collar?

  65. 65.

    asiangrrlMN

    July 30, 2011 at 4:33 pm

    I’ve been using MonkeyBoy’s fix for Chrome and it’s a DOGsend! Love. It. I can do my patented triple-reply move. Hm. I wonder if I can do more than three?

  66. 66.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    July 30, 2011 at 5:23 pm

    no worries, tell your mom the riot act got stalled in committee.

  67. 67.

    Jewish Steel

    July 30, 2011 at 5:35 pm

    @Ruckus:

    Shiiit, Deadwood learned how to swear listening to your mom.

    (sorry. you left that one out over the plate.)

  68. 68.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    July 30, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    Mom likes us better!

  69. 69.

    nancydarling

    July 30, 2011 at 6:03 pm

    DriftGlass and BlueGal had a short segment in their weekly podcast at http://professionalleft.blogspot.com/ on the beauty of swearing when it is well done. I approve of it on most occasions and most of the swearing here at BJ is well done. I am sure Mrs. Cole does not get the vapors and head for the fainting couch when someone drops an f-bomb.

  70. 70.

    El Cid

    July 30, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    I wouldn’t think it would be so much about swearing being bad; it would be if the swearing were just too boring and predictable. I’m sure John’s mom has heard a lot of swearing. What we need to do is make sure it’s entertaining.

  71. 71.

    replicnt6

    July 30, 2011 at 7:36 pm

    @Davis X. Machina:

    Aerodynamic drag, too, and that increases logarithmically with speed.

    Quadratically, FWIW.

    Being pedantic, someone was wrong on the internet.

  72. 72.

    shortstop

    July 30, 2011 at 8:26 pm

    @Jewish Steel: Nicely done.

  73. 73.

    LT

    July 30, 2011 at 10:19 pm

    The involvement of your mother has to be one of the funniest things about this blog.

  74. 74.

    Rome Again

    July 30, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    I love the fact that John’s mom reads this blog. It’s so completely unlike the sort of parents I had. If they were alive today and saw me even just commenting on this thing, they would have slapped me for sure.

  75. 75.

    Paul in KY

    August 1, 2011 at 8:40 am

    Thank you, Mrs. Cole!

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • MisterForkbeard on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:45pm)
  • bookworm1398 on War for Ukraine Day 782: If the Opposite of Pro Is Con, Then the Opposite of Progress is a GOP Majority in Congress (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:42pm)
  • YY_Sima Qian on Take the Fucking Win (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:39pm)
  • NotMax on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:34pm)
  • Quinerly on Monday Evening Open Thread: Another ‘Rich’ Narcissist, Having A Bad Start to His Week (Apr 15, 2024 @ 11:34pm)

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Balloon Juice Meetups!

All Meetups
Talk of Meetups – Meetup Planning
Proposed BJ meetups list from frosty

Fundraising 2023-24

Wis*Dems Supreme Court + SD-8
Virginia House Races
Four Directions – Montana
Worker Power AZ
Four Directions – Arizona
Four Directions – Nevada

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
Positive Climate News
War in Ukraine
Cole’s “Stories from the Road”
Classified Documents Primer

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Mailing List Signup
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)

Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Balloon Juice for Ukraine

Donate

Twitter / Spoutible

Balloon Juice (Spoutible)
WaterGirl (Spoutible)
TaMara (Spoutible)
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
ActualCitizensUnited

Political Action 2024

Postcard Writing Information

Balloon Juice for Four Directions AZ

Donate

Balloon Juice for Four Directions NV

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2024 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!