Billmon:
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December 28, 2006
WB: “That’s all Folks!”
Comments
Does anyone know what’s happened to Billmon ? His stuff is always great !!
Posted by: brian | Dec 28 2006 10:39 utc | 1
Billmon, if this is your way of really hanging it up, more power to you. No cajoling or guilt tripping from my goddamned stool, that’s for damned sure. You had a damned good run and I appreciate all the work and time you’ve invested into the ol’ watering hole. Much luck to you and if you ever cross paths with Bob “The Living Dead” Novak again, don’t forget the wooden stake and holy water. Granted, you don’t owe me squat, but shit–if opportunity knocks …
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
I see a line of cars and theyre all painted black
With flowers and my love both never to come back
I see people turn their heads and quickly look away
Like a new born baby it just happens evry day
I look inside myself and see my heart is black
I see my red door and it has been painted black
Maybe then Ill fade away and not have to face the facts
Its not easy facin up when your whole world is black
No more will my green sea go turn a deeper blue
I could not foresee this thing happening to you
If I look hard enough into the settin sun
My love will laugh with me before the mornin comes
I see a red door and I want it painted black
No colors anymore I want them to turn black
I see the girls walk by dressed in their summer clothes
I have to turn my head until my darkness goes
Hmm, hmm, hmm,…
I wanna see it painