Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Everybody saw this coming.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Come on, man.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

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

“Can i answer the question? No you can not!”

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

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

He really is that stupid.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

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

Tick tock motherfuckers!

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / The Classics

The Classics

by | 149 Comments

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I let you know on Sunday that we would  be rolling out links to some of the classic posts over the course of the week.

We’ll be naked mopping, losing the mustard, skull-fucking kittens, dining on tire rims and anthrax, faxing credenzas, reaching peak wing nut… Oh wait, that last one didn’t turn out as expected.

Well, here’s the first batch.

Naked Mopping
Falling with Lily
No, the Other Shoulder
The Lost Mustard
The Legend of Shitmas

Also in honor of Anniversary Week , if you are one of the people who would like to know when your first comment was and what you had to say, this is your first opportunity to be able to find out.  I can search on the back end, assuming you know the email address you used when you first started commenting.  Or if you have a distinctive nym, and you can tell me what that was.

In honor of Anniversary Week, I am willing to look up the first 10 people today that chime in to ask for that.  You’ll have another opportunity in a “Come Here Often?” or “How Did You Get Here?” post.

Oh, and courtesy of Steeplejack’s research, here is the story of Lily.

I Think This Is the One
Dog Planning
Strange Woman in my Bed
The Day in Lily
Rails to Trails
Morning Lily

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

149Comments

  2. 2.

    WaterGirl

    I’m enjoying the naked mopping thread now.  Some really great comments in there, like this one:

    wasabi gasp

    Kicking the bucket naked while holding a mop handle and wrapped in a shower curtain has been topped by two wet suits and a dildo. Step it up, man.

  4. 4.

    WaterGirl

    And this one:

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    Everyone is trying to recreate John’s Bathtub Misadventure using a Ken Doll, a pencil, half a spaghetti box and a bottle cap (to represent the bathtub and toilet, respectively).

    okay, i’ll stop now.

  6. 6.

    scav

    Oh, I’ll jump in with a when did I show up? request.  Memory’s shot so I’ve no clue.     I’ve a vague memory of suggesting green balloons to dougj so there’s delusional in the mix too. Always been scav though. (and with that email).

  7. 7.

    xjmuellerlurks

    These are a big reason why I’ve been hanging around for the past 13 years or so.  Come for the political commentary, stay for the Cole.  Thanks for the memories.  (BTW, I didn’t see any Subaru stories…)

  9. 9.

    Old School

    Well, now I’ve gone and fallen in love with Lily all over again.

    Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

  10. 10.

    Roonieroo

    I never commented very much so I know I was here awhile before my first comment but I have no idea when that was.

  13. 13.

    Roonieroo

    My husband and I were talking about the lost mustard, naked mopping days just this morning so I am happy you got us the links.

  14. 14.

    oldster

    I remember that first Lily post very clearly. I had forgotten, though, that I was commenting under a different nym back then.
    Happy memories. Love at first sight sometimes works out. (Did for me and my wife, too, come to think of it.)

  15. 15.

    japa21

    Been wondering when I first commented. Time is all hazy to me, partially because of the last couple years, partially because I’m old.

    Same nym, same email.

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    @scav:  Your first comment was on a DougJ post Grandmas Hands on April 18, 2014.

    I’m rather amused by the low bar of anything be a “game-changer” when the game is still securely in the future and in no way locked into any sort of form yet. I had pancakes for breakfast this morning, extra syrup. Gamechanger!

  18. 18.

    Tenar Arha

    I wouldn’t mind knowing what my first comment was. My nym was different then though. (My email hasn’t changed)

    ETA shakes fist at autocorrect

  21. 21.

    Alison Rose

    I’d love to know my first comment because I have no idea at all how long I’ve been here. Fairly sure I’ve always commented under Alison Rose, and if I ever did under another nym, I have no recollection of what it might’ve been…

  22. 22.

    narya

    oh. my. god. i am sitting here with tears of laughter running down my face.

    Add me to the queue for “when did i get here?” please? I have no idea if I posted under another nym, and it’s most likely that this is the email address i used, so don’t dig any deeper than the current nym/email. And if you’re already at ten for the day, no worries.

