What is this blog’s identity?
By John Cole August 20th, 2010
It really depends on how much we’ve been drinking and who has pissed us off most recently. Also, it really depends on who in politics is saying the dumbest things.
Picked up my sister’s dog on the way home, so I have quite the full household this weekend.
Also too- new tagline: “Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.”
Posted in Site Maintenance
We’re apparently a bunch of old farts who post pictures of cats, dogs, and tomatoes.
I used to do cool stuff before I had kids. Really, I did.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:38 pm
I’m somehow the impetus for two whole threads now. This has been the lamest Friday newsday on record. When does Congress get back in session?
August 20th, 2010 at 7:40 pm
I’ve been here since whenever Sullivan fell in love with you, and I stayed after the breakup.
I’d say the blog’s identity is ‘exasperated American liberal’. A tad to the right of me on a traditional political scale.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
for me, it’s all about the ads.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:41 pm
I thought the identity of every political blog was…
Malcontents who like to piss in the wind at the latest outrage du jour.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
You stole that from Sarah Palin’s Mission Statement!
August 20th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
Maybe this is a place for old farts. I know I fit the demographic.
But shallow and frightened? How about disgusted and growing resigned to the fact that everything is FUBAR?
And cute animals!
August 20th, 2010 at 7:42 pm
@Bob Loblaw: We like to greet the new people.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:43 pm
McArdle ?
August 20th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
“Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.”
You forgot frightened. Your fee fees get skeered aboot the Economiez!
August 20th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
I thought everybody else was here for the same reason as me: the steady diet of mathematics gossip. How about that Langlands programme, though, eh?
But since most of the things worth talking about (Fields medal, World Cup, Olympic curling,...) happen only once ever four years we need some filler. When does college football start?
August 20th, 2010 at 7:45 pm
@lawnorder: Shallow and uninformed is McMegan’s identity.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Oh, I love your sister’s dog. Please post pics!
I took a test today to work for the next legislative session here starting in January. I think it went well. I really hope I get it. It’s going to be a very interesting session. And I could use the money.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Saw the doctor today and my Bp is normal and so AIC, but have low vitamin d levels the doc said was surprising, but didn’t offer any advice. Guess I’ll have to study the internet for what to do. Never schedule a doctors appointment in the late afternoon, and double never on a late afternoon on Friday. They are pissed off and not worth a shit. I have a good PC phys. but not today.
And fuck the entire goddamn world with a porcupine.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
@morzer:
I don’t think so. Palin is not at all lacking in identity. She has identity coming out of her ears. We may not like her identity, since it’s mostly about being an ignorant bigot and proud of it, but she clearly has an identity. If anything, that identity is the main thing attracts people to her; it’s not as though they’re attracted by her deep intellectual rigor and coherent policy prescriptions.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
@General Stuck: Go hug Charlie. You’ll feel better.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:49 pm
Dunno about the rest of you, but I usually recommend it to my friends as being my favorite blog by a Recovering Republican.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
@General Stuck:
Lots of sunlight for starters, Vitamin D deficiency is actually more common than people believe.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
(Second one in a row? A little tough love is indicated.)
This obscene groveling for approval is getting rather distasteful.
Who gives a fuck why we come here? We do. So sit down, shut up, and bask in the fact you’ve got a successful blog going on.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
this blog’s identity:
“Defense Against Teh Stupid”
August 20th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
@John Cole: Is this where we are all suppose to say Hi Bob?
August 20th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
@General Stuck:
Get some sun. Unless you have serious metabolic problems, you should get plenty of vitamin D just by going outside for an hour in typical summer attire.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:52 pm
The best neighborhood bar on the intertoobz.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
@Roger Moore:
Actually, her identity shifts depending on who she wants to attack. She’s massively inconsistent on just about everything except hating her fellow Americans.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:53 pm
@General Stuck: Everybody has low Vitamin D levels, and it’s apparently a pretty important vitamin. Supplements work, although I gather there’s some differences of opinion on how much to take. I try to remember to take 2 2000 IU tabs a day, but I’m not as regular about it as I should be.
Oops, looks like I forgot this morning. I bet this Bloody Mary will wash them down good, though.
frosty +1 and counting.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
@burnspbesq:
hic hic hurrah!
August 20th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
@Bob Loblaw: Shorter Loblaw: I’m tired of not having Big Important Issues to whine about! It sucks that a great mind like mine is reduced to bitching about blogs that can’t meet my exacting standards—and on those very blogs, too! Waaaaah!
August 20th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Since we now have stereo on the topic, I’ll just post this comment from the last thread, putting it in the other channel:
August 20th, 2010 at 7:55 pm
“Picked up my sister’s dog on the way home, so I have quite the full household this weekend.”
Sounds good. I eagerly await a post contaning a Proustian narrative of Cole’s millisecond by millisecond psychological and existential response to stepping in pet poop or vomit at 3 AM.
And trolls ask about this blog’s identity!
August 20th, 2010 at 7:56 pm
And yet no mention of naked house cleaning?
August 20th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I don’t know about the blog, but this fits me pretty well.
And I come for the cat pics. These cartoons were awesome, btw.
khead +2
August 20th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
@General Stuck: There is a reason people used to take cod liver oil. It comes in capsules so you don’t have to taste it. Vitamin D supplementation will pretty much eliminate SAD.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
I miss Tim F. He brought the activism.
Beyond that, this blog’s comment section is pretty much the only comment section throughout the land worth reading. Arguments are either thoroughly ignorable or thoroughly entertaining. And I tend to learn a little bit about a lot of shit. That’s rare.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
@General Stuck:
Sunshine! The natural Vitamin D generator. It is believed that vitamin D deficiency (due to lack of sunshine) is what causes SAD.
