Test, test, test…1,2,3, umm, is this thing on? I know you’re out there, I saw you post in the last thread.
When I was fifteen, my parents were at a movie and the keys to the truck were right there by the door. I hope this endeavor ends better than that one did. I feel a little like Chief O’Brien, come to think of it.
Well, I won’t be a regular clockwork poster. Firstly because there’s a stable of great writers here already whose work I respect, even as I’ve disagreed with almost all of them at one point or another. Secondly because I have work. And while I do from time to time comment from work, I can’t maintain discussion threads while running around doing service calls. For those of you who don’t know, most of you are my employers because I work for the Department of Veterans’ Affairs as an IT technician. It’s a great job, and I thank you all deeply for paying me to do something I’m fairly good at for people who do important work. You might see some more of my posting vice commenting on the weekends. I’ll likely post about military and veteran issues, computer hardware, some types of computer games, politics (of course), very very occasionally union issues, and whatever else strikes my fancy while trying to stay out of the way of the smarter ones–which is to say all the other front pagers. And now for the obligatory disclaimer–nothing I post should ever be construed as the official position or opinion of the US Government, the Departments of Defense or Veterans’ Affairs, the American Federation of Government Employees, or pretty much anybody else, and sure as hell not John Cole or any of the other Front Pagers.
Now, in addition to the inevitable hair pulling, teeth gnashing, and loud pompous pronouncements that “Balloon-Juice has jumped the shark”–all of which I did the moment John offered me this gig–this is an open thread.
ETA–for those who missed it, here is TPM’s “Debate in 100 Seconds: It’s a Scary World Out There”
Just to let you all know–I was waiting for John to give you all a heads-up/fair warning kind of announcement, but he’s no doubt busy with the second most wonderful dog in the world (after my dog, of course), as he should be. Being me, I got too impatient to wait after he gave me the keys this morning. Since I have family business to attend tomorrow and I understand there’s some kind of feasting event on Thursday, I just hit ‘publish’ at the opportune time.
arguingwithsignposts
Fuck You is I believe the traditional welcome gift to new FPers. Maybe tokoloco will stalk you soon.
Dennis G.
And welcome. This should be fun…
well, at least it has been for me.
Soonergrunt
@arguingwithsignposts: Will there be a noticeable difference?
gnomedad
@arguingwithsignposts:
Fffffff … nah, can’t do it. Welcome and congrats.
chopper
what is your opinion on glibertarian freed market reacharounds? (pauses, looks thoughtfully)
Soonergrunt
@Dennis G.: Thank you, Sir. I hope to live up–or down, whatevs–to the standards the FPs set.
Donut
I think it’s a cryin’ fuggin’ shame that in Leftblogistan hardly anyone regularly talks about Vets and what y’all are going through these days. I think it’d be pretty awesome if you would fill that gap, even just a little.
RareSanity
Fuck off!
We don’t take kindly to your kind around here!
…what’s that?
…he’s one of us?
Oh…well, carry on then…congrats dude!
Yutsano
Hail fellow ebil gubmint worker. May we sponge off the public teat until that sucker’s dry.
gwangung
@arguingwithsignposts: Ditto!
Soonergrunt
@chopper: It depends on whether or not they involve Crisco, or are at least using an 80+ Silver power supply.
Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion
Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! I mean, welcome sir, and I look forward to your commentary. Ahem.
Brachiator
Very cool. Hope you have a good time.
Interesting. I did not know that. Are you a participant in the Tech Religious Wars? Apple vs Android, etc.?
MikeBoyScout
Fuck off! When are you going to fix my computer?
IT technician my ass.
welcome.
Comrade Mary
Mic check!
(MIC CHECK!)
Nice to see you!
(NICE TO SEE YOU!)
Write lots!
(WRITE LOTS!)
Jenny
This isn’t fair.
When are we going to get some one who will represent the SEC?
sfinny
Ooooh. New target.
Soonergrunt
@Yutsano: Which will be in about three years if the repubs take the whitehouse and senate.
Admiral_Komack
I’m glad to see you as a front-pager.
Good luck in this particular Enterprise.
Carry on.
Soonergrunt
@MikeBoyScout: That’s just like a conversation I had with a user this morning.
different-church-lady
One of these days I’m going to wake up and find out I’ve become a front pager and nobody’s told me.
RareSanity
@Jenny:
You know ‘teh left’ hates success, it’ll never happen… (giggles)
Felanius Kootea
Congratulations! Does your work involve any tinkering with VistA?
SiubhanDuinne
This is great news for
John McCainthe entire Juicitariat. Glad to see you on the front page, sg.mamayaga
Welcome new Front Pager! I retired from the VA a year ago and agree that it’s not at all a bad place to work.
Neutron Flux
A doggie on the front page.
Fuck off.
MikeBoyScout
Also, too, Re 13 above
Come clean.
Church of Emacs or Cult of vi ??
lamh35
Cool beans.
I have two cousins in the Army, I was born at the Army Hospital in New Orleans in ’76, my father was in the Army and my grandfather was an retired Air Force vet who fought in Vietnam, he’s buried in the military cemetery in Biloxi, MS …so I’m always happy to hear about veterans issues
Anne Laurie
Good start.
Welcome to the front page! {sneaky Snoopy dance}
Oh, did we mention… latest hire works the holiday shift… (/kidding)
Violet
Wow. Congrats! Didn’t even know we were getting a new frontpager. Did I miss the memo?
Can’t wait for your posts. You always bring an interesting perspective to comment threads.
Raven
@Jenny: I beg your pardon.
Ben Cisco
Congrats from a fellow vet and IT worker to boot.
__
OUTSTANDING!!
Arm The Homeless
Sooner,
I have always appreciated your opinions, and while I would never step foot in your god-awful state again after a sad incident in Blackwell a few moons back, I will gladly drive through and appreciate the beauty of your chosen home.
With that said, I would love to hear some discussions about water-rights and Corps of Engineers goings-on in your neck of the woods. The Lake Texoma re-allocation has been very interesting to me, any opinion on it?
Soonergrunt
@Brachiator: Well, in as much as Apple won’t give their customers access to the kernal or even discuss how things are accomplished, errors handled, and events managed, I don’t expect to see Apple products in the commercial/government environment anytime soon or at all, with the exception of niche applications, walled off from the rest of the organization.
A notable exception is the iPad, which VA is testing in both the staff and patient care environments.
In the mobile space, Blackberry rules the government world, although Android is making headway in DoD and Army specifically, and that will probably affect VA one way or the other in the next couple of years.
Jenny
@Raven: a front page administrator.
Raven
This is great! Nice to have someone with a fucking clue.
piratedan
congrats on the promotion, but I’m guessing its only a lousy title and not any actual cash….. stillllllllll
suzanne
This pleases me. Immensely.
Congrats on the new gig. (Hilarious that there’s an ad for Louboutins from Saks Fifth Avenue today. Apparently they thought this was one of those 1% blogs.)
Soonergrunt
@Anne Laurie: And thank you, Anne Laurie, for your support!
Between the two of us, we ought to be pissing more than a few people off.
JCT
Welcome to the front page, Soonergrunt!
And hah, my 15-yr-old brother found the keys to my VW bug when I was away at college. They managed to get it fixed up and I didn’t learn he had wrecked it until about 10 years later….
sfinny
@different-church-lady: Isn’t that the classic nightmare. All of sudden you are on the front page, no clothes…oops.
Raven
@Jenny: Screw em. Go Dawgs!
