ouch,
What am I going to do with all those extra 16 minutes come January.
Bernhard, I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to you for having hosted this site. It has meant a lot to me and I will miss it but I honor your decision. I know it must have been taking up an inordinate amount of your time and energy. I hope you stay in touch wherever this group ends up.
Thanks
Juannie

Posted by: juannie | Nov 30 2004 13:00 utc | 3

Bernhard,
It was a really good site-functional-and I really liked the GUI.
You write well;always enjoyed reading what you had to say.
Commentary was excellent also.
Best wishes, and thanks.

Posted by: FlashHarry | Nov 30 2004 13:54 utc | 5

Flash Harry and Alabama have said it better than
I could have managed. Thanks. Your efforts are appreciated, and may well be more fertile than you
imagine.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Nov 30 2004 14:41 utc | 7

thanks for everything, Bernhard. “wealth of thought” sums it up quite appropriately. and soul. ‘twould be a loss for the archives to completely fall thru the net…

Posted by: b real | Nov 30 2004 15:39 utc | 9

Bernhard, a few days ago I found myself remarking on how busy this site had become and how frequently you manage to post. Thank you for being such a dedicated and insightful host.
Shortly after Billmon closed my hard drive crashed and I lost the links. It was just recently that I reconnected and dared to start posting. So thank you also for the archives. I will be spending part of my 16+ minutes catching up.

Posted by: conchita | Nov 30 2004 17:06 utc | 11

benefited.
Yes.

Posted by: Blackie | Nov 30 2004 17:43 utc | 13

I wish there was a way to keep this site open just as a gathering place, without your having to post at all. Is it the drafting of posts that takes your time, or some other management aspect? I felt recently that this community was just beginning to regroup and gather steam again… hate to see it evaporate all over again, although I certainly understand that it’s become more of a commitment than you could have anticipated.
In any case, many many thanks to you for all that you have done.

Posted by: Bea | Nov 30 2004 17:50 utc | 15

b
i too offer thanks for your accueil of my posts which may have been difficult at times
as at billmon i have learnt much from the others here & have felt that some have become friends
i can understand the pressure – i just post & it takes real time from my other work – ô but the benefits have been many
moa & lespeakeasy are so elegantly & simply done – that it allows for a fluid communication – i felt graced by your site & that of billmon – le speakeasy too – for myself these have been special moments – will not search other blogs – the special alchemy has been instructive & to force that seems to be like a vandal & we know as dylan has suggested – that the vandals broke the handle
i hope you stay strong bernhard & have felt humbled by your openness
still steel

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 30 2004 18:39 utc | 17

So who will be the one to start the ‘I tell you we must die, I tell you we must die’ blog?

Posted by: biklett | Nov 30 2004 19:17 utc | 19

Thanks for the run, Bernhard. I spend a lot of time just reading and occasionally posting, I can only imagine how much more it takes to maintain the place.
A few months ago as I was hanging out at LeSpeakeasy and was lamenting to myself that everyone seemed to be hanging out here and not taking advantage of Okie, Siun and Eff’s tremendous work. So then I came over here and I realized, or more accurately rediscovered, the appeal, what others haved called the “flow” that takes place here. I had been avoiding Moon because of some hurt feelings (none attached to Bernhard) from the Annex implosion and had just found my way back in the last couple of months and was enjoying everyone’s company again in the familiar — and comforting — Whiskey Bar atmosphere. I came to realize, also, that it was great that we had *both* MOA and LeSpeakeasy as they facilitated different types of discussions. The flow of Moon feels more spontaneous and I will definitely miss it. I hope everyone who has been coming here for the past five months will follow Kate’s link to LeSpeakeasy. An maybe somehow we can recapture some more of the feel of MOA and Whiskey Bar at LeSpeakeasy. All I know is that I want to keep reading post from everyone here for a long time to come.
Thanks again, Bernhard, for all of your work and commitment to sustaining this community. The very best wishes!

Posted by: Stoy | Nov 30 2004 19:26 utc | 21

Bernhard, as a late arrival, I hope you’re not feeling that you’re putting out more than you’re getting back. Cyberspace is such a peculiar medium – equally disembodied & passionately connected medium. Please, know that your work was/is immensely appreciated.
Is there anyway that we could have a team of bartenders, say ~7, so you’d only have to be responsible for once a week? Would that work???