August 20th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
@General Stuck: The advice I’ve been getting is take a Vitamin D supplement (they’re not terribly expensive). And try to get 10 or 15 minutes outside in the sun with my face exposed (preferably not between 10am-3pm in the summer). Apparently a lot of us with mostly Northern-European ancestry have a hard time getting enough D without getting melanoma just from sunlight, so it’s either eat lots of fortified dairy (which has its own drawbacks, of course) or take more pills.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
I’d say a derivation of “Mocking those most in need of public contempt and shaming at any given moment” seems most appropriate.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
I like the dog posts.
And I come here for news first every day. As John says, he reads those idiots so we don’t have to. That’s invaluable. I think we ignore these freaks at great risk. I know a lot of people say we shouldn’t give them any attention, but if we don’t shine a light on them, they and their freako followers can do and say whatever they want with impunity. The more Americans know about Palin and all the loathesome bloggers who push her causes, the better. This blog alone can’t do everything, but I like to think it does its part.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
@Erik Vanderhoff:
The Scorn Identity
August 20th, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Speaking of Tim F., did he depart BJ indefinitely and if so, why? Did we piss him off somehow with the combination of our fervent state of pissed-offedness about the state of the country, and the indolent laxity of too many of us to actually try to get out and do something to fix it? Or was it one too many references to Megan McArdle?
August 20th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
There’s enough Mission, and Purpose, and Identity out there in the laughably-misnamed real world to shingle the barn, never mind what’s out there on the rest of the internets.
And it doesn’t seem to move the flywheel much past top dead center.
Dammit, it’s time for us to get deadly serious about not being serious—or to stop being so deadly serious about stuff that isn’t serious.
Depending. Also.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
I finally broke down and ordered a Kindle today.
Yes, I am Borg now. They just make it so goddamned convenient to succumb.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:09 pm
I originally came here for the 08 election and stayed for the snark. And the animals. And the naked mopping. And the guy who is willing to throw himself under his new dog and seriously fuck up his shoulder to protect her.
Identity? Fuck that.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I thought this was the Tunch fan club.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
After being skeptical, I’m really digging the Lady GaGa.
Maybe I shouldn’t admit that.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:14 pm
This blog is about maintaining it’s clique and celebrating itself. All it’s identities flow from that.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Interesting WV guy blogs on wide variety of topics, plus current affairs and politics, and keeps a wide open comments section where people can thrash things out as they wish.
Eclectic and informed hot air on subjects from A to Z. Snark, mockery and spoof among the best on the tubes. Never a dull moment.
The perfect blog. Identity? TBD. But probably not any time soon. We hope.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:17 pm
@General Stuck: Your blood work could be the same as last time but because they changed the guide lines, it now appears low.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:18 pm
The ad on my sidebar says “Ann Coulter Free”. That would be a good tagline. Keep hope alive!
August 20th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
England is in a heap o’trouble. Six wickets gone after tea, 221-9 at the close of play. Absent a heroic stand tomorrow by the bottom of the England batting order, Pakistan is almost certainly going to win.
Mets are all over the Pirates. I am liking this.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:23 pm
But…where’s the garden update?
August 20th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
@PaulW:
This.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
@gbear:
Not to mention, it’s about forcing people who don’t like it to read it against their will.
Or is it?
August 20th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
Why does a blog need an identity? Why can’t it just be a blog?
August 20th, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Mr Loblow brings up an intriguing meta-argument: It has been apparent for some time that this virtual community is in dire need of a paradigm shift in its approach to social networks in general. Thinking outside the box and other empowerment strategies will provide the next generation of Balloon Juice commenters with the access they need to become more fully immersive in the digital divide between idea innovators and the old cranky bastards who usually populate these social milieus. By aggregating and benchmarking these front-end and back-end processes, we can more fully synchronize a more inclusive framework (as well as streamline logistics) into which a holistic approach to the output will take this brand to heights that have hitherto been unattainable.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
crabby and snarky?
August 20th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Ya see, the problem with you folks is that you never requested your B-J ID card, like I did. That correctly informs the random internet and blog cop that I am who I am when I say I am at that time. My identity is dear and precious to me, particularly because it’s literally a made-up identity for the purposes of commenting on blogs and stuff. I find the search for one’s identity is best expressed in teen novels and war gaming with a mix of angst-ridden cowboy songs and flair, lots of flair.
Does that help?
August 20th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
@KG: Let Bartlett be Bartlett.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:33 pm
I can see where this is going, you know. Pretty soon the blog will become moody and secretive. Eventually it’ll leave a note that it’s gone to go “find” itself in Paris, whatever the hell that means. Someday it’ll come slouching back, overweight, broke, possibly with a venereal disease and admit it never got any further than Detroit, where it blew all the money it stole out of our sock drawer on strippers and Taco Bell.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:35 pm
It’s a place for venting, and pet pics. Occasionally there is venting about pet pics, but those who do tend to disappear in mysterious circumstances.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
@General Stuck: Since we appear to be chasing some of the same issues: Plain o’ vitamin D pills from wherever is convenient fixed me right up. So that’s one thing that doesn’t require an extra car payment and a lifestyle redo to deal with.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
@General Stuck: Since we appear to be chasing some of the same issues: Plain o’ vitamin D pills from wherever is convenient fixed me right up. So that’s one thing that doesn’t require an extra car payment and a lifestyle redo to deal with.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
Well I came over because I was pleased to find a (then) conservative Republican who was appalled by torture. I wandered by Sully’s place for the same reason. I stayed with you because 1) you don’t (and never did) continue to defend the idea that skin color determines intelligence and 2) as far as I know you never hinted that I should be picked up by the police, questioned closely, tried and possibly be put up against a wall and shot because I always thought that invading Iraq was wrong, immoral and damned stupid. (Yeah, Sully’s “all liberals who opposed the Iraq war are 5th columnists” still bugs, probably because he will never apologize, just like he will never apologize for supporting The Bell Curve)
I also stay for the the great commentators and for Tunch.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:36 pm
@Mark S.: Bite me.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
@debit: I honestly can’t decide if that’s a transition into adolescence or a midlife crisis. The hypothetical similarities now give me pause.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
@debit: Um… all that actually already happened, except you left out the hookers, booze and gambling debts.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
@General Stuck:
vitamin D low:
Go to the drug store and find a calcium supplement with vitamin D in it.