    I know that I had been dipping into this site for years, but over the past five? ish? I’ve gradually stopped going anywhere else with this regularity, with the exception of Charles Pierce’s site. Now this place is my go-to.

  24. 24.

    Tony Jay

    That ‘Other Shoulder’ post should be the season climax episode of ‘Cole Country’ on HBO.

    I laughed, I winced, I flat out yelped (on a fucking doorknob???) You never know what mishappenings are going to plague the Mensch of West Virginny, but you always know you’re going to get good value for your subscription.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    @japa21: You wrote 3 comments as “John”, then waited a month before commenting again as japa21.

    Your first comment was in a John Cole post titled What Changed? on March 1, 2011.

    The easy availability of credit is a major factor. Banks suckered people into buying things on credit and created a never ending loop so that people were always in debt, and where a lot of at least one person’s income in the family went just for interest. Yes you can blame the victim, but back then (I am just a little older than the writer) the ability to buy a lot without having to pay at the time, was something a lot of people couldn’t resist.

  28. 28.

    lowtechcyclist

    Man, I totally missed the Naked Mopping thread at the time.

    Of course, my wife and I had adopted our son just two months earlier, and getting the hang of being parents to a nearly 2 year old kid kept us busy enough that I was practically absent from the Internet for several months.

  30. 30.

    J R in WV

    I have always been the same nym/email and would be curious as to when I first commented.

    Aloyoicious P Trockmorton-davis-Leichiestershiresmythe, with thanks amid gratitude

  32. 32.

    Tony Jay

    I’m pretty sure I’ve been here since John started his Schiavo-prompted conversion. I definitely remember those arguments, and I think I must have been lurking here a bit before that. No idea what e-mail address I was using around that time, though. The one I’ve got now has a later date in it. 

  35. 35.

    Another Scott

    This anniversary stuff is fun.  Thanks for doing it to everyone responsible.  :-)

    It reminds me of my early time here.  The community is very tight knit and I read stuff here for years before even creating a ‘nym, and then waited longer before posting.  It seemed quite intimidating!  The semi-occasional Welcome Lurkers threads were and are a great idea and should be more frequent, IMHO.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    I wouldn’t mind knowing.   The email is the same, but the name is jl or JL.   At least that’s what I remember, but I’ve been here a long, long time.

  37. 37.

    SixStringFanatic

    Seriously.  Why isn’t “DID SOMEONE JUST SHIT IN THE HOUSE?” already in the rotating tags? Do we need to start a petition?

  38. 38.

    oldster

    @WaterGirl:

    Thanks for asking, but I’m a little reluctant to make the connection publicly. I dropped that nym because it was connected to too many comments in too many places, some of them ill-advised. So, I started over fresh.

    But if it would help somehow with running the blog, I could email it to you?

    Oh god, the broken shoulder that Cole tried to treat as a dislocation. I don’t have to reread that — I am still wincing in pain from the first time I read it.

  39. 39.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Still convinced Facebook is set up for dama, I keep on getting recommendations to make friends with obscure Republican politicians, county water board members in Lockjaw, Texas and the like (I demand they promise not to socialize my farm subsidy check before I will befriend them) This fits the Zuckerberg bot’s profile – moar drama equals more clicks for advertisements.

    It’s only a matter of time before Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford have to huntdown Zuckerberg in an abandoned building in San Francisco after Zuckerberg kills Elon Musk in the Tesla factory building in Fremont.

  40. 40.

    japa21

    @WaterGirl:  Thanks.  Almost 11 years.  Surprised I posted as John because it is such an unusual name and it would be easy to figure out who I am.

  41. 41.

    frosty

    @SixStringFanatic: Submit it yourself! There’s a form in the sidebar and it’s a piece of cake. Then you just have to wait for WaterGirl’s indeterminate wait (out of politeness and a sense of duty) for Cole to approve before she goes ahead and stealthily adds it herself after he doesn’t get back to her, LOL.

    Agreed it would be a great one.

