Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Bark louder, little dog.

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

… gradually, and then suddenly.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The choice is between normal and crazy.

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

Republicans do not pay their debts.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

“woke” is the new caravan.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

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

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

The fight for our country is always worth it. ~Kamala Harris

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Reader Interactions

317Comments

  10. 10.

    Ash Can

    Oh, and while you’re at it, our AC is on the fritz here and it’s making me cranky.

  12. 12.

    Samara Morgan

    i double-dawg dare you to link this post and discuss it, the subsequent clumsy Goldberg-style walkback, and the rise of white (nonhispanic-cauc) conservative christian nativism in contemporary America which informs the ideology of the movement conservatives and teabaggers that are trying to destroy our economy.

  17. 17.

    licensed to kill time

    If you could fix that thing that makes the screen scroll wildly to the last reply one has made or linked to each time the page is refreshed it would be most appreciated.

    I know the workaround is to always click the blue link to the last reply on the page before refreshing, but if you forget you get taken on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and it is dizzying.

    It didn’t used to be like that, it only started after the last or next to last ‘upgrade’ of the site.

    That’s my two cents :)

    eta: also another futile request for the old elegant comment numbers we had before. I miss ’em, the new numbers are utilitarian and boring.

  18. 18.

    jacy

    My car has no air conditioning, and Word went haywire and lost me 300 pages of revisions on a novel that’s due Monday. If you could get right on top of that, I’d be grateful.

  19. 19.

    Jade Jordan

    End all 7 wars, pay off the national debt, replace the idiots on my Teevee with journalists,reform the justice system, get rid of greedy people, punish the banksters, reform the tax code so corporations pay an AMT of 15% regardless of their loopholes. Make off shoring American jobs expensive,reinstate Glass-Stegall, make Elizabeth Warren President, make Medicare for all the law of the land immediately…..

    Do you need a list for tomorrow too?

  21. 21.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Also, get on the ass of the people who haven’t RSVP’ed to my wedding yet, I need the numbers!

    I can’t make it. Unless there’s prime rib, and an open bar. And I can’t make the ceremony, just the reception. And my presence is my present. Is there a block rate at the hotel? And I might be bringing my kids. I’ll call you a day or to before.

  25. 25.

    pamelabrown

    My bad. I allowed to much time to elapse because real life called and I couldn’t REPLY to myself.

    P.S. Dear John,
    In addition to restoring the reply button, could you please overturn the 2010 elections? If that’s beyond your power, could you please offer more evisceration of the manic progressives? These folks make it too easy for the trolls.

  26. 26.

    jacy

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    S’okay. After a nap and some screaming in the backyard, I’ve convinced my self that the new revisions will be even better. Either that, or I’m off on a tri-state crime spree.

    I’m already back up through Chapter 18 this morning. It’s now become a steel-cage grudge match, and one of us will be out of here by Monday.

  27. 27.

    trollhattan

    What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?

    Am a little cheesed at the debt limit thingie. Also, too, no more “Rescue Me” after this season.

  28. 28.

    MazeDancer

    @jacy:

    300 pages. Heartbreaking. So sorry.

    But go immediately and do what you gotta do. Turn anger into work.

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    John Cole:

    What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?

    Conservatives.

    I’m assuming you mean fix in the sense of spayed.

    .

  32. 32.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Linda Featheringill:
    Who knows? When I found out the bill may be a patchwork of recommendations of spending cuts in future budgets instead of actual cuts I realized the gamesmanship going on up there is 11-dimensional hardcore shit. I’m not sure what means what now.

  33. 33.

    shortstop

    Could you institute a new rule that the batshit crazy commenters have to a) be funny, b) be otherwise entertaining or 3) be able to discuss more than one thing?

  36. 36.

    jacy

    @efgoldman:

    Something happened to my Word — no idea what, but it ate a bunch of saved files. The program is corrupted somehow, so we deleted it and upgraded to Word 2010. But I’ll look into Open Office. I HATE WORD. The only thing I didn’t have backed up in 3 different places was this one thing, because I’d just spent two straight days pummeling it.

    Sigh, cest la vie.

  38. 38.

    Samara Morgan

    LOL, JGabriel, no need.
    the exposure thru ideological inbreeding of the deleterious recessives that inform the pure teabagger line will cause their extinction by 2030 at the latest.

  41. 41.

    joeyess

    Since it’s been over or about 100 degrees here in eastern Kansas for the last 18 days straight, you could finish painting my house for me. Or you could call upon your misanthropic powers and change the fucking weather and I could do it myself.

    Your choice.

  42. 42.

    Samara Morgan

    @Amir_Khalid: i think you both should mail Cole and complain about me.
    mail is much more intimate, and look how well it worked for Hall Monitor Alan?

    oh, yeah.
    maftoon
    /spit

  43. 43.

    shortstop

    Can we have your mom’s email addy just in case there’s anything we want to complain to her about?

  44. 44.

    Amanda in the South Bay

    I’m pretty pissed at the major left-wing blogs right now-there’s a lot more criticism of Obama than there are of Republicans. This is what you get when you try to be more liberal than thou and sit out midterm elections.

  45. 45.

    joeyess

    But its right where we left it. To the bottom right of each comment. Its not visible until you mouse over it.

    This is not true.

  46. 46.

    cleek

    i’ve got this recurring crack in the drywall next to one of my windows. opens up every winter when things get dry.

    can you fix that?

  48. 48.

    JGabriel

    @jacy:

    … Word went haywire and lost me 300 pages of revisions on a novel that’s due Monday.