You can get just vitamin by itself but it is possible to overdose and do something horrid to your innards [I forget what]. But shouldn’t be a problem with the calcium. Also, you might get these nice strong bones as a result. :-)
August 20th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
@debit: I believe that the blog will end up in Madison before it tries to go to Paris.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
Thanks all for the advice. It is odd living in the desert and not getting enough sunshine, but the price you pay for even modest exposure is a melanoma possible. The sun is so intense at 6000 ft altitude and a southern latitude, that I am hatted and shirted up when I do venture outside. Winter is much more amenable for sun exposure here.
I’ll pick up some vit D pills tomorrow,
August 20th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
@jl: History repeats itself, but this time it gets to be farce.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:41 pm
@Mark S.: You know it’s Friday night and some of us might partake in alcoholic beverages right?
After reading through the comments about identity, I think we should just state that it’s a blog about Tunch.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
@Suffern ACE: I hope not, it will kill the property values here.
Why doesn’t Bob Loblaw do what the rest of us did and try to figure it out for himself? Lazy ass punk.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
@Mark S.: That is some mighty fine jargon you wrote there. If you managed to keep a straight face while writing that you deserve a prize.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
I think the name of the blog says it all. I linked here from Andy Sullivan at the time John decided he was going to register Democrat. I always check here first thing in the morning for news.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
Well Bob LowBlow, I turned 50 a few months ago and no, I did not fill out my AARP application. It went and continues to go into the garbage. So that said, when I’m not groveling at Mr. Cole’s feet I do indeed enjoy seeing the pet pictures. Especially Tunch! He is my “animal totem”.
So Mr. LowBlow if you like I can start quoting Marx, and Mao Tse Tung and included embedded links in my posts that would make rotten.com run into a church and hide. Perhaps that would please you? It must take enormous courage for you to come here and slum with us.
As for “shallow, uniformed, & lacking identity” why are you talking about my ex boyfriend?
August 20th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
What is this blog’s identity? This might help:
What the fuck is my social media “strategy”?
http://whatthefuckismysocialmediastrategy.com/
August 20th, 2010 at 8:49 pm
@Mark S.:
You forgot “core values,” “leveraging our market position through the strategic deployment of Intellectual Capital,” and “vertical integration through synergistic holism.”
August 20th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
@Omnes Omnibus: It is the Eternal Return. This blog is deep, dude.
Besides personal narratives about stepping pet poop and vomit, and about dealing with cat butt boils, the most distinct ID of this blog recently has been Cole doing blegs about what kind of household appliances to buy and then complaining that we gave him crap advice.
The boutique ceramic composter disaster scandal will live in home economics blog history.
And coming down into the comment section and yelling at various commenters.
This blog has a very unique niche.
It will live in history, but sadly it will be confused with the drag English housewives on Monte Python talking about cat boils. Which will also be a unique fate.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:50 pm
I was involved in something like that once, growing up. It was called ‘a family’....
August 20th, 2010 at 8:51 pm
@Jack Bauer:
Breakup? Why am I always the last to know.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
@Mark S.:
Hmmm, not enough IQ and g, with a dash of memetic selection for taste, dawg.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:53 pm
@cmorenc:
He’s busy with that “Real Life” thing which occasionally gets referenced in all the best blogs. (Not to mention, I suspect a little burnt out from the tremendous amount of hard work he put in concerning the HCR bill.) I miss him, too, and hope he’ll eventually have time to join us here at the Sneers bar again.
As I understand it, Cole hasn’t taken the keys away from any of his underbloggers—we can leave any time we want, but we can never check out!
August 20th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
The identity that can be named is not the identity.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:54 pm
the identity of this blog is still entirely John. I sell it often to the uninitiated and I always begin by telling the tale of Cole’s evolution (from wingnut to tepid dem to passionate obamaniac to exasperated pet blogger). It’s fantastic and it’s one of the reasons that one could point to this place as somewhat demonstrative of a certain strand of politically informed americans that ran the gauntlet of the last decade and survived albeit ideologically transformed .
The other posters are universally interesting and entertaining but at the end of the day this isn’t a group blog. It’s the story (and ruminations, thoughts, pet pics etc…) of John. That’s why i find going through the archives so enjoyable.
Moving away a bit, I was reading Ezra’s riff on the Atlantic’s “What You Read” feature, and it occurred to me that one of the reasons I so enjoy coming here (and actually reading the comments- unique amongst the blogs I haunt) is that we all tend to the same community. The majority of the people I know IRL know nothing of this blog or Sully’s or Klein’s. They don’t get the McCardle jokes. They might know of Gawker or The New Republic. Some hate Joe Klein because they took umbrage at “Primary Colors.” But no one really shares the same reading list as me. You all do. I tend to think that blog boosters have a tendency to overrate their commentariat but here it actually is a virtue. Really it’s an enjoyment, akin to talking with very bright friends who all happen to have read the same primary sources.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
@arguingwithsignposts: Now you have summoned her. Great.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
Came here for the snark, and stayed for the… snark.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:55 pm
@Anoniminous:
Oooh, that’s a good one! Put that in the mission statement.