Soonergrunt
@MikeBoyScout: Neither. I leave scripting to the smart guys. I do mostly hardware and direct user support. Having said that, I spend more and more time with Red Hat and Ubuntu linux every day, and my linux guru lives and dies by the command line.
jeffreyw
Welcome and here’s a Jack Russel x Shih Tzu for ya.
JC
@Soonergrunt: If Ipad’s are becoming acceptable, why in the world not Iphones? Not a huge diff from an IT perspective. Also, blackberry losing market share left and right.
HRA
Congratulations. I always enjoy your comments.
Soonergrunt
@Arm The Homeless: Sorry to hear about the bad experience in Blackwell. I can only tell you “it’s Blackwell, Jake. Forget about it.”
The real controversy here right now is water rights, and specifically the rights of the Native Nations, within whose territory many of the larger reservoirs lie.
That’s going to be a great subject to post on once I learn more about it.
RareSanity
@JC:
iPhones would be used for email, iPads would be used for the applications, no email.
One of my company’s largest customers is the Dept. of State. The gubmint is serious about email…
MikeBoyScout
@44 Soonergrunt:
:-)
Ubuntu; your users like or hate the Unity UI?
Of course, Windows puts bread on (y)our table. :-D
JGabriel
Soonergrunt @ Top:
Aw, Jesus Fuck, look at this, will ya? Balloon Juice has jumped the frickin’ shark and gone straight to shit.
Again.
(Seriously, congrats Sooner!)
.
LongHairedWeirdo
Since it’s an open thread, I’ll point out an interesting historical bit about the Groucho quote. (But I’ll note that I *do not* have primary source on this.)
When Groucho said that, he was referring to a country club. I’m sure you can imagine that some such organizations would insist that they didn’t have anything *against* Jews – it’s just, people wouldn’t belong to a country club that accepted Jews as members.
So, while the Groucho quote is funny in a self-deprecating way, it’s also quite bitingly sarcastic – “I won’t belong to a club that accepts ‘people like me’ as members”.
Brachiator
@Soonergrunt:
Makes sense. I’ve seen interesting stuff about the iPad being used for students at UC Irvine Medical School, and wondered if it might have use in actual patient care.
Blackberry is being muscled out of the consumer market. Can the products survive if the government and non US markets are its main users?
As an aside, the google search app on the iPad is a slick piece of work. When it doesn’t crash.
Raven
@LongHairedWeirdo: Groucho, sarcastic? Say it ain’t so!
“I like cigars but I take em out of my mouth once in a while”.
roshan
WTF!
Wily Jalapeño
Haha – let me join the multitude in a loud, drawn out, and supremely lusty: FUCK OFF!
Which is really one of the highest compliments any of us in the juicetariat (whoever coined that, please come forward and accept your reach around) can pay to someone.
Welcome aboard, SG! I’ve always appreciated your commentary in the bowels of the board, and look forward to your FP posts. Especially as they pertain to veteran’s issues (as Donut noted above) and a military voice to counter the seemingly conservative one-note of the milblogs out there (dim Uncle Jimbo at Blackfive – I’m looking at you).
Christ Cole – I remember the good ol’ days when you were a lone wolf. Transitioning to a sockulist dhimmocrat has made you all about the collective. We’re way more insidious than you ever imagined in your conservative wildest dreams!
Raven
@Brachiator: I saw a presentation by the head of the Ohio State med school and how they were using it. Cool stuff.
TX Expat
I’m gonna de-lurk for a moment to say congrats. Soonergrunt, I’ve been reading your commentary since way back in the early aughts and it’s about damn time someone gave you a front-page gig.
Very glad you’re here. With a brother currently in Afghanistan (ALO commander at FOB Spin Buldak, 3 times in Iraq, second time around in Afghanistan) and many cousins here and there in the military, it’ll be nice to hear someone talk about service member issues.
Soonergrunt
@JC: I think it’s more a cultural thing, combine with the fact that BB is the existing infrastructure. It’s also the case that BB supports the ID card-based PKI encryption that we use. Right now, iPads cannot be used for encrypted email. Also, they cannot be used in the real patient care environment because we cannot encrypt them the way WE want to do so.
VA is a LOT more anal about data security in normal daily operations than DoD is. That’s primarily because DoD uses a separate network for sensitive information, while VA does everything on one network. That laptop that a VA employee lost a couple years ago is the driver for the VA’s very very restrictive, obsessive focus on data security and the privacy rights of our beneficiaries, the Veterans.
Raven
@jeffreyw: Damn, give the guy an internet connection and here come the ginormous pics!
MikeBoyScout
@54 Raven:
The world needs more Groucho threads.
Don’t look now but there’s one man too many in this room and I think it’s you.
amk
@Dennis G.: Dood, you don’t have to rub it in ….
@ SG – So what is the grace period before we flip the bird at you ? Sooner ?
Valdivia
mostly lurk nowadays but read all the time. how great to see you doing this! Yay! Happy dance.
Soonergrunt
@MikeBoyScout: Well, we only use Linux for some IT stuff right now. I don’t see us going away from the Windows platform any time soon. Probably not for years.
Currently, our desktop/laptop configuration in the patient care environment is Windows XP SP3, Office 2010, and various applications unique to VA patient care. We are moving the other environments to Windows 7 (bypassing Vista completely) and will do the same with Patient Care systems once we’ve completed testing and remediation.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Cool and congrats on the FP slot! I haven’t read the thread but have you been assigned your personal B-J threadstalker yet?
It usually happens pretty quickly.
JCT
@Raven: There’s some great medical software out there — I’m teaching cardiac auscultation using an iPhone/iPad app for the first time this year and really looking forward to it.
General Stuck
while I am not sure this blog needs any more front pagers, though Cole is getting up there in years and is showing signs of early dementia and could use the quiet time, but if so, I would say you would be the best choice, soonergrunt. All things considered. good luck, and it will be fun watching you chase our trollidites around.
passerby
Yaaay! Congrats to you Soonergrunt.
Like Valdivia mostly lurking these days but always reading.
Peggy
If you want some insight into the technical side of
current affairs, you won’t want to miss this product description.
And some customer reviews are truly worthy.
Don’t miss the comments on the first review.
and welcome
Soonergrunt
@amk: It would seem that the consensus is that now is a good time.
Citizen_X
Christ, this blog has gone to shit!
Just kidding, welcome aboard. I look forward to you getting issued your own personal stalker troll. (All the FPer’s get one!)
Anne Laurie
@Soonergrunt: Fortunately, we share so little overlap in skill sets, we won’t piss each other off… much.
Brachiator
@LongHairedWeirdo:
This is well known California history, and obviously applies to other country clubs as well. The most elite country clubs were for WASPs only, no blacks or Jews allowed. Some even refused to allow show biz types as members.
For example, there is the California Club, one of California’s oldest, dating from the late 1800s.
Then there is the Jonathan Club, which catered to the business elite, and which, I think, did not admit black or women members until 1987.
And then there is the Hillcrest Country Club, which originally was exclusively Jewish, and a response to the WASP only clubs. Here’s a Groucho anecdote for you.
Arm The Homeless
@Soonergrunt: Well, I look forward to hearing your take on it. I didn’t know the interactions of the Native-nations in the whole sorted affair, but now I will have to do some research of my own. Cheers!
amk
@Soonergrunt: here you go
http://image.spreadshirt.com/image-server/image/design/2428879/type/png/width/130/height/130
Suffern ACE
Agree with the fuck off sentiment.
If you want, I can be your stalker troll. I can do right wing crazy or leftish smug or bitter ex-love. Take your pick.
dead existentialist
Now that is what’s fucking wrong with this country.
