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July 9, 2004
Billmon: Back from the Shadows Again
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Welcome back old boy.
Did you notice Wired has a story up on the burn rate of bloggers?
Yeah…it is mostly about you, you, you.
Here is non-you clip from the story:
Several bloggers contacted for this story noted that their readers seem to look at their regular, consistent posting patterns as somewhat akin to a sign of physical health. And any break in that pattern is sometimes seen as a cause for alarm.
Obviously blogging is a glimpse into another’s real time journal.
But who’d of thougth a cult of personality might be born this way? [Well Orson Scott Card for one–but nevermind that for now.]
Sorry old boy you brought this fame onto yourself.
But I don’t blame you now for wanting to hide under the covers.
After all, it was Einstein who said:
With fame I become more and more stupid, which, of course, is a very common phenomenon.
So there it is old boy.
Choice words of caution. Does the bed and the unread stack look more inviting? It sure the hell does to me. In the meanwhile… I hear the masses chanting: Billmon’s back, Billmon’s back, Billmon’s back…
Ah the wonderful webs we weave…
Posted by: koreyel | Jul 9 2004 6:23 utc | 1
welcome back to Billmoan. 🙂
Comme je suis un étranger dans notre vie,
je ne parle qu’à toi avec d’étranges mots…
Posted by: fauxreal | Jul 9 2004 6:42 utc | 2
Speaking of political despair — Billmon’s or our own — Mark Engler has an interesting little riff on the tension between a “good faith view” and a “bad faith view” of US foreign policy:
Has US Foreign Policy “Failed”?
A “bad faith view” is probably shared by the despairing. Engler suggests that while this may be realistic in some ways, a “good faith view” is needed to imagine a better future. I’m still thinking about it.
Good to see that Billmon is slowly coming back to his bar, and that he is giving himself the time he needs. It would be nice to have him blogging around the end of October/beginning of November, but that is my own selfishness again; he should do whatever is best for him.
Posted by: teuton | Jul 9 2004 7:34 utc | 4
Ah, nice music to my ears.
Good to see Billmon is well and back. Though I agree that his frequent posting is probably not something a blogger can maintain in the long run, if he’s got full time job and family life.
Interesting to see that, even if many assume the Supreme Court’s decision was a partial defeat for W, Billmon has more or less the same interpretation than I had back then. Amazingly, Scalia seemed to have been one of the very few that didn’t consider the Bill of Rights as toilet paper.
Posted by: CluelessJoe | Jul 9 2004 7:52 utc | 5
Bernhard, please use one of the graphics I sent you. I like them so much. Each one was made with love!
😉
Just a thought.
My ego has nothing to do with this….
Very nice to see so many Billmon regulars. Thank you Bernhard for putting up these digs.
Nighty night folks!
Posted by: Stoy | Jul 9 2004 9:06 utc | 6
Really good to hear your voice again Billmon. Yes it seems to me like I hear your when I read them. Just noticed that. Hope someday to be honored enough to actually hear that happen.
But I have to admit that your break allowed me some time off as well. I’ve been practicing frisbee throwing to our dog. He’s better than me. They weren’t around when I was young so I never got the hang of it.
Posted by: Juannie | Jul 9 2004 11:55 utc | 7
Billmon, When your mental health is good, our mental health is too. Welcome back. We missed you alot.
Posted by: beq | Jul 9 2004 12:01 utc | 8
koreyel,
Thanks for the Wired link. It’s a good backdrop to our recent experiences with our own burned-out barkeep.
I can’t help but think that part of the solution to the problem of “over-burdened” bloggers is for as many people who can, and dare, to step behind the bar and glue some of their own words together with a little duct tape and intestinal juices, and find a place to plant them and watch what grows. (Pardon the early morning mixing of metaphors LOL It might be time for coffee.)