@demo woman:
Don’t drink too much! You don’t want to be hungover for the team building workshop at 7am tomorrow! I was hoping you could get there early and help me set up tables.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:56 pm
@gbear: I’m hoping those extra apostrophes were intended as snark, sir.
If so, well played.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
@DougJ: FWIW, I’m glad Cole got you in the settlement, DougJ.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:57 pm
@Omnes Omnibus: I assume it was the same troll, what with the age obsession.
August 20th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Balloon Juice: The place where John Cole and Co. say what I want to say the way I really want to say it…so I don’t have to (allowing me to keep my friends and job).
And the commentariat here are funny and informed.
Thanks BJ!
August 20th, 2010 at 8:58 pm
@Omnes Omnibus:
Hey, I didn’t say her name three times in front of a mirror!
August 20th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
The Balloon Juice Blog speaks regarding its identity: Call Mr. Plow, that’s my name, that name again is Mr. Plow!
You know, I never did go to the liquor to get that cheap New Zealand wine. Gonna have to do that tomorrow so I can finally post +.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:01 pm
Balloon Juice: For People Who Hate the Taste of Kool-Aid
August 20th, 2010 at 9:02 pm
@Roger Moore: Actually, that’s not true. In fact, at my latitude, light skinned folks could run around outside all winter long while stark naked, and they’d still wind up Vitamin D deficient.
Look into a supplement. Most of us cowardly old (or even middle aged) farts need one.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:04 pm
http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/.....efits.aspx
Purely for those who might find some good news on the Affordable Health Care Act of some faint interest….
August 20th, 2010 at 9:05 pm
@burnspbesq: Bingo!
And Bob, we are not shallow! We have very deep discussions about serious iss…damn! Just broke my nail! Where was I?? What’s on TV?
August 20th, 2010 at 9:06 pm
@cmorenc:
He authored a post July 22, but hasn’t been around much. I just assumed real life intervened, and he had other priorities.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
Gee.. Where is Red Kitten. Hopefully, she doesn’t think she is toooo young for the depend crowd.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
Oh, and John, this blog’s identity is 1. Or 0, depending on whether you want the multiplicative or additive identity.
Alternatively, sin2 x + cos2 x = 1.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:08 pm
My gawd do ya’ll need one??
There’s so much self-serious bullshittery out there that I doubted anyone missed BJ not having a mission statement.
@gbear: ... the fuck?
August 20th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
@arguingwithsignposts: Well, don’t.
My identity is someone who is going to go watch a movie with his wife. You guys have fun with the soul searching.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
This is the anti-blog.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
Pragmatic, funny, irreverent, sports fan … and almost always angry and profane about something. The way it fuckin’ should be.
At first I thought the pet pictures were weird, but they’re growing on me unfortunately.
Best analysis—along with BooMan—on the net for political affairs, I’d say.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
It’s election day in Australia – in about eight hours we will know whether we are an example of :
a. the quick resurgence of rejected right wing memes of fear and division against a populist, hopey changey, nominally left wing government;
b. the people giving a slightly disordered and directionless lefty government a chance to get back on track; or
c. a serious and highly entertaining clusterfuck with “radical” gay hippie greens holding the balance of power and being able to block most legislation or even choose which party gets to be in power.
Yay for option c!
August 20th, 2010 at 9:15 pm
@cmorenc wrote: Speaking of Tim F., did he depart BJ indefinitely and if so, why?
I don’t think he left.
He just has a real day job and is a working scientist. So there are always papers to read, grant apps to write, etc.
The real question: Is Cole making progress toward finishing his degree? It’s hard for me to see how he can run this blog, deal with all the pets, and STILL have time to work on a dissertation. Grad school is a means, not an end.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:16 pm
@General Stuck: Re: vitamin D – Here in (not always very sunny) WNY as well, I imagine, as in other places D is being studied rather extensively. It turns out that you need a lot more than you can get from the sun/diet unless you live at the equator or something. My VERY conservative (medically) doctor has put me on 1000 units a day (after an initial period on a much larger dose) to the vast improvement of a lot of little things. Look into it. Apparently it’s more important to a lot of body function than they previously believed.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
@Hawes wrote:
you flatter yourself.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
@Hawes: Balloon Juice—because we will tell you that The Kool-Aid is a Lie!
August 20th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Who gives a fuck?
Anyhow, this is where I come to point and laugh and throw f-bombs and horse apples at right-wing (and other) imbeciles. Then I stay for the pets, food, booze etc.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:19 pm
eh?
August 20th, 2010 at 9:20 pm
@General Stuck:
Dear General,
You are SO RIGHT about afternoons and Fridays. A great thing happened just now: they’re both overwith!
Please pet my goddoggie for me. Hope you cheer up soon. Your friends are so glad that all you need is some Vitamin D.
How about this little schedule:
Mon-Thurs mornings: necessary business.
Afternoons, Fridays and weekends:
Vitamin D(oggie)—pet the dog, talk with the dog, walk with the dog, watch the dog sleep, be in the same room with the dog, feed the dog (dog’s favorite). Oh, I forgot. You already do this.
Most days: 15 minutes of sun on bare skin, preferably with the dog nearby.
Some days: Vitamin D3 (pills). I like Bluebonnet D3, 1,000 IU, which you can take in multiples you decide on. It’s natural, not a chemical synthetic, and you can get it at the health food store.
At least one day a week: Don’t do anything you don’t want to do.
