Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Find someone who loves you the way trump and maga love traitors.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Trump should be leading, not lying.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

In after Baud. Damn.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

Rupert, come get your orange boy, you petrified old dinosaur turd.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Republicans in disarray!

Weird. Rome has an American Pope and America has a Russian President.

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

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

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

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

Since we are repeating ourselves, let me just say fuck that.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

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Reader Interactions

215Comments

  3. 3.

    EriktheRed

    Just watched Cornell West on Bill Maher, and the man is a moron.

    Strawman after strawman.

    Hope he doesn’t invite him back anytime soon.

  5. 5.

    dmsilev

    Sign in the elevator in my condo building: “Does anyone have a spare screen door they could give us? Ours now has a large dog-shaped hole in it”.

  7. 7.

    Schlemazel Khan

    Congrats John. I have a ton of jokes I want to make at this point but am sure they would all be taken badly so I will go with the one I think will get the \least hit:
    How you can stay sober with this race is beyond me!

  10. 10.

    Mary G

    Congrats on 729 days. I tried three or four or seven times before it stuck. If one more person had told me that relapse is part of recovery, I was going to smack them. It’s a big accomplishment, no matter how easy it seemed.

  11. 11.

    Splitting Image

    Just watched Cornell West on Bill Maher, and the man is a moron.

    I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.

    Congrats on being two years dry!

  14. 14.

    Sasha

    Congratulations! Really, that is a tremendous accomplishment. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed!

  15. 15.

    Emma

    It’s been two years already? Well, hell. Congratulations, John. Make yourself one of those marvelous meals you talk about. Indulge in your favorite dessert. You’re entitled.

  16. 16.

    lamh36

    Ok so I posted this as a question for Adam S in the last thread, but I’d like to open it up to the BJ floor, as it were…lol

    Question: Will we know if/when Trump will start receiving briefings?

    And if/when he does…with his lose lips…how would be know if he leaked security briefings…I mean how could one tell the difference between Trump lies and a true slip?

    Steve Schmidt made the point that the Russia stuff is disconcerting, but in regards to if the story has “legs” he said that before Trump gets briefings his team have to be vetted…if it came out that someone on his team was denied access…that would be a big deal, because folks would want to know why and how high up they are in the campaign Trump campaign team?

    Again, I ask though, how would we know?

  17. 17.

    JCT

    Nice John- must feel good!

    Been storming here for a few hours (Southern AZ) – big hail!

    Hanging out with my Rosie. Had to put the 14 year old sweet beagle down a couple of weeks ago and the house still feels “off”. Rosie (1 yr old Rottie-Shep mix) is super clingy – misses her big sister. The 3 cats sleep all around the beagles bed, but won’t get in it.

    The funny thing is that it’s clear that Kaleigh taught Rosie a bunch of her behaviors . Kaleigh always returned from her AM walk and immediately chased Robyn the little orange tabby. Never the other 2 cats. Now Rosie has taken over the chase. And all 3 cats have been nuzzling Rosie. Lots of sadness .

    Can’t decide what to do about adopting another dog, husband is ambivalent and we don’t have the energy / time for a puppy again. I always worry about bringing an older dog in with the cats because they think all dogs will be nice to them. I should probably not be so paranoid – it’s worked for John, after all.

    The DNC was a nice distraction from all this .

  18. 18.

    cortanya

    Cornel West is a joke. Bill seemed to realize that very early on in the exchange. Hopefully he will stop inviting him on the show. He’s irrelevant at this point

  19. 19.

    lamh36

    ETA: Apparently he’s said this before, but it still begs the question…how would be able to tell a true breech vs his usual “Trumpism” rants

    @yarotrof Yaroslav Trofimov Retweeted Ben Jacobs
    If there is now a US military base in Saudi, it is classified and mentioning it should have legal consequences.

    @Bencjacobs
    Trump is now complaining “we pay rent for our base to Saudi Arabia”

  24. 24.

    Ultraviolet Thunder

    Two years of anything makes it seem like the new normal.
    Congrats on the accomplishment.
    Again as before: we love you John.

  27. 27.

    lamh36

    @AlexParkerDC Alex Parker Retweeted
    Trump once co-owned a football league and insisted their games go up against the NFL games, destroying it.

    @realDonaldTrump
    As usual, Hillary & the Dems are trying to rig the debates so 2 are up against major NFL games. Same as last time w/ Bernie. Unacceptable!

  30. 30.

    lamh36

    Lawrence O on the interview of the Khans.

    @Lawrence 6s6 seconds ago
    .@NormOrnstein Thanks Norm. The commercials saved me from crying on tv.

  33. 33.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WarMunchkin: It is suspected that, given her work as a HRC surrogate over the past couple of years, she may be a candidate for a cabinet post. If not, DNC chair would be a good position for her.

  34. 34.

    mai naem mobile

    Congrats John. 2 years has zipped by. Cornel West was talking about Hils militarism and I thought about Nader and Gore and Dumbya getting elected and getting us involved in the awesome Iraq adventure. Dumbass.

  35. 35.

    Run, Lillian!

    Congrats on 2 years John! I have three years and 4 months August 5th. For me the second year was really tough because I had a spate of personal upheavals and the loss of a very dear friend. I stayed home a lot that year because I did not feel strong enough to deal with the world sober but I did not want to drink either. I lurked here an awful lot (I still mostly lurk), and between the politics, the great humor, and the story of your sobriety I found this place enormously comforting. Still do. Congrats and never underestimate the good you put out into the world. Even with all of the cursing. :)

  37. 37.

    Epicurus

    Congratulations, Mr. Cole. One Day at a Time, as you well know. I was screaming at the TV, listening to Dr. West’s purity trolling. He was rude to the other guests and did seem a bit off his meds. Apparently, Republicans are not the only inhabitants of Bullshit Mountain. (They do have their own channel up there, of course.)

  39. 39.

    guachi

    To add to the language discussion below:

    Allah, as others have said, is God in Arabic. A really literal translation is “the god”. Arabic doesn’t have capital letters so there isn’t any intrinsic way with the letters of differentiating between god and God like in English.