  42. 42.

    jeffreyw

    If you do a google search with the format

    “your nym” site:balloon-juice.com

    You will see a bunch of results that may interest you.  Unfortunately they are not displayed chronologically.

  44. 44.

    Another Scott

    @jeffreyw: I think Google dumps results older than 10 years or so, so oldsters may have to search elsewhere (e.g. Archive.org).

    Here’s what Google pulls up for an earlier ‘nym for me:

    Fat Man in a Bathtub (from 2012, where JC showed his face for the first time).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  45. 45.

    feebog

    Would love to know what and when my first comment was.  Same email and nym since I wandered into this joint with an onion on my belt.

  46. 46.

    Ken

    By the way, WaterGirl, I don’t think I’ve ever thanked you for the undoubtedly massive and painful task of moving all the comments from the old blogging platform to the new one.  I think I remember you posting at the time that you were yelling at working with the hosting service to emphasize that the comments are as important as the posts.

  51. 51.

    Nelle

    OT – my son has several in-laws who are pilots for Delta.  As of Jan. 1, they are restricting refunds much more tightly.  I don’t know the details and don’t know how widespread it is, but my DIL says it is worth it to pay the extra $$ for a refundable ticket.  Just an FYI.  I’m not flying commercial for a long time yet.  If necessary, we’ll rent a plane and go ourselves (helps to be married to a pilot), but really, can’t imagine many scenarios where I wouldn’t just drive.  And it would have to be a critical emergency.

  55. 55.

    cain

    I think I remember – I think it was Rosie – where John kept posting about having to express the critter and he had some choice comments about that. That was a riot. :-)

  56. 56.

    piratedan

    wouldn’t mind knowing, but not an issue if the slots have already been claimed… ty for everything you do (and to the jackaltariat for simply being there)

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @Ken: Thank you.  You have Cole to thank as well because he feels very strongly about blogs and history on the internet.  Every time someone suggests that the site would be faster if we offloaded the older comments or moved them elsewhere, John indicates that hell will freeze over before we do that.  And I’m totally with him on that.

    That’s why i was excited to be able to make the Past Authors page to roll out in conjunction with the anniversary – all of the previous authors posts were still in there but there wasn’t a great way to get to them.

    I think I may be the only one who is excited about that page though, because I’m not sure anyone else has said a word about it.  Except John, I’m pretty sure he liked it.

    To get back to your actual comment, moving all the old comments over wasn’t terribly hard, but oh my god finding the right iteration for the database was a real challenge.  The developers would import the text and then i would test, and there would be diamonds in place of certain characters.  We would do more research and try again with a different iteration, and something else would be funky.  Another iteration would take care of that, but emojis wouldn’t show up properly.  But i’m stubborn and the developers were good and we prevailed in the end!

  60. 60.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Betty Powers of Landover Baptist posted a picture on twitter of the “models” at Trump’s old agency and holy crap, Trump out sleezed Epistien – all the pictures of the girls Epistien is alleged to have molested look like they are 16 or so, post puberty, well dressed, but the Trump Model girl was more like 12, and it’s just,. WTF, these dorks though that’s hot? Not to mention the photoshoot wasn’t professional. Tacky, low rent and creepy.

    Epstein’s stuff it’s all, ok, those teens knew what was up, but they’re still idiot teens and it’s illegal to bonk them stupid, but that Trump stuff was outright disturbing.

  62. 62.

    cain

    Love this:

    “So, to recap, she smells like cat urine, is not leash trained, has an open rash on her back, probably is not house trained, is suffering from horrible anxiety, I’m not really fond of the name Missy, and I think she is perfect. I scheduled an appointment with the vet on Tuesday to take her in to make sure she does not have any diseases that will harm Tunch and to see if we can get the rash fixed, and I will probably take her home next week.”

  63. 63.

    japa21

    Just got around to reading the posts you listed. I don’t know how I missed some of them.  Some of these belong in the Smithsonian.

  66. 66.

    RaflW

    Recall is a funny thing. I woulda sworn Cole was naked mopping his kitchen, but I mis-remembered that very special day.

