Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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

Good lord, these people are nuts.

The willow is too close to the house.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

White supremacy is terrorism.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

This really is a full service blog.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Everybody saw this coming.

We’ve had enough carrots to last a lifetime. break out the sticks.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

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

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

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Front Pagers- I am Now Begging

Reader Interactions

85Comments

  2. 2.

    ShadeTail

    Speaking of the categories, the site needs tweaking so that when a front pager attaches a massive number of categories to the article, they don’t spill over the box around the article. I don’t know what others see, but in my Firefox window, the list of categories at the bottom of Zandar’s “Obama Derangement Syndrome Incorporated” article almost covers the title of the article underneath it.

  5. 5.

    Amir Khalid

    Finally, an open thread! I’m reposting this:

    Here’s a chronological eye-witness account of the Bersih 3.0 rally in KL today (Saturday, April 28). Start at the bottom and scroll up.

    Highlights:
    — Estimated as many as 200k demonstrators gathered at various points to march to Dataran Merdeka, a playing field in the middle of KL and a historic site.
    — Police block access to Dataran Merdeka and close off Masjid Jamek LRT (light-rail transit) station as well as surrounding roads, preventing crowd from dispersing.
    — Police use tear gas and water cannon on nonviolent protesters.
    — Police car rams demonstrators, is overturned by more demonstrators; unconfirmed report that one demonstrator killed. Fate of cop at the wheel unknown.
    — Estimated scores of arrests, maybe 100 or more. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim not among the arrested.

    Also too, Guardian coverage with a bit more of the political background.

  7. 7.

    Randy P

    I love the tags. Often I’m checking in on my phone, and sometimes the tags alone are enough to get me laughing before I manage to expand to the actual comments (which due to various technical reasons including a lousy connection at my desk, is sometimes hard to do).

    I didn’t know about Categories. Now that I’ve seen them, I’m still not sure what I’d do with them.

  10. 10.

    CaseyL

    Signal boost: Kitty needs help in NYC. (via Making Light)

    A stray with a broken leg is camped out on the doorstep at Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s apartment in NYC. They can’t bring the kitty indoors, because of human allergies and small vulnerable pets already there. They have already tried to call every local cat rescue organization they can find with, apparently, no success.

    If anyone hereabouts is in NYC and can do a real mitzvah for a runaway, hurt, frightened kitty, here is the link:

    Link: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/013846.html#013846

    Thanks!

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    I’m not sure whether it’s sad or hilarious that Cole apparently can’t email the other front-pagers and instead has to resort to public cries of desperation.

  13. 13.

    Baud

    I was bored because BJ is kind of slow today, so I checked out Cole’s first post in January 2002:

    Since nothing in my life is easy, I doubt this will work the first time I try it. If it does work, I will be moderately elated.

    Best part: there were no categories or tags associated with this post. Simpler times.

  14. 14.

    Comrade Dread

    I just had to put one of my little weinerdogs down. She was only 13. Cancer.

    She was the best dog I’ve ever had. I’m going to miss that little girl.

  17. 17.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    Oh dear god, now AMC is doing reality TV, getting Roku as soon as my check comes in. F–K CABLE!!!!

  18. 18.

    Amir Khalid

    @dmsilev:
    Or maybe he tried it and they just carried on like before. Which is a very Balloon Juice way to react to John Cole.

  22. 22.

    nodakfarmboy

    Speaking of site issues- when the new site design rolled out, I was using the mobile version on my iphone, and it gave me the option to view the site in the regular browser view. So, I flipped the button over to check it out, and now I can’t get back to the mobile view.

    Why yes, I am technologically inept.

    Anyone able to save me from my own stupidity?

  23. 23.

    max hats

    Both categories and tags on this blog are useless anyway. Ah, this article about republicans being assholes has a helpful “assholes” category. This helps with such things as

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    Another eyewitness account from Bersih 3.0. For some context, putting up razor wire barricades to block public access to Dataran Merdeka (Independence Square, but we here never call it that) is the equivalent of doing the same with the Washington Mall.

  26. 26.

    Keith G

    Seems that there is at least one newbie who tries to hide a lack of talent behind the “sure thing” humor of using a dozen categories.

    Kinda sad, actually.

  27. 27.

    clayton

    @Keith G: Just say it Keith G.: you have issues and think everyone else is interested in them.

    I for one am not and am so very tired of you getting in your digs at even the slightest of opportunities.

    As others have pointed out before, it’s striking that you complain about particular front pagers on a blog whose host wrote about mopping his kitchen naked. Your complains are all out of proportion.

  28. 28.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Proposed new category: Front pagers who got the riot act read to them for making new categories.

  29. 29.

    Amir Khalid

    @clayton:

    … a blog whose host wrote about mopping his kitchen naked.

    This must have been before I started lurking here. He didn’t post pictures, did he?

  31. 31.

    JGabriel

    __
    __
    John Cole @ Top:

    Please stop making new categories. … If you think you really need to be clever, make a tag.

    Question: Does anyone know what the difference is between a category and a tag? If you do, please to be explaining?

    .

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Amir Khalid:

    This must have been before I started lurking here. He didn’t post pictures, did he?

    Thankfully, no, because “NSFW” would have only begun to cover how not safe they’d have been.

  35. 35.

    Jebediah

    @dmsilev:

    I’m not sure whether it’s sad or hilarious that Cole apparently can’t email the other front-pagers and instead has to resort to public cries of desperation.

    I assumed it was for the public shaming effect.

  36. 36.

    dmsilev

    From the Great Orange Satan, this is hilarious. It appears that Mitt Romney has been successfully Google-bombed with Dog-On-Car stories. And it didn’t even take an organized campaign to do it either.

  37. 37.

    dmsilev

    @Jebediah: Objection: Assumes that other front-pagers are capable of feeling shame. Since they post *here*, I’m afraid I can’t take that on faith.

  38. 38.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Comrade Dread: So sorry to hear that. {{{{Comrade Dread}}}}
    Update on my situation:
    I am nearing a decision about going for the religious ceremonies in India after FIL’s death to be performed on 10th
    and 13th day,

    BTW I am leaning towards not going to India, after speaking to MIL last night. Even in her grief stricken state she managed to get in a dig at me, saying that she had hoped that her husband would have stayed alive for 3 months or so, so he could have seen me, since I am planning to go for a visit late summer, early fall.
    They also had a religious ceremony performed (which my husband had to perform) saying that he was sorry that last rites were not performed ASAP. This after he caught the first possible flight out of the US when he got the news. We got the news on Wednesday night, he was on a flight to India
    the next day.

    God I hate the world. Sorry for the rant. Now back to the regularly scheduled commenting.

  39. 39.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Comrade Dread: Sorry for your loss, Comrade. My deepest condolences.

    @JGabriel: As I understand it and as I use it when I blog, the categories are broader, say, like Women’s Issues, and the tags are more specific, such as, Arizona leads the competition for the dumbest fucking state in the nation in outlawing contraception.

    @schrodinger’s cat: Sorry to hear about your MIL’s attitude towards you. Also sorry for the loss of your FIL. ::hugs::

    Both teams for whom I’m rooting (Knicks, by default. I don’t really care for either team. Caps in hockey) are losing. Sigh.

  41. 41.

    Old Dan and Little Ann

    @Comrade Dread: My condolences. I am going on 8 months putting my yellow lab down due to cancer. Time has helped heal the hurt. But goddamn do I miss that dog. Getting a new dog helped. Even if he is fucking crazy.

  43. 43.

    schrodinger's cat

    @asiangrrlMN: Thanks Asiangrrl, I want to be there to support my husband, he is going through a rough time but I don’t know whether I want to go to India to be her punching bag.

  44. 44.

    dmsilev

    We have another entrant for “Shameless Bullshit of the Year”. The Romney campaign, of course:

    One of Mitt Romney’s top advisers said Saturday that President Obama’s decision to bailout Chrysler and General Motors was actually Romney’s idea. “[Romney’s] position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed. I know it infuriates them to hear that,” Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to the Romney campaign, said. “The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney’s advice.”
    __
    The claim appears to be a shift from Mitt Romney’s November 2008 op-ed in The New York Times, headlined, “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”

  45. 45.

    Roger Moore

    @Amir Khalid:
    My parents are in Southern Asia on vacation and just emailed to say they had been tear gassed while trying to go to the market. They say they’re now shopping for yellow T-shirts.

  46. 46.

    Corner Stone

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    I want to be there to support my husband, he is going through a rough time but I don’t know whether I want to go to India to be her punching bag.

    Then go and support him but don’t give a shit what she says or does.

  48. 48.

    JGabriel

    @asiangrrlMN:

    As I understand it and as I use it when I blog, the categories are broader, say, like Women’s Issues, and the tags are more specific, such as, Arizona leads the competition for the dumbest fucking state in the nation in outlawing contraception.

    Thanks, asiangrrl.

    I’m actually looking for a more technical explanation, one that would explain why there are two different types of labels for posts — categories and tags — and why John would be irritated by a proliferation of one type but not the other, if anyone knows.

    .

  50. 50.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Maude: Complaining about the proliferation of categories. How does that sound.
    @Corner Stone: Easy to say but difficult to do, I will have to stay in her house couped up, with her and her daughter.
    You are supposed to be home till the 13 th day, going out of the house is forbidden for close family members. They will all be speaking in a language I don’t understand (Tamil) I will be made to feel every inch the outsider that I am. I am not sure my skin is thick enough to endure it without going insane or lashing out and God knows they don’t need me there to add to the drama. Trust me I have been through this immediately after we were married and it was no picnic.
    They follow all the ancient traditions to the T, they are ultra orthodox Hindu Brahmins. Actually I think it is just my MIL’s personality though, FIL was just as traditional but a real nice person, who was open and welcoming and wished us all the best and wanted us to be happy.

    ETA: When I was young and naive, I used to think that love conquered all, but I have come to realize that there some differences that can never be bridged.

  52. 52.

    WaterGirl

    We just turned on the gas grill to make a ham on the grill, and now I’m wondering if any of you guys have some suggestions about how to do it? :-)

  54. 54.

    Elizabelle

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    What a needle to thread.

    Agree, you should go to support your husband and honor his wonderful late father.

    The mother: put it down to grief, even if it’s more “giving you” same.

    Condolences on the FIL; sounds like a lovely soul.

  55. 55.

    gnomedad

    @JGabriel:

    I’m actually looking for a more technical explanation, one that would explain why there are two different types of labels for posts — categories and tags — and why John would be irritated by a proliferation of one type but not the other, if anyone knows.

    Seconded. I don’t get it either. “Categories” are the thingies that follow “Posted in” and you can search by clicking on them where they are listed in the right column. “Tags” are … what?

  57. 57.

    schrodinger's cat

    @suzanne: Ha ha, they are orthodox Hindu brahmins of the strictest variety, they don’t drink at all. I am afraid MIL’s house is bone dry. May be I can carry some gin, and pretend that it is water!

  58. 58.

    Anne Laurie

    @schrodinger’s cat: I sympathize, because I have been in very similar situations with my in-laws (my MiL does not hate me, but the particular disfunctionalities of the Spousal Unit’s family interact very badly with the disfunctionalities I grew up with). The solution, for me, has been to talk as honestly as I could with him, and work hard to tease out the tipping point between “being physically there for him” and “giving him one more stressor to worry about”. I did not go to my late father-in-law’s memorial service — and that was only a day’s drive to the midwest, not a globe-spanning odyssey — because he said he’d rather know I was “keeping the home fires burning” than worry about (yet another) public squabble between his brothers, his sister-in-law, his mother and her second husband involving me as well. We did talk every evening he was away, and I kept my cell phone close at hand so he could (and did) call me at random times just to vent about small stuff, good & bad. Your husband will have different stressors & different choices… but the first step in making your decision to go or not should be talking to him honestly about what he wants, and what you feel you can achieve.

    If it comes down to a question of “what will the neighbors think, that our outlander daughter-in-law doesn’t even respect our traditions well enough to be our punching bag on such an important occasion”… well, then your husband can explain that you understand what a burden it would be to have to deal with explaining stuff that should be ‘natural’, and so you felt the respectful thing was to let him go & not make a big fuss about being The Guest. Or, you could just find a work- or home-related “emergency” that you must handle, to give your husband the freedom to deal with his natal family!

  60. 60.

    schrodinger's cat

    @Anne Laurie: You understand! Thanks! Yes we have been talking a lot on the phone, the 10.30 hour time difference makes it a bit hard. Husband has been pretty understanding, and I do have an excuse about work (which actually is not an excuse) it is not a time where I can just take off.
    Actually I am not exactly an outlander, my family has roots in Bombay but they are neither Tamil nor very observant of the traditional brahminical rules, like think of ultra orthodox and secular Jewish people.

  61. 61.

    eemom

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Just to put in my $.02. My MIL, rest her soul, was the most easygoing person in the world…..it’s my own mother, God help me, who’s a bit like your MIL.

    I would say the only feelings that matter are yours and your husband’s. If it’s really important to him that you be there, it’s worth considering…..otherwise, life’s too short to travel halfway around the world to be anybody’s punching bag.

  63. 63.

    arguingwithsignposts

    @gnomedad: Let me explain this as best I can, think of categories like major parts of a newspaper: News, Editorial, Sports, Entertainment, etc.

    Tags are supposed to be more granular, like the names used in an article, or departments of government. So you could find everything about, say, George Bush, without having to search the entire category of “presidents.”

    I say supposed to because neither explanation makes sense here at BJ.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Okay then, what are all those rotating phrases up top, like … uh … I showered with Rahm and all I got was this shitty blog, or … erm … Han shot first.

    I always thought those were the tags.

  65. 65.

    AlanDean

    Bring On The Meteor, Even the “Liberal” New Republic, We Are All Baader-Meinhof Now, We Are All Mayans Now

    from a random post…

    We have too many categories now? I’m with you on this John. Simplify, simplify.

  67. 67.

    LosGatosCA

    @Moeiz:

    I think a blogger ethics panel might be just the answer. Get some outside bloggers to participate. I’m thinking 2 days discussion on the Etymology of each category, each tag, the differences between them on some flip charts. Finally, a stab at some principles on how to consolidate to the most high value categories. Make a list of action items required to do the actual consolidation into new categories. Then conduct a retrospective for the team to consider the results, what they learned from the exercise, what they would do to improve the process. Then adjourn the panel to let the learnings seep into their higher level of consciousness.

    And when you reach 200 categories, reconvene the ethics panel to investigate why the first panel was ineffective.

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @JGabriel:

    I’m actually looking for a more technical explanation, one that would explain why there are two different types of labels for posts — categories and tags — and why John would be irritated by a proliferation of one type but not the other, if anyone knows.

    I think that categories are intended to be a long-term way of sorting things while tags are intended to be more topical. A practical upshot is that you can easily find all the posts on a particular category by selecting “Categories” in the tab box on the right, while searching by tag is not so easy. Adding extra categories makes that ability to search by category less useful and more difficult, which is why it pisses John off.

  71. 71.

    jl

    Only one hundred?

    What difference does it make?

    Is tag pollution of source of FYWP dysfunction?

    But then, Cole is the straw boss around here, and can unleash the Tunch at any time.

  72. 72.

    jl

    The blog could initiate a rectification of tags/categories program. Below are my suggestions:

    (These are all the blog really needs, so could start with this default list and add more as needed)
    Uncategorized
    WWJBD- What Would Jenna Bush Do?
    eh
    Beer Blogging
    Sports
    Food
    Gardening
    Pets

    (The ones below are uncivil and not appropriate for family blog, so should be eliminated and posts reallocated to other tags)
    David Brooks is a dickhead
    Fuck The Middle-Class
    Fuck The Poor
    Fucked-up-edness
    Fucksaw

    (Redundant, so eliminate)
    Democratic Cowardice

    (The one below may be a harbinger of the Mayan Apocalypse, so get rid of it)
    Gamer Dork
    any tag with ‘Palin’ or name of failed 2008 or 2012 GOP presidentin’ primary or general candidate in it. Sorry gramps, time to retire.

    Edit: I typed in ‘gardening’ and ‘pets’ at the last minute, assuming those were tags, but they are not, and can’t find the right tags. Whatever, you can’t find anything anyway…. so, ‘eh’.

  73. 73.