Thought for Today, courtesy of my Quotations widget:
I had rather see a portrait of a dog I know, than all the allegorical paintings they can show me in the world. —Samuel Johnson
August 20th, 2010 at 9:21 pm
@burnspbesq:
Ooooh that smarts. However, other than Thursday afternoon games at the RN place I used to serve at I am so disinterested in Cricket it could be considered a crime.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
@Mark S.:
About 3 years ago I was part of a start-up that had some serious interest from a VC firm. They liked our backgrounds, they liked our technology, they liked our business plan.
What they didn’t like was our “Mission Statement.” We didn’t have one.
So one Friday I dragged my weary ass over the computer and pounded-out about fifty words of jargon spouting corporation-speak nonsense. That’s where “vertical integration through synergistic holism” came from.
They loved it. They thought it was the neatest thing since the invention of s-e-x.
We didn’t get the funding as their backers backed-out. When they wrote the Pull-the-Plug letter they included how impressed they were by our Mission Statement.
These fools decide the future of the US economy. (I’ll have my arsenic straight-up, if you please.)
August 20th, 2010 at 9:23 pm
@John Cole #5:
Hunh. I don’t recall getting Bloblaw levels of greetment when I was the new people.
/eeyore
August 20th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
@burnspbesq:
First rule of cricket – work out what would be the obvious thing for Pakistan to do, and watch them do the opposite. Obviously, Pakistan ought to win at a canter, which is why they will fold for under 100 runs, amid recriminations and pompous articles by Peter Roebuck and Ramiz Raja.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
@Anne Laurie: And most of us will get the reference, and be able to sing that GOD AWFUL EARWORM OF A SONG.
Just for that, here’s an earworm for you.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:26 pm
@Mark S.:
You are what’s wrong with America.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
BJ identity. Feeling totally comfortable to share that I have been watching one of my cats trying to climb a pole that is in the middle of our family room. After 15 minutes of not making much progress, she has now climbed on a table near the pole (totally violating the “no cats on the table rule”), and as I write she is preparing to jump from the table to the middle of the pole. Oops, she just landed on her butt—totally missed the pole. She is now back on the table preparing to try again…
August 20th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
How about: “Slash, Gash, Whimper, Rebound & Counter-Attack.”
August 20th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
What is this blog’s identity?
And I thought it was a place people who asked such stupid and boring shit were mocked and went away.
A place with marginally less stupid boring shit.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
@demimondian:
Ok – now I have a Boney M thing going on, and I don’t know whether to curse you or thank you.
ETA: I settled on thanking you.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:32 pm
Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity.“Focused on all the things that really matter.”
Fixed.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:35 pm
I don’t remember when exactly I began hanging out here… but although I read about 8 or 9 blogs regularly, this is the place I feel very much at home with similar thinking people, a variety of subjects and interests, long threads, pet pictures and a (mostly) congenial host. And just enough snark.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
foo foo fap fap fap fee fees
August 20th, 2010 at 9:37 pm
All I know is that it is the first place I come every day, and the only place I keep coming to during my self-imposed ‘no blogs/no cable’ sanity breaks.
But then again I’m aging, so what do I know?
August 20th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
1. This is the place where many come in order to get into arguments with people they don’t know, and call them obscene names they’d never call anyone to their face. And if you don’t agree with that assessment, fuck you.
2. This is the place to come in order to be told what’s important to argue about. Let DougJ search out and digest the important articles of the day, and write critiques of them here. Who has time for that? DougJ’s apparently independently wealthy. All the rest of us have day jobs.
(Now if you want to be told what to actually think, DKos is the best place for that. Although the commentors here will do their best to point out the flaws in your arguments, using colorful language. See #1.)
3. Personally, I’m here to procrastinate. At the moment I’m trying to avoid mowing the lawn, but it isn’t going to get done by itself, so I’d better get moving.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:38 pm
@arguingwithsignposts:
Heh.
I can’t recall any comment, out of the thousands I’ve read here, asking where to pigeonhole this blog like our new BOB did.
But then again I’m old and forgetful.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
OK, having made it to the end of the thread, I am disappointed that no one told the General the {taitz}TROOOTH {/taitz} about vitamin D. Getting it from the sun is preferable to supplementing, it’s true, but not all natural vitamin D is the same, even though it is. The best vitamin D is photosynthesized through the skin on one’s privates, General. So keep your huevos sunny side up and you will be fine(d.)
August 20th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
@slag:
I would agree with this and add that the pet posts are always good for an attitude adjustment.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
@ppcli: True dat. So have you heard that the P ≠ NP paper seems to be seriously flawed? At least Bruce Schneier has heard it, and you know what a gossip-monger he is. What do you think about it, Bob L?
August 20th, 2010 at 9:45 pm
@wasabi gasp:
This. A thousand times this.
(sigh) I need a cigarette.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:46 pm
All right, Mr. Balloon Juice, show us your papers.
Actually, Balloon Juice’s identity was stolen by a malicious hacker, and we are waiting for a new one.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Are you effing kidding me? This blog is a bunch of cynical idealist who love pets because the general human population disappoints us daily.
Too emo?
August 20th, 2010 at 9:48 pm
@cmorenc:
He posted a couple threads back in the comment section. He’s not gone, just doesn’t have any beer to blog about I think.
cain
August 20th, 2010 at 9:49 pm
@SiubhanDuinne: I was pretty much ignored, until I demonstrated my brilliant grasp of world affairs and my rapier wit. Then I was argued with a lot, excoriated often, and occasionally appreciated.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:51 pm
Has anyone else gotten the feeling that NPR is very invested in the idea that Gulf seafood is safe, safe, safe?
August 20th, 2010 at 9:55 pm
@eco2geek:
Yeah, well you’re fucking wrong. On the internet.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
f=”#comment-1974589”>beltane:
Not always. That comes from the identity of experience.