    So Allah refers to a specific being as opposed to just a deity in general.

    Re: his accent. Khan’s accent isn’t Arab but it does have most of the hallmarks of Arabs speaking English. It has that crispness and distinctness that Arabic speakers have when they speak English.

  43. 43.

    gbear

    Congrats. I’m coming up on 32 years. It can get kind of boring but it beats being dead.

  44. 44.

    Aleta

    I’m on an island for a summer job and it’s thick with fog. Tonight, food and music with friends seen once or twice a year for the last 20. It seems more improbable every year. And I don’t know why but it seems less simple to have a lot of conversations in a row about logistics. I hope it’s not TBD, trumpesian brain decay.

  46. 46.

    sigaba

    @cortanya: Brother Cornell was doing alright and then he discovered the Internet. Blogs and Twitter rot the mind of the intellectual. In the old days a brilliant genius would write five books with the hope that some day some freshman would say he read him in high school.

    Now, everyone with two brain cells to rub together gets instant gratification by the minute. And it rots their literary output. Future generations can’t read a Twitter feed.

  47. 47.

    mai naem mobile

    @WarMunchkin: that is such a great idea. Watching her in Philly I was there thinking that she should have some kind of morale booster/recruiter, for lack of a better term,position within the party.

  52. 52.

    sigaba

    @lamh36: I’ve personally never been in favor of the televised debates but if this is how he got out of them, it’s pathetic.

  53. 53.

    ? Martin

    Granholm would be a great choice to lead the DNC to win back states before the 2020 redistricting.

  54. 54.

    Schlemazel Khan

    @efgoldman:
    AA is for quitters!

    True story, my neighbor is a counselor at the famous Hazelden. He won’t talk about it but he worked with Elvis & Tommy Kramer & many others. FWIW

  55. 55.

    PigDog

    @lamh36:

    Oh please please please try to back out.

    “You can’t stand up to her? How will you stand up to [insert random RW boogeyman here]?”

  57. 57.

    sigaba

    @Emma: Future generations will be able to read a Twitter feed but they really won’t be able to capture the meaning. A tweet is a pure synthetic idea– without deep context of the moment it’s mush.

  59. 59.

    sigaba

    @PigDog: No it’ll all fall together. The media won’t dare lay a hand on him because Both Sides is the founding axiom of the establishment press. Trump’s folks don’t give a damn WHO he is or what he does, all that matters is he Drives Libs Crazy.

    And there aren’t enough undecideds to make it worth it.

  60. 60.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @WarMunchkin: Neither you nor I nor anyone else on this blog knows whether Jennifer Granholm, or any other real candidate for the job of DNC chair, has the skills requisite to be good at it. It’s pointless and dumb for any of us to have a strong, positive opinion about who should get the job.

  61. 61.

    Emma

    @sigaba: Probably. But I think we’ll start seeing serious scholarship in a few years. They are certainly great cultural artifacts. We just need the right structural and descriptive metadata to create context. We’ll see.

  62. 62.

    dmsilev

    @sigaba: The political press loves its theater, and the two big theatrical set pieces of the campaign are the conventions and the debates. If they thought Trump was trying to cheat them out of one of their favorite parts of the cycle, they’ll not be happy with him.

  63. 63.

    Elie

    Congratulations on your 2 year anniversary! SOOO important..
    I am just hurting right now even as I am optimistic and so impressed by the Democratic convention… There are so many people who are as biased against women and particularly Hillary, as they are against blacks. Many of my women friends — I am just appalled… they talk about Hillary like the Republicans and yet when asked specifics, really fall back into generalities. For the first time, I think after she is elected (and I think that she will be), she might actually have it worse than Obama…. the hatred is so deep, so irrational! Without evidence, she has to prove things no other male candidate has ever had to.. Its so fucking depressing and infuriating!

  64. 64.

    dmsilev

    @efgoldman: Without knowing much about the dog in question, sounds like she feels comforted and protected by you, and hence doesn’t react to “normal” threats like the motorcycle.

  65. 65.

    Aleta

    We made a lobster pho (faux pho) and put a small amount of fresh corn, radish, fresh basil, lobster and 2 cherry tomatoes in each bowl, and some kimchi or hot sauce if wanted. Cooked the empty shells in the broth with noodles for awhile to add more flavor and then ladled it on top. Didn’t know how it would turn out, but it was good.

  66. 66.

    sigaba

    @Emma: I want data not metadata. We need to make the metadata data. (You know my work study job in college was in the USC library!)

    @dmsilev: They love their theater but ehhhhhhh it so much work. Maybe they decide Trumps Twitter feed is theater enough.

  67. 67.

    Ruckus

    Good on ya John.
    Sobriety can be a difficult road in a society that accepts drinking so readily. I’m going on 3 1/2 yrs with no alcohol. It feels better. It’s amazing how many people are on the same boat.

  68. 68.

    Major Major Major Major

    Somebody noted that searches for ‘register to vote’ spiked right after Khizr Khan’s speech, so I went to go play with Google Trends. It’s true. Then I started looking at some of the data for other time serieses in the election. Guess what date was far and away the peak interest for ‘register to vote’ in California? June 7. D’oh.

  69. 69.

    PigDog

    @sigaba:

    I get what you’re saying…maybe I’m hoping against hope that enough taunting would push him over the edge, get us to Peak Trump and alienate all but the Crazy 27%.

    I don’t know how you test the hypothesis of “how far can you push him” without causing serious damage to…well, everything.

  70. 70.

    sigaba

    Presently in a wine bar in Hollywood and the table next door:

    “If Donald Trump won… My job would be in jeopardy.”

  74. 74.

    sigaba

    @efgoldman: Trump thinks he is smart but I think Trump, notwithstanding his estimation of his intelligence, does the ABSOLUTE MINIMUM required to get the job done and fights like hell to do an ounce more.

  77. 77.