Soonergrunt
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Well, there’s an odds-on favorite.
FWIW–in my own threads, I promise to turn off the pie filter. I can’t/won’t respond to everybody, but I will do my best to not abuse my privileges.
Steeplejack
Congrats on the front-page gig, Soonergrunt!
I am somewhat nonplussed. I have had an unprecedented four days off work, and I am completely caught up on Balloon Juice! Very weird. Only nine tabs currently open in Firefox (as opposed to 30-40), I’ve read to the bottom in all of them, and I have actually been able to comment in real time. Very strange. But pleasant.
That is all. Carry on.
Soonergrunt
@Peggy: That thread is epic.
Soonergrunt
@Anne Laurie: I can’t thank you or John enough.
Soonergrunt
@Suffern ACE: I’ve had the first two types over at GOS back when I still diaried there.
I’ve never had a bitter ex-love. You can take any meaning you want from that statement.
SFAW
Forget the bleedin’ SEC!
When will they have someone who will represent PFL?
I’ll humbly submit my own name for that, of course.
(And, no, this particular meaning don’t show up in Urban Dictionary. Yet.)
janeform
I never dreamed I’d have the chance to complain on BJ about VA data security policies, which get worse by the day. I do health services research and we spend an incredible amount of staff time dealing with it, our projects are always delayed. It’s insane. One of my colleagues dressed up for Halloween as Ms. Data Security, complete with the standard issue VA giant red encrypted thumb drive that says “SECRET” on it (no kidding), 2 lockboxes, papers with rules and regulations, handcuffs, and a cone of silence. Welcome soonergrunt!
General Stuck
@janeform:
There are tales the mil don’t want told. I’ve heard many of them in my years getting HC from the VA. And can see why they don’t want them told.
different-church-lady
@sfinny: : Wait a minute… they do this naked?
Soonergrunt
@janeform: Thanks!
I’ve been at VA for six months, and like I said, DoD isn’t anywhere near as anal-retentive about the NIPRnet as VA is about our network and PCs and laptops. During my orientation, they kept talking about that stolen/missing laptop from May, 2006 had the personal data from 26.5 million Veterans on it. It was recovered about a month later, and to date there has been no evidence that any data was compromised, but it’s like a talisman for my coworkers and the entire VA IT organization. Everybody obsesses over protecting our Veterans’ data.
Soonergrunt
@different-church-lady: And suspended upside down on an inversion table, since you asked.
It’s going to be painfully inconvenient to post updates when I’m out and about, I think.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Soonergrunt:
As much as some like the pie filter, I prefer to let the crazy fly free. It gives me the option of responding derisively or ignoring their drivel.
Freedumb baby! ;)
janeform
@Soonergrunt: They’ve never heard of cost/benefit analysis? It’s like Cheney’s 1% doctrine. I do, however, want to put in a good word for the many fine and dedicated people who work at our VA hospital.
amk
Rezko jailed for fraud.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/world-us-canada-15844189
3,2,1 … willard’s obnoxiously lying ad
Lojasmo
Soonergrunt is a reverse-racist, libertarian, firebagging, troll plant. Amirite?
Jenny
Maddow had a great segment tonight on how differently Obama treats OWS demonstrators versus the wingers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#45410664
El Cid
Fuck the VA. My next door neighbor’s working on his century mark and all the VA does is keep him healthy and treat him well and appropriately informed and at no cost to him.
Wait, that actually sounds pretty good.
But I guess all you care about is getting all this liberal money for blogging here. There’s money, right?
different-church-lady
@Soonergrunt: How many wetsuits?
(PS: wait, you said naked. [slaps forehead])
Safe word is “green balloons”
burnspbesq
@Jenny:
“This isn’t fair.
When are we going to get some one who will represent the SEC?”
The only SEC folks who can read or write are all from Vandy, and Vandy sucks in football, so why bother. ;-)
Soonergrunt
@Lojasmo: ummm, uhh, who told you to break cover?
@El Cid: Firstly, I LOVE working at the VA. I will soon, as many VA employees do, become a beneficiary as well. VA consistently ranks among the highest patient approval rates for medical/hospital systems in the country.
As to the second part, I got my paperwork for the Soros stipend, but you would not believe the kickbacks that John and the other FPs demand. Especially mistermix. Turns out, that guy’s pretty gangsta.
magurakurin
glad to hear it. I’ve read your comments here and on other blogs prior several years now. I’ve always enjoyed your input and opinions.
Soonergrunt
@different-church-lady: Oh, now I get it. The naked inverted blogging is done from home, and the two wetsuits and di…well, the two wetsuits are used out in public.
different-church-lady
@Soonergrunt: Wait here, I’m gonna go re-read the lexicon and figure this out…
Ash Can
Great move, adding you to the front page, Soonergrunt. I may not be commenting, but I’ll be reading enthusiastically.
Villago Delenda Est
Soonergrunt, I’m sure Cole could have made a better choice, but I’ll be damned if I can think of one myself.
Congratulations, please do not pull a Herman Cain and drive the blog into a ditch.
burnspbesq
@Lojasmo:
“Soonergrunt is a reverse-racist, libertarian, firebagging, troll plant. Amirite?”
Dude, if you can’t tell the difference between Soonergrunt and Jane Hamsher, you need to either go to rehab or get new glasses.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@El Cid:
He gets one of those infamous Soros Checks now.
Linnaeus
Welcome aboard.
Damn it, I’m out of wine.
SFAW
Weren’t the Soros Czechs those poor unfortunates that the Great Hungarian Satan turned over to Ze Gestapo?
Comrade Mary
Soros cheque!
(SOROS CHEQUE!)
… err … I got nuthin’
The Moar You Know
Oh hell yes. Glad to see you hit the front page.
Angela
De-lurking to say Nice!
Soonergrunt
@Villago Delenda Est: Thanks. I’m quite CERTAIN that John could’ve made a better choice. But I’m deeply honored by Anne Laurie who asked him, and him agreeing.
AA+ Bonds
I’m not conceding without a recount
cxs
I have no life-seeing your byline made me much too happy.
Uncle Clarence Thomas
.
.
If President Obama shared your sensible attitude, he would disavow Richard B. Cheney’s complimentary approval of his illegal foreign policy, his illegal domestic spying, and his illegal refusal to prosecute the previous administration’s many war criminals.
I look forward to reviewing your militaristic, center-right, “beg me for your life, haji” ruminations, killer.
.
.
amk
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: as clueless as a troll could ever be.
General Stuck
@Uncle Clarence Thomas:
awe shit, you stink
Mary G
Also now pretty much a lurker only, but glad to see you on board.
dead existentialist
@amk: And drunk, too.
Soonergrunt
@Uncle Clarence Thomas: I never made anyone beg. That wastes too much time.
jl
Hi soonergrunt. Nice to see you as front pager.
(Except, hmmm… get’s my suspicions up, you aren’t a DougJ spoof are you?)
Naw. Can’t be. DougJ has his hand full writing the John Cole character.
So, welcome, Eager to read your posts.
Amanda in the South Bay
Yay for another vet IT person! I’m still working on my CS degree, thanks to the post 9/11 Gi Bill, so not quite out there in the workforce yet. I think having a focus on veterans issues and military life is good for a FPer.
Soonergrunt
@Amanda in the South Bay: Well, I hope that you won’t ever hesitate to correct me in the many, many instances I expect to be wrong.
@jl: Hmmm. That’s a good point. Now that I think about it, has ANYONE ever actually seen DougJ and John together in the same room at the same time? It’s kind of like the whole Michael Jackson/Janet Jackson thing, only creepier.
mclaren
Why are sociopathic bully-worshipers like this clown given extra space? What, they couldn’t get parole for Arthur Bremer?