@Linda Featheringill: Linda Featheringill: “>You can OD on Calcium.
August 20th, 2010 at 9:58 pm
Just went back and read through the thread where Bob Lobsterclaw’s question originally came up. He sounded like a low-rent mclaren. From his final rant:
I don’t know anyone around here who was ready to declare the recession over during that time. And I don’t know any commenter at this site who even used the word “austerity” without “fuck” in front of it.
Worried about inflation. Inflation?
Most people these days are worried about deflation (including folks like Kthug, the doomsday blogs like theautomaticearth, and other economic commenters on the left).
And that whole “depopulation” bit about super-urban centers using San Antonio as an example is equally frustrating. San Antonio is in the middle of fucking nowhere!
Assuming that most commenters here have Blue Dog reps. and sens., and that those who do haven’t called and spit into that particular noxious wind. Jesus, this is fucking stupid.
tl;dr – lurk moar before you spout off about what commenters and FPs around here believe.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:00 pm
@Chad N Freude: Well that went well. Try this: You can OD on calcium.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:01 pm
Hmmm – the greeting I got was a few slams. I deservingly slapped one down and apologized to another for doing OT while not knowing it was forbidden in certain threads. I was a novice then.
I decided to stay and only read most of the time. I do know my limits.
This blog is a perfect mix of topics. That is why I read it daily .
August 20th, 2010 at 10:02 pm
@Annie:
Did anyone tuck a twenty into her thong?
August 20th, 2010 at 10:06 pm
@HRA: You can always do OT as long as you announce that it’s OT. Another of the Internet traditions we revere here.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:07 pm
@gbear:
A’s do all it’s punctuation’s.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:08 pm
@Chad N Freude:
FTW!
August 20th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
@Mark S.: Gads.
You nailed it, of course. I hear that stuff all day at work; come here to listen to real people. Being the quiet type, don’t post much – but it’s still the best bar in town.
BTW, get off my lawn. Also. Too.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:12 pm
@Chad N Freude:
Hey! Rapier wit!
August 20th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
I think we need an additional Friedman Unit to determine this blog’s identity.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
I think we need an additional Friedman Unit to determine this blog’s identity.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:15 pm
@arguingwithsignposts: I haven’t been there in a while, but San Antonio had a very cool tourist district. And a number of Air Force installations that probably wouldn’t go over well in super-urban centers.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:23 pm
@Hawes: Here, here! You say it perfectly!
August 20th, 2010 at 10:27 pm
I am pretty sure I go to the blogs/websites that most of the other participants here do. TPM/Wash Mo/Tbogg/Atrios /Drum/Digby. It may end of being a bit of an echo chambers but that’s a big part of the blog. The pet and food stuff is extra stuff that shows that there are other interests beyond politics. I just have no interest in American Idol,Snoopy and Heidi Montage and that other bimbo reality star on The View. And I am really wish Princess Sarah would join that club and leave us alone.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:32 pm
@Chad N Freude:
The tourist district is definitely a plus, but it’s brutal heat in the summer (never go there between, say, may and september if you don’t like humidity and heat), and once you leave the city proper – other than Austin (2 hours away) – there’s nothing for several hours in any direction.
If we’re talking super-population centers, it would probably be wiser to look at areas where there’s more temperate climate and less distance between cities.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
@arguingwithsignposts:
And that’s a bad thing?
August 20th, 2010 at 10:37 pm
@Chad N Freude:
In the context of super-urban centers, yes. His whole point was that the south was too sparsely populated. Moving WV to San Antonio isn’t going to solve that problem, as all of West Texas would still be sparsely populated.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
What’s all the depopulation stuff about? I must have missed those threads.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:40 pm
@arguingwithsignposts:
Huh?
August 20th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
@Mark S.: You better review the material. It’s going to be on the final.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
@Mark S.:
For instance:
He also got called out on that “didn’t sufficiently value and build their educational systems” bit, as Texas is in the midst of teabagger/creationist fervor on their ed. board.
ETA: I don’t find fault with the idea necessarily of super-urban centers. I just find the idea that San Antonio or Austin are the best examples to be somewhat problematic.
August 20th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
My lurkish take: I think BJ is a place for some smart funny informed people to read thoughtful articles of the day to day, talk and spar and argue, often amusingly. There’s a lot of sympathy with progressive liberal ideals, but there’s a wide spectrum, and there’s a very cool (as in chilly) realistic eye on things. Balloon Juice people seem a party of individualists who wish the best for the nation, but secretly can’t stand most people. But love cats and dogs. Like those filthy British!
August 20th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
I’m 20 and I love this blog. I’m offended.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
@CJ: I’m 200, and this blog is my intracranial life support.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
@Belvoir:
GET OUT OF MY MIND! ! 11 !
August 20th, 2010 at 11:22 pm
@morzer:
If England’s tail can’t stay alive for 40 overs, not even Pakistan will be able to screw it up. The target right now is in the 140s.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
@Belvoir:
Fixed. And fixed again. And again.
August 20th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
@Belvoir: Yup. Pretty much sums it up. As Lucy said to Charlie Brown: “I love mankind! It’s people I can’t stand.”
August 20th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
@Chad N Freude: You in fact did not fix my post at all dear sir! Rawther, you took liberties with a jolly Internet Tradition there to air some grievances known only to you, I say!