    Shit. My sympathies. Have you tried using an undelete program to see if they might be preserved in a temp file?

    .

  49. 49.

    Jules

    You could help end an argument hubby and I are having.
    Amazon Prime or Netflix Instant?

    We do use Netflix Instant, but it looks like Amazon Prime has most of what we would have to get on DVDs on streaming. It looks like Amazon ends up being a better deal when you take into account the shipping deal too. I order a lot of things from Amazon. So has anyone used the Amazon service?

    EDIT: YEA! I see a reply button thingiee….

  50. 50.

    schrodinger's cat

    We need a daily feature about Tunch’s escapades, with photos and videos would be an added bonus.

  51. 51.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @jacy: I cannot recommend Scrivener enough. It’s a whole different way of thinking about writing software and it ROCKS MY SOCKS.

    Also, @ JC:

    Thank you for the reply button. Could you please make the Lib-Dem coalition collapse so that UK heritage and Higher Ed funding will be restored and I might one day have a slightly less temporary job/a career.

  52. 52.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @efgoldman:
    It’s okay. Still better than if you’d gone ‘Hey, that’s some good animation!’ and fallen into the inescapable vortex that is My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.

    Next time I’ll try the one where Rarity’s crying in bed!

  54. 54.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known As Kryptik

    I doubt you can fix this, John, or anyone could fix it for that matter, but I find myself pissed because…well…

    Phil Plait takes on the new “NASA DEBUNKS ALL YOU STUPID ALGORIST ALARMISTS!” meme at Bad Astronomy….what results is a 3-on-1 of Deniers vs. ‘Alarmists’ basically resulting in calling those who actually think Climate Change is happening the greatest and most evil conspirators in the history of fucking ever.

    We really have just entirely lost the whole fucking argument over Climate Change these days, haven’t we? Not for lack of fact, but for the fact that the big fucking lie continue to fucking work. Repeatedly tell people that Climate Change not only doesn’t exist, but is a vast conspiracy to steal your money and create Green Fascism, and people will believe you to the point of fucking want to kill scientists for saying the Earth is warming.

    Jesus fuck, I don’t even care about the debt debate at this point in time, because this just seems to demonstrate that we’re fucked entirely regardless because the whole of fucking America would rather risk the world burning and expulsion of all those goddamn greedy liberal, conservative-hating scientists than dare think about how to spend money to save fucking energy and reduce waste.

    Just….FUCKING ALL……….

  55. 55.

    shortstop

    This is not true.

    Which part?

    Try clearing your cache. Worked for me.

    ETA: Ha, look, I didn’t use the reply button. Force of habit.

  58. 58.

    Felanius Kootea

    Could you give matoko chan morgan a hug? She might be a little more mellow and less spammy after that. I mean we got her point the first 300 times she posted it. Samara take a walk outside – get some fresh air, chat with the neighbors, pet a dog – might make you see that you accord way more importance to LOOG than they deserve.

  64. 64.

    jacy

    Oops. And I was just informed that I forgot it was my husband’s birthday today. I’m a terrible person. A terrible person who must quickly bake an elaborate cake.

  65. 65.

    JGabriel

    @shortstop:

    Can we have your mom’s email addy just in case there’s anything we want to complain to her about?

    Apparently you can just post about it here and Mother Cole will see it — no need for addy.

    .

  66. 66.

    BattleCat

    @shortstop:

    BattleCat recommends this. Some Internet Navigation Devices aggressively store the old, outdated copy of files even when they shouldn’t, because they are naughty. This makes BattleCat furrious!

    FURRIOUS!

  68. 68.

    gogol's wife

    @joeyess:

    I just shut down my computer, turned it on again, and now I have a reply button. It feels so good. Now if all the Republican Congresspeople would just disappear.

  71. 71.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Amanda in the South Bay:

    This is what you get when you try to be more liberal than thou and sit out midterm elections.

    a lot of those blogs, and even moreso their commenters, are annoying, but I think 2010 was due more to pretty typical voting patterns and a shitty economy than sideline sitters. The 18-30 vote, IIRC, went from around 50% in 2008 to about 20%.

  72. 72.

    joeyess

    Now that we know Cole’s mom is reading the site I have this strange feeling that I have to watch my language and clean my room.

  75. 75.

    Cassidy

    Works on iPad. Have to hit link first, the it pops up. While you’re at it, come finish my house for me. Inspection is Monday and then I have one more week until Florida and being out. Then it’s on to the Reserves and Police academy. This has been a great summer.

  77. 77.

    PeakVT

    What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?

    It would be really swell if you could do something about climate change, peak oil, and the media. And clean up eastern Japan while you’re at it.

  79. 79.

    Felanius Kootea

    Oh I almost forgot – can you help me figure out how to cook quinoa so it doesn’t end up a soggy mess? Would be much appreciated ;).

  80. 80.

    kdaug

    Yeah, I’ve got one – can we ditch the blonde chick with the green projectile vomit ad?

    Nothing against “veggies”, mind you.

  82. 82.

    YellowJournalism

    I have a Honey Do list that my husband hasn’t touched. And could you detail my car? My kids got crap all over inside it, and I think there’s something growing under the floor mats where my youngest sits.

  83. 83.

    Yutsano

    @Felanius Kootea: Every single instruction I’ve ever seen for quinoa is wrong. 1 1/2 cups liquid to 1 cup quinoa. Bring liquid to boil, add in quinoa, turn heat down to very low, cook 20 minutes. Very similar to rice.