This guy sums up everything that’s wrong with America. This pathological case never met a military atrocity or a police beating he didn’t love, and he has no more respect for the constitution of the united states that Kim Jung Il.
Get this fool off the front page. He’s an insult to democracy and an affront to America. He needs to emigrate to North Korea where he’ll feel comfy without the rule of law.
Trinity
The question is…what do your counter tops look like?
:) Glad to see you posting soonergrunt!
Ming
Count me in as one of those who have looked forward to comments with your byline. Welcome!
And you fucked up, man! You foolishly inform us you have the best dog in the world, but… WHERE IS YOUR PET PIC?!!!!
I hope you’ll be picking up your game a bit here, because this is kind of embarrassing.
ABL
Well this is a fine turn of events, indeed! Although I’m a little irked that you made me drink shitty whisky first.
congrats!
SIA
@Comrade Mary: You got some laughs from me!
Soonergrunt, most pleased by your evolution into a mighty FPer. Army brat here,(Brat being the operative word.)
gwangung
@mclaren: We love you, too, dear.
Arm The Homeless
Yo, Unkle Rucus, if you’re going to steal your schtick from better humans than yourself, you could at least give them the credit.
dead existentialist
@amk: And drunk, too.@mclaren: Gawd, you are so lovable. Goochy-goochy-gooo!!!
Who’s the cutest mclaren? YOU”RE the cutest mclaren!!
SIA
@mclaren: My goodness, you are insufferable.
Soonergrunt
@Felanius Kootea: I completely missed this.
Since I do Tier II desktop/laptop, printers, and network troubleshooting, I do some VistA. mainly replacing/reregistering DLLs when it stops playing nice with Windows, usually after an update, for example. I do some stuff with SSH on the back end, and I’m learning to build and maintain VistA print queues and such.
Yutsano
@Soonergrunt: Okay I LOLed.
Dee Loralei
Congrats SoonerGrunt! Another one of my favorite Sooners I’m not related to who doesn’t play football and who I’ve never met. LOL! I tweeted that about Elizabeth Warren and she re-tweeted it and is now following me.
Suffern ACE already asked to be your official stalker, but I’d like to be thrown in for consideration. In a previous thread you said you were watching the debate through your twitter thread, so I found you and followed you and felt a wee bit stalkie. So basically, I pre-stalked you LOL.
Anyway, congrats again, and I’m really glad John and Anne Laurie moved you to the major leagues.
SectarianSofa
@soonergrunt —
Cool. Looking forward to your FP posts. Apologies in advance, though — I can never remember if I’m supposed to be nice to the front pagers, or rude to them. So I usually split the difference.
Splitting Image
Welcome! I’ve also enjoyed reading what you’ve had to say over the years. I hope the gig is worth having to turn off the pie filter when loco-chan is around.
Odie Hugh Manatee
OT:
FCC threatens merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, AT&T cries foul.
Good news for all! Except AT&T.
Tim
Too much sucking going on here!!!
Fuck you sooner and fuck the rest of you too!
Comrade Mary
Oh, can’t we all be bipartisan and suck 50% of the time and fuck 50% of the time?
jl
@SectarianSofa: I typically only include random and gratuitous insults in comments to Cole and DougJ. I always thought. from casual observation, that was BJ blggitiquette, and I would be rude if I didn’t.
But, hey, maybe I was wrong. If so, sorry, that train has left the station, and its an ingrained habit now. Won’t be able to help myself. So, I now make this preemptive apology to JGC and DJ, those scum sucking pixilated cryptocommie cryptolibertarian insane persons, and general purpose varmints.
Amir Khalid
Not too late to congratulate, I hope. Good to see you on the front page, soonergrunt.
@Splitting Image:
Alas, and maybe alackaday, too; for her loco-ness has apparently gone GBCW. She did it like, yesterday, quite out of the blue.
Mike in NC
Congrats, dude, and we look forward to your words of wisdom.
jl
@Tim: Well, behold the spectacle of brotherly and sisterly love while it lasts (which will be exactly until soonergrunt posts again and half the commenters decide soonergrunt is a miserable scumbag.
Jenny
Dinner with the President
Interesting video.
He talks about his schedule: wakes up at 7 AM, goes to the gym, gets to the oval office at 9 and works straight through until 6:30, then he spends 90 minutes with his kids, and then goes back to work at 8 pm and works until 1 AM.
Talks about being woken in the middle of the night when the fukushima disaster occurred.
http://youtu.be/Tb5D71aQAoo
4jkb4ia
Congratulations and well, well deserved.
Soonergrunt
@ABL: I thought Mcallan was your brand?
Mark S.
Welcome, northkoreagrunt!
Here’s the latest stupidity from conservatives: Those students agreed to be pepper-sprayed! Also, too, Jesus agreed to be crucified.
Martin
Heh. This is gonna be entertaining. Though Cole should have turned over the keys when sooner was still all doped up.
Soonergrunt
@Splitting Image: She’s really not too bad. It’s what she doesn’t understand that she doesn’t understand, and resolutely refuses to understand that makes her annoying.
With the others, mclaren and uncle clarence thomas, with their oh, so personal hate for somebody they’ve never met and certainly haven’t read closely at all, it’s the distinct impression they got beat up by Girl Scouts in the fourth grade and have had it in for people in uniform ever since.
Soonergrunt
@Odie Hugh Manatee: Certainly good for all of us, though. And as mistermix has pointed out before, AT&Ts angle was about increasing their market share without actually doing the basic infrastructure work that needed to be done for them to stay on top.
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: Thanks! I’ve always respected your input, and I hope that you’ll hang around a long time and help us to better understand, and better treat, people from all over.
I wonder why m_c left. I missed that. Hmm. I honestly do hope that she finds whatever it is that she’s looking for.
Soonergrunt
@Martin: There probably won’t be a hell of a lot of difference.
lol
@Soonergrunt:
You should check out what the CFPB has been doing with getting Apples on their network.
mclaren
@Soonergrunt:
Just keep on jacking off to documentaries about Pol Pot’s killing fields, you infantile cowardly Marshall Petain-wannabe. You’re telling us everything about yourself everyone ever wanted to know.
Accused of having no respect for the constitution and despising the rule of law, you respond by…calling any critic a girly-man.
Yeah, that about sums it up for you, doesn’t it?
Emigrate to Burma, where the constitutional rights you despise so much don’t exist.
Larkspur
@mclaren: Oh, mclaren, please don’t be despairin. Don’t think that we’re uncarin just cuz you’re overbearin. I mean rilly.
Amir Khalid
@mclaren:
You’re all sweetness and light today, aren’t you?
mclaren
The fact that so many gutless wonders actually speak out to praise this miserable Quisling represents a devastating blow the credibility of Balloon Juice in particular and this United Snakes of Amnesia as a so-called country.
You people are genuinely, thoroughly, irredeemably pathetic. Americans have turned into the single biggest cringing crowd of crutch-kickers, lynching-cheerers, baby-beaters, bully-worshipers, wannabe-Jeffrey-Dahmers, goose-steppers and craven crawling erstwhile serfs since Emperor Xerxes ordered his slaves to whip the ocean for daring to sink his fleet at the Battle of Salamis.
Meanwhile, real people with actual guts are standing up to the thugs right now.
SectarianSofa
@mclaren:
Well-played.
Yutsano
@mclaren:
And yet…you still come here. The Cheshire Cat would like a word with you.