Posted by: jj | Nov 30 2004 20:08 utc | 23

b
just wanted to say again how important this place has been for me & i feel i speak for others here too in saying that
like others here i began posting at billmons & it was the first time i had ever done this. there seemed to me to be an immediate intimacy. the capacity to communicate, to share & also critique were open – i had no idea what the protocoles were & once remember asing someone if ot mean old testament – luckily someone envoyed me a dictionary & i’m a little wiser than i was
& i realised that even though i had seen the faces of americans on a battlefield – i had in my life by & large made sure that there were not americans in my company. for me vietnam, indonesia, greece & chile were personal. i am not a soft man but i wept when reagan mined the ports of nicaragua. what american administrations had done over time was an abdomination to me.
i still believe that to be true & it is not the antiamericanism that slothrop might accuse me of – but i had identified very deeply that america has created more nightmares than it has created wonder
but here & at billmon & at lespeakeasy i find americans who i feel as brothers & sisters. i feel your pain enormouslly. a significant part of my life was spent in australia but i have not & will not return to that country – it has already been nearly twenty years – but what that country has allowed itself to be has created an impossibility for me even to visit it. any news i get horrifies me. & at each election they choose their friendly fascists – my contempt grows & i can not stomach the idea of even participating in debates with thinkers from that country
fortunately for me i am forbidden to enter america – though the idea has never entered my head – even though i have been invited to give reading tours – the refusal to allow me entry – has coîncided with an absence of desire on my part
but meeting people here at a level that transcends the social – that for me – is as close to friendship as this technology allows has been like a gift for me. the scholarship(though i argue with some of it), the links, the ideas that give birth here are really aspects of wonder in my life
& there is of course the political situation which is disastrous if not apocalyptic & this need for intimacy contextualised by our politics is as necessary as oxygen. on good days it has given me strength when i though it had all dissapeared
le speakeasy certainly is another home & i’m glad that for the most part the people here post there -& it is such a beautifully constructed space – a care & an elegance – that our roughhouse speediness merits, i think
as i sd b i understand how much time it must take from your life & even if i don’t want you to be driving tanks – well at least not into france – we’ve had bad experiences of that already, my friend – but i do understand that even to post with consistency & with as much coherence as a fellow like me can muster takes a lot of time & at least some devotion
& that’s what i’ve felt from you b – a devotion – something at the end at billmon i did not feel – i thought there was bitterness & though i was only a recent arrivant i do not have the right to concretise that judgement – it was a feeling. here i’ve felt even when you were angry you have transformed that into another energy. you have never been small
perhaps none of us understands the largeness of such a project. you, okie effie siun do know what it means. there is much force – there is an evern fgreater fragility. that is to be expected – we are not speaking with one voice & i hope that has never been the intention
as i sd often. this is not a church. the people here are not a choir. do some find it so difficult to believe that a great many of us for many different reasons are horrified at the same things.
i think the people here seek some form of decency – some form of conduct that is moral – i think we all have an argument against stupidity & its friend false complexity. & though i feel none but a few seek to evangalise – most here really want to communicate at their best level & that by the means we are using priveleges honesty
to not be honest here would constitute for me a form of crudity. i believed from a very young age that my art had to be true even if the person could be not. that the responsibility of being public demanded that each word that left my mouth into a public space or the printed page ought to take at its basis – the public’s very real quest for truth. to lie in my art would have been pornographic – an evil i will leave to rupert murdoch & his clans
so i want to repeat my thanks for having started this space & all my fraternal force in your continuing journey
still steel

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Nov 30 2004 20:24 utc | 25

insert “to pay”

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Nov 30 2004 20:35 utc | 27

Awww damn, well,it’s been a good run but we need a Permanent TAZ
Not to sound mordant or cavalier, -and don’t shoot the messenger- but, I wonder how many of these ass-kicking lefty blogs that die all of a sudden, are really psy-ops milking and using the info to subjugate and stay one step ahead of us open minded progressives…remember what brother John Winston Ono Lennon said “Paranoia is just an advanced state of awareness.”
Not that our wonderful leaders would do such a thing, right?

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Nov 30 2004 21:58 utc | 29

Bernhard, thanks so much for building and running this site and for all your fine research and writings. This site served as methadone for my Billmon-withdrawal and eased the side effects greatly. Best wishes to you.
ralphbon

Posted by: ralphbon | Nov 30 2004 23:30 utc | 31

first panic,then sadness its hard to believe that i am actually shedding tears for friends i’ve never met but somehow i found comfort with.thank you bernhard for everything from helping hold us together after the fold of WB to developing a new and equally informative and emotional outlet in these current times.if we do not meet up elsewhere i want the several of you who have shared your personal trials with us here to know my prayers will still be with you.now its time for a drink…here’s to hope!

Posted by: onzaga | Dec 1 2004 0:10 utc | 33

Danke sehr, gnädiger Herr.
I hope you’ll still have time to post in the future incarnations of the Whiskey Bar (which will mostly be le Speakeasy for the near future, apparently). You did a great job and posted some clever, thoughtful and informed analysis. And you provided a much-needed gatherning hole for the barflies leftovers, which is just as precious and appreciated.
Good luck for the future!