    @Amir_Khalid: Can I offer you a cookie instead? It’s halal. :)

  84. 84.

    quannlace

    And while you’re at it, could you trim my dog’s toe nails for me? That always gives me the willies.

  85. 85.

    MazeDancer

    @Jules:

    Amazon Prime is great cost saver if you live someplace where you need to buy big stuff from them. Because it’s a long drive for things. Or have need for larger ticket items every year – Like emergency replacement printer/power adapter/software/computer stuff. Also if you send a lot of last minute gifts around the country. 2-day is free. Overnight another 3.99.

    If you use a lot of 2-day, you can end up saving over the $79 fee that covers all shipping for a year.

    The free streaming vid selection you get for that $79 Prime fee is lousy. Amazon has good Pay Per View. But not free. Netflix has the superior streaming service.

  86. 86.

    shortstop

    matoko: Sometimes — oftentimes — wanting something badly is not the same as getting it. When you tell other people how to run their blog(s) and inform them that if they do not make the change(s) you seek, you will continue to hang around and scream repetitively and largely incoherently at them for weeks, nay months, you are demonstrating some super-deluxe issues with control.

    You do not get to direct other people’s professional (or private) decisions, nor is John, ED or anyone else responsible in any way for the ludicrously outsized distress you keep inflicting on yourself. The sole choices for a normal, healthy, credible person in this case are 1) suck it up or 2) stop reading.

  89. 89.

    JGabriel

    @Felanius Kootea:

    … can you help me figure out how to cook quinoa so it doesn’t end up a soggy mess?

    Use less water. I think I use about 2/3-3/4 the amount recommended on the box for quinoa, maybe less. Then again, I also use about 1/2-2/3 the recommended amount for rice.

    I tend to make a lot of it with sauce & veggies and use it as frozen dinners later, so I leave room for it to cook more in the microwave.

    .

  90. 90.

    bemused

    Oh wow, the reply option may come back?
    John’s mom rocks!
    I really think we should send her to use her awesome powers of persuasion on the House teaparty juvenile delinquents.

  91. 91.

    Yutsano

    @JGabriel: I will be a very happy cook the day the 2-1 water/rice ratio forever exits the American cooking lexicon. 1 2/3 cup liquid, 1 cup rice. Works perfectly every single time.

    @scav:

    I’ve got balloons here somewhere. Which color do you want?

    Green of course. We do have traditions to uphold here after all

  93. 93.

    Redshift

    @Felanius Kootea:

    Oh I almost forgot – can you help me figure out how to cook quinoa so it doesn’t end up a soggy mess? Would be much appreciated ;).

    Sure. Of course, my alternative seems to be that it ends up undercooked and chewy…

  94. 94.

    JGabriel

    @Yutsano:

    1 1/2 cups liquid to 1 cup quinoa

    You can even go as low as one cup if you like it to have an al dente-like chewiness.

    .

  96. 96.

    patroclus

    @bemused: Cool! John Kennedy Cole’s Mom rocks!

    As for what needs fixing, could you please transfer the authority to set our debt ceiling from the Congress to the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday??

  98. 98.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Amir_Khalid: Okay John, please give Amir a hug :). If she’s cursing you in Arabic she probably needs the hug more than you do though – I didn’t realize she was doing that.

  99. 99.

    jwb

    Just got robocalled by the National Realtors Association, or whatever they are called. They were trying to gin up opposition to cutting the mortgage deduction.

  100. 100.

    Gravenstone

    So who is going to wind up with more spots in my pie filter? M_c, et alia, or the many sad faces of timmeh interruptus? They’re neck and neck as we come down the home stretch…

  102. 102.

    Villago Delenda Est

    What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?

    The cookies are stale, the punch is getting warm, the coffee is getting cold, the shrimp are not “jumbo tiger”, the sauce of the cocktail weenies is either too sweet or not sweet enough, I’m ambivalent about that.

    Also, Garrosh Hellscream is a total asshole. Do something about that.

  104. 104.

    scav

    Maybe that could be a new option for pie-ing or disemvoweling. They could Hug Khalid instead.

  106. 106.

    moe99

    sometimes when I click on the site, there are no margins. I use an IE browser (sorry I have msn mail) and that’s part of the problem, but if it could be stopped that would be great.

    Also the debt ceiling.

  108. 108.

    Yutsano

    @jwb: Oh, a robocall. No one on the other end to explain that it’s one of the biggest rich tax dodges out there.

  113. 113.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @jwb:

    Oooh, reply button works again!

    John’s mom ROCKS!

    Now…as to the reply…

    It would be great to be able to unearth some evidence that Mayans or Easter Islanders tried to warn their elites that they were screwing up, and the elites replied that it’s all a Toltec or Tahitian plot to undermine our glorious society.

    I’m afraid Jared Diamond is too optimistic about our elites. They’re ignoring the evidence right in front of them, in the form of a record heat wave. Too busy with this utterly phony debt ceiling crisis that is actually about undermining the near guy in the WH.

  114. 114.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Yutsano: Thank you! I’ve been using two cups liquid to one cup quinoa like I do for rice. I’ll try your suggestion this evening – I’m making “jollof” quinoa instead of jollof rice.

    ETA: Thanks to everyone else who made a quinoa suggestion!

  116. 116.

    jwb

    @Yutsano: Or to yell at. I listened long enough to figure out the line of argument and note the bogeymen they were deploying and then hung up.

  117. 117.

    Yutsano

    @Villago Delenda Est: If they have to destroy the office of the President, by gawrsh it was worth it just to get that durn uppity nigra out of there!