Amir Khalid
@mclaren:
There are real oppressors and exploiters running loose in your country (mine is on the other side of the planet, by the way); and you pick on soonergrunt, of all people, to vent your displeasure? You need to pick your targets more wisely.
Poopyman
Well, to paraphrase AWSP up at #1, fuck you and the dead horse we’ll soon be beating. Or something. And congratulations, even though you’ve already been posting as Sarah, P&T, right?
(Ducks and runs away …)
Yutsano
@Amir Khalid: Target of convenience. Why sully your hands fighting true oppression when there are retired soldiers on the Internet to attack instead?
SectarianSofa
@Yutsano:
‘irredeemably’ is probably a bit much. Wouldn’t do much good to lecture us if that is the case.
Still, I’ve gotten so used to reading the witless caz and spfga trollery that mclaren’s spleen-vent gives me a nice warm feeling.
BattleCat
@mclaren:
nobody’s calling you a girly man, sooner’s just saying that you got beat up by some girls is all.
Soonergrunt
@SectarianSofa: It’s all good. As Eleanor of Aquitane said in my favorite movie of all time, “What family doesn’t have its little ups and downs?”
@mclaren: That’s quite a little fantasy world you’ve constructed there, where you get to speak truth to power and rage against the evil like a lone seeker of justice and light.
So in the real world outside the browser window, you work in a cubicle farm and you keep getting bullied into working unpaid Saturdays by your boss, don’t you?
Brachiator
Ding. Ding. Ding.
We have a winner of the Official Soonergrunt Troll Contest.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the InterTubes.
I am intrigued by the release of this extended Rolling Stones “Some Girls” album.
SectarianSofa
@BattleCat:
Great. Now this going to go all clusterfucky. Someone pepper spray us now so we can just let the healing begin, OK?
gwangung
@Amir Khalid:
Wise and mclaren are like electrons and positrons.
AnneW
Woo hoo!
burnspbesq
@mclaren:
No one here cares what you think. You’re boorish, self-righteous, and you can’t write for shit. Worst of all, you’re boring.
You might want to think about going somewhere where your messagev(whatever that may be) would find a receptive audience.
Soonergrunt
@Poopyman: I WISH I were smart enough for SPT.
BGinCHI
Late to the threads. Welcome to management in the shark tank factory, soonergrunt.
I always knew you were a fucking sell out.
Seriously, okey, you’re alright by me. Glad to see you on the front page beat.
jl
@Brachiator: I guess there is some law of nature, or modern society, that every blog poster must have a troll.
Something about blogs brings out insane trollery.
I assume soonergrunt knows the a lot of the congrats tonight will turn into a howling band of jackels (or is it hyenas, or rabid honey badgers?) soon enough.
Uh, you do know that, right, soonergrunt? Right?
Ruckus
@lamh35:
I have a friend from Akron who is the only other person I know to use Cool Beans. It’s a good club, small, exclusive but good.
Sooner
Welcome to the big show. Now fuck off.
Soonergrunt
@Brachiator:
Is this like some MMORPGs, where you get an in-game pet to follow you around if you do something like beta test a new world, for example? I got one of those in the new Star Wars game for which I’m a beta tester. It’s this little blob (because my graphics card isn’t very powerful, but I’m fixing that tomorrow) that follows me everywhere I go but doesn’t do anything useful and has no real value.
Amir Khalid
@Brachiator:
Gee, I don’t know. Yes, Mick and Keith know how to talk up an album release. And yes, sometimes a gem of a song does get unearthed in this way. But too often, all you learn from extended releases like this is that the editing decision to leave out those other songs was the right one.
Soonergrunt
@jl: Oh, yeah. I’m thinking about posting some troll-bait about FDL just to jump-start that action, but I haven’t been given the schedule for the auto-trolling duties yet. DougJ has to work me in to it so as not to disrupt the flow.
@Ruckus: Thanks, Ruckus!
Soonergrunt
@BGinCHI: Thanks!
Suffern ACE
@BattleCat: McClaren, IIRC, is actually the type of girly man known as a woman. I’m lost as to where these attacks on her masculinity are going.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Soonergrunt:
Yup. I’m happy that the FCC is seeing through the deal, especially the reduction in workforce. It was a bad deal all around except for AT&T. Compteition will drive down prices, not a merger like this. Let them upgrade their infrastructure and compete in the market for share.
After all it’s supposed to be the American way! :)
@mclaren:
You are one funny fuckstick! Keep it up.
TBogg
Just remember that John likes new tags on every post. Lots and lots of new tags. Tons of them. Don’t be shy…
Dee Loralei
Oh, and I nominate the next new front pager to be Amir Khalid, he’s got a perspective on America and American politics that none of us have. And he writes well and is interesting in the comments. And he used to get paid to write, from what I understand, so his stuff would be well researched. He could be the BJ Margaret Meade. Just a thought. Though, he’d also end up with Matoko being a stalker, since she already stalks him here. See John, he comes pre-stalkified, and handles it well.
JGabriel
Currently at The New York Times:
Most E-Mailed: A Serving Of Gratitude May Save The Day
Most Viewed: MF Global Trustee Says Shortfall Could Exceed $1.2 Billion
Which tells us that the average NYT reader has enough money to worry about losing some of it in the MF Global scandal, but is still petty enough to send people columns with the passive-aggresive subtext of “Say Fuckin’ Thank You Once In A While”.
Hmm.
.
Mnemosyne
@Arm The Homeless:
If he did that, every one of his posts would look like a David Foster Wallace novel.
Pieing him just makes it faster for everyone.
Soonergrunt
@TBogg: I’m on it! Thanks. Can I assume you’ll help the new guy out with such wise counsel frequently?
Odie Hugh Manatee
@TBogg:
So when are you going to add lots of tags here? I mean LOTS of tags.
:)
Soonergrunt
@Mnemosyne:
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Yutsano
@Soonergrunt: Okay, you are now approaching having way too much fun with this. I couldn’t be happier. :)
SectarianSofa
@Dee Loralei:
Damn, you’re done with soonergrunt already? Wow. Out with the old, in with the new.
I was just getting used to the idea of soonergrunt being the new zandar.
JGabriel
@TBogg:
Not just new tags, new CATEGORIES too*.
Whenever you make a new tag, Soonergrunt, make sure it’s a new category too.
(*I didn’t even know there was a difference between tags and categories until John Cole made the distinction and told us of his deep and abiding passion for them, a love that dare not speak it’s name, a love that is uncategorizable.)
.
Amir Khalid
@Dee Loralei:
Gee, what did I ever do to you? ;)
SectarianSofa
@JGabriel:
Jesus. We were having such a nice playtime flamefest, and now I feel sick. (And I think your analysis is correct. I feel douchey even reading the nytimes these days.)
SectarianSofa
@JGabriel:
Tags or categories are all awesome. The more the merrier.
Fewer stupid fucking song titles/references/puns in post titles, though. (I know I’m in the minority here, but I thought I’d throw that out there.)
JGabriel
@SectarianSofa:
I just find the contrast between what people read, and what they
tellsend others to read, to occasionally be very amusing..
MikeJ
@Amir Khalid:
All that fake muslimizing you do.
Ruckus
@Soonergrunt:
I’ve been out of the mil for almost 40 now so I’m not up on the latest vocal handshakes but when I was in it was Fuck off and die. And possibly some others that should never be repeated in impolite society.
Anne Laurie
@Soonergrunt: P.S. You forgot the ‘Readership Capture’ category… how much more captured could you be? :}
Soonergrunt
@SectarianSofa: But mine seemed so appropriate this time, don’t you think?