    Ruckus

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
    I wrote the other day, does any of us even know what the job of DNC chair actually is? I doubt that we do. A lot of us have or have had jobs that people not distinctly in the know would have a clue as to what we do all day. I’ve had a couple of them, one my own business. You couldn’t even explain it properly without teaching the people what the tools are, let alone what you do with them.

  79. 79.

    ? Martin

    @PigDog: No, I think that’s a legitimate strategy that Clinton might employ – just troll the shit out of him until he snaps. Not convinced it’s the best strategy, but in this situation it’s one to consider.

  81. 81.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @WarMunchkin: She seems to really love the conventions. In 2012 “I was high on democracy.”. She seems to be perfect for DNC chair based on her public persona. Since she was also a governor, she should have good campaigning and management chops. She would seem to be a perfect fit.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  82. 82.

    sigaba

    @Ruckus: “I wrote the other day, does any of us even know what the job of DNC chair actually is?”

    I assume it involves lots of meetings, and signing off on things, and falling on your sword when random shit you had nothing to do with happens. Like all middle management.

  83. 83.

    James E Powell

    I’m looking at my Amazon Prime video options and I’m specifically looking at Season 4 Vikings or Season 4 Orphan Black.

    Any advices?

  85. 85.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:

    he thinks he is smart.

    That’s wrong. He Knows he’s smart.
    He’s wrong of course but than that’s par for the course.

  86. 86.

    divF

    @Trentrunner: I just glanced at the opening piece before going to the comments, which were all congratulations. I thought what – for sitting through that interview ?

    Then I went back and read more carefully. Congratulations, John Cole.

    ETA: just so you don’t think I’m totally crazed, there is an ad that inserts itself after the first two lines of the OP, making it easy to skip that to read on.

    ETA2: I see chooper @4 also did what I did. Probably others too.

  87. 87.

    lurker dean

    @James E Powell: i’m a big fan of orphan black, haven’t seen vikings. started watching mr robot tonight, i really like it. made it through a couple of episodes then amazon prime video crapped out and has been out all night. seems to be a nationwide issue according to twitter.

  88. 88.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Do you like dogs? Play with them when they are around you? Dogs can sense people who like them. I once amazed my ex’s academic colleagues by getting her advisor’s shih-tzu to like me. Christ, wooing an evil dog is easier than spending an evening talking to marketing people.

  91. 91.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @WarMunchkin: I think Granholm was supposed to take over from Kaine or at least was Obama’s first choice, but backed out, which is how DWS got the job

  92. 92.

    Ruckus

    @sigaba:
    Ahhhhh, assume. I try not to do that, I can be a big enough ass as it is.
    But really that’s an issue for many people, they think they know things, like how things work or what someone else’s job is. Look at that moron R senator who didn’t think it was his job to waste his time on advising and consenting on USSC nominees.

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Here’s the answer I posted for you:

    My understanding is that the President, in combination with the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of Central Intelligence will determine and establish the guidelines for what each party’s nominee gets and who, within their organizations, may also be read on. As for counterintelligence countermeasures to know if he leaks something in a rally, interview, press conference, and/or debate? I have no idea what those are, but I’m sure they exist. Finally, as to the alleged secret base in Saudi Arabia: I know its been reported on by the BBC and others in the past year. I don’t know anything beyond that. We do have personnel deployed there doing normal military partnering with the Saudi Ministry of Defense. Here’s the fact sheet from the Department of State:
    state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3584.htm

  94. 94.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh36: Someone doesn’t seem to understand the independent commission on debates and that they picked those dates before either candidate had clinched the nomination.

  96. 96.

    cokane

    West has been coasting on some weird lefty spiritualism for some time now. If everyone’s your brother, it’s the same as nobody being your brother, for one common example. His every sentence, when looked at skeptically, have been nonsense for quite some time

  99. 99.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    Dogs will bond with an animal they feel is the leader. I imagine they feel comfortable with a leader. Especially one who pays attention to them in a way others don’t.

  100. 100.

    Miss Bianca

    Mazel Tov, John! I remember when you made the announcement that you were going clean and sober. Good for you!

  101. 101.

    lamh35

    @Adam L Silverman: yep got it thx.

    so it could be likely that even if he did beech protocol we wouldn’t really know unless FBI said so.

    I just can’t believe Trump would be able to keep from riffing off the cuff with classified info just to be disruptive

  102. 102.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Ruckus: I think at least part of the job is going on TV, and I think Granholm is better at that than DWS, who I always thought was pretty bad. I believe part of it is also recruiting candidate, I’ve seen a lot of people say DWS is terrible at that, but I always want to ask: Do you want to put your life on hold so that Michelle Malking can peek through your windows and paw through your garbage?

  103. 103.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @PigDog: He backed out of debate because he was afraid of Megyn Kelly. Of course he’s (likely) not going to debate Hillary. I said this months ago. I don’t know why people think he’ll do anything different – he’s shown us who he is.

    Of course, I could be wrong… ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  104. 104.

    lamh35

    well I’m tired as FUQ right now. I’ve got to catch up on sleep I lost thx to the DNC.

    Good night BJ

  105. 105.

    Humdog

    @efgoldman: Were you the only one telling the dog how to behave in a firm voice? I’ve had experience with nervous dogs who know they are not alpha but when no one plays the alpha for/to them they act out. If you gently put the dog in its “place”, it may finally be able to relax knowing there is an alpha in charge. The wanting to be under your touch, like under your protection, may be a clue.

    And congrats to John and the many others who chimed in with their “sober since” dates!

  106. 106.

    sigaba

    @Adam L Silverman: There is this semi-infamous incident, at the Kennedy-Nixon debates, where Kennedy started talking Russian military ties with Cuba, and all of a Nixon’s people were enraged that Kennedy had violated national security bringing them up in a debate, but Nixon never called him on it. (The details in my current condition escape me. Congratulations on two years John!). Kennedy of course, at the time, was a senator and deeply involved in US foreign policy; both Kennedy and Nixon were briefed in to all kinds of nonsense, those days between Guatemala and Bay of Pigs.)