    @Felanius Kootea: Oh wow. That recipe just SCREAMS too much liquid! I’d cut back the water to 1 1/2 cups for sure, plus I’d use chicken stock because it will round out the flavors beautifully. And throw in a shot of white wine too. Tomatoes have an alcohol soluble flavor compound that comes out nicely with a shot of booze.

  119. 119.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Yutsano:

    Yup, that’s pretty much obviously what it’s been all about, ever since 8PM PST 4 November 2008.

  120. 120.

    Neil

    Did you see the trailers a few months ago for that Hop movie? I talked my wife into agreeing that if I could find a rabbit that pooped candy, she would let me keep it. So if you can fix a rabbit to poop candy…..

  121. 121.

    metalgirl

    Please make the reply button show up in Chrome :) It’s not showing up for me in this thread. Also add the Google+ thingy. Thanks!

  122. 122.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @metalgirl:

    It’s not showing up unless you mouse over it, then it’s there. Which is fine and dandy by me now that I’ve moused over it once, and know it’s there :P

  126. 126.

    licensed to kill time

    Witchy-ma-tick-tock-itchy-koo-chan
    needs to get off of this kick that she’s on

    creepy and stalkish behavior, you see
    is no way to go through your life, little pea

    nobody thinks that it’s cute or it’s smart
    jes’ wafting away your incessant brain fart

    a life! you should get one! just try it and see!
    it’s better than being a one-trick pony

    then somebody, someday might listen to you
    not reflexively hit the scroll button, woo-woo o_O

  127. 127.

    Donut

    Please fix it so I have an endless supply of weed cookies and bourbon to make it through the debt ceiling debacle and subsequent fall out.

    Oh. And ice. Plenty of ice.

  128. 128.

    MonkeyBoy

    John’s mom may have stumbled on this thread from last week, where there were people saying that John was intentionally trying to show that lack of leadership cannot be totally fixed by the free market, using analogies of a landlord who broke his tenants’ toilets and expected them to use free-market solutions to fix their own damn toilets.

  129. 129.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Violet: Thanks for that tip. Funny enough, I pan-fry dry rice with olive oil and spices before adding liquid when I’m making jollof rice (gives it a smoky flavor I miss from party rice in West Africa). I suspect dry-roasting the quinoa would have a similar effect.

  131. 131.

    licensed to kill time

    @jeffreyw:

    It’s most annoying, and only apparent if you spend time in the comments which Cole apparently {{{DOES NOT}}} much or he’d be fixing it so fast it would make your head spin, just like the rapid scrolling does.

    See how much we put up with because we love this place?

    :::smile:::

  135. 135.

    Arclite

    What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?

    How about Kortney deep throating a cucumber? Oh, wait, actually that came in handy last night…

  137. 137.

    suzanne

    The mobile site. I have to type in my email address every time I comment. Dumb. It remembers my name, but nit my email address.

  138. 138.

    Violet

    @Felanius Kootea:
    Yeah, I would guess that would be similar. What I read you should do, and have tried and it’s been good, is to dry roast it in the pan you are going to cook it in. When you start to smell it, then add the water and cook. I haven’t had a problem with it being soggy, but maybe you’re using a different kind of quinoa.

    I’d think you could add spices into that process, but maybe you’d want to wait until the quinoa was sort of starting to get roasted, otherwise they might burn. I didn’t use oil to roast it. I guess you could, but it takes quite awhile for the quinoa to roast, so the oil would get pretty hot and depending on what oil you use, might over cook.

  139. 139.

    burnspbesq

    Can you cause the Phillies to lose 14 in a row? And Barcelona to lose interest in Cesc Fabregas? And Roy Williams to develop the most painful case of shingles in the history of mankind?

  140. 140.

    BattleCat

    @metalgirl:

    BattleCat suggests restarting your computer if you are on a Mac, unfurrunately. They sometimes have very purrsnickety behavior.

  142. 142.

    Dee Loralei

    @gogol’s wife: Honestly, no idea. I’m hoping it’s so they can plot out a strategy to present a unified front. Nancy Smash and The President have earned my trust that they won’t sell everyone down the river. I hope he has something extra special up his sleeves that he’ll announce to the world from the oval office and we’ll get to see Republicans heads explode for realz.
    I’m afraid that he may tell them they have to give the terrorist highjackers everything, because if we let them crash the economy and the world, the worlds deep water navies are steaming our way now. Or that if we let them burn the country to save the country we’ll have a Murrah Building in every city in every state because of the right-wingers. Or something equally horrific.
    I’m particularly morose and stressed and cynical right now.

  143. 143.

    spark

    Too many “open threads”. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting an “open thread” in here. Why do all your writers feel the need to declare every other thread an open thread? Plenty of normal discussion takes place in the regular threads. Ban or at least heavily regulate these otiose threads please.

  147. 147.

    metalgirl

    @Villago Delenda Est: Thanks! I remember when we could reply (before it was broken somehow) but now it even shows up when you mouse over the last line in the post, not just the bottom right corner). I swear when I commented, I couldn’t get it to show up although I was hovering in the right place. It must be the heat!

  148. 148.

    R-Jud

    I always seem to have split ends. Also, the gemstone fell off my favorite necklace; you think you could help me look for it?

  149. 149.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    If you don’t see the Reply button, you might need to close your browser and reopen it.

