In honor of John’s 10,000th post, I thought that I should reveal a little secret – our archives are pretty easy to navigate. If you read the http header for any particular post you will see that it ends in a number. That’s the total number of posts on the blog ending with that one. The archives go all the way back, so here for example are posts # 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181 and 6725.
This is purely in response to some questions in the comments, not an encouragement to skim through the archives for things to embarrass John with. Those of you who will do it anyway should feel completely awful about yourselves.
Michael Bloom
I cannot tell a lie, but I can Fibonacci.
Jen
I should feel guilty? When the Germans are continuing to kill Jews?
jack fate
From Post # 8:
ACES!!!
Seriously, this is one of my favorite blogs to read and the one that will probably get me fired. To John, Tim F., the guy from Texas and anyone else who’s posted here: Here’s to 10,000 more posts.
Yours in Dirty Fucking Hippiedom,
jack to-the-m-n-f’n fate.
Zifnab
John Cole on Senator Lott and racism, 9000 posts ago.
What a difference a day makes.
Zifnab
On Caz’s Criticism of Nelson Mandela’s Criticism of the US
I totally forgot how much fun this is.
Ninerdave
To get what Balloon Juice really looked like, the real first posts, like John’s first public superbowl pick (hint: wrong!!)…you need to looked at the wayback machine.
Punchy
From #3 (cuz #2 and #1 links dont work):
Damn, the tool-age was strong back then. John, you’ve come a long way, “aiming high”. Ha ha!
John Cole
Hey- in fairness regarding Lieberman, he always was a moderate Democrat, and as soon as he became the Vp candidate he IMMEDIATELY shifted to the left. I mean, it was dramatic. I remember a series of him having to go to black churches in 2000 to prove he was liberal enough.
And then, after the election, he went back to his moderate ways again. A few years later, he has veered to the right. I think my description of him, considering when it was written, is not wingnutty at all.
There is some grade a wingnut in there (like, for example, when I was shitting all over sey hersh in one of the posts Tim linked), but I don’t think that is one of them. Lieberman went hard left in 2000. There is no denying that.
John Cole
I loved that look. Still do.
cleek
#666
oh John…
kwAwk
Anybody know about what post one is likely to come across the great epiphany, where John flipped from hard right to hard left?
John Cole
Come on, now, when was that written? I am not going to defend every stupid thing I have said, but let’s be fair.
July 1, 2002. LGF was a small blog among a number of warbloggers. It was little gren fascists at the time. Jeff Goldstein was funny, having written what is still one of my favorite posts ever about the asshole Ted Rall.
How the fuck was I supposed to know what they would say in thE next 7 years? How was I supposed to know what the LGF comments section would devolve into? You don;t get to judge statements I made then by what they have said over the last 7 years, and you don’t get to judge my statements out of context. If you remember clearly, we were not even rushing to war in July 2002 (We don’t roll out a new product in the summer”).
There is plenty of offensive stuff in the archives, but cut me some slack. And remember, unlike others, I have not “disappeared” mine.
John Cole
I was wavering towards the Nov. 2004 election, voted for Bush, and then came Schiavo.
Schiavo was the end.
jack fate
I didn’t find it that Wing-Nutty™, it was just one of those things when I read it today, 6 years after the fact, it stuck out. Hindsight and all that. . . I starting reading this wonderful blog a little before you jumped the shark and joined us hateful, spiteful and wholly unpatriotic Hippies in our crusade to ruin America. Even some of your best posts from your Wingnut™ phase were, while I disagreed with some or much of the content, well written and argued from an intellectually honest perspective. Of course, they were sprinkled with the vitriol and snark one expects from any side of the blog world, but they’re good, none-the-less.
jack fate
Can anyone find that post? That was pure gold.
cleek
i’m here every day.
there’s your slack.
Just Some Fuckhead
You’re a better man than me JC. I woulda bulldozed the archives into a deep hole and covered it up with Tim F. and mountains of dirt.
jake
Leave John Cole alone! Just, leave him alone! [Sniffle, sob]
David
He was already railing against when he wrote this, but this post nicely encapsulates the whole experience, I think.
Punchy
Empty Suit SoD Gates has been smokin the good stuff:
Apparently their ability to literally lay down arms and join the opposition was done with commendable moxie and forthright gusto. Golf clap.
