Today’s juice

October 21, 2006

Guest Post by Michael J.W. Stickings

One of my favourite conservative bloggers is John Cole of Balloon Juice — perhaps because he doesn’t much care for Bush and the GOP, but also because he’s consistently engaging and always independent. I recommend his “Quick Hits” post from earlier today.

It begins: “Despite being the fact the Republicans are the party of torture, fiscal irresponsibility, domestic surveillance, blown war management, drug warriors, and sex cops…”

If that doesn’t whet your appetite, I don’t know what does.

john cole is that incredibly rare being: he’s an honest conservative. we should treasure him.

  • OK. I went, I read, I bookmarked… With some trepidation 🙂

    I was unable to find anything resembling “home” *to* bookmark… we’ll see what shows up on my next visit 🙂

    I agree with Howard — Cole is an incredibly rare being. I disagree with Howard’s argument as to *why*, though…

    I’ve encountered honest conservatives before. Not many, but more than a hen has teeth. They stay away from DC and vote Dem when sufficiently pissed off with Reps (once in a blue moon), which is OK by me.

    What’s *really* rare about this Cole fella is his sense of humor… Most of the conservatives are fanatics and fanatics — ipso facto — are devoid of the funny bone (was true of the Communist parties in all the “dem-peoples” countries when I was growing up. And of Hitler’s Germany… Which was hardly funny, though it *was* “funny”). Radicals/fanatics just do not have a sense of humor; their sense of bizarre is too severely truncated by their causes.

    I know several conservatives who dispute my premise regularly but, from where I’m looking… slipping on a banana peel and landing, face down, on a cream-cake… Sorry, but that doesn’t make the cut according to my standards.

    This guy, however…

  • Maybe this will:

    “Things have gotten so bad for the Republicans that were President Bush to unveil Osama bin Laden’s corpse in the Rose Garden, some reporter would instantly check to see if his last meal had been on Jack Abramoff’s tab.” – Frank Rich, “Obama is Not a Miracle Elixir.”

    Goddamn, I love this man!

  • Cole reminds me of Republicans I used to know decades ago. Even when we disagreed, the conversation was more or less rational. How I’d welcome that kind of dialog again.

  • An actual, living, breathing, thinking, honest conservative!

    I thought they were extinct. It’s like discovering the ivory-billed woodpecker.

  • Thanks for the link. I like Cole because he’s logical and a riot. I might not agree with everything he says but I don’t agree with everyting liberals say either. I’m just a disagreeable person [rimshot]. But I bet the neo-cons hate Ballon Juice more than they hate Carpetbagger. To the neo-droid, Cole is a traitor. To Cole, the neo-droid is a creature to be hunted down, dragged into the light and mocked to death. Pass the popcorn please.

    I think it is only natural that true conservatives like Cole have an even greater disdain for the humourless, souless poseurs calling themselves conservative than we do. Imagine if a bunch of self-styled liberals started pulling some of the shit we’ve come to expect from the Right (Yes, I’m talking about you Mr. Rogers). We’d want to squish ’em like bugs. Cole takes care of the noisy upstarts and with great panache I might add.

    Finally, I think he’s a great reminder than there’s a bit more to people than certain labels. (Forgive the Kumbya moment.) Imagine if people got together and said “Forget the Conservative/Liberal thing, what do we have in common?” ShrubCo would crap its pants at the very thought because it knows one thing we’d have in common would be a common enemy and its stinking up the White House right now.

  • Those were entertaining, but I guess my attitude toward converted conservatives is:

    Hey you’re admitting you were stupid for the last 6 years and you finally wised up but you still want to call Democratics losers. The loser is really you because you’re just waiting to fall for the next faux conservative’s pack of lies. Instead of you being so proud of telling us some truth about Bush, why don’t you just learn to listen to us Dems in the first place.

    A wised up Repub is still just a second-rate Dem.

  • Thanks for the suggestion Michael. It’s very refreshing to read such common sense opinion. I bookmarked the site and will be returning.

    And speaking of whetting appetites, he’s running a pretty classy place over there. Not many poliblogs have recipes for Seared King Salmon with all the trimmings and recommended wine pairings.

    Seared King Salmon with Beurre Blanc on a bed of Swiss Chard and Peruvian Potatoes

    http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=7498

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