  67. 67.

    Roonieroo

    @WaterGirl: Oh I would love to know when my first comment actually was.  Always was Roonieroo

    ETA:  really hoping my first comment wasn’t telling him his cat was fat.

  72. 72.

    NotMax

    The only part of Subaru in the field (though a legendary tale which has grown in song and story over time) which can be laid on Mr. Cole’s battered shoulders was lending out the car in the first place to a frat boy.

    ;)

  73. 73.

    WaterGirl

    @Tenar Arha:  

    Your first comment was in a Tom Levenson post called And the Internet Shall Make Us Free, Gender Equity Division on August 12, 2014.

    But, it is actually subjective. Google has decided to ignore the importance and differences in typing “herself” vs. “himself” on a standard keyboard. On a QWERTY, the most widely distributed keyboard, “him” is all on the right hand side, but “her” actually crosses over to the left hand side. By completely ignoring that, Google and their engineers, have completely ignored one half of humanity. It’s a huge blind spot for a company that prides itself on using science, data and algorithms to find stuff. It’s stupid.

    It’s also sexist; probably unconscious rather than malicious, but blindingly obvious once you realize that no English speaker would make this kind of mistake on a standard keyboard. “herself” is a keyword of the search terms, and Google’s algorithm totally ignores that.

    P.S.  It takes some time for WordPress to crank through 6.5 million comments and come up with a list, and then it cranks some more as i tell it to go to your first post.  Just be patient and I make my way through the list. :-)

  76. 76.

    MattF

    OT. The Webb sunshield is now fully deployed and tensioned. This is the central moment in the Webb deployment. The next steps are deploying the mirrors, cooling down the spacecraft, focusing the mirrors, injecting the spacecraft into its final orbit, and calibrating the instruments. And, finally, doing the science.

  78. 78.

    WaterGirl

    @numfar: You are welcome.  I found a lot of old posts, but Steeplejack is the real hero here because he did a lot of research to find the rest.

    It’s not like there was just one post where John brings lily home and she is the one, the end.  It’s spread over 6 posts and it takes time to find them.

    Three cheers for Steeplejack!

  79. 79.

    Mary G

    I’d like to know what my first comment was; I lurked for years back to Terry Schiavo, may she RIP. Email same as now.

  80. 80.

    narya

    @WaterGirl: Would love to know my first comment eventually, but if you’re going to do this again on another day, I can wait. You are likely well past the 10 you promised. :-)

  81. 81.

    john b

    I’m curious how long I’ve been around here commenting. I believe I’ve used “john b” for nearly the whole time. I’m pretty sure I used an older edu email back then — oldest balloon-juice stuff I found in my gmail was from 2008 and it was forwarded from that .edu email address (can provide privately if needed).

  82. 82.

    Tarragon

    @Tarragon:

    I first commented back in 2005 under a different nym.  John yelled at me.

    If I recall correctly J.C. was writing at Red State and I was hate reading (read as laughing at) there. I followed J.C. here and was a lurker from early on.

    These days hate reading involves real hate.  I can’t laugh at crazy anymore.  It’s too real to laugh.

  84. 84.

    Benw

    The Shitmas post reminds me that my cat has fully moved onto my kitchen counters. At first he was just sleeping up there (understandable because the dog harasses him), then I put a bowl of food up there for him. Then the other day I smelled poo and said WTF! He had mashed a roll of paper towels flat and pooped and peed on it. Now I have to watch him and shoo him down to the basement where his litter is when he gets squirrelly. I am NOT putting a litter box on the counters!!

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    @Alison Rose:

    Your first comment was made on a John Cole post titled Sunday Night Open Thread on November 28, 2010.

    You replied to this comment by Darkrose:

    You know how some folks here were insisting that the scan-and-grope wasn’t a big deal for them, and therefore shouldn’t be so for anyone else?

    Not so much. It seems as though the scanners or the people staffing them don’t know what to do with such strange and potentially threatening objects as a flannel menstrual pad. I hate to think about what they’d do if you were wearing a Diva Cup.

    with this:

    @Darkrose: Well, if menstrual blood is considered a medical liquid, maybe one would have the same super fun experience as this woman.