To that end I’m very appreciative of the recent efforts put into Moon of Alabama, and the Annex. I had a moment of anxiety when Billmon closed, but it was only a moment. I knew there would be other opportunities, other watering holes, where I could read, think and write, where people like me could warm the night air with our fire.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 9 2004 12:40 utc | 9
as we await more words from Billmon, I note with interest that Kerry and Edwards appeared in S. Florida yesterday sans Bob Graham. The Florida Senator said he would do whatever necessary to campaign hard for the ticket after being passed over so was a little bit surprised at his claim he is so hard pressed for time to meet his publisher’s deadline for “Intelligence Matters” to be on the shelves before the election. He felt that effort more important than an initial appearance with the candidates (though I’m not sure if he was with them earlier in N. Florida)
Graham has a habit of keeping an hour by hour diary of his working day, a peculiarity that many have questioned, however, it could make for an earth-shattering book if he’s able to connect some of the many un-connected dots we’re accustomed to seeing…
Posted by: route66 | Jul 9 2004 12:46 utc | 10
I’ve always been a fan of Firesign Theatre – and a line from their work (back in the 70s, I think it was – or maybe even the late 60s) still resonates with me today – the premise is that passers-by are being asked their views of the future – one states
“This is the future – you’ve got to live it, or live with it.”
Amen, brothers and sisters.
Posted by: mistah charley | Jul 9 2004 13:36 utc | 12
route 66,
We ought to have a thread on the Kerry/Mostly Edwards plans for yet another US intelligence agency for “domestic intelligence”. If I was more versant in matters of spookdom I’d do it. Maybe someone will pick it up.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 9 2004 13:38 utc | 13
Mistah Charley … love your handle, BTW!
OT, but Firesign Theatre:
You can sit here in the waiting room, or wait here in the sitting room.
😉
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 9 2004 13:43 utc | 14
Nice to see you circulating, Barkeep!
I hold that poison is just too much of a good thing, but I haven’t really put this notion to the test. What a healthy dose of cyanide might be, and what it’s good for–that’s something I haven’t tested yet, or looked up in an encyclopedia (or on google). One of our fellow barflies may know the answer. Hell, maybe you know the answer yourself. After all, you’re a chemist of sorts!
Kids are the best allies we’ll ever have, because they know perfectly well when our addictions are kicking in, and they’ll gladly tell us so if we’ll just listen. And they never think it’s too late for us to ask them. “Dad, you’re addicted,” is the truth they’re happy to tell, but only when it’s true. They’d never dream of saying such a thing if it weren’t true–not, at least, in my own personal experience.
As Leo Szilard liked to say, “worship the words of little children”. Now I know what he meant by that.
Posted by: alabama | Jul 9 2004 14:13 utc | 15
Because loose lips sink ships, Napoleon…er, Negroponte lays down the law:
Negroponte battens down the hatches
The loose-lipped days of L. Paul Bremer are over. John Negroponte is running the show in Iraq now and he has made clear that US embassy staff had better watch what they say.
A memo sent to staff acknowledges “it is important that the US Mission in Iraq communicate on its activities and achievements through the media”. It then tells staff how to react to journalists. “If you are contacted by a journalist for an interview or comment on an issue in your area of expertise, please refer him or her to the Embassy’s Press Section . . . If a journalist contacts you concerning an issue outside your area of expertise, likewise have him or her call the Press Section.”
But it leaves nothing to chance: “If you are contacted by a journalist and asked for an impromptu comment or interview on any subject, politely decline and refer the person to the Press Section.” Once cleared, an embassy official should only do interviews on background with an attribution such as “embassy official” or “diplomatic source”.
“Be circumspect”, the memo concludes. “Be aware that any exchange with a journalist, even in an informal setting, can be used by that journalist in his or her reporting.” Fortunately, there is no caveat about forwarding such memos on.
Financial Times
Posted by: Anonymous | Jul 9 2004 14:38 utc | 16
You’re warming us up with some jello shots-waiting for the jug(ular).
Welcome back,Billmon.