Mirth leaves the room, kills self
August 20th, 2010 at 11:57 pm
@Chad N Freude:
super-fixed
August 21st, 2010 at 12:00 am
Is it mandatory that a blog have a fixed identity? I like this place because it doesn’t fit into a slot. Predictable is boring. Homogenized is unamerican. I can’t remember who came up with a phrase during a Palin/Dr. Laura thread that still has me laughing but sometimes this place is a cackle of ca-cas and that’s fine by me.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:03 am
@arguingwithsignposts:
When does this next energy paradigm start? Until it does, putting 10 million people in San Antonio sounds like a mighty stupid idea, unless you love smog and sprawl.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:10 am
@General Stuck:
I’m not a doctor and don’t play one on TV, but the usual remedy for Vitamin D deficiency, if you can’t drink lots more milk or go play in the sunshine, is to go down to the corner Megadrugs-R-Us and buy Vitamin D in a bottle.
And take the pills. Don’t forget take the pills.
Worked like a charm for me and my wife. Although she being female and of a certain age also has a calcium absorption problem, which vitamin D also ameliorates.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:11 am
@Mark S.:
Do you work in management at my employer? I tried to count the jargon, but lost it somewhere. I also thought you missed “paradigm” and “benchmark,” but I went back and found them.
Maybe its time for bed.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:18 am
@Mark S.:
Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. Like I said, I think Bob Lobsterclaw is being a bit of an overenthusiastic douche about the idea. Plus, As I’ve read elsewhere, depending on the severity of the future post peak oil, super-urban centers might have a worse time surviving any kind of economic shitstorm.
There’s some considerable debate over the whole concept.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:21 am
@Anoniminous:
A hit! A palpable Hit!
Bravo!
August 21st, 2010 at 12:21 am
@Belvoir: Oooh! Aren’t we hyper-sensitive! Known only to me = Reality. If you can’t deal with that, go to some other blog. And there is no mirth on BJ. Never has been, never will be. We are serious people here.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:23 am
@efgoldman: Seriously, research the issues of overdoing Vitamin D and Calcium (and Magnesium while we’re at it). Not everything on the Intertubes is mythology.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:27 am
@arguingwithsignposts: Don’t be mean to Bob Loblaw during his apprenticeship. Wait until he shows that he doesn’t get BJ at all before you ridicule him. 5…4…3… Okay, get ready.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:29 am
@arguingwithsignposts:
Oh, sorry, I guess it kind of seemed like I was arguing with you. I don’t really know much about the subject, but it is annoying to read Lowball’s condescending tone.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:29 am
From two of the above comments, I think it’s obvious we’re “exasperated American liberals” who compensate for this condition by posting “pictures of cats, dogs, and tomatoes.”
This summer, for the first time in my life, I actually started a vegetable garden of various herbs, tomatoes, green beans, and bell peppers, and I was pretty excited to get a bountiful cucumber harvest this month. I also adopted a new cat.
I tend to think of myself as a pretty typical young but cynical urban liberal. What the hell happened to me?
August 21st, 2010 at 12:37 am
@RadioOne:
Welcome to the Balloon Juice borg.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:42 am
@arguingwithsignposts: Damn! Why didn’t I think of that?
If you answer that, I will be highly offended.
August 21st, 2010 at 12:44 am
Don’t forget the major balloonbagger sidelines of Glenn Greenwald hating/whiny ass titty babying without addressing either his facts or his arguments; and licking The Obama Shitcock. Repeatedly.‡
‡ That one’s for you, celticdragonchick. :)
August 21st, 2010 at 12:53 am
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: Uncle Clarence, I find this a bit obscure. WTF are you saying?
August 21st, 2010 at 1:01 am
@Uncle Clarence Thomas:
UPDATE 1: Oh, look, GG-trolling in an almost dead thread.
UPDATE 2: If all you BJers would stop following Dear Leader long enough to realize that I’m RIGHT about EVERYTHING, maybe I wouldn’t spend my days in a constant state of shrill.
...
UPDATE 16: Really, I mean it. This is your journalism establishment.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:01 am
@arguingwithsignposts: If you try to engage these . . . people, they really self-destruct. It’s much more fun than watching HBO.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:05 am
I came for the breathmints and stayed for the wet T-shirt contest. Ok, I came on the breathmints and sprayed for the wet T-shirt contest.
Details… details…
Now I’m stuck here because I can’t figure out how to leave. Every time I try to do so this pic of a fat white/tan cat flipping me the finger pops up before being redirected to the next thread.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:06 am
@DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal): Dude, that’s funny, even without cats.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:13 am
It isn’t just going to be Austin and San Antonio, obviously. There’s also North Carolina’s research triangle/Charlotte area, Denver-Boulder corridor, SF Bay area, Salt Lake City, redevelopment of Philadelphia area, Boston, Portland, Seattle, Washington DC, DC again, DC a third time, New York, LA, Houston, Chicago, Twin Cities, etc.
You know it’s got to happen. We will have another 100 million people in this country in the next forty years, and no oil economy. Some cities (Las Vegas area) and some states (Deep South) will be left behind. It is a certainty.
Super-meccas of humanity joined together by high speed railways from coast to coast. The interstate highway system wound down and used primarily for automated (yes, automated) freight. Subways and el trains running criss cross across every metropolis. Small town America will be dead.
If we’re talking super-population centers, it would probably be wiser to look at areas where there’s more temperate climate and less distance between cities.
Brutal heat, huh? Well, we should probably be able to work around that one. Shouldn’t be a problem…
August 21st, 2010 at 1:13 am
@CynDee: What do those of us who burn in 10 – 15 minutes of sun do? I wish I were joking. I’m not.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:14 am
@Bob Loblaw:
Yeah, if things go to shit, you think there’s going to be enough energy to power all the extra AC that’s going to be needed in areas like SA, or Houston, for that matter?
Not to mention that SA and most of west Texas is not the best place to raise a crop of food for all those extra people you’re bringing in unless, wait for it, you irrigate. Where’s all that water going to come from?