  91. 91.

    Miss Bianca

    And now I’ve revisited “The Legend of Shitmas” which *is* one I remember in real time. And yes, it was just as funny this time round as it was the last.

  92. 92.

    WaterGirl

    @narya:

    Your first comment was on an Anne Laurie post when she was posting TaMara’s recipe posts as Guest Posts: Thursday Recipe Exchange: COOOOOKIES! on November 16, 2012.

    I replace some of the fat in carrot cake with pumpkin (and I use butter, not oil). Pumpkin flan also works, and can be made dairy-free if needed. Very good with gingered sugared pecans. Also, pumpkin bechamel with spinach is good, either on pasta or in lasagna.

  93. 93.

    HinTN

    Here’s the thing, Cole. Your writing used to be eloquent, hilarious, descriptive. Exhibit A, The Legend of Shitmas. I read it then and laughed but I fucking laughed until I cried reading it just now.

    What gives? I know you say you’re a now a grumpy old man but surely you haven’t outgrown your capacity for chaos that you could then recount for your avid fanbase.

  96. 96.

    WaterGirl

    I think the first comments tell interesting stories about human nature.  It seems that we comment first on a particular subject that we feel comfortable in OR there is a topic that is important to us and we are willing to stick our neck out because we feel passionate about something.

  99. 99.

    Scamp Dog

    Haven’t checked to see if I qualify for the first 10, but I’d love to find out when my first comment was. I’m using the same email as I do now.

  100. 100.

    WaterGirl

    @Roonieroo:

    I thought that your first comment was on a John Cole post about his sister’s dog titled Another Teeny Tiny Request on July 14, 2013.

    I agree that Kiwi should not be rehomed to anyone else and, in all honesty, should be put down. I am a supporter of pit bulls, in general. With that said, the one and only fight our dog has been in was when he was attacked by a pit bull in the neighborhood which made me not a fan.

    But, with that said, my heart is aching for your sister and your brother. I cannot fathom my agony if one of my dogs killed a friend or family member’s cat. We have a brand new Lab puppy that has joined our family and he’s just a bit too interested in the cats. Granted it is puppy interest so I’m not terribly concerned BUT I can say he will never, ever be out of his crate when I’m not within arms reach of him until he is at least 2 years old.

    I can say that but things happen. You get distracted for just that 1 second. I have two huge dogs and it doesn’t take hardly anything for them to decide to do something together. I’ve thought a lot about that today and I choke up when I think of the agony your sister and brother must feel as well. I cannot lie and say that there isn’t an ember of anger down deep because I feel strongly that those that choose to support/have pitbulls have an extra layer of responsibility.

    I hope and pray that your sister and brother are able to find peace in this. It will take time for all of you but it will come. I feel a bit strange saying this but since John (Grumpy) and I met you in Austin, it’s not so strange. Sending our love and thoughts to you and your family in what will be another difficult night of sleep.

    But then I searched again with your nym and not your current email address, and i found this one that is really your first comment on a John Cole post titled This Is No Fun on November 1, 2006.

    It’s always hard to finally become disillusioned with a group you’ve believed in for so long. It happened to me with the Democrat party several years ago. The Democrats have gone through their periods of disgusting behavior and it is a horrible thing to witness.

    I have a large group of friends who are, what I consider, true Republicans. I miss the true Republican party. Where I might not have held their ideals, they were honest and good people and were the correct balance to a healthy Democrat party.

    Fight for your party. It will be hard but we need the true conservatives as much as we need the liberals for a healthy society and government.

  101. 101.

    Steeplejack

    @raven:

    Long thread from May 2010 with many comments by stuckinred.

    I found some hits from April 2010, but nothing before that. As Another Scott said above, Google seems to jettison “ephemeral” stuff (my term) after about 10-12 years, and nyms on an almost top 10,000 blog are definitely that. At that range a nym will usually show up in a post that has been retained (by Google) for some other reason.

