I was first directed to John Cole when he was still largely a generic right-wing warblogger. He was taking a break to take the piss out of some Catholic functionary who had denied communion to some little girl over an arcane and probably ridiculous point of theological legerdemain, and after some glancing around I noticed he was also taking the piss out of people who thought Terri Schiavo was one favorable ruling away from jumping out of bed and playing lacrosse. \u00a0And he was turning on the GOP with the sort of savagery normally reserved for the dirtiest and filthiest of hippies because they could just not let this woman die in peace when there was religious-politics hay to be made from it. \u00a0And that was the tipping point.<\/p>\n
Nine years on, John Cole isn\u2019t really a liberal at all. \u00a0He\u2019s just a regular guy who found the ground shifting beneath him and making him a supporter of Democrats without any fundamental change in his worldview or approach\u2026with one exception. He acknowledges now that he is an idiot, which he was unwilling to do when he was blindly backing the Bush administration\u2019s charge into Iraq. \u00a0But then, he tends not to candy-coat very much\u2026including the fact that he is an alcoholic and needs help.<\/p>\n
His attempts to get into rehab were by turns hilarious and horrifying, because the American health care system is not equipped to deal with someone who walks into the ER and says \u201cI am drinking myself to death and I need your help to prevent it.\u201d \u00a0It took about five tries for him to be admitted into a facility for detox, but he got there eventually, and is now nine or ten days sober with a more traditional 28-day rehab stint coming up.<\/p>\n
I would have liked to have a beer with this guy, but I would settle for a nice Coke Zero or something, because he is an interesting dude. \u00a0Gulf War I veteran, now teaching college somewhere in West Virginia, sponsor of a fraternity which appears to be less the typical douchebags and more just a bunch of guys who he is trying to make less knuckleheaded. \u00a0Not a guy who puts on a lot of airs. The sort who goes into Macy\u2019s and asks \u201cwhere\u2019s the fat guy section?\u201d \u00a0Although given that he dropped 20 pounds in the first 8 days of hospital-enforced sobriety (pancreatitis is hell) that may not be a thing for long.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the point of all this: the guy knows he\u2019s an idiot. It\u2019s nothing to be ashamed of, because we\u2019re all idiots. \u00a0I\u2019m smarter than 99.95% of everyone in this country, and I\u2019m an idiot. I wouldn\u2019t know where to start changing the oil on my Rabbit, after always changing my own throughout high school and college. \u00a0I can\u2019t fix anything in the house. \u00a0My knowledge of history outside of England from about 1065 to the Revolution and the US after that is feeble at best. I haven\u2019t had a firm grip on mainstream pop culture in a decade or so. \u00a0If I try to cook anything that doesn\u2019t involve a mix or throwing meat on a grill, I\u2019m liable to burn the house down. There are gaps in my knowledge that leave me sub-functional as an ordinary human being.<\/p>\n
We\u2019re all idiots. The trick is knowing where your shortcomings are and then being able to patch them over. \u00a0Either know where the takeout places are, or marry someone who can handle the strategic finances, or buy a bike that never needs to be maintained other than putting air in the tires. \u00a0Possibly the most important part of being a grown mature functioning adult is to know the ways in which you are an idiot and do what is necessary to mitigate it. \u00a0A lot of people are very very bad at that.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Cole isn\u2019t. Good luck, dude.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was first directed to John Cole when he was still largely a generic right-wing warblogger. He was taking a break to take the piss out of some Catholic functionary who had denied communion to some little girl over an arcane and probably ridiculous point of theological legerdemain, and after some glancing around I noticed … <\/p>\n