    Steeplejack

    Where do the tags show up? I thought all the things after “Posted in . . .” and “This entry [. . .] is filed under . . .” are categories–e.g., “Our Failed Media Experiment,” “Bring on the Meteor,” etc.

    How do you know what is a tag so you can search by it?

  74. 74.

    AA+ Bonds

    I never know how serious you are . . . but as someone who is sort of, kind of, vaguely in this field, you have

    1) treated your controlled vocabulary as a joke, in the literal sense of using WordPress categories for the purpose of humorous addenda to individual posts, and
    2) absolutely neglected any authority control over this aspect of your system, by anyone, while allowing every writer to just go nuts whenever they want with it

    If you want WordPress categories to ever have any meaning again here you need to start over from scratch, because at this point you are looking under your leaky sink and yelling at the mold for getting worse

    (I mean I assume that your catalog to date is already a lost cause and that you are not going to spring for anyone or any service to generate that sort of content-based metadata for previous posts)

  76. 76.

    AA+ Bonds

    I don’t work with WordPress so I have to admit: I have no idea why this is a problem for you, and I have always taken this site as a good example of why a surprising number of online content creators probably don’t even have to worry about that business

    None of your readers use the categories for anything, I assume (how could they, I sure can’t and I’ve tried)

    Is this just a thing where you feel you should have Control! and don’t and being reminded of that bothers you (that is perfectly legit, don’t get me wrong)

  77. 77.

    Soonergrunt

    @efgoldman: That would make a great category.
    For the record, I’ve never created a top level category. I did create the sub-category “Bradley Manning” under “Military”.
    The categories list does need trimming and consolidating.
    @Amir Khalid: No, he did not. A fact for which thousands are eternally grateful. Other thousands are doubtless highly disappointed.

  79. 79.

    AA+ Bonds

    A quick glance at your category list indicates to me that “consolidation” won’t fix anything because the vast majority of your categories don’t really ‘mean’ anything to content creators or readers, because they’re jokes

    I would just get rid of literally everything except pet blogging, and maybe some other stuff I’ve missed, where the categories actually allow browsing of content because of good behavior by your writers toward that category and a fairly standard ‘understood’ definition (here I am assuming that ‘Pet Blogging’ was not used for, like, Tony Blair articles)

    Or, on the other hand, embrace the madness if it’s not doing you any real harm

    By doing what you’ve done, you have already created a community that takes for granted that they will never be able to browse by category to find content

    Just think of this site as a potential problem for media archaeology a century from now and enjoy it – you have trolled yourself, and there’s no shame in that

  80. 80.

    AA+ Bonds

    Is there really a ton of browsing by category anyway on political blogs that see multiple posts per day

    And who are these pathetic geriatrics who do this

  81. 81.

    Roger Moore

    @AA+ Bonds:
    I think the key thing is that most of the category titles include a large helping of insider joke. Long-time readers will know what to expect under “David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute” or “Hoot-Smalley” or “Green Balloons”, even if they’re completely opaque to people who weren’t reading the blog at the time those phrases came into use.

  82. 82.

    AA+ Bonds

    @Roger Moore:

    I get “David Brooks Giving A Seminar At the Aspen Institute” at least – I was definitely here for that – and I am still left with a category as mystical as St. Mary in the aspect of the rose

    I genuinely see it as a form of art to semi-purposely turn a controlled vocabulary into something this decadently messy, to turn its use so completely to something other than its supposed purpose, and I for one think it is absolutely part of the charm of this place

    I think John might as easily improve things with 50 more categories as 50 fewer but it is of course his call

  83. 83.

    AA+ Bonds

    I like a blog where “David Brooks Giving A Seminar At the Aspen Institute” exists alongside “David Brooks is a dickhead”

  84. 84.

    Jebediah

    @AA+ Bonds:

    (here I am assuming that ‘Pet Blogging’ was not used for, like, Tony Blair articles)

    Ha! I am sure I find that much funnier than would Mr. Skritches Tony Blair, though.

  85. 85.

    asiangrrlMN

    @schrodinger’s cat: I gotta say, if your hubby is OK with it, don’t go. There is no way you can win in this situation. I know Asian culture – East, not South in my case, but similar – and there’s nothing you can do to that would be right if you went.

    My 1 cent worth (not even worth two cents) waaaaay late.

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