David
Also, presented without comment:
LiberalTarian
I dunno, I don’t think John was ever hard right. I don’t think he’ll ever be hard left, either. How could he have EVER been hard right when he has never been a fan of the death penalty?
I kinda like him the way he is. I do my fair share of finger wagging, but his opinions are not entrenched in stone to the hilt. Nobody can be a fringe-y and be able to change their mind.
It is likely, as with all pendulum swings, relatively sane and decent people will get control of the GOP again (although they will still want to do things I would rather they don’t, and it won’t be next frakking year, but may five or ten down the road?). When John lands back on the right again, I’ll be cool with it. I don’t think he’ll ever buy anybody’s line, hook and sinker again–I hope he can keep the rest of us healthily skeptical, too. When I used to have Republican friends (before the invasion of the Delay body snatchers and Bush thuggies), we used to talk rationally about what the left and right could do and could not do. I’d be cool with that again.
jcricket
Looks like Republicans say, if you’re in times of budget troubles, it’s the people that should suffer:
When are CA and other cash-strapped states ever gonna start telling people the truth: These services cost money. Limiting the ability of the government to raise that money by capping tax increases below inflation will guarantee service cuts. We need to repeal these caps.
The reality is that no one wants to cut these services, because to do so is to hose everyone but the ultra-rich. Republicans have simply sold people a fantasy that you can’t raise taxes because taxes are bad. We could up the tax rates for top income earners, close all the budgetary loopholes and then start putting money away during economic boom times to help smooth out the down times.
Or we can continue this shell game.
jcricket
I do wonder if/how this will happen… Will the fundies just stay home? Form their own party? Where will the truly anti-tax/government types go? Libertarian party?
Krista
Oh my goodness, I remember how royally pissed off John would get when we’d make fun of Goldstein. Good times.
I also remember making great sport of Don Surber, as the photo on his blog showed him wearing a very colourfull tie, with a faded denim shirt. (He used to comment here regularly.)
Wow…the nostalgia.
Paul L.
Someone explain this about the left and money “polluting” the Globals warming/climate change debate.
Bad – Exxon’s 16 million dollars over 8 years funding AGW skeptics. 2 million/year
Good – Al Gore’s 300 million ’climate crisis’ ad campaign over 3 years . 100 million/year
capelza
Oh wow, I’ve been comng here for three years.
I remember the “Just Us” post…
Stormy, Stormy, Stormy…though we, and I think Krista agreed, too..we did find common ground on the fact that Naveen Andrews was smokin’ hot…
Congrats John..and Tim, et al as well…this is a remarkable blog.
jake
Alas. Where once there roamed mighty hordes of wingnuts there are only a few limping jackalopes like Paul L. (whom I still say is p. lukshake).
Krista
Well yes. Some things simply cannot be denied.
Jen
Agreed. And a skill set to die for. Like MacGyver. And with that, plus being a woman over 30, we have found my common ground with Patti and Selma Bouvier.
Krista
Like when he broke the guy’s neck with his legs, while he had his hands tied behind his back? Definitely impressive.
Evilbeard
Whatever happened to early commenter Nate? I liked how he questioned everything.
Did he evolve into ppGaz?
Original Lee
#7551 was the one that made me a regular at this site.
Brian
Tim, that’s actually not an HTTP header. You’re talking about the browser’s address bar, presumably, which contains the site URL (e.g., https://balloon-juice.com/?p=10008 ).
HTTP headers are the headers used in actual HTTP transmission, containing some meta-data about the web server’s response; you can see those on most linux or OS X based systems by typing curl -I ‘https://balloon-juice.com/?p=10008’. Typical http headers might be instructions on caching policy, the date sent, experimental headers like x-pingback, and so on.
Reverend Spooner
A superior species, the spoofer, moved in and took over their niche on the Balloon Juice comment thread foodchain.
That Schiavo thread brings back memories. I’ve been lurking here since Schiavo, and posting here (under over a dozen pseudonyms) since September 2005. I had no idea I’d come in so early in the blog’s existence, though. 3900 posts, compared to where we are now.
God, I feel old all of a sudden.
Zuzu
Sorry for adding to John’s embarrassment, but must say this made me sigh:
Oh, and all that stuff about those swell Swift Boaters … whew, hope that one got figured out.
What, you want to see my high school yearbook? Uhm, ah, I think it fell in a hole …
Zuzu
PS, I do think John is really, really brave for leaving his archives as is.