  109. 109.

    cokane

    I see some Juicers are indulging the fantasy that Trump will skip the debates. This is definitely commentary by people who have not been observing him. He ducked ONE late debate after attending and definitely relishing his time in all the others. I might be moved to think he’ll try to duck the final debate. But this man is not going to skip the debates. Remember this whole fucking thing is a vanity project to have the world take him seriously, he’s been waiting for this chance.

  111. 111.

    magurakurin

    Congratulations to you, John. Facing the world sober can be tough, but it sure beats facing the world drunk.

  112. 112.

    sigaba

    @efgoldman: “Question: If he bags the debates, does that also mean no VP debates?”

    I kinda want to be a fly on the wall of the Trump-Pence dialogues. I know Trump is smart but venal and lazy, but Pence is a straightforward moron. Like Ron Burgandy and Rick Tamland (with the weather).

  113. 113.

    Adam L Silverman

    @guachi: Its not The God, its just God. Its not an elliding of al and lah. Its one of the traditional ancient Semitic names for the Deity: El, Eloha/Allah, Um, Ba’al, Moloch (Malik), and Ya (Yahweh). Allah (Eloha) technically means Lord, or is usually used that way in the ancient texts. El does as well. Moloch means king, Ba’al master. No one seems to know what Ya (Yahweh) actually means. Um is also interesting. Its ancient meaning, other than as a name for the Deity is lost. Its translated in modern Arabic as mother or mother’s brother or illiterate. So when Muhammed is referred to as the Ummi prophet (rasul Um) it normally gets translated as the illiterate prophet as a way to further bolster the revelation of the Quran. But the reality is that it is most likely supposed to be translated as prophet or messenger of God (Um). The early Muslims didn’t know its ancient meaning, recognized that the prophet of the maternal uncle made no sense, but that the illiterate prophet (at least) did contextually. So that’s what they went with.

    For a great discussion of this stuff, I highly recommend:
    muhammadanism.com/Margoliouth/relation_arab_israel/relation_arab_israel.pdf

  116. 116.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Did you ever try to tame a shih-tzu? I love dogs in general, but that breed was literally bred to bite ankles. I made one give up for belly scratches.

  118. 118.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @efgoldman: You might remind her of someone she trusted.

    Or she might have been worn out after doing all the laps and jumping. ;-)

    Our first dog, Colleen, loved us dearly and hated to have to stay at a kennel when we went on long trips. One time we took her there to drop her off and one of the staff guys saw she was upset. He got on his knees, didn’t do much else but look at her. She saw him and came over and after a minute or so she was wagging her tail with her arms on his shoulders and just in such bliss. It was amazing. He had some sort of dog-whisperer connection with her.

    Dogs are funny beasts. Enjoy the connection!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  119. 119.

    sigaba

    @cokane: I have no idea what he wants. If he wanted anything less than the presidency he would have dropped out months ago.

  121. 121.

    sigaba

    @Adam L Silverman: “Its not an elliding of al and lah. Its one of the traditional ancient Semitic names for the Deity: El, Eloha/Allah…”

    This is a brilliant explication but it seems like the sort of thing a dad and uncle could get into an argument over over Thanksgiving dinner (or Eid).

  123. 123.

    magurakurin

    @Ruckus: this is true but the longer your sobriety the easier it becomes. People stop prodding you when you say. “I haven’t a drink in over 25 years” Topic changes quickly then.

  124. 124.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Max Boot ‏@ MaxBoot 1h1 hour ago
    Max Boo
    GOP has now become the party of people spitting on veterans home from war.
    Jeremy Diamond @ JDiamond1
    Trump gets crowd of supporters in Denver to boo retired 4-star General John Allen: “He’s a failed general.”

    Did Max Boot work for Bush-Cheney, or was he just a war-cheering pundit?

  125. 125.

    Miss Bianca

    @JCT: I have a Rotti-Shep mix too! Anxious Dog is Anxious – but I think that’s part of her guard dog schtick, for me anyway. She’s the older of my two dogs, and was “mother” to my Siberian Husky pup when she came into the household, which was a godsend because it gave her something to fixate on that wasn’t me!

  127. 127.

    Adam L Silverman

    @lamh35: The folks that will make the decision on this stuff are not known for having a sense of humor. This will be locked down very tightly.

  129. 129.

    sigaba

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I feel sorry for Max Boot. I’ve worked in movies my whole life, and no motherfucker is ever going to stand in front of a thousand people and say “Oh, that Kathryn Bigelow, she’s a failed director,” or “This whole movie thing is lame isn’t it!” I can’t imagine how they commit themselves to these things.

    And like, Max Boot is a monster. But still, pity.

  131. 131.

    Miss Bianca

    @Elie: I am hoping not, and I am also looking for a way to defuse what I see as a lot of misogynistic bullshit in people I thought I respected. Since I am not a natural-born diplomat, I’m not sure what the best way to handle it is. You sound like you’re a lot more patient than I am.

  132. 132.

    Mary G

    Wow, late to the party, but I just read the Politico article and watched Mr. and Mrs. Khan on O’Donnell. What an amazing man. Not even a Democrat! Very ballsy of Hillary to let him speak off the cuff.

    I have had a Twitter account since 2011 and only tweeted four times, but I tweeted at Ryan and McConnell to answer him.

  133. 133.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @magurakurin: Do people prod? Even in college, my heavy drinking fraternity had a rule that said that if you said that you don’t drink, that is the end of it. We weren’t paragons; if you did drink, you could be pressured to drink a lot.

  134. 134.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @Adam L Silverman: Interesting!

    Hitchens often made a big deal in his yellow-covered book about Muhammad being illiterate. It would be funny if he (and others) was tripped up by a mis- (or ambiguous) translation.

    Cheers,
    Scott.
    (Who agrees that people trying to figure out what people were saying 500 years in the future from Twitter are doomed!)

  136. 136.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: As far as I know we post whatever personnel need to be there. I do know that bibles – Jewish or Christian – are forbidden to be brought in. As are other religious symbology. I’ve never been posted there, nor has anyone ever asked me to go and put eyes on what they’re working on their, so I don’t know the specifics. As a result I have no idea what they do about chaplains/religious services, things like that.

