Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

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

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

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

People are complicated. Love is not.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

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

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

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

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

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

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Come on, man.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Monday Night Open Thread

Monday Night Open Thread

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I don’t have much to say lately, but here’s a picture of me circa 1988 doing my best Johnny Rotten:

me

Teenage wasteland…

*** Update ***

Now that I look at that picture more, it is circa 1991 because that is my barracks locker in the background in Fulda (check out the locks hanging from the locker). My buddy Jason sent me this photo earlier, and he had traveled to Germany and stayed a couple days with me in Fulda while hiking across Europe.

That also explains why my fingernails were so dirty (it horrified me when I looked at the picture). As a tanker, I don’t think I spent a day in that three year period without hydraulic fluid or axle grease or gear oil all over me.

*** Update #2 ***

My buddy Jason confirms this was 1991, and sends this picture along that I took of him a few hours after the previous picture with a little bit of my own artwork:

goodtimes

Hehe. I love that even in 1991 we were joking about people hating America.

Reader Interactions

91Comments

  3. 3.

    Francis

    speaking of musical influences, i once again renew my suggestion that the new tbogg (who was posting Friday Top 10s years ago) be added to the blogroll.

    thx kindly

  4. 4.

    Schlemizel

    I think you should use that picture every time you post what a bunch of assholes we commenters are as it appeas that is what you are saying!

  9. 9.

    Mnemosyne

    I survived my work presentation, even though more people came to it than I expected. Now it’s frozen pizza and Cabin in the Woods to try and recover.

  16. 16.

    muricafukyea

    What is the over/under on a Libetarian curious Cole feeling sorry for himself post vs a Greenwald is awesome/Rand Paul has some good ideas post?

  19. 19.

    Omnes Omnibus

    As a tanker, I don’t think I spent a day in that three year period without hydraulic fluid or axle grease or gear oil all over me.

    Never happened to me, and I was in an 8 inch artillery unit.

  20. 20.

    Knight of Nothing

    Got a mailer from my junior senator the other day that opened with, “Dear Nice Person I’m Asking for Money”. Gotta love Al Franken! Are any other sitting senators so tongue-in-cheek in ther campaign solicitations?

    It goes on to say that, while he wants to raise $20 million, the good newa is that I’m not on hook for the whole amount. Heheh. Gave me a good chuckle.

  21. 21.

    Shana

    John, a while ago you posted about wanting to lose weight, cut back the alcohol if not stop all together, and work toward becoming a foster parent. You haven’t talked about that, and I’m not asking you to if you don’t want to share with the community, but I just wanted to say that I think about your projects and wonder how you’re doing on that front. Again, don’t share if you don’t want to, but I’m sure there are other folks here who hope you’re doing well with them.

  26. 26.

    fuckwit

    @raven: Cole amazes me with his range. Deadhead. Greek. Soldier. All at the same time, in this picture! And now college professor.

  28. 28.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Rachel Maddow has on Jose Diaz-Balart to advocate comprehensive immigration reform, moments after mocking his brother congressman for saying we (Congress) don’t have time to pass comprehensive immigration reform

  31. 31.

    Richard C.

    Can you take time after cleaning your fingernails Cole to fix the blog roll link to TBogg’s site?

  34. 34.

    Hill Dweller

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Rachel Maddow has on Jose Diaz-Balart to advocate comprehensive immigration reform, moments after mocking his brother congressman for saying we (Congress) don’t have time to pass comprehensive immigration reform

    She also pointed out his meeting with PO, which was scheduled for tomorrow, has been postponed.

  37. 37.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    I have no idea what time it is because my brand new HP lap top computer will not allow me to change my computer’s time zone to anything other than International Date Line West. WTF? Oh and Flossie came charging back from the swamp with a dead squirrel in her mouth, and now I can’t find it, somewhere in my house there is a decomposing dead squirrel. Nice. I am sure at some point the smell will lead to me its general direction but should I really have to wait that long? For all I know she hid it in the bed. The best I can hope for is that Skeeter ate it and I don’t have to worry about it at all.

  42. 42.

    Anoniminous

    Speaking of military things-that-go-boom …

    Reading a silly article on the logistics of the Gettysburg campaign. Writer thinks all the horses not in cavalry units were pulling supply wagons. Guess he figures the artillery arrived using diesel powered pogo sticks.

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Yatsuno: My unit provided artillery support for the ACR that Cole wasn’t in. His (the 11th) was at the Fulda Gap and was designed to act as a speed bump for Warsaw Pact forces heading to the Ruhr. The 2d was further south and designated as the speed bump for Warsaw Pact forces heading to Munich and Stuttgart. I’ve worked with tank/cav guys – they require harassment.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @Knight of Nothing:

    Gotta love Al Franken! Are any other sitting senators so tongue-in-cheek in ther campaign solicitations?

    It takes some skill to get away with that kind of thing, so it’s probably better if most politicians didn’t try. Franken has the professional skill to carry it off.

  51. 51.

    piratedan

    strange day today, just got the call this afternoon from my soon to be surgeon that my weight loss surgery appeal has been accepted, referral numbers and everything, I go under the knife in December. so roughly a year ago, I made the decision, took two months to “weigh” my options and pick a program and two more months to complete the preliminaries only to have Cigna move the goal posts for another six months…. sigh, excited/apprehensive/pensive and reflective all at once. Sorry if its TMI, just after sharing with my family, you folks here are kinda/sorta my extended one…..

  54. 54.

    Ruckus

    @piratedan:
    Good luck.
    Have a friend that did this back in August and he thinks it was the best thing he ever did. Saw him about 2 weeks ago and he had already lost 40 lbs.

  57. 57.

    Roger Moore

    @Anoniminous:

    Writer thinks all the horses not in cavalry units were pulling supply wagons. Guess he figures the artillery arrived using diesel powered pogo sticks.

    And all the high ranking officers walked.

  60. 60.

    Knight of Nothing

    @Roger Moore: yeah, good point. We’ve all heard him tell a joke, and there are probably more than a few on that mailing list who have read one or two of his books. But coming in cold with such a letter might fail pretty spectacularly.

  62. 62.

    Linnaeus

    John, you resemble a friend and colleague of mine in that photo, although your politics then would have been the polar opposite of his politics then (and now).

  63. 63.

    joel hanes

    It was occasionally my job to replace the cabled helmet commo on one of my Furth battalion’s 8 inch howitzers — howitzers with hydraulic leaks, so that the carriage well was dripping cherry juice. Fortunately I had fourteen sets of fatigues

    That picture of Cole reminds me of fifty guys I knew on AIT at Fort Sill and never saw again.

  65. 65.

    Anoniminous

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I agree that is how it was supposed to work. Being a cynic, methinks things would have been a bit more ragged under actual battlefield conditions.

    @Roger Moore:

    And the ambulances, couriers, headquarters guards, the odd miscellaneous “extra to TO” & so on. Horses were widely distributed in the AotP until Grant (IIRC, it may have been Meade) came along and made everybody knock it off.

    Here’s a fun video of a civil war bronze Napoleon firing cannister. Right after the fire there’s a noticeable ring. Also it demonstrates why smooth bore cannons were ~40% of the Union artillery at Gettysburg and why Pickett’s Charge was … ill-advised. (Put it.)

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anoniminous:

    methinks things would have been a bit more ragged under actual battlefield conditions.

    Well, yeah. But just look at the number of horses. Up through WWII, British combat arms units were informally considered either horsy or not horsy. Cavalry and artillery were horsy. Infantry and engineers were not.