Posted by: Maggie | Jul 9 2004 14:38 utc | 17
alabama,
“Suffer the children, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven”.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 9 2004 15:09 utc | 18
anonymous at 10:38 AM, he won’t pull this off until he’s driven the last of the neo-con careerists out of the press office. The ukase itself may be a pretext for conducting such a purge.
He wouldn’t try to pull it off without putting some very credible folks in charge of that office (I’m only guessing he has; the ukase is otherwise meaningless).
Credible, I mean, to an abused and suspicious press-corps, for whom Judith Miller is a living nightmare.
Which is not to say that leaks ever could, or would, dry up: I’m told that leaking, once it becomes a habit–meeting a felt need on both sides of the transaction–is a process almost as impossible to control as sex, or posting on the internet….
Posted by: alabama | Jul 9 2004 15:18 utc | 19
Personally, I could never manage a blog, not for lack of things to say, but merely of time.
I happen to love my job at BUBSWDTSTBACSTSNKAAHP(Blowing Up Baby Seals With Dynamite To Sell The Bits As Chew Sticks To Starving North Korean At A Huge Profit – a Kellogg & Brown company) and there are days when I just don’t have the time to even read stuff here.
Too many baby seals, not enough time.
Posted by: Lupin | Jul 9 2004 16:42 utc | 21
Lupin: I happen to love my job at BUBSWDTSTBACSTSNKAAHP(Blowing Up Baby Seals With Dynamite To Sell The Bits As Chew Sticks To Starving North Korean At A Huge Profit – a Kellogg & Brown company) and there are days when I just don’t have the time to even read stuff here. Too many baby seals, not enough time.
Too, too funny, Lupin. Thank you. 😉
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jul 9 2004 16:53 utc | 22
Well barkeep, you are certainly welcomed back with open arms. What a political week to endure without your wisdom! But keep yourself well. I’m having my infamous Zeus Cocktail in your honor: 12 year old scotch over 2″ hailstones.
Posted by: diogenes | Jul 9 2004 19:20 utc | 23
Kate_Storm / route66,
Did you read the story in today’s WaPo about Edwards’ foreign policy proposals? It mentions his thoughts on a domestic intelligence agency:
In one of his more controversial ideas, Edwards introduced a bill to create a domestic intelligence agency, like Britain’s MI5, on grounds that law enforcement and intelligence should not be in the same agency — an idea that has met stiff resistance from the FBI. Campaign advisers predict Edwards may be ahead of his time, since the Sept. 11 commission report due out this month is certain to criticize the intelligence community — and may even make recommendations on this issue, said Jeffrey H. Smith, a former CIA general counsel who has advised Edwards.
It also mentions he saw counterterrorism as an urgent issue well before Sept. 2001, but no one would listen. Also notes his ideas about how the U.S. should work to promote democracies. Very interesting stuff that I heard absolutely nothing about in the primaries. I wonder if it’ll take hold this time around or if we’re too busy noticing his hair.
Posted by: dirtgirl | Jul 9 2004 19:24 utc | 24
Roll over, Beethoven!
More mental health stuff- never listen to the radio in the car, listen to a cd. Gets your brain out of the ‘perseverate’ mode.
Posted by: serial catowner | Jul 9 2004 23:01 utc | 26
Fewer Americans Reading
I just had to share that…
aieeeeeeeeeeee
favorite firesign line
“If you lived here you’d be home by now”
Welcome home……………………………………………..?
Posted by: anna mist | Jul 10 2004 4:48 utc | 28
route 66:
Graham has a habit of keeping an hour by hour diary of his working day, a peculiarity that many have questioned, however, it could make for an earth-shattering book if he’s able to connect some of the many un-connected dots we’re accustomed to seeing…
Heck, the man’s a lawyer! Old habits die hard 😉
rte 66 & Kate:
On the Kerry for Pres website it talks about his idea to create a new domestic intelligence agency and take it out of the hands of the FBI. I think that’s a big nugget to chew on for the blogs myself.
Posted by: x | Jul 10 2004 5:47 utc | 29