WB: "That's all Folks!"
Billmon:
Posted by b on December 28, 2006 at 05:16 AM | Permalink
« previous pageThank you, Billmon. I wish you all the best. Your writing and thinking are the best and I hope that someday, in some format or venue, you will return. Because of you, I cancelled my subscriptions to the NYT and the Boston Globe. Why pay for snivelling propagandists for the establishment?
Best wishes as you move ahead. I miss you already and hold you in my heart.
Posted by: Michael | Dec 31, 2006 12:50:09 PM | 102
Over at Digby's, poputonian has been running some Herblock retrospectives: sharp-edged editorial cartoons from the Nixon years.
Parallels to the present Administration aside, I found that pleasing. One thing which people hear me quote frequently in daily life is a recitation of Herblock's Law, to wit, "If it's good, they will stop making it."
The application of which to Billmon's work is entirely apposite.
Posted by: marquer | Dec 31, 2006 2:21:51 PM | 103
Thank you for all you've written. I wish there was some way for you to continue. You will be missed daily.
Posted by: jeaps | Dec 31, 2006 2:49:11 PM | 104
Thank you, Billmon. Nobody did it better. I wish you all the best for the future.
Posted by: johan | Jan 2, 2007 7:46:18 AM | 105
The link in this post to the Billmon article has gone dead as has his site apparently. Does anyone have Billmon's post that was linked in this post explaining what he was doing? I gather he's shut down the site. But I was wondering if I could read what he wrote.
Billmon was the best. I wrote him a few gushing fan msgs. which, when he didn't respond, I worried had embarrassed/annoyed him. Sorry to see him go but hope he'll reconsider sometime.
Posted by: Richard Silverstein | Jan 3, 2007 3:26:27 AM | 106
@Richard - you can read about Billmon's last post here - there was no explanation ..
The blog is an excellent vehicle for quick-witted sprinters who think and write in flashes and sparks. It never was, and never will be, Billmon's happiest medium, because his writing, like his photo-shopping, is the slow yield of an intricate thinking on multiple planes. At its best, it's downright allergicto the tempo and brevity of the sudden post, of the link that comes with the snap of a loose association.
I'm thinking, in particular, of those wonderfully complex economic analyses he posted several years ago. Billmon's a master of the technical climb. On the level ground, he limps along with the rest of us--which is pretty boring, I'd guess, for a spirit that lives and breathes for the grand view that can only be found in high-up, hard-to-reach places.
Come to think of it, the "here and now" is really, really boring. Stare at stupidity long enough and you become totally stupified--unless your outrage can keep you stirring within, and no one's outrage can outlast the stupidity it stares at. "We become what we behold" (W. Blake). Stupidity--the immutable and irreversible stupidity of the brilliant Rumsfeld, of the dazzling Greenspan, of the sinuous Kissinger, of the droll and dessicated Scowcroft, of the brutal and provocative Bush--it's all one and the same stupidity, irrremediably devoid of thought, utterly vacant and deadly, the terminal repetition of a death-wish that dumbs you down into stone.
Watching these guys only makes you drunk with fury, and when you're high you think you're smart, but in fact you're only high, and the terminal boredom of withdrawal is what you're headed for.
Billmon's ethical passion carried him far, far away from the rightful tendency of his intellect. This was a kind of sacrifice, and also a kind of evasion, a disservice to his inborn gifts. He did the right thing to rouse us, and help us find our own fluency, but he took a dangerous chance in the process of doing so. He's certainly earned my gratitude, and I'll be very relieved if he hasn't wasted himself in the process (because martyrdom isn't my style).
Of one thing I'm absolutely sure: he didn't waste himself in the process.
Posted by: alabama | Jan 4, 2007 1:57:59 AM | 108
The site is down.
Is there a local archive somewhere?
I would REALLY like to have on to browse through in order to cheer me up and remember that there is some rationality left in the world.
Billmon will be thouroughly missed!
Essle
Sweden
Posted by: Essle | Jan 4, 2007 11:15:12 AM | 109
I made a backup of billmon shortly before it went down; It is only missing the last two posts (That's all Folks and "Rates of Return").
Billmon is an incredibly talented writer, and have always been a big fan of his style, his content and his way of addressing a topic.
The backup is running on a torrent stream as I do not have much bandwidth, the tracker is here:
http://24.218.111.14:6969/announce
Miguel.
Posted by: Miguel de Icaza | Jan 4, 2007 11:32:11 PM | 111
An update on the torrent url:
My ISP seems to be blocking the port 6969, please try this instead:
http://mono.homelinux.com:5000
The direct torrent link is:
http://192.168.1.3:5000/torrents/billmon.zip.torrent?9093D0776FC80905A459323F2A721F46BF7C6CFE
You can use Azureus or uTorrent to download this.
Posted by: Miguel de Icaza | Jan 4, 2007 11:41:14 PM | 112
Am very very sorry, I posted the local full url to the torrent, the external link is:
http://mono.homelinux.com:5000/torrents/billmon.zip.torrent?9093D0776FC80905A459323F2A721F46BF7C6CFE
Apologies
Miguel.
Posted by: Miguel de Icaza | Jan 4, 2007 11:51:15 PM | 113
Miguel, I've not managed to connect to your torrent yet: I get
Problem connecting to tracker - <urlopen error (60, 'Operation timed out')>
I can download the .torrent file ok.