  68. 68.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: I was just a few miles north of there in Bamberg. Weird factoid: my battalion’s buildings were those used by the unit Claus von Stauffenberg was in pre-WWII. The Stauffenberg family had/has close ties to Bamberg. I even met his son, at the time a German Brigadier General, at a couple of social functions.

  71. 71.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anoniminous: Heavier guns merely required more horses and didn’t move as frequently. Heavy guns were, ideally, put into position early. Light artillery moved to the heat of the battle. Napoleon, an artilleryman, was a master at placing guns. The British horse artillery units were brilliant at moving to where they were needed. As time and tech changed, shoot and move became more prevalent. WWI is an exception.

  76. 76.

    Anoniminous

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    So did the other artillery officers I’ve run across. Did they hand those things out at the graduation ceremony at Ft. Sill?

    Which is now “Fires Center of Excellence.” (Gag me with a fork.)

  77. 77.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Anoniminous: We all bought them. There is a store in the school building. It also sell ties of artillery red with gold crossed cannons. I just won’t buy polyester ties.

  79. 79.

    Omnes Omnibus

    People like the one in the first photo are the reason many junior officers look for new and different careers.

  87. 87.

    joel hanes

    @efgoldman:

    in Furth? When?

    A decade later. Arrived William O’Darby Kaserne in May 1973, fresh out of AIT, and just after the last US troops left Viet Nam. In an intimation of things to come, my unit was already in Grafenwoehr when I arrived, and I rode up to field training on the company van on my second day in the country.

    I loved Nurnberg and Bayern, and would really like to go back and visit. I’ve checked: Das Gute Zirndorfer is still made ten klicks away in Zirndorf, and that alone is worth a trans-Atlantic journey.

  88. 88.

    joel hanes

    @Paul in KY:

    squared away

    I’m glad someone understands.

    Five sets of fatigues in the quartermaster laundry, five to wear this week, two old sets for working under vehicles, and two ultra-starched razor-creased sets for show on short notice.

  89. 89.

    joel hanes

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    Never happened to me, and I was in an 8 inch artillery unit.

    You were an officer. That’s a different life.

    You carried a sidearm.
    Your driver probably changed the oil on your jeep.

    I, on the other hand, as a commo specialist, was privileged to pull first-echelon maintenance on a Gama Goat. Trying to extract the oil drain plug while reaching up through the six-inch port in the waterproof hull without having all the hot oil run down your shirtsleeve was something hardly anyone got right the first time.

  91. 91.

    sherparick

    @Anoniminous: And the horses/mules had to haul their own hay/feed as they could not rely on what they found on the side of the road. Basically, the Civil War armies, even with railroad support, were logistically limited to at most 120,000 men.

    I read Alan Guelzo’s book on the Gettysburg campaign this past summer and it highlighted a bleeding huge elephant in the room that about 140 year of civil war history writing for the most part has never mentioned (and I include recent, Northern oriented writers like Stephen Sears and James McPherson. The elephant is that the Army of Northern Virginia was supported by approximately 20,000 slaves who did most of the logistical labor for that Army, freeing thousands for combat roles, while Union soldiers were detailed to that work work in AoP (cooking, teamsters, supply quartermasters, etc.) Hence, the frequently proclaimed superiority of numbers between the AoP and ANVa did not actually exist, as in actual combat infantrymen and artillery, the numbers were approximately equal in most fights during 1862-64. http://cwmemory.com/2013/05/22/slavery-traveled-with-the-army-of-northern-virginia/

    The thing where I think Guelzo went wrong, in an otherwise excellent discussion of the failings of the American civil war armies (and that they were closer to Napoleonic armies in actual fire power) was his discussion about the want of “heavy cavalry” in the Civil War armies and how that affected battle when compared with contemporary European armies. There are actual battles in Europe contemporaneous in technology and tactics to the Civil War armies (Solferino, 1859, 2d Schleswig War 1864, Austro-Prussian War 1866), and their use (or lack of use) of cavalry against infantry and artillery was not much different than the Civil War.

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