  137. 137.

    ? Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, it was about the bulk data gathering program. Revealed that the old program was limited but the new one captured everything, as he described it. That seemed surprisingly non-vague at the time.

  139. 139.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    I do vaguely recall it being reported that the first Bush administration had to hammer out a side agreement/waiver from the Saudis about allowing Jews in boots on their soil.

  142. 142.

    Ripley (Whiskey Fire version)

    @efgoldman:

    I have a rat terrier who’s very similar. Great big jumper and a lover, but god help the fool who breaks in and gets near the bed while Mama’s sleeping. (or if I’m napping on the couch) Dog’ll tear your ankles off your legs if you mess with us while we’re lying down.

    The corgi’s a bit of a guard dog, too. But mostly a lover.

  143. 143.

    Felonius Monk

    @lamh36:

    I can’t imagine anyone in the Trump camp who wants the disagreeable duty, after the first debate if there is one, of handing The Donald a bloody plastic bag with something horrifying in it and saying, “Mr. Trump, Hillary said I should give this to you for a souvenir.”

    The Donald will of course make a face and ask, “What is that?” And the Trump staffer will have to say, “Those are your testicles, sir.” Whereupon The Donald will discover for the first time that during the debate he lost something without even realizing it.

    So I’m saying there’s a better than fair chance that Trump’s handlers will find an excuse not to let him debate. Any excuse.

    (Source)

  144. 144.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    cfr.org/experts/national-security-warfare-terrorism/max-boot/b5641

    Max Boot
    Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies

    Expertise
    U.S. foreign policy; defense policy; military history; terrorism and guerrilla warfare.

    Programs
    Roundtable Series on National Security Affairs

    BioProjectsPublicationsEventsPress
    Bio
    Max Boot is Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow in National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He is a military historian and foreign-policy analyst who has been called one of the “world’s leading authorities on armed conflict” by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Boot is also a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard and the Los Angeles Times, and a regular contributor to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Commentary, and other publications.

    Boot is the author of three widely acclaimed books: the New York Times bestseller Invisible Armies: An Epic History of Guerrilla Warfare from Ancient Times to the Present, which the Wall Street Journal said “is destined to be the classic account of what may be the oldest as well as the hardest form of war”; War Made New: Technology, Warfare, and the Course of History, 1500 to Today, which was hailed as a “magisterial survey of technology and war” by the New York Times; and The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, which won the 2003 General Wallace M. Greene Jr. Award from the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation as the best nonfiction book pertaining to Marine Corps history and has been placed on Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy professional reading lists.

    He is now writing two books for Norton/Liveright: a biography of Ronald Reagan and The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Experience in Vietnam.

    Boot has served as an advisor to U.S. commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was also a senior foreign policy advisor to John McCain’s presidential campaign in 2007–08, a defense policy advisor to Mitt Romney’s campaign in 2011–12, and the head of the Counter-Terrorism Working Group for Marco Rubio’s campaign in 2015-2016.

    Boot is a frequent public speaker and guest on radio and television news programs, both at home and abroad. He has lectured on behalf of the U.S. State Department and at many military institutions, including the Army, Navy, and Air War Colleges, the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School, West Point and the Naval Academy. In 2004, he was named by the World Affairs Councils of America as one of “the 500 most influential people in the United States in the field of foreign policy.” In 2007, he won the Eric Breindel Award for Excellence in Opinion Journalism, given annually to a writer who exhibits “love of country and its democratic institutions” and “bears witness to the evils of totalitarianism.”

    Before joining the Council in 2002, Boot spent eight years as a writer and editor at the Wall Street Journal, the last five as op-ed editor. From 1992 to 1994 he was an editor and writer at the Christian Science Monitor.

    Boot holds a bachelor’s degree in history, with high honors, from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in history from Yale University. He was born in Russia, grew up in Los Angeles, and now lives in the New York area.

  146. 146.

    sigaba

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s fair but I remember my family having a lot of semantic arguments at family gatherings. It seems like two Muslims could see what they want in the denotative rendition of “Allah”.

    (a lot of western interpretations of Islam strike me as bloodless and academic (like WASPs explaining Christmas to a Heathen). That’s what I’m saying.)

  147. 147.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Yes and no. Siegel and Schuster basically based Superman’s origin story on Moses. Jor-El’s escape pod is the basket Moses mother places him in. The interstellar trajectory between Krypton and Earth is the Nile. Martha Kent is Pharoah’s wife. Luthor is his stepbrother. While I don’t think it was planned, even Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, who is sent to earth to protect her baby cousin is a parallel for Miriam. The space Jesus stuff is a Zach Snyder reinvention.

  148. 148.

    ? Martin

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Yeah, well awfully convenient of him to step up now. I don’t recall him protesting when they went after Max Cleland or when they trotted out the purple-heart band-aids at the 2004 GOP convention.

    Only now does he object that the GOP has nominated a candidate he can’t back, not then when he could.

  150. 150.

    Adam L Silverman

    @I’mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet: There are a number of these in the Quran. You have to understand that the society that Muhammed came out of wasn’t so much illiterate as proto to semi-literate. And as a result words dropped out of the language. Another great example is hemer. Hemir is usually translated as alcohol in Arabic even though it has no real meaning in the language. The translation is based on the context. It is forbidden to drink from a vessel containing hemer. Hemer is an older Semitic word for pitch; the tar/petroleum based sealant used for water proofing. I can’t prove this, but my professional estimate was that the commandment was intended to prohibit drinking from vessels that had been waterproofed with pitch. There is an analogous provision in the Torah. But the Arabs at the time had lost the meaning of the word. So they thought about what was something you could drink out a vessel that could be prohibited. Water wasn’t going to be forbidden – that made no sense. Neither would milk or juice. But alcohol might make sense. So hemer, in Arabic, picked up a new meaning via inference in terms of making sense of the context.

  151. 151.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Oh, am way too fully conversant in the Supes stuff.