    Note: I don’t pretend to know the ins and outs of Google. I’m just going by my experience and vibes as a long-time database guy. I am in awe of what they are able to do with the amount of data they handle—20 petabytes a day, supposedly. (One petabyte = 1 million gigabytes.)

    I think—but don’t quote me!—that it would be easy for someone with access to the underlying Balloon Juice SQL database to run a query that would return every unique nym and the date of their first comment, possibly even a link to that comment.

  102. 102.

    WaterGirl

    @J R in WV:

    Your first comment was on a DougJ post titled Cheaper than a discount tea bag on April 11, 2009.

    Guys,

    If you aren’t a lot richer than I am, a whole lot, President Obama is CUTTING your taxes already.

    Only the richest 2% of American taxpayers will see their tax rates return to Reagan-era tax rates, the rest of us working stiffs get a TAX CUT!

    Read a real newspaper or something to get educated about our real government tax rates.

  106. 106.

    Tony Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    There may be a hundred different things motivate someone to post a comment the first time.

    Back in the day all one hundred were “Stupid shit wingnut commentators blurred out thinking it was a smart take on whatever godawful turd of a policy they were defending today.”

    It was a magical time.

  108. 108.

    WaterGirl

    @Tony Jay:

    Your first comment was on a Betty Cracker post titled And we have liftoff… on Oct 30, 2017.  Unless you had a different name or email address?

    Gear up for a 24/7 co-ordinated hosing from all the usual suspects aimed at conveying that this is – a) Cynical overreach by the elite establishment determined to unseat the People’s President, b) Proof that Humpty Trumpty is totes in the clear y’all, so why are we even talking about this? c) Not actually happening (#FakeNews), they’re all crisis actors distracting you from good job numbers, d) Just the necessary first step in the impeachment of Hillary Clinton for treason, espionage and general bitchery, e) No big deal, remember Solyndra, that was much worse and saw more arrests, f) A Defend the 2nd Amendment starter-pistol moment – all at the same time, regardless of what actually is happening.

    Needless to say, no amount of reasoned argument is going to convince a single solitary MAGAt otherwise so, ignore the din and enjoy the show. Every successful siege starts with a breach in the outermost wall.

  109. 109.

    Tony Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    That can’t be right. I’ve been here since the mid-2000s and I’ve had that e-mail address since 2007. (ETA- I was Tony J in the old days)

    Hmmmmmm. I’m off to Google.

    ps) I do remember that comment though. I was proper pithy.

    ETA – I was comment 18 in this classic from December 2006. Can you check the e-Mail I was using then?

  110. 110.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Steeplejack: It’s Betty Bowers, no connection to Landover Baptist that I know of.

    I was a moderator for their form at one point and had a long talk with Bowers backstage on time, so to say.  Kind of really doesn’t matter now because the Fundamentalist dropped Jesus and now worship Trump. I guess the point got threw that you can’t believe the earth is 6,000 years old because The Bible says so and not believe the earth is flat or bats are birds. So they took the easy way out and made a game show host their deity.

  111. 111.

    WaterGirl

    @feebog: Your first comment was in a post by John Cole titled Stop Talking And Do Something on Dec 31, 2008.

    First time poster here. This is about as fun as politics can get. And I must admit that I have a grudging admiration for Gov. Helmet Hair and his bit FU to the entire democratic party today.

    So the real question is whether Dirty Harry is just huffing and puffing as usual, or if he really is going to lay down the gaunlet. If he does, what irony; he finally finds a spine and tries to keep an obviously qualified appointee (make that an obviously qualified black appointee filling the seat of the only black senator, who happens to be movin’ on up to the East side) from being seated.

    I do agree with those who think the stall game is in. Best case would be for Reid to call for an “investigation” into the appointment, wait for Gov. Helmet Hair to be impeached, and then let Quinn appoint Burris for the two year term. That would conincide with the “investigation” concluding that there is nothing to see here, and everyone should just move along.

    Damn. I should be the Senate Majority Leader.

  113. 113.