I mean, I usually have to google the reference, cause I’m rather slow on the uptake, but this one just came to me when John (no doubt with his fingers crossed) told me that my account was live.
Soonergrunt
@Anne Laurie: That is so true! Good catch. I did think the tags I used were pretty appropriate, especially the Green Balloons and WTF!
Soonergrunt
@Ruckus: It hasn’t really changed. FOAD is still pretty useful.
Anne Laurie
@mclaren: Getting in shape for a long weekend with the family, I see. And sympathize.
SectarianSofa
@Soonergrunt:
You’re still OK in my book. Problem with song/pun-ly titles is that it quickly becomes an addiction. I mean, DougJ was once a respected front pager around here, and now, you know … just kind of sad really. Hate to see it happen.
Soonergrunt
@Yutsano: I’ve got this Sally Field “you like me! You REALLY like me!” thing going on in the back of my head at the moment.
Amir Khalid
Off-topic (whatever the topic is) but reports are that things are heating up again at Tahrir Square. Might be worth a look by one of the front-pagers (not that I’m seeking the gig, mind you).
amk
@mclaren: quick, your bunched up knickers are showing.
Dee Loralei
@SectarianSofa: Done with Sooner? Why I haven’t even hardly started with Sooner! Nah, I just like Khalid’s take on things too, and I thought if John was thinking of expanding his stable more, it’d help to get a truly outside viewpoint. I like that we have several women, several people of color, now a vets viewpoint. I just thought a real outside our box viewpoint would be Amir Khalid. He’s Muslim, he’s older than all the front pagers except for Sarah and maybe Tom,though I think he and Tom are cohorts, and he has a very different perspective of us and our politics. And he also understands more than most of us, how our politics affects the rest of the world. And I think it’s important for us to understand how what we do and how we vote affects the planet. My other suggestion is stealing TBogg from FDL. I like that the front pagers and the commentators are so very different, I like hearing from folks in OZ, in the UK,in France and other places. I like hearing from the deep south and the east and west coasts, I like hearing the midwestern stories, and the folks piping in from Hawaii and warmer climes. I like the voices of the people here. I think we all benefit. I like the discussions and arguments here. This is my internet home. I think a front pager from outside the US would be an added benefit.
SectarianSofa
@amk:
Aha! Again with the not manly stuff! mclaren was right! We’re all hosed!
SectarianSofa
@Dee Loralei:
Well said. I don’t disagree.
For a while a was hoping for Gay Girl in Damascus as a front pager, but that’s not happening now.
(In seriousness, the new FP’ers have been awesome — Zandar, Tom Levenson … soonergrunt! And the others. Good, too. God, I’m easy to please. (Actually, I’m not, but that’s why I come here.))
Soonergrunt
@Amir Khalid: I’ve been following that for the last couple of days. Multiple gunshot victims, 10k+ people in the square, the civilian cabinet offering to resign…it’s a mess.
The biggest problem is the depth to which the Eqyptian military is intertwined with the economy. Something like 80% of the manufacturing capacity of the country is owned by the Egyptian military. That’s not sustainable, either economically, or democratically. It’s got to change or the military will never give up its stranglehold on power.
Amir Khalid
@Dee Loralei:
Thank you for the very kind words. But seriously, I feel most comfortable here as a commenter, rather than as a front-pager. I agree with you about the variety and quality and value of the Juicitariat*. But for obvious reasons it is largely American; and so, necessarily, are the topics that get front-paged. And not being American myself (as well as not having been to America since the Clinton administration), I might not have the nose to pick out front-page topics.
(*an m_c coinage, but I like it.)
Splitting Image
@Amir Khalid:
Did she now? That calls for a drink. Hope it lasts.
Dee Loralei
@Soonergrunt: That’s how Mubarek maintained his power for so long, giving certain members of the military control of that nations businesses. And it all became a graft and corruption machine. Especially since we were giving them billions to play nice with Israel. The most chilling tweet I read tonight was someone describing the pepper spray attacks(pepper+ the tweeter said it was more painful than other pepper sprays and they wondered if it had an added ingredient) on the protesters at Tahrir Square and then they mentioned live rounds being fired and then said the person standing next to him was shot through the head and died instantly. And then that stream stopped. I’m hoping it’s because the person left and couldn’t tweet. I’m not willing to consider what else it could mean.
This is the other reason I hate that our mayors, police, etc., use Pepper Spray on our own peaceful protesters. We’ve lost whatever moral authority we finally gained back with the election of Obama. The first reason being they (the protesters) are peaceful and that is torture and people have died or been incapacitated from its use, and there may be long term adverse affects. And it sickens me. It sickened me when it happened in Iran, and in Egypt, in Syria and elsewhere. And it sickens me most that it was manufactured here. That the lives and livelihoods of my fellow citizens depends on them manufacturing this horrible product of torture for the masses.
Origuy
@Soonergrunt:
Damn, Soros gets those checks out quick!
Soonergrunt
@Yutsano: I wondered if anyone would get it.
Uriel
Well, I just hope you understand: It’ll end in tears.
But then, these things always do.
Soonergrunt
@Anne Laurie: Wow. Nicely played.
scav
Slightly disorientating for a sec as though I’d wandered into the wrong bar (or at least an upside down one where the comments came before the post) for a second but whoopla! Congrats or Commiserations or whichever C-word seems appropriate at the exact moment. Don’t be shy, take as many as you might need in future.
Soonergrunt
@Origuy: Been saving for a few months, knowing that Star Wars: The Old Republic was coming. I had hoped to upgrade after the holidays when I could catch a good sale, but I played the beta for a bit and couldn’t get any decent performance out of my system without setting all the graphics details to low and the resolution to the lowest possible. It was horrible. And right at that moment, a great deal came my way, so I grabbed it up, and the new graphics card arrives tomorrow.
Soonergrunt
@Uriel:
Please stop describing my sex life.
Samara Morgan
I’ll just delurk a sec here.
truly inspired choice Cole.
the guy that thinks Bradley Manning is getting exactly what he deserves.
hes perfect for the juicitariat.
America uber alles!
Amir Khalid
@Samara Morgan:
You’re back! O frabjous day! Callooh, callay!
Samara Morgan
@Amir Khalid: nah, just a lurk or two when the insomnia hits.
you also would be a great FP here, mufassir maftoon.
sayonara
Soonergrunt
@Samara Morgan: Pray, how does that link demonstrate that I think anything of the type?
You should do more research. You’ll find, since I post other places under the same handle, that my views on this subject, and indeed, various aspects of military justice, are quite a bit more complex than you might either recognize or be able to deal with.
licensed to kill time
♫ Soonergrunt! You’ve got the cutest little soonergrunt! ♬
That’s what popped into my head. Don’t ask me why cuz I don’t know. Welcome to the big time!
Soonergrunt
@licensed to kill time: Thanks!
Dee Loralei
@Amir Khalid: I read Matoko actually, in all of her incarnations. I didn’t read her schpiel once she latched on to a particular person, but I appreciated her take on things outside of my ken. She actually taught me things; about Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, about OWS, about WAI and even her bit about Conservatives adjusting to stupid ( I forget what she called it, The something?-something? stratification? Was Doughat and Salam in there?) She was right about those things. She was just a horrible advocate for her cause. But, no, I didn’t ignore her.
My reason for selecting you as a new front pager, and since I have no say, I think it would do all of us some good to realize how our President and our politics truly does affect the outside world. It might get the few of us who think a Dem is the same as a Rep in the Oval Office to re-adjust out perceptions. And it might get a few more of us to become more active in the Re-Elect Obama Campaign.