Posted by: Clueless Joe | Dec 1 2004 0:43 utc | 35

Oh no. Two deaths in the family is hard to take. First billmon, now you, Bernhard. I didn’t comment here so much as I used to at billmon’s, but I stopped by often, quietly, to read the thoughts of so many others. I will miss you all – Bernhard, Cloned Poster, Teuton, Clueless, $cam, juannie, Stoy, and especially you, R-giap. And all you others that I don’t mention, but love reading and listening to.
Farewell, friends.
I hope we meet again, somewhere on the other side of this madness we have in America today.
— the reader formerly known as semper ubi…

Posted by: semper fubar | Dec 1 2004 1:21 utc | 37

Bernhard,
Another sad day.
I know I rarely commented, but I dropped by to read frequently. You wrote with an ever-increasing surety that filled the WB void admirably – as testified to by your active and wise comment threads.
rgiap used the right word – decency. This was the essential quality the community responded to in each other – and that was compromised so deeply in the Annex fracture.
I hope you find your energy and are able to resume – and meanwhile, I heartily second Siun, you are most warmly encouraged to post at lespeakeasy should the notion strike you.
Be well….
Okie

Posted by: OkieByAccident | Dec 1 2004 3:24 utc | 39

Aw fug.
I know it takes time and mental energy – I spend a goodly part of my mornings reading all the new posts and all their comments, and then try to think of something insightful and/or funny to add to the conversation. It is hard for me to imagine the much greater effort that is required for bloggers to come up with something interesting every single day, and respond to commentors’ questions. Crap, I contributed a grand whopping total of two posts, and the second one took me several days to write!
Thanks Bernhard for getting some very cool scoops, both on this site and Whiskey Bar, and here’s hoping your new non-monetary investments will have excellent ROI with low risk of default. 😉
And thanks to all you other opinionated bastards for making the barroom chatter tolerant (and indeed decent), and also not a stream of unrelated monologues like some sites. I hope to shoot the breeze with you all on other blogs.

Posted by: Harrow | Dec 1 2004 5:21 utc | 41

@DeAnander – financially Billmon seems to have made it work by passing the Tip Glass. As for a roundtable of lead bloggers, I made a rare stop by kos & he’s just replaced his slate of guest bloggers, incl. Meteor Blades who has much interesting to say. I don’t know if any of the others are of interest, as Kos got hung up in the cesspool of xDem. electoral politics & the Soros people who are funding him. That would be Extremely boring cul-de-sac. (He lives in same burg as MoveOn folks, also a Soros deal unfortunately.) Sam Smith of Prorev.com may be interested in an occasional lead, or at least he often has much that would kick off interesting discussions.

Posted by: jj | Dec 1 2004 6:34 utc | 43

uuu..uuu……ttt……hhh..hhh…eeeeeeee…mmm…..mmm…aaaaaaa…nnn……nnn
uuu..uuu……ttt……hhh..hhh…eeeeeeee…mmm.m.mmm…aaaaaaa…nnn….nnnn
uuu..uuu…ttttttttt…hhh..hhh…eee…………..mmmmmmmm..aa…..aaa…nnn….nnnn
uuu..uuu……ttt……hhhhhhh…eeeee………mmm..m..mmm..aaaaaaa…nnn..nnnnn
uuu..uuu……ttt……hhh..hhh…eee…………..mmm……..mmm..aaa..aaa…nnnnnnnn
uuu..uuu……ttt……hhh..hhh,,,eee…………..mmm……..mmm..aaa..aaa…nnnn..nnn
uuuuuuu……ttt……hhh..hhh…eeeeeeee..mmm……..mmm..aaa..aaa…nnn….nnn
uuuuuuu……ttt……hhh..hhh…eeeeeeee..mmm……..mmm..aaa..aaa…nnn….nnn
squint

Posted by: anna missed | Dec 1 2004 8:01 utc | 45

“ce qu’ils oublieront -ils t’étoufferont- c’est
qu’il n’y a qu’une société, il n’y en a pas d’autre que
combien nous ne savons pas, où
et pourquoi ils lisent un livre, et que
la lecture d’un livre peut sauver une vie, ils
ne viennent pas aux banquets, et nathaniel hawthorne
qu’herman melville aimait
ne viendra pas, raymond weaver non plus
qui les aimait tous deux parce qu’ils s’aimaient”
charles olson lettre pour melville

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Dec 1 2004 17:12 utc | 47

Oh G! Look again.

Posted by: beq | Dec 1 2004 21:32 utc | 49

anna missed-
LOL. I am a little slow some mornings…and nights for that matter.
but your post (and my d’oh of Homer moment) has given my kids and me a new phrase: “Ut Heman.”
I kept squinting, going…uh, is that some german expression? 🙂
One of my sons clued me in. LOL.
And now I see the good news that the Moon (and hopefully Bernhard) will still be around.

Posted by: fauxreal | Dec 1 2004 23:06 utc | 51