    Ridiculously trivial: There is a gentleman on this island one of whose names really, legally, is Jor-el. Bills himself as “Evolutionary Agent and Consulting Synergist.”

  153. 153.

    RealityBites

    @efgoldman: probably separation anxiety. Poor pup needed to be reassured with its person gone. You and your wife’s visit upset the household routine. Terriers can be pretty OCD.

  154. 154.

    Adam L Silverman

    @? Martin: I’m honestly amazed that more spillage doesn’t happen. He certainly didn’t intend to leak. And other stuff is just silly. For instance, the news media has covered certain things, so everyone knows about them, but those with clearances can’t technically talk about them. It is what it is.

  156. 156.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: It wouldn’t surprise me. I supervised one of the Saudi general officers’ research project at USAWC my final year there. I’m not sure if he new about my religion, but it didn’t seem to affect the working relationship.

  159. 159.

    reality-based (the original, not the troll)

    @WarMunchkin:

    i love Jennifer – but i want Howard Dean back as the chair of the DNC. He was responsible for the Dems retaking congress in 2006- fuck you, Rahm, you perpetual fuck-up and glory hog.

    Dean believed in building the party county by county, state by state, rather than paying big bucks to useless DC-based consultants. I miss him.

    Speaking of incompetence – I’m looking at you, DWS – how many GOP congressmen will run unopposed in this election, because our candidate recruitment sucked? In 2014, there were 16 unopposed GOP congressmen – and the filing deadline has already passed in a lot of states.

    Bring back Howard!

  161. 161.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    Superman is the creation of a couple of Jewish teenagers, as is well-known, and the link to Moses is already too obvious to miss. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if there were other connections.

  162. 162.

    Lizzy L

    The Houston Chronicle, which usually endorses Republicans and rarely endorses this early, has officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for President.

    “Any one of Trump’s less-than-sterling qualities – his erratic temperament, his dodgy business practices, his racism, his Putin-like strongman inclinations and faux-populist demagoguery, his contempt for the rule of law, his ignorance – is enough to be disqualifying. His convention-speech comment, “I alone can fix it,” should make every American shudder. He is, we believe, a danger to the Republic.”

  163. 163.

    JCT

    @Miss Bianca: Hah- that sounds familiar!

    She is a good (and scary) barker when someone comes to the door, but if someone is friendly to her she gets her “ohhh no” face on and hides. As my husband usually says “the Rottweiler is weak in this one”. But she is an amazing sweetheart. I wish we had the time for a puppy, she would be a good “mom” I think.

  164. 164.

    Elie

    @Miss Bianca:

    Hey Miss B!

    I am just trying to salvage people I think could be on our side — but I gotta say — I want to scream and just tear some of the “logic” of these folks apart… but what good would that do? I just know that I will never feel the same about them as thinking women with the ability to really see things. It will seriously effect my relationships with them… What bugs me the most is that they are unreacheable through any form of communication… they hold their beliefs and will not discuss or question… It makes me just want to scream and I don’t know a way to address it…

  165. 165.

    Louise

    Coming out of lurkdom because it’s worth it to say “Congratulations, John.” As someone above posted, it *is* a BFD.

  167. 167.

    Adam L Silverman

    @? Martin: Its not so much that, its that even the just normally literate Arabs that were becoming Muslims didn’t have the background to understand a lot of the text. Its one thing to understand it in terms of accepting the faith. Its another to be able to distill it into a system and apply it. If you go through the early books on fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence/Islamic law), you can find whole sections that are word for word translations from the talmud or close enough paraphrases. When the first generation of fuquha (legal scholars) in Khufa and especially Baghdad had to interpret stuff, with no real tradition/background to do so, its pretty clear they sought out the local rabbinic authorities and asked them what these commandments and rules meant and how to apply them. Especially when there was no clear tradition (hadith) from the Prophet and his companions. I remember doing some work in grad school for one of my professors looking at the fiqh surrounding rib’a (usury). In Hebrew this is riviit. Same Semitic root – to swell up (specifically from a snake bite). The Arabic explanation of how to apply the commandment through the fiqh was word for word from the older Hebrew explanations for the Judaic equivalent. It was pretty clear what had happened up to the application to all interest.

  168. 168.

    NotMax

    The clip Maddow showed of Trump railing on about the horrible things Tim Kaine did as governor of New Jersey* is beyond laughable, it’s pathetic.

    *That was Tom Kean, a Republican. Tim Kaine is from Virginia politics.

  169. 169.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sigaba: Now I’m tracking. I’m approaching this as an outsider trained to comparatively study religion who has a lot of background, though only ever middling success in speaking, in the basis and etymology of the language behind the text. What you’re reading is really an academic explanation (exercise), not one of faith. And it is most certainly not meant to take anything away from the acceptance and practice of that faith.

  171. 171.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    Whoa. Just saw a TV ad for Ashley Madison. It was after midnight on Sundance, but still. In that business you have to advertise on TV?

  172. 172.

    Tissue Thin Pseudonym

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: That’s the other thing. Chair of the DNC isn’t some plum position that everyone wants to have. It’s more like trying to get an academic to agree to be department chair and have to put up with all sorts of administrative bullshit that takes away from their research time. No one actually wants the job, someone has to reluctantly agree to take it.

    The RNC seems to do it differently, with apparatchiks serving as the chair rather than elected politicians, or one that recently stepped down. For the Reince Priebuses of the world, it probably is a desired promotion.

  173. 173.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, who founded what became DC and, IIRC, was still there when the first Superman story was purchased (he later lost control to creditors) was quite the colorful piece of work in his own right.

    Although his tenure wasn’t lengthy, have always felt the industry ought to create an award named after him to honor his crucial role in practically single-handedly creating a comic book business offering product beyond reprinting newspaper strips.

  175. 175.

    reality-based (the original, not the troll)

    @efgoldman:

    well, i agree – and i WAS a marketing person for a dozen years or so, in CA. Oh God, Powerpoint ate my brain back in 97. (in my defense, i mostly hung out with the engineers, smoking in the parking lot.)

    was a tech journalist for 5 years b4 selling out, could never believe the hours of powerpoints they inflicted in reporters – then went to marketing and was expected to create them! karma was a bitch.