I’ve been volunteering, like it was my part-time job the last 6 weeks or so, to get President Obama re-elected. I even joined FaceBook! And I intend to continue working as hard the next 11+ months to achieve my goal. Nothing is more important. And I’m going to be helping as many Senatorial Campaigns, Congressional and repeal anti-voting campaigns as I can. Because they all are of a piece. And I think it would be great if we Americans got some perspective on how our elections matter to the rest of the world.
And you may know more about pop culture than I do! There’s your penance, write for us! LOL.
Yutsano
@scav:
Dude. Low. Hanging. Curveball. You torture me so.
@Amir Khalid: Is chortling legal in Malaysia? :)
@Soonergrunt: Stop acting as if the child is wrong. She never errs. Just ask her.
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: oh, your position has evolved?
my bad.
i just remember the part about you and burnsy sneering about Manning getting his just desserts and furiously denying any comparison to the Pentagon Papers event.
but like i said, you are perfect for here.
along with John “American Interests” Cole.
Samara Morgan
@Dee Loralei:
a “cause”?
i dont have a cause here.
ABT
Soonergrunt
@Samara Morgan: Hell, you could restrict your search to just this site and see that my position is not, and has never been, black and white. If you bother to look at other places where I’ve posted, you’ll see even more of that. You would also find that not only did I start out knowing more about the stuff that matters about this case than you did then and do now, that I’ve learned even more since then.
Just because you apparently choose to portray yourself as a one-dimensional parody of a badly written internet troll, the rest of us are not obligated to do so.
Samara Morgan
/yawn
why would i read you anywhere else?
you are a one-D Amerikkka-Fuck-Yeah bot. you are the same everywhere.
im dedicated to mischief.
i dont have a “cause” here….
we dont need no stinkin’ causes.
vox populi, vox anon
nancydarling
I haven’t read the comments, but I, for one, am happy to see you on the front page, neighbor. I always look for your comments and wonder if you’re okay when I don’t see you for a while. I’ve got a soft spot for enlisted or ex-enlisted men and a soft spot for OK (both grandfathers made the run in 1893) so it’s good to have a front page voice from both. Are you an Oklahoma native? I thought I remembered from one of your posts that you were going to make a move to Southern California. Are the chiggers and ticks as bad in central Oklahoma as they are here in NW Arkansas?
Fuck you and all that!
debbie
Glad to see your name on the front page and looking forward to hearing anything that will improve the VA. This country’s treatment of vets has been nothing but shameful.
El Tiburon
Awesome. So the person who recently wrote this is now a FPer? Cole is really going all in on this one.I can hardly wait for the insight and thoughtful analysis. Of course you can’t expect much from someone whose hero is Barry Switzerl and only exists due to the football prowess of the great state of Texas.
Hook ’em and fuck OU.
kay
Hi soonergrunt !
I’m so glad you’re joining us.
I’m going to stop asking AL and mistermix stupid questions about WP and start asking you, so you have that to look forward to.
It’s your turn.
Shlemizel
@MikeBoyScout:
He was informed at that they would be unable to use the pool at a resort they were staying at because he was Jewish. He asked the manager “My daughter is only half Jewish, can she go in up to her knees?”
One on the most pleasant accidents of my wasted youth was seeing Groucho at Carnegie Hall. It was a complete fluke that I was there & made up for a lot of other bad stuff in my life – He was outstanding!
El Tiburon
And ‘jump the shark’ is not even close.
This is worse than when Scooby Do added the intolerable Scrappy Do. Worse than “When Joanie Loves Chachi”. Worse than Journey hiring a Steve Perry clone.
Meh. NRO has Doughy Pantload, so…
Rihilism
As a sporadic commenter, I’m never certain whether I should like or despise a newly christened “up from the nose-bleed seats” FPer.
Therefore, I say to you, “Go fuck yourself, you magnificent bastard!”
My voluminous email to Cole, applauding/deriding his decision to joyfully/tragically include your honest/mendacious opinion on his glorious/pathetic blog/used-tissue will follow toot-sweet/when I get around to it…
Omnes Omnibus
Jesus H. Christ. They’re letting the fucking infantry post on the front page now? Hell in a hand basket, I tell you. No good will come of it, that much is certain.
IOW, congrats on the gig, soonergrunt.
Also too, I missed m_c’s putative GBCW; bang or whimper?
Sarah Proud and Tall
Hooray!
I’m very excited. Welcome to the club, dear.
Omnes Omnibus
@Sarah Proud and Tall: Meh, I bet you’re just happy to have him around so that you can get at his benzedrine supply. The Army hasn’t (officially) handed that stuff out since Vietnam. Sorry.
chopper
@mclaren:
certainly isn’t you. all you do is complain on the internet about other people on the internet. keep reaching for that rainbow, sweetheart.
Soonergrunt
@nancydarling: Colorado born and bred, actually. OK is OK. Yeah, the ticks and chiggers can be pretty horrible, and they do get worse the farther east in the state one goes.
Thanks!
Soonergrunt
@El Tiburon: I don’t give a shit about OU football one way or the other. It does nothing to make my degree worth more or less, and I attended OU back when they sucked donkey cock. My son wants to go to OSU. And none of that has anything at all to do with Jane Fucking Hamsher running a con game on the internet.
Have a nice day, and feel free to try again.
@El Tiburon: Weak sauce, but at least closer!
Soonergrunt
@kay: Well, thank you, Kay. As far as Word Press goes, I will almost certainly have less useful information for you than either of them. I can’t even find the part of the admin interface where I put in my email address to show up in the window. But if your video goes to hell or your mouse stops working, I’m your man!
Soonergrunt
@Rihilism: Thanks!
Soonergrunt
@Omnes Omnibus: Once I got past the need to beat on the FYWP-admin page with the butt of an M16, it started getting good. I can only say Thank God for the spell check feature in Firefox!
@Sarah Proud and Tall: Thanks!
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s probably left over from Viet Nam, now that you mention it.
The Ancient Randonneur
Congrats! Another fellow vet writing on my favorite blog. Man this place just gets more gooder with each new front pagers. Cheers!
WereBear
John promotes from within!
Samara Morgan
@Omnes Omnibus: never fear, i’ll drop by once in a while….just to keep “fucking wth you” in DougJ speak.
@Soonergrunt: since you’re an FP now, which door would you pick?
The Lady, the Tiger, or the AmerIsrael door?
I imagine an Amerikkka-Fuck-Yeah bot like you would be in favor of sending SCAF more tear gas cannisters made in Jamestown Pennsylvania…..but you could surprise me.
We could even send them a shitload of pepper spray, right?
;)
Samara Morgan
yay, moderation. the FP version of the pie filter.
Samara Morgan
breakin’ it down.
@Omnes Omnibus: never fear, i’ll drop by once in a while….just to keep “fucking wth you” in DougJ speak.
Carnacki
Now I’ll have to write a sooner grunt is bad for Balloon Juice post.
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: since you’re an FP now, which door would you pick?
The Lady, the Tiger, or the AmerIsrael door?
I imagine an Amerikkka-Fuck-Yeah bot like you would be in favor of sending SCAF more tear gas cannisters made in Jamestown Pennsylvania…..but you could surprise me.
We could even send them a sh1tload of pepper spray, right?
;)
Mary
Congratulations Soonergrunt. I look forward to reading your posts.
Paul in KY
@Soonergrunt: Try working with Federal tax data. Yippie.
Paul in KY
@burnspbesq: Dadgummit, we’uns up here in Kentuck can be stringing some wordses together, so fuck off fancy lawyer typee.
