Radley Balko Nominated for Columnist of the Year

The Week has come out with its 8th annual Opinion Awards–"the only awards recognizing and celebrating the nation's best opinion writing"–and I'm pleased to exclusively reveal that Radley Balko was selected as one of seven finalists for Columnist of the Year. He's up against Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg, Rich Lowry, Nicholas Kristof, Peggy Noonan, and Tim Rutten. Read Radley's Reason archive here, and make sure to follow him when he re-starts his column later this month at The Huffington Post.

Beloved former Reasoner and current Slater David Weigel is also a nominee, for Blogger of the Year, where he'll be duking it out with Tyler Cowen, Digby, Reihan Salam, Greg Sargent, John Sides, Andrew Sullivan, and Matthew Yglesias. Read Weigel's Reason archive here, including his account of attending the 2008 awards ceremony.

Comments

[Name Nomad]

Who determines the winner? Are there any lonely, middle-aged women I should sex up to encourage them to pick my favorite nut puncher?

[Kristen]

Sure! But...err...I don't have anything to do with this award.

[fish]

Finally something associated with Balko that doesn't leave me doubled over following the "punch to the nuts first thing in the morning"!

Good on ya boy!

[Slap the Enlightened!]

In a just world, with competition like that, Balko couldn't lose.

But that's in a just world...

[fish]

First two comments...and a theme is already developing!

[Episiarch]

If Radley doesn't win, you know where the awards committee's priorities lie. Which is why I expect him to lose.

[Yay]

That's the spirit!

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why doesn't Weigel's name get wedged in the headline with Balko's? Liberal media bias, that's why!

[Sandi]

I took a shit on Dave Weigel once.

[Joshua Corning]

You don't happen to live in Alaska do you?

[Sandi]

I'm like the wind.

[TrickyVic]

Congrats to Radley!

[Idiocracy]

Ah, Radley, the inspiration for the future hit TV show, "Ow My Balls!"

[?]

A winning campaign billboard

Photo-ceramic cemetery vault plaques for some, missing periods* for others.
*hiyo

[Warty]

I always love seeing what TEAM RED thinks about Radley. He makes good enemies.

Ok, so it's that idiot Balko whining about the cops shooting dogs again...

[capitol l]

ar15.com: where the closeted go to wrastle.

"Get the oil boyz; were going to make men of you yet!"

[capitol l]

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

[Mr Wong]

Or right.

[Old Bull Lee]

In ARFCOM's defense, most of them are defending Balko's work and certainly not taking a reflexive pro-police stance.

[Old Bull Lee]

From the original poster in that thread:
"FWIW I'm a big time supporter of law and order, but having poorly trained wannabe commandos all geared up smashing and shooting around suburbia does not further good law and order."

[JD]

That's ironic coming from arfcom. People who live in idiot houses shouldn't throw stones.

[mad libertarian guy]

I disregard everything from barfcom. My only interest in going there might be when I have to decide what sort of device to use to hide this batch of 15,000 rounds to be used when we storm the fed.

A bunch of wannabes, the lot of them.

[Barely Suppressed Rage]

And the moron clearly has failed basic reading comprehension, because it wasn't Balko - it was none other than Bart Hinkle.

[Britt]

That's one guy in the thread. Every other poster expressed their disapproval and concern. That's like holding up Max or MNG as representative of Hit and Run.

In general, the Internet active gun owning communities are usually a lot more libertarian then conservative. Certainly the last 50 years of tightening police restrictions on the 2nd Amendment has made cops less then worshiped for serious shooters. You know, the ATF has often raided the wrong house, or shot up innocent people over tax issues. Look up Ken Ballew raid. Remember Ruby Ridge and Waco. Us gun nuts have zero love lost for an awful lot of LEOs.

[Marshall Gill]

make sure to follow him when he re-starts his column later this month at The Huffington Post.

I like Balko and all, but this ain't gonna happen.

[Warty]

I'll go occasionally; the comments should be fun. I wonder how long it takes me to get IP banned.

[Episiarch]

That's my question: who will moderate (if anyone)? If HuffPo does, we're finished in about 15 minutes. If not, it could be fun.

[Warty]

Will they have no-metal or no-kitties policies? That's my biggest concern.

[Episiarch]

We'll find out pretty fast, won't we now?

[Warty]

Who'll be the first of us to get banned? My money's on you for calling some cunt a cunt, but SugarFree might get zapped first for posting some of his fiction.

Also, would we be able to tell rectal from the normal posters?

[SugarFree]

We should see you can get banned faster. I will even take the "no cursewords" handicap.

[Warty]

Not saying fuck and cunt and shit would be a challenge. I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try.

[SugarFree]

Don't Do What Donny Don't Does... They could have made this clearer.

[Warty]

That episode must be closing in on 20 years of age. We're so goddamn old.

[Episiarch]

I'm not concerned about a no cursing handicap. Calling someone a cunt isn't what'll get me banned. Ridiculing them for being partisan fucks is what will get me banned faster than a NAMBLA member at Chuck E. Cheese's.

[Tony]

Hey I'll be in the arcade!

[Marshall Gill]

Why don't you guys act as our scouts like Nutra-sweet does at Jezebel. You can alert us to anything really funny without us having to wallow in the full retard over there.

[Troy]

If I was going to start a pool I would say, 1) SugarFree, 2) Epi, 3) Warty, 4) me.