  150. 150.

    burnspbesq

    @Amir_Khalid:

    That’s really funny. Almost funny enough to get me out of the funk induced by the thought that the problems here are beyond Klinsmann’s ability to fix. Help us, Claudio Reyna, you’re our only hope.

  151. 151.

    SIA

    @Cassidy: No, for the iPad tip. I had a jealous feeling of not having a reply button. Then I was enlightened.

    (but getting out of the army’s cool too)

  152. 152.

    SIA

    @Cassidy: No, for the iPad tip. I had a jealous feeling of not having a reply button. Then I was enlightened.

    (but getting out of the army’s cool too)

  153. 153.

    Trollenschlongen

    @ joyees:

    Since it’s been over or about 100 degrees here in eastern Kansas for the last 18 days straight, you could finish painting my house for me.

    Where do you live? I grew up in Winfield.

  155. 155.

    burnspbesq

    @R-Jud:

    I always seem to have split ends.

    You’d be surprised to learn how many men find women with shaved heads to be totally hawt.

  157. 157.

    SIA

    Also, on the mobile site, allow a choice for regular site so I can zoom in to read. Nor as much an issue since I got the iPad, my fav toy of all time (next to the Etch-A-Sketch I got when I was 8.)

  158. 158.

    gogol's wife

    @Dee Loralei:

    Every time the President goes on teevee I hope he has something up his sleeve, but unfortunately he doesn’t. I really wonder what people think he could have done differently in this situation. It’s the most insane thing I’ve experienced in this country in my whole life. They really are more like Leninists than anything I’ve ever seen in American politics.

  159. 159.

    Citizen_X

    What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?

    I still need a job, please. Also, could you get rid of this fucking flu that’s laid me low the last 5 days?

    Oh, and FANX FOR TH’ REPLY BUTTON MR. COLE!

  160. 160.

    Kathy in St. Louis

    This is the best blog on the internet. I am spending more and more time here. The only thing that I can think of that you could possible fix is Huffington Post. It has become the capitol of the Troll Universe and their headline writers must have all been laid off by The Enquirer. Had a lot of fun there during the 2008 election. Not so much now.

  161. 161.

    Trollenschlongen

    Reply button has arisen!

    Amazing what a kick in the seat from one’s mom can achieve, no matter what age we are. :D

  163. 163.

    General Stuck

    Happy to get the reply button back, but I have a feeling that flame wars were kept down from not having one. Time will tell if that is accurate.

  164. 164.

    R-Jud

    @burnspbesq: The one I’m hitched to doesn’t, unfortch. I just checked to verify:

    “It reminds me of Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta and I fucking loathe Natalie Portman.”

  165. 165.

    Cain

    @Cassidy:

    Works on iPad. Have to hit link first, the it pops up. While you’re at it, come finish my house for me. Inspection is Monday and then I have one more week until Florida and being out. Then it’s on to the Reserves and Police academy. This has been a great summer.

    Training to be a cop or something else? (I don’t know what else they train there)

    Good luck on finishing police academy and life in florida, etc!

    BTW I can’t think of Police Academy without thinking of the movie. Hightower FTW!

  167. 167.

    birthmarker

    I refreshed the page in Firefox and thus retrieved the reply button. (Thanks, JC’s Mom!)

  169. 169.

    lamh34

    Damn, am I late to the party?

    Hmmm,

    what pisses me off is people who seemed to have given a rats ass about AA unemployment, housing or education issues under other Presidents (Dems and GOP) who are now trying to use these same issues against President Obama. Yeah, I’ll say it, both sides are doing it.

    Hmm, I wonder why Obama is different?

  172. 172.

    Yutsano

    Eating Japanese after out being productive. Notice how JC is being coy about the ease of the fix? I blame Obama.

    ETA: miso soup FTW. :)

  175. 175.

    redheadedfemme

    Cole: Although it would be nice if your comment went directly under the comment you’re replying to.

    But that’s getting into threaded comments, which I seem to remember everybody voted down.

    I’ve always liked threaded comments myself.

  176. 176.

    General Stuck

    There is something else that has been happening to me only on BJ, far as I can remember, and that is a problem of using the cursor to highlight text. Where it is peacemeal and choppy and takes some extra effort to get all of what I want to highlight.

  177. 177.

    Commenting at Ballon Juice since 1937

    Tell your mother ‘thank you’ for us. And send her some flowers.

  178. 178.

    Q.Q. Moar

    I’d like you to get George R.R. Martin off his ass and make him write the next two “Song of Ice and Fire” novels, most rikki tik before he gets hit by a bus or something.

  186. 186.

    robertdsc-PowerBook

    Firefox 3.6xxx has a reply button on my Tiger PowerBook. Thank you.

    What’s bothering me? Not enough TunchCam videos. You fix!

  193. 193.

    Admiral_Komack

    John Cole

    “Alright, we are working on fixing the reply button. What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?”

    Since you asked…I want a replicator and a fully charged phaser bank…and a pony AND a unicorn, dammit!

  197. 197.

    bemused

    My tv tells me that McTurtle (who is communicating with Reid again) and Boehner express extreme confidence we will not default (grownups understand this) and they will reach an agreement with Reid, Pelosi and Obama even though Obama keeps running them down a cul de sac.

  199. 199.

    scav

    @JGabriel: We’ve so far had people griping about John not posting enough himself, There being too many open threads (repeatedly) and Threads going on too long. I think the fpers are all cowering in a corner somewhere, not with smoke coming out of their ears from trying to resolve all the above issues at once, but rather plotting about how best to play with our minds as per usual. They use threads like cat toys some days.