I'll leave it running, and let you know if I'm more successful in due course. Alternatively I'm happy to try seeding if you can get me a copy.... it was only 26MB, wasn't it?
Posted by: Araneidae | Jan 5, 2007 5:59:14 PM | 114
The last outpost of sanity has turned into a ghost bar with "That's All Folks" grafitti desecrating the door.
I'm pissed!
I quit.
Mother-f*** the whole thing!
Posted by: Gabrielle | Jan 6, 2007 1:43:58 AM | 115
After a day of sitting there and not connecting to the hosts, Torrent Swapper downloaded about 1.5% of Miguel's torrent. Restarting the system seemed to help, but I don't know. In any case it's just sitting there again "working", but not actually downloading anything. I only recount this to help Miguel fix any problems, as I really appreciate the opportunity to have a record of Billmon's work. It really should all be published in "pamphlet" or small book form. I suspect after the history of this period is written, the name "Billmon" will rank beside those John Dickinson and Tom Paine.
Posted by: heatkernel | Jan 6, 2007 10:15:14 AM | 116
Well, I guess I'll leave my torrent running for a few days: I've been stopping and starting it on and off with no effect (while at the same time succesfully downloading one file, and 1/3 of the way through another ... which seems to lack a seed). Don't really understand why nothing's happening with Miguel's torrent.
Posted by: Araneidae | Jan 6, 2007 1:35:54 PM | 117
Ok, so the torrent solution is not working (I can connect just fine from work, wonder whats wrong).
Anyways, please use the following url:
http://tirania.org.nyud.net:8080/billmon.zip
That is the Coral Cache, I should have thought of that before.
Miguel.
Posted by: Miguel de Icaza | Jan 6, 2007 3:51:09 PM | 118
That worked. Thanks Miguel. By the way, what I meant by the above comment was that Billmon will be regarded as the Paine or Dickinson of our time, his posts (or photoshops) more like the former on some days, more like the latter on others.
Posted by: heatkernel | Jan 6, 2007 5:33:05 PM | 119
Miguel, my Mac seems to be struggling with the zip file, but I'll keep trying. Thanks for doing this for us.
As an ex-New Orleanian (who left his heart down there), I was devastated after Katrina. Billmon posted a brilliant and wrenching farewell to the Big Easy. He was the first blogger who really seemed to get it, to understand the enormity of just what had been allowed to float away into history.
Since that day, I visited every day, even during the dry times. While there are other worthy voices in Left Blogistan, he is/was simply the best.
Live it up, Billmon. We'll hope to see you soon.
I too will sorely miss Billmon. I was so happy when I first found him that I didn't even want to share this treasure with others, I wanted it to be for me and few select others who were lucky enough to come across his blog.
I once wrote to him and told him what a great bar it was, I pictured it as an open and well lit place where good friends could meet and enjoy good whisky and better conversation. This was my experience of cafes and bars in Italy and I always enjoyed them a great deal.
Billmon responded and said that is not at all what he had in mind which makes me believe his bar is the US bar that is dark and smokey and somewhat sad in that drinkers usually sit at a bar and star at bottles and such while listening to such uplifting songs as Whipping Post by the Allman bros.
so I guess he was a lot of different things to different people. it is too bad he could not be our friend, I don't know for sure who loses the most in this case but there was a comment made one of the first times he disappeared stating that it was really weird to miss a guy you had never met.
well it is weird and I never met him yet I sure do miss him.
Posted by: dan of steele | Jan 7, 2007 10:40:12 AM | 121
Billmon's">http://billmon.org">Billmon's archive, courtesy of the Wayback Machine - hey, time travel rulez (via Republic Not Empire at Kos - h/t).
The graphics are gone, and the trackbacks appear to be lost, but the comments seem to be there (had a quick dip into 2003, 2004 - one could get lost in there).
Posted by: Dismal Science | Jan 8, 2007 6:37:59 PM | 122
I wish the Dao of American Politics, Parts 1 & 2, (May 2003) were archived in the wayback machine. Apparently they are not. None of your stuff was disposable, Billmon. Being a bit of a pessimist myself, something tells me you will be back. There are just too many damn idiots in the world for you to remain silent for long, but enjoy the respite.
Posted by: LWM | Jan 11, 2007 3:57:49 PM | 124
I like to read billmon. Heard him once on NPR. Has been my favorite website. Good intuition in a time of political ice storms.
Thank you.
Posted by: bruce in issaquah | Jan 16, 2007 9:54:13 AM | 126
The comments to this entry are closed.
Theater's dark, bar door vanished from the back of the closet. Billmon makes a new year devolution. annie sings. In all the busyness and the snow here, I missed the final scene - all but annie's singing.
The midnight Christmas sermon, in a church where tall pines in snow rise above the altar, was unusually dark and pointed, neglecting the tacit conventions of the season. Describing Judea then as "like Iraq now, a terrible place occupied by a foreign army," why did Mary sing? Why do we sing in our darkest times? An act of defiance, the cry of heart to hearts.
I found my mind wandering to John Berryman's song of dancing from 1972, King David Dances.
Wishing I were joining the festivities in Hamburg and Berlin, with a bottle of the finest dancing bubbles.
Posted by: small coke | Dec 31, 2006 12:02:29 PM | 101