    WaterGirl

    @gwangung:

    Your first comment was on a post by John Cole titled Write The National Review Headline on Sept 21, 2008.

    You replied to this comment:

    That is simply NOT fucking true. Banks and other mortgage lenders have a choice of who they lend money to. No such requirement exists. They are NOT required to lend to anyone. Period.

    In order to promote poor and lower class people into the middle class and to eliminate redlining, banks were required to loosen who could receive a loan. These are the prime recipients of failed loans.

    No requirement was made to loan to anyone, a nice strawman argument. Most of the failed mortgage loans were indeed to people who shouldn’t have got them.

    In order to promote poor and lower class people into the middle class and to eliminate redlining, banks were required to loosen who could receive a loan. These are the prime recipients of failed loans.

    with this:

    I don’t think so. The math doesn’t even make sense. ALL those mortgages were from the poor and middle class?????

    That doesn’t pass the sniff test.

  114. 114.

    WaterGirl

    I got to the first 10.  hope you can make it early in line for the next post!

    piratedan
    Rusty
    Mary G
    john b
    redshift
    Scamp Dog
    JPL
    frosty
    zzyzx

    did I miss anyone?

  115. 115.

    narya

    @WaterGirl: HAH! your later comment–that we first comment on something we feel “safe” commenting on–is absolutely correct in my case! And I think I likely read for awhile before I posted, but that’s still a long damn time with you jackals. And I love you all. Even when you’re wrong.

    Thank you, WG–you do so much around here and I appreciate you.

  118. 118.

    Tony Jay

    @WaterGirl:

    What were you between 2010 and 2017?

    I… I don’t know. I thought I was me, but it turns out I wasn’t!

    This is the bit where the dramatic music kicks in and we cut to a nondescript Pentagon office.

    “He knows.”

    “Make the call. We can’t let this get away from us. Not like last time.”

  119. 119.

    karen marie

    @SixStringFanatic: I don’t know if you or someone else did, but I submitted it to “nominate a rotating tag” in the sidebar. Ha!

    It is lovely to revisit these posts. Thank you, WaterGirl!

  122. 122.

    JPL

    @WaterGirl: Any chance you can add me to the second list.   I asked at 36.    Just curious so no hurry.   thanks

    Josh Marshall mentioned John way back when.   I’m pretty sure it was during the Iraq War and the Bush presidency.

  123. 123.

    Tenar Arha

    @WaterGirl: aww thanks. Sorry.

    FWIW I just wasn’t sure you saw it bc at some point I realized I’d never tagged you so I thought “umm better to redo the post” bc I have no time sense. ;)

  124. 124.

    Slwalczak

    The Lily posts were such a nice trip down memory lane. (It can’t possibly be almost 12 years ago though.) Thanks for posting!

  131. 131.

    JPL

    @WaterGirl: I’ll go on record and say thank you for all you do.

    I have a baby day off.   Little one was supposed to start day care this month, but they might hold off.

  134. 134.

    cain

    It would be a bitch to find all my posts because Cain is a substring of McCain and well..  good luck with that.

  135. 135.

    frosty

    @WaterGirl:  I must have been too vague with my request, so I’m interested too. Search on my email, since it hasn’t changed, but my nym went from frosty to something else, then back, so it’s going to be confusing.

    Thanks for doing this for everyone! You’re a star!!

  140. 140.

    eachother

    I have enjoyed the ‘not in my memory’ walk down memory lane.

    In a small way like being there.  And insight into being here.

    What I saw, here and there could be mistaken for eachother.

  146. 146.

    RSA

    In honor of Anniversary Week, I am willing to look up the first 10 people today that chime in to ask for that.

    You’re such a kind soul, WaterGirl.

    All you takers are braver than me. I don’t even like reading what I wrote last week, much less what I said back in 2005.

  148. 148.

    soapdish

    I’m definitely a casual lurker, but it’s fun to scroll through old posts and see who the first twenty or so posters were over the years.

  149. 149.

    The Golux

    Four days late, but I’d like to know when I first posted a comment.  I don’t think I’ve ever used another nym or email.

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