  176. 176.

    dogwood

    @reality-based (the original, not the troll):
    Howard Dean got a pretty good assist from George W Bush, so let’s not overstate his role. And I love how progressives who adore Dean’s 50 state strategy conveniently leave out the part where he says we need to appeal to the people who drive pick ups waving Confederate flags. I’ll never understand how this moderate governor became such a favorite of the left.

  177. 177.

    Hob

    @Adam L Silverman: “Luthor is his stepbrother”

    Slight nitpick, since you seemed to be talking about what Siegel and Schuster had in mind, rather than later generations of Superman mythology: Luthor originally had no past connection with Superman, he showed up as a fully formed independent villain. The stuff about him growing up in or near Smallville was added in 1960.

  178. 178.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Priebus was put in because he’s Scott Walker’s outside fixer/bagman. Or was. That tied the RNC to the Kochs, who’s preferred candidate was Governor Walker. It didn’t quite work out as planned for anyone.

  179. 179.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Hob: I’m tracking, it just conveniently works out. As did the Supergirl parallel to Miriam.

  180. 180.

    Tom Q

    @NotMax: It was even worse than I thought (tonight was the first I saw the clip): He spoke (mistakenly) of Tom Kean, but also said he was a very bad governor because the first thing he did was sign a huge tax increase. But that tax increase was actually done by Jim Florio, Kean’s successor (it was necessary, because Kean, like most GOPers of the era, had cut taxes to a point where only tax increases could bridge the deficit).

    I know this comes as no news flash here, but Trump is really a deeply ignorant human being,

  182. 182.

    Hob

    @reality-based (the original, not the troll): how many GOP congressmen will run unopposed in this election, because our candidate recruitment sucked? In 2014, there were 16 unopposed GOP congressmen

    I would be more impressed by that statistic if you could provide any context, like for instance corresponding numbers for previous election years. Just pointing out that some elections are uncontested is not in itself evidence that this is 1. due to our candidate recruitment sucking (as opposed to other factors, like gerrymandered districts being so overwhelmingly Republican that it’d be a waste of the Dem party’s resources to run some random cannon fodder), and 2. the fault of a particular party official.

  183. 183.

    Hob

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, it’s one of those cases of convergent mythology due to certain story elements (like, “bitter rivals grew up together”) being hard to resist. That kind of thing happens over and over again in superhero comics— probably not so much due to anything inherent to that genre or to a particular character, just that when a story is being reworked over decades by many hands, people will be tempted to streamline things into a familiar groove.

  185. 185.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    OK deserved that.
    Some southern senator who didn’t think it was the senates job to advise and consent on supreme court nominees. Which is one of only a few jobs of theirs that’s listed in the constitution. He’s not running for the job, he has the job. And it should go without saying, but I’m going to anyway, what a fucking moron.
    Tried for 30 seconds to find it with the google but no luck. However I did spot a federalist paper that the constitution doesn’t require the senate basically to do anything. I however can read English and have read article II and it most certainly does say they have to advise and consent with a 2/3 majority. Fucking federalist society have been trying to rewrite the document for how many years?

  186. 186.

    Ruckus

    @magurakurin:
    Was not a heavy drinker but could see the road ahead and didn’t like the direction that it seemed to be going in. So I stopped. Now I just tell people I don’t drink. You can tell the heavy drinkers because they look at you like you just took away their air. Most people just don’t care that much. Which I find to be very nice.

  189. 189.

    Miss Bianca

    @reality-based (the original, not the troll): I was looking at “Howard Dean” and thinking you’d written “Howard the Duck” for DNC.

    All right, it’s time to go to bed.

    ETA: I don’t think it’s as easy as we might suppose, a 50-state, county-by-county strategy. I’m looking at my deep-red county, and the moderate Republicans, who just won the primary election, would be Democrats somewhere else. But they can’t possibly win as Democrats. What do you do under those circumstances?

  195. 195.

    Gemina13

    Congratulations, John. Having watched my older brother struggle, and succeed, in fighting drug and alcohol addiction, I appreciate the strength it takes to face down the beast. The close ties between it and depression, PTSD, and other mental & emotional traumas are also just beginning to be understood in the same way as the genetic component.

    Two years is damn good. My brother always said things got easier for him after the second year; it became less what he expected to have to do (“how do I avoid being in situations where I might be exposed to booze?”) and more ingrained habit (drinking water or soda, or just not getting involved in social drinking situations). I foresee BJ celebrating your five-year anniversary with gusto.

    Re: Cornel West – I knew he was a fucking purity troll when I read his criticisms of Obama, but when his protege Michael Eric Dyson scorched him in a widely-read essay, I wondered how many people who really know him roll their eyes when he opens his mouth (or writes an article) and mutter, “Oh, hell, it’s that asshole again.”

  196. 196.

    Kropadope

    @Miss Bianca:

    would be Democrats somewhere else. But they can’t possibly win as Democrats. What do you do under those circumstances?

    Find a basis to work with these individuals and set a new precedent for interpartisan cooperation?

  197. 197.

    Ruckus

    @Gemina13:

    or just not getting involved in social drinking situations

    This. But it does limit you somewhat. In the end I found that just saying no thanks is the best reward. Not everyone has a problem with alcohol, and I think that includes me. But I wanted to head off the crap I’ve seen plenty of people go through. Including a boss I had who had been a heavy drinker since I first met him. But at one point the drinking stopped being something he did for himself and something that he did to hide from the world. Or maybe he’d always been hiding and it had been working. And then it stopped. So you can stop hiding or you can drink more. He drank more. I stopped. It was hell having to work for him. And the company had stuffed him off in a corner, probably hoping he’d quit. So I had to put up with his drinking and him being pissed off about the job and maybe even the drinking. I hated going to work. One of my best days, leaving that job. Stopping drinking completely came from that decision and was another good day. People think that drinking solves their problems or at least makes them livable. But it does the exact opposite.

  198. 198.

    Ruckus

    @efgoldman:
    Well it’s kind of hard to say that just because there is no penalty they don’t have to do it. That is the job, just because you can’t fire them or shoot them or take away their library cards doesn’t mean there is no requirement to execute the duties of the office. I’d bet the framers didn’t have it in mind that some morons would decide to not do the job. Because the job doesn’t mean they have to accept whomever the president nominates. They could say no, if they weren’t such infantile assholes.

  199. 199.

    VOR

    @Ruckus: @Ruckus: I think it is Thom Tillis. IIRC he also believes the government mandate that restaurant employees wash their hands after going to the bathroom is overreach because the Market will take care of disease.

  200. 200.

    Gemina13

    @Ruckus:

    My brother has serious depression issues. Hell, the whole family does; throw in a family tendency towards alcoholism and you’ve got our mother and three of us fighting the twin urges to drown in liquor or get drowned for good. I found other things to get drowned in – namely, books and writing – and have just had to fight crippling anxiety and depression for decades. My brother used alcohol and, for a time, black tar heroin and cocaine, to battle his demons.

    The end for him came when the alcohol stopped working. He was drinking more, hurting more, and grasping for something to save him. He told me that one night, he went for a walk. At the end of it, looking into a storm drain, he sent out a plea to God, the Universe, whoever was listening: to find some peace, or find the courage to end it all. He decided that, instead of suicide, he was going to find the peace he wanted.

    First, he saw a doctor. The doctor prescribed Wellbutrin for his depression. It also gave him horrifically vivid nightmares, so after a while he switched to another antidepressant – I want to say Celexa, but I’m not sure. Anyway, he also quit drinking the same year. With one or two relapses, he’s been sober since 2006. But then he found his social life was gone. His friends were, like him, mostly contractors, and after work, their idea of relaxing was to kill a six-pack and maybe do some shots. They couldn’t understand why he didn’t drink anymore (“c’mon, man, one beer ain’t gonna kill ya” was the line he said he heard most often), and he found he had nothing in common with many of them without the alcohol.

    So now he volunteers at our mom’s church, helping out the elderly, doing work on the weekends with the homeless outreach group, reading, hiking, and attempting to prospect for gold or diamonds in Arizona. He’s become more of a recluse than he was before. But his mind is sharp, his reflexes are still good, and he’s been relatively happy for years.

  201. 201.

    Bryan

    Hope I’m not too late to the thread to add my congratulations on your second anniversary, John. I remember well your post that you had decided to quit — I had shared it with a friend who was at the same place you were, and though other illness/health issues took him before he was able to make real progress, he found your posts on the issue motivational, and for that I thank you on his behalf.

    Terrible battle, impressive accomplishment, yayy, John!

  202. 202.

    Mustang Bobby

    Congratulations, John, on two years. I’m coming up on 24 in October, but it’s not the number of days but the quality of them that matters.

  203. 203.

    Gvg

    @efgoldman: owners may be the reason the dog is not calm. They may be rewarding misbehavior with attention and ignoring good behavior . A different possibility is that they are just nervous themselves and make the dog insecure.

  204. 204.

    HeartlandLiberal

    John, just to let you know how much I understand and appreciate your achievement, since, as you know from your reaction to one of my comments earlier this week, I have a son who is a fifty year old hardcore, since mid-teens alcoholic. Nothing we could do in his childhood helped. Then he was out on the street from 19 on. So, as a parent who lives with the daily pain of a son whose life was truly wasted completely by alcohol, I can only say, you made the right decision two years ago, and wish you many many more years of sobriety and freedom from what can be the most crippling and destructive addiction Also, thanks for this blog. It is one of four blogs on politics and current events that I start my day with. One of the best.

  205. 205.

    Mr. Mack

    Congrats John, I remember when this started, I remember reading some painful posts, so this is great news.

    @efgoldman: What Gvg said above. My dog expert friend says one huge mistake dog owners make is not recognizing stress in them, then interacting in high pitched sounds. For instance, she says just coming home after being away from your dog is stressful for them. Nothing to do with not being happy about it, but stressful nonetheless. She advocates ignoring them for a few minutes until they calm down. It is NOT easy to do, Your lack of enthusiasm may have well put the dog at ease.

  207. 207.

    Procopius

    Two years! Wow! Congratulations. You may not realize it yet, but I hope some old timers have explained to you that, hard as it is to believe, it just keeps getting better and better.

  208. 208.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kropadope: Well…that’s what we do. A core group of Democrats actually re-registetered as Republicans so we could elect some sane new Republicans. But that’s not quite the same thing as just recruiting people to run as Democrats in a county where there’s no chance they’ll get elected.

  210. 210.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Major Major Major Major: You remind me of my first introduction to Howard the Duck, in the vendors’ area at Balticon (the local SF convention) many years ago. I opened up one of the issues offered for sale to the first page, & he was walking down a city street, muttering

    I came back to Cleveland to nurse an old memory, & discovered the patient had died!

    Now after the Trumpster fire that concluded 9 days back, how fucking a propos is that???

  211. 211.

    The Lodger

    @Felonius Monk: Trump’s testicles are already accounted for. The next time you see a picture of Putin wearing a shirt, check out the cufflinks.

  212. 212.

    Tehanu

    @reality-based (the original, not the troll):

    I’m a technical writer with a rather narrow specialty — policies & procedures — and whenever I think I”m getting bored or jaded I just remind myself that the alternative is marketing, whereupon I shudder to the depths of my soul and thank my lucky stars for my boring profession. The great thing about P&Ps, especially as contrasted with marketing, is that every word I write on the job is true — a very limited-scope kind of truth, admittedly, but nonetheless, it involves neither spin nor persuasion nor cheerleading. So unlike some of the very nice people I know in the marketing dept., I don’t have to deal with 100% cognitive dissonance between what I know and what I have to produce. Thank goodness.

    Also hope I’m not too late to congratulate John on a major life achievement!

  214. 214.

    Lurker

    Congratulations, John, on your two-year anniversary. That is a huge accomplishment!

Comments are closed.