And, dumb shit, I don’t know if you’ve ever been through rural parts of WV, SC, KY or the likes, but there are still people who aren’t on the grid out there.
And, as Mike S. pointed out – that utopia you’re describing ain’t gonna happen overnight. Enjoy that SA public transit system.
I’m glad you have a plan for humanity, but it needs a little more thought sometimes.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:22 am
C’mon, look at all the stuff that get’s covered here:
Peet’s coffee. Different beers. Battlestar Galactica. Dogs & cats are only part of it. We talk about family and they there too. Yea, a lot of media commentary. Hell, that’s fun.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:30 am
Which is why we’re probably fucked signposts. Probably fucked. Manhattan just had the heat wave of the century too. It’s going to be hot everywhere, all the time during the summers, excepting the Pacific Northwest maybe. You won’t be able to skimp on the cooling costs anywhere without descending into third world country status. Not much I can do about that. Nor is it going to shake out this decade or the next one, for that matter.
I don’t see why this is suddenly controversial, or in any way related to anything else going on in the threads about this blog.
Yes, I have. Which is why it has to be seen as a cheaper policy outcome to get them to move into an urban center rather than trying to prolong the status quo. It’s better to be jobless/poor in Charlotte than jobless/poor in E. Kentucky, I’m afraid.
August 21st, 2010 at 1:31 am
@Bob Loblaw: I think there’s some actual thought in there, but you kind of got off on the wrong pedal appendage. I recommend that you do some random reading of past postings and comments to get a sense of how the conversations/debates/arguments/childish phhts go around here. Believe me, you will be embraced (and vilified) as a member of this community if you aren’t a total analhead (cf. Pancake, Bender, et al.)
August 21st, 2010 at 1:35 am
@Bob Loblaw:
Unless you’re talking forced repatriation, the folks I’ve known in those situations ain’t moving, I’m afraid. And they have guns. I’m always leery of people who use the term “cheaper policy outcome” when talking about people. But that’s just me.
August 21st, 2010 at 2:12 am
@Mark S.: NEEDS MOAR POWRRPOINT.
August 21st, 2010 at 2:13 am
@Something Fabulous: Nooooo! I may be depressed about my unemployment, but I relish the lack of Powerpoint in my life.
August 21st, 2010 at 2:36 am
@Chad N Freude: I read this blog because it’s the only one I know where the commenters actually truly make me laugh out loud. Not just the way everyone else says “Oh jeez you just made me spray my coffee on the keyboard.” I actually laugh.
Now, back to lurking.
August 21st, 2010 at 3:00 am
@arguingwithsignposts: Your description of cities close to each other sounds like the Northeast Corridor between Washington and Boston. What I find interesting is that it’s the most densely populated part of the US, but if you go 20 miles in either direction perpendicular to the Amtrak (formerly Pennsy/New Haven) main line, you’re in farmland.
August 21st, 2010 at 3:06 am
@Bob Loblaw: Been reading TheOilDrum?
Kunstler thinks small town America is the only thing that will survive. John Michael Greer just moved to Cumberland MD because it’s a small town in an area with enough rainfall and local agriculture and on the B&O main line.
I haven’t made up my mind whether urban density or 1850s small towns linked by rail is the best way to survive Peak Oil. In any case, I expect to get shot by my neighbors as I try to defend my tomato plants from the ravening hordes.
August 21st, 2010 at 3:17 am
@Bob Loblaw: My take on the coming shitstorm is it’s better to be poor/jobless in a place where you can survive by subsistence farming, like Kentucky, instead of an urban gangwar hellhole.
But that’s me. I ain’t gonna make it either way, I’m afraid.
August 21st, 2010 at 3:21 am
@frosty:
Unless you think antibiotic-resistant TB is going to do your dirty work for you, I’m not sure how anybody expects to maintain these primo farm communities free of the rest of society. If the country gains another 100M people in the next 4-5 decades, where on earth do you think they’re going to live?
You think you can escape water rationing/perpetual rolling brownouts in some little libertarian paradise unmolested? This is their plan?
August 21st, 2010 at 3:32 am
Balloon Juice people are a bunch of mindless jerks who were the first against the wall when the revolution came.
Sorry, I only steal from the classics. :)
August 21st, 2010 at 3:53 am
I’m just here for the free beer and hot chicks.
August 21st, 2010 at 4:47 am
@Bob Loblaw:
See, this is where your shit falls apart. IF this country gains another 100M ppl in 4-5 DECADES?
If the shitstorm hits, this country ain’t gonna be gaining ppl. it’s going to be losing them at an alarming rate.
And, oh, btw, water rationing/rolling brownouts don’t work on ppl who are on wells and don’t have electricity or don’t need it like city dwellers.
This is not a “libertarian paradise” he’s talking about. It’s subsistence living in grinding poverty on land that you own.
Get a clue, dude.
August 21st, 2010 at 5:03 am
@bend: That’s an interesting point. I regularly read Balloon Juice/John Cole, The Daily Dish, Daily Kos, Five Thirty Eight/Nate Silver, Glenn Greenwald, and Wonkette. I’ve also recently become re-acquainted with Little Green Footballs/Charles Johnson, who has apparently also woken up to the fucked-up-ness of the putatively conservative movement.
Of those, The Daily Dish has lately been more Conor Friedersdorf than Andrew Sullivan, Daily Kos has long been far more than just Markos Moulitsas, and I don’t even remember who started Wonkette. However, mostly what I read are people like me: educated, irreverent and idiosyncratic, many of them ex-conservative or simply heterodox. Normally confirmation bias is a bad thing, but when you’re seeking out fellow cynics, then it cancels itself out. I hope.
August 21st, 2010 at 6:43 am
One word: Tunch.
August 29th, 2010 at 5:37 pm