  203. 203.

    licensed to kill time

    (Hushed voice):

    The return of the long absent reply button only satisfied the natives for a short period of time….now they are restless, clamoring for a “new thread” and pounding their keyboards in frustration….will Big BwanaCole hear their pleas?

    …stay tuned…

  204. 204.

    kindness

    Well John, since you asked….

    How ’bout coming over and helping me with my back yard?

    Oh….you meant help HERE? Oh. Never mind.

  205. 205.

    suzanne

    I still haz no reply button (Chrome 12 for Mac).

    And the mobile site still sucks teh ballz.

  207. 207.

    Q.Q. Moar

    @scav: “They use threads like cat toys some days.” Can you blame them? As a whole, the commentariat is a lot like a cat: finicky, easily distracted by shiny things, aloof except when it wants all your attention and consistently coughing up hairballs on the the good bedspread. The temptation to fuck with us is overwhelming at times, as ABL has demonstrated more than once.

  209. 209.

    suzanne

    @ Southern Beale:
    Your car is rad. I haz a jealous.

    Do electric cars have new-car smell?

  212. 212.

    kwAwk

    @Arclite:

    Yes, Kortney is slightly unnerving. I mean that cucumber is huge, makes you feel afraid for the safety of her esophagus.

    Welcome back reply button. You’ve been missed.

  213. 213.

    Southern Beale

    @WereBear:

    I use Scrivener too! I use it for all my fiction stuff. It’s a great tool for novelists and screenwriters. Love the corkboard. However, I have a really old version, and I never upgraded. Don’t know what I’m missing out on, I guess.

    Did you notice that new versions of Pages on Mac have Scrivener features like the Inspector?

  214. 214.

    JGabriel

    @Cat Lady:

    I’m repflying! I’m repflying!

    What is repflying? Is it related to defenestration, maybe involving the tossing of House Republicans off of tall buildings?

    ‘Cuz if it is, I am so there.

    .

  216. 216.

    suzanne

    @Southern Beale: OH MY GOD THE REPLY BUTTON JUST APPEARED! HOLY AWESOME!

    That’s so rad. Congratulations.
    Keep us posted as to how you feel about it over time. My husband and I each have eleven-year-old Hondas that are going strong and we aren’t planning to replace either any time soon, but eventually we’ll have to, and we’ve already committed to each other to get a hybrid or electric.

  218. 218.

    kwAwk

    @kwAwk:

    Okay the cow hanging upside down with its throat cut is much more disturbing than Kortney and the cucumber.

    I could have done without seeing that. I’m going to eat two hamburgers tonight just to spite Sir Paul and his band of vegans.

  219. 219.

    quannlace

    There’s a bustle in my hedgerow.

    Is that like having a hitch in your git-a-long?

  221. 221.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    Hi RHF and All,

    (Speaking in hushed tones as I don’t know the backstory about Cole and threads…)

    I agree that threaded comments are great. I still can’t believe that problems in distributed posts and replies that were worked out ~30 years ago on USENET are still a problem in blog software. :-/

    That said, threads are great if the software is smart enough to keep track of which ones the reader has read (e.g. via timestamps or message-id). Otherwise, it can be a pain.

    The Reply button here is a fairly decent compromise, I think.

    FWIW.

    My Suggestion: Maybe a fairly persistent section on the front page (maybe below the Petitions on the left side?) for things like the Wisconsin fundraiser. That way a front-pager wouldn’t have to put it up explicitly, and it wouldn’t get rolled off the page on those occasions when we have eleventy-seven Open Threads a day. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  223. 223.

    Pink Snapdragon

    If there’s a reply button it’s well hidden. I’m using Safari. Is there a trick?

    Oh never mind. It just appeared.

  225. 225.

    sherifffruitfly

    “What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?”

    The American electorate.

  226. 226.

    Sko Hayes

    Wow, John, you’ve opened a real can of worms here. Now that the reply button is fixed, it’s time to talk about posting pictures.
    That would be awesome.

  228. 228.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    Macbook pro Lion Firefox 5.01 reply button works but you have to hover over it to see it.

  233. 233.

    lamh34

    Jonathan Capehart responds to his fellow column and resident wanker Peggy Noonan on her “obama is a loser” craptaular she calls a colum.

    Peggy Noonan wrong to call Obama a ‘loser’ or not loved
    By Jonathan Capehart

    …. I want to dispute Peggy Noonan’s assertion that “nobody loves Obama” …. she didn’t talk to my ex, Giuseppe, an Italian who came to this country to pursue the American Dream and fell head over heels for Barack Obama in 2007 …. Giuseppe has become my Obama barometer. If the president loses Giuseppe, he’s sunk.

    Giuseppe remains firmly in the president’s corner. I asked him to read Noonan’s op-ed and to send me his reaction. Read it for yourself…

    (From Guiseppe) Don’t believe her! I LOVE the guy, and I LOVE the family. Instinctively. I connect to him like I have never connected with any politician EVER before . . . here or in Italy. The man could be my friend. He speaks my language, he is smart, he is funny. I could hang out with him any time. I feel I would talk to him or share my life with him like he was you, or Marques, or Willie, or Maurice or ada! I guess Noonan doesn’t know nobody like us! Or more simply she is just practicing the most popular sport among conservatives. . . . which is ganging up on him . . . cause he is too smart, real and genuine in a way that they could never be .. . .because they live in another reality, one that is shrinking up around them. It’s time for these people to start realizing that this country and this world do not revolve around them and that they DEFINITELY are NOT the future of this country! And what they believe in and want will matter less and less, it’s just a matter of time.