Soonergrunt
@Samara Morgan: Way to make assumptions in a total lack of evidence.
I’ve never written on the issue of aid to Egypt or Israel.
FWIW, I don’t think we should be giving aid of any type except aid in kind (foodstuffs, etc) to these countries and NO aid to Israel at all.
But you go on splashing in your own little evidence-free, fact-free puddle over there. It’s fun to watch, anyway.
Soonergrunt
@Carnacki: LOL. Of course, the fact that I am bad for Balloon-Juice is self-demonstrative, so you’ve only got to keep linking my work and going “see? I warned you guys!”
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: Already have the original album, so I won’t be getting the new-and-improved version.
‘Some Girls’ was their last truly great album.
Paul in KY
@Dee Loralei: Second that. Enjoy reading his perspective on things.
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: you have to forgive me. my first experience of you was you blasting wikileaks and Julian for releasing the “unredacted” Afghan doc dump and “endangering our sources”.
you are on the other side from me as i see it.
and who can forget your recent gloating that the tape revealing the American massacre of 94 Afghan women children and teenagers will never be decrypted.
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: So you pick door number three. The Lady door.
/golf clap.
Arm The Homeless
@Samara Morgan: Well, since we have certain posters who believe that the transitive property of war-monger falls on the just and unjust alike, I would like to know how many times you have been to Gaza to lay your body upon the gears of The Machine? Since the answer is zero, I will kindly ask that you take your banal, Amerikkka-loving, sweet, innocent child killing ass to your nearest phone and call someone who gives a fuck; which from the sound of it consists of a few cats and your imaginary friends.
How does it feel to wake up every morning to realize you’re simply entertainment?
El Tiburon
@Soonergrunt:
Okay then. Sooner grunt, aka Fox News – noted for fact free bullshit pulled directly from his a-hole.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@El Tiburon:
And then we have you, our resident firebagging Ass Hamster of the Apocalypse.
WaterGirl
@ Soonergrunt up top
How nice it is to be able to say that! :-)
Always happy to see you here, will look forward to your posts.
Tokyokie
Glad to have a fellow Okie as a front-pager. Now if you could just arrange new employment for Brent Venables…………
Lex
Welcome! As someone who covered veterans affairs for a newspaper before getting a real job, I’d be thrilled with more frequent discussion of veterans’ issues. But IT and your dog are good, too.
RoonieRoo
This makes me quite happy. You are one of my favorite commentors that I see way to rarely in the comment sections for my taste. I’m very happy to see you will show up when you can on the front page.
Good choice John!
Maude
@Soonergrunt:
The blog is going downhill. Imagine allowing a Common Soldier as a FP. I don’t remember who said Common in that comments some time ago.
I’m glad you’re here. Ubuntu saved some computers when I did tech. I used it to connect MACs to a printer. Printer is a dirty word, esp. with the word network in front of it.
I ride on the bus with a guy who loves the VA care. He was career Navy.
Rihilism
@Soonergrunt: You’re most welcome, you saint among men/worthless scumbag. But you’re not off the hook yet. Because of/despite your sincere efforts/hostile attempts to thank me/butter me up, I’m still penning my 10,000 word email/screed to Cole regarding this epiphany/travesty…
As with all my “letters” to Cole, it begins with, “John, you ignorant slut…”…
qkslvrwolf
Super jealous. I’m a dirty dirty defense contractor, I’d love to actually get a VA or GS job, despite the (at this point large) pay cut that would entail.
Can’t even convince them to hire me, though. I was gonna get picked up as the chief engineer for the program I’m working on, and then the supercongress happened and all civilian hiring at the base I’m at got suspended. :-(
Congrats!
Also, it would be cool to see some Intellectual Privilege (not property) posts…as long as you’re on the correct side of those issues. ;-)
THE
@Samara Morgan:
I don’t think Israel really needs US economic aid any more.
I think military aid to Egypt is a total waste of time.
The problem is that practically the whole of Southern Europe and North Africa looks like it could be about to become Somalia on the Mediterranean.
So I would say food aid would be the thing. But keep it in reserve for a year or two.
Soonergrunt
@Samara Morgan: Young one, I was gloating that your naked and rather disturbing bloodlust would not go sated.
As for Egypt and funding, again, you misread my post. Given your long history of doing this in such a way as to support whatever half-assed position of the moment you’ve come up with at any given time, this is not surprising. How is aid in kind equivalent with refusing to send tax dollars? Do you think that foodstuffs magically buy themselves, or is it possible that tax money has to be spent to procure them for delivery? Foodstuffs are preferable as aid because money can be used to buy bullets with which to kill poor people, but rice, cooking oil, and flour are somewhat more suited to food than weapon systems.
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: O Amerikkka-Fuck-Yeah bot. ever hear of the black market?
grain for guns works just swell.
i personally think Amerikka should have to acknowledge the Garani massacre.
I think we should have our noses rubbed in it….because MAYBE we wont do that anymore.
AND Operation Ajax, the tyrant shah, 30 years of mubarak and the fact that we are CURRENTLY funding SCAF to keep a lid on the furious hatred of Israel our foreign policy has engendered over the last thirty years.
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: but i guess its okfine as long we are just manufacturing tear gas to be used on ungrateful muslim scum, right, bot?
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: and i think Bradley Manning is a HERO for many reasons, but a HUGE reason is because he helped the Iraqis kick America’s ass out of Iraq with the Iraqi document drop.
Soonergrunt
@Samara Morgan: You’re almost as funny as you are wrong.
Almost.
Timelines are, or should be your friend.
Samara Morgan
@Soonergrunt: im not wrong.
the white christian nativists and neocorporatists that run this country will just do it again if they can. that is why transparency in government counts.
and its Amerikkka-Fuck-Yeah dumbasses like you that empower them to do it again and again.
And I was right about Iraq.
8 years, trillions of taxpayer dollahs, 7k dead american soljahs and Amerikkka is getting FUCKIN’ NOTHING to show for it.
Jebediah
@Dee Loralei:
Still working my way through all the comments, but:
Welcome to the front page, Sooner! I think it was a good choice to give you the keys.
And I agree completely with Dee about Amir and Tbogg (no implication of done-ness with Soonergrunt should be inferred.)
Jebediah
@Amir Khalid:
Love the image!
I think you are selling yourself a bit short – given your comments, I think it is likely that whatever you think is relevant or interesting would also be found interesting by many, or more likely most, of we lurkers and commenters.
Jebediah
Also – if this thread isn’t dead- what’s GBCW? I can’t seem to de-acronymize it.
Anyone wanna help a dummy out?
Chuck Butcher
Soonergrunt,
Welcome to the Monkey House…
You have my sympathies – oh, and kudos to Cole for the “hire”
THE
@Jebediah:
Good Bye Cruel World.
It’s the message people post when they say: I’m never coming back here you horrible people. You’ve all been so nasty to poor little me.
And then two days later they come back.
asiangrrlMN
YAY! So glad to see Soonergrunt is gonna be a front-pager! *does a happy dance*. Oh, and the obligatory FUCK YOU, with my rusty pitchfork, even.
Jebediah
@THE:
Thanks – and now it seems obvious, and I feel an even bigger dummy. Makes more sense than “Get Busy Cooking Wings” or “Great Big Chihuahua Wang” or “George Bush’s Chintz Wallpaper.”
THE
@Jebediah:
No worries.
Urban Dictionary is one of the best web-resources for contemporary usage.
Samara Morgan
@Paul in KY: hes a maftoon.
of course you do.
arguingwithsignposts
Man, I called it in one.