[omg]

Huffpo has a neckbeard that manually approves all comments before they are displayed (really).

http://reason.com/blog/2011/02.....tcontainer

[Warty]

Robert59
22 Fans
07:59 AM on 2/08/2011
Something else you don't address is how do you make up for the decline in GDP when you cut govt spending? If the private sector. If you pull 128 billion of govt spending out of the GDP and the private sector does not grow by at least 128 billion you have an economy that is contractin?g not expanding. To grow GDP and increase federal revenues a better strategy would be to take those cuts and spend them on projects making us more energy independen?t, putting people back to work who will in turn pay taxes. By the way how do you plan to get the multinatio?nals who are sitting on wads of cash to start spending?

He has 22 fans. Commenting over there is going to hurt.

[SugarFree]

So, the key to successful HuffPosting is to drive a 16 penny nail past your lower eyesocket and into your frontal lobe? I'm surprise joe doesn't run the place.

[Warty]

He might be Arianna Huffington, come to think of it.

[Episiarch]

joe always wanted to be king of the retards. Maybe, someday, he can realize that dream.

[SugarFree]

As long Krugman lives, joe will always be little more than an unpaid Chinese troll.

[Sean]

This whole thread has me LOLing.

After checking out the comments from The Jacket and Veronique's article on huffpo I highly doubt I can stomach their comment boards.

[Joshua Corning]

I like Balko and all, but this ain't gonna happen.

He is getting his own blog space there.
Simply use the link:

http://www.theagitator.com/

and you will get Balko only content.

[Doc S]

Pshhh.. Flanders?? Musta been a slow year.

[dbcooper]

Jesus christ, people like Kristof? Hasn't he falsely accused enough people of being racist bioterrorists for one lifetime.

Here's a typical Kristof column:

I am morally superior to you. [insert anecdote about Africa]

Prostitution is bad mmmkay. [insert made-up statistics about "sex trafficking" or horror story anecdote unrelated to America]

[simon...]

Am I the only one who read: "Radley Balko Nominated for COMMUNIST of the Year"? LOL... too much staring at the screen...

[The Gobbler]

My brain did that too.

True story.

[GILMORE]

. He's up against Ross Douthat, Michelle Goldberg, Rich Lowry, Nicholas Kristof, Peggy Noonan, and Tim Rutten

BWA HA HA HAHAHAHAHA

You could put all of these people in a fully-chainsaw/sledgehammer/sword/trident/spear-equipped Thunderdome with Balko, and he's walk out with hardly a crease on his blazer.

!#($)*& this 'blogger' jazz. Big whoop. How about PULITZER PRIZE, bitch?

[Brick]

I killed a guy with a trident.

[Doc S]

Yeah, Brick killed a guy!

[yet another dave]

true story heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend

[The Immaculate Trouser]

Jesus, besides Balko that list sounds simultaneously like the most loathsome group of op-ed columnists ever *and* the most soul-scarring group of people to have a sex party with. (Not that I'd know or anything.)

[fish]

You'll probably want to avoid the after party then!

[GILMORE]

Douthat is not bad, in my limited experience

[grrizzly]

Beloved former Reasoner and current Slater David Weigel...

Well played.

[peachy]

The Chinese government didn't even have to pay him for that one...

[Warty]

die now in the shadow of the pentagram

[SugarFree]

looking for a girl with black? hair who wants to bang to this song daily...
sproate 7 months ago

I hope he found her.

[Warty]

Yup.

[SugarFree]

It's hard to keep reasonable's image loader on, you know.

[Warty]

It's hard to not jack off at work, you mean?

[SugarFree]

You confuse me for one of the many chubby chasers we have here, sir.

[Warty]

Fark taints everything in Kentucky. You're guilty as far as I'm concerned.

[SugarFree]

Yeah, that's one of the reason I stopped farking years ago. Between the hateful fat girls, the chubby chasers, and the guys trying to make themselves feel better about their hippo-wives, it was a writhing pit of fatardation.

[R C Dean]

See, that's the kind of post that'll bring the banhammer at HuffPo. No cursing necessary.

[Troy]

fatardation. [spit-take]

[mad libertarian guy]

It's weird here, however. Chicks don't start off fat. I taught freshman chicks at UK and was astounded at how many good looking chicks are from KY. My theory is that they put something in the water.

It's not until after marriage that they blow up from using lard in their country fried steak. Before then KY chicks are goddesses.

Miami was similar with Cuban chicks, but it was only their hips and ass that blew up like it was a popcorn kernel in the kettle when they got married rather than just becoming fat.

[PS]

It ain't the lard.

[Troy]

Oh by the way. Congrats Radely.

[Roe Bust]

New York's Daily News reports that among the personal effects found in bin Laden's house was a stash of Avena, known as "the herbal 'Viagra.' " Does that mean Osama had trouble performing his marital duties? Not necessarily. In addition to its purported aphrodisiac qualities, an unnamed New York Avena peddler tells the paper, "It's good for depression, stress and bed wetting."

Maybe Radley Balko should try some.

http://online.wsj.com/article/.....TopOpinion

[MWG]

Threadjack (Somewhat): Remember the Seattle who pushed the kid into a wall? Here's a bit of a follow-up.

http://www.king5.com/news/inve.....09239.html

[MWG]

eh... 'Seattle cop'

I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post. I will use preview before I post.

[Ballchinian]

Good luck to Balko. Weigel can go squat-fuck a rasp.

[Marisa Tomei]

Awards are very meaningful.

[Franklin Harris]

Wow. All the other nominees are just awful. Not sure I'd want to be included among them.