    Giuseppe watched Obama slog through politically debilitating events such as health care, the gulf oil spill, the battle to end “don’t ask don’t tell” – and now this debt-ceiling fight that has the United States staring at default or downgrade or both for the first time in history. And his faith in the man has not wavered one bit.

    All presidents should have such “grim support” or be so loved

  235. 235.

    Martin

    @Southern Beale: Very nice. I have a friend with one and he loves it. He’s been traveling too much to have time to give me a ride, but I hope to get one in the next week or two.

  237. 237.

    hamletta

    @cleek: Just got to the thread, but have you tried latex caulk? It’s paintable and flexible, unlike spackle, and I’ve heard it’s good for recurring cracks like that.

  239. 239.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @hamletta:
    Cleek has me filtered but one thing we did in our old house is put a in a furnace humidifier. The stability of the humidity is helps prevent expansion-contraction and with paint too.

  243. 243.

    hamletta

    @moe99: You’re allowed to use more than one browser, you know. I have a couple. If it weren’t for this old PPC Mac, I’d have Chrome, too.

  250. 250.

    burnspbesq

    @Meredith:

    Please, the Phillies are all I have left to cheer me these days.

    Ummm … Bach? Daffy Duck? Tony Hillerman? Babylon 5? The world is full of things that can bring joy.

  253. 253.

    JPL

    how do I find the invisible reply button?

    edit is the reply button only for mac users? I can’t find it on google chrome or firefox…

  254. 254.

    Raven (formerly stuckinred)

    @JPL: Hover your cursor over the lower right hand corner of the box above the line.

  257. 257.

    gogol's wife

    I can’t believe that with the country teetering on the edge of the abyss I’m so happy about the reply button. Now some Tunch, please.

  258. 258.

    jacy

    You know this thread has been going on too long if I’d had the time to discover I’d forgotten my husband’s birthday, plan a menu (bacon and blue cheese sliders with sauteed mushrooms and sweet potato fries), find a cake recipe, go the market, come home and prep dinner and bake and decorate a black forest cake.

    Cole must be exhausted from hand-placing all those reply buttons in each comment box.

  262. 262.

    JPL

    @jacy: Actually, I just signed on and haven’t had the time to read all the comments.
    I love the reply button.
    Since John’s mom fixed the reply button, maybe she could explain to the President that it is time to pull out all stops in dealing with the house and specifically the teabaggers. This bipartisanship stuff is not helping. Seniors need to be told that cut, cap and balance will cut medicare and social security so that oil companies and billionaires can get their tax cuts.

  263. 263.

    licensed to kill time

    Big BwanaCole is deaf to his minions….their pleas for “new thread” are falling on deaf ears……..

  264. 264.

    theBuhjaysus

    Krugsta and Norquist on This Week tomorrow.

    I’ll start practicing my yelling at the TV tonight.

    “you shut your treasonous mouth, Grover”!

    How’s that?

  265. 265.

    bemused

    @lamh34:
    Noonan makes me think of 19th century ladies who used “health tonics” that were actually booze or drugs and wandered around in a fog. Noonan looks like a drunk to me, a mean drunk.

  267. 267.

    Aaron Baker

    “Alright, we are working on fixing the reply button. What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?”

    Well, I’d like it if you stopped misspellling “all right.”

  270. 270.

    lamh34

    ok, i’m tired of scrolling down this thead is too damn long.

    Anyhoo, I can’t stand Luke Russert’s or Chuck Todd’s faces! And to be honest, I hate the sound of their voices too. Thank God for closed captions!

  271. 271.

    RossInDetroit

    @theBuhjaysus:

    Krugsta and Norquist on This Week tomorrow.

    In the same studio? Too close proximity will cause them to annihilate like a proton and an antiproton, releasing tremendous energy.

  273. 273.

    WaterGirl

    Holy crap, I take a nap, get up and find that the reply button is working! Who knew that would be all it would take? I’d like to apologize to everyone for not taking a nap weeks ago.

    Edit: Just read the first 10 comments and they all made me laugh. I banged up my foot on Thursday and am stuck icing and keeping my foot elevated (and apparently napping) so the laughs are much appreciated.

  274. 274.

    Hill Dweller

    Someone over at Benen’s place was saying the NBC News Anchor led off tonight’s newscast with the “both sides do it” nonsense. In their bizarro world Dems won’t compromise.

    We’re screwed.

  276. 276.

    theBuhjaysus

    @JPL:

    How he escaped an Abramoff or Tom DeLay fate is beyond me, but he and Ailes are the two men I blame most for our current poisoned political scene.

    of course there’s villians galore…

  278. 278.

    licensed to kill time

    I remember when the magic ‘hover’ reply button first showed up here and scared me (used to be a discreet grey arrow next to the date/time stamp, which lotsa people couldn’t find). It popped up without warning! Ack!

    Now everybody’s just so glad it’s back, scary ‘hover’ or not.

    Fiendish plot?

  279. 279.

    eemom

    I tried the hover and the refresh. Still no reply button. : (

    (I’m on a Mac too if that matters.)

  282. 282.

    Rihilism

    Alright, we are working on fixing the reply button. What else is pissing you off that I need to fix?

    Please remove the reply button. I preferred this blog when there was no reply button. The presence if a reply button is really pissing me off…

    Also, too, please do not do what anyone has requested on this thread or, as the situation warrants, please do the opposite of what was requested (excepting my requests). Everyone’s requests are really pissing me off (except for my requests)…

    Also, too, please tell your mother that she is a wonderful person and that you do not deserve to have her as a mother. The fact that she is your mother and not mine is really pissing me off…

    Please note that I said “please” for each of these requests. In fact, please post a long and heartfelt tome on the FP declaring the extraordinary politeness I have demonstrated in my comments today…

    Toot sweet, buddy, I only have an hour or two before I go to bed…uh,…,please…

  284. 284.

    karen marie

    @jacy: I’m shocked you wouldn’t have something that large and that important backed up.

    @bemused: Wasn’t it Noonan who got caught on tape unawares speaking disparagingly of Palin before the 2008 election and later walked it back?

  285. 285.

    suzanne

    One more time, with feeling: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE fix the weirdness with the mobile site not remembering your e-mail address when you try to comment?. I know Yutsy and I both have the issue, anyone else?

  287. 287.

    opie jeanne

    @Amir_Khalid: Here’s a hug. ((Amir)) You’re one of my favorite posters.

    Better?

    I can’t find a translation for that word she keeps using, but if you say it’s nasty I’ll take your word for it. I thought it was kind of ineffective to call people that if no one knew what the word meant.

  288. 288.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water:

    Trade ya. One of my cats has breath that smells like shit.

    Naah, no trade. She has breath that would “knock a buzzard off a shit wagon” but she makes up for it with teh cute. We’ve tried all kinds of stuff and have had the vet check her out, but her breath smells to high hell no matter what we’ve tried.

    Oh well, I bet mine smells just as bad to her…lol!

  289. 289.

    Amir_Khalid

    @Hewer of Wood, Drawer of Water:
    You know, you might try eating the cat food too. That way, your breath will also smell of it, so you won’t notice the smell on your cat’s breath anymore.

    On second thought, maybe not. Your cat might object.

    @opie jeanne:
    You’re nice. I wuv you too.

  290. 290.

    JPL

    For those who are having with the reply button, I hovered all over..complained and Raven said to hover again and it was there. Writing the comment and refreshing seemed to help…

  291. 291.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Jeffro:

    KP is very shrill today. I do love this line though:

    These people wouldn’t recognize a hot fudge sundae if the cherry started talking to them.

    No they wouldn’t though I do think they would call the cherry a commie because it’s red. Pretty good rant by KP, good compared to the drivel that she usually oozes.

  292. 292.

    Emerald

    @JPL:

    Seniors need to be told that cut, cap and balance will cut medicare and social security so that oil companies and billionaires can get their tax cuts.

    Oh they will be told all of that. Fear not. The Rs have actually cast real votes AGAIN to cut not only Medicare and Medicaid (thereby kicking 2/3 of seniors out of their nursing homes) but also Social Security, and for current recipients too.

    It’s like a gift dropped in the laps of Democrats, to be opened in 2012.

    See? There is a silver lining to all this insanity.

  294. 294.

    debit

    @efgoldman: I don’t think my unwillingness to shift my cat when he is content (albeit inconveniently situated) has anything to do with the testicular fortitude, or lack thereof, in the liberal community.

    It just means I love my cat.

  295. 295.

    Steeplejack

    @efgoldman:

    What I would like is some spray that would give the man-cave that “pristine hotel room” smell. I keep the place clean, but I can’t get that. There must be something they use.

  296. 296.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Emerald:
    Unfortunately, it won’t be told until the campaign season is well underway. Not really. Until the campaign commercials start we’re dependent on what the media is willing to let us hear, and god FORBID the US people should learn that there are real effects to people from government policy.

  299. 299.

    Samara Morgan

    @shortstop: i have a third choice.
    i can COMPLAIN.

    i can link Kains shit when i come out of timeout, because he is always spewing shit.
    and it wont stop.
    Cole can ban me permanently like TNC did.
    you see…..
    its FUN for me to point out mistermix is a flaming hypocrite.
    its FUN that EDK can never come back on my watch.
    it was FUN making freddie cry like Reihan.

    i LOVE pointing out to Cole and DougJ that EDK is a libertarian asswhipe, and he always was.

    but i do. and im sorry. it wont stop.
    everyone will suffer.

  301. 301.

    Cain

    @Samara Morgan:

    You really need to get a life. Banning is too good for you. Simply ignoring you would be punishment enough and I know how to scroll pasty our post. It’ll be like your never day. Banning you would mean that we would have to acknowledge you in some way.

    Let’s put it this way, BoB is way more interesting than you are.

  302. 302.

    Cain

    When will Mama Cole call John and insist on a new thread? WHEN. (Hi Mama Cole, love to ginny!)

    cain

  303. 303.

    Cain

    @debit:
    Looks like you got yourself a pinky nose in your sink! (we used to call our almost 8 months missing cat Kit Kat, “pinkidy”, or maybe “pinkin”, or “pinkit”

  307. 307.

    debit

    @Cain: I’m sorry your cat is missing. I hope you find her (her?). I love pink coloring on white cats, especially around the eyes. When Oliver is full of the devil (often) I swear his turns almost red.

  311. 311.

    Cassidy

    @Samara Morgan: Not what I meant, lol. No matter, I’m starting to appreciate your posting. Have fun. Some people just need to have their panties bunched up for them.

  313. 313.

    Dream On

    Kortney craving her vegetables. It’s confusing to my fragile mind, and I do not “crave” it.

  317. 317.

    birthmarker

    @debit:

    the testicular fortitude, or lack thereof, in the liberal community.

    This made me spew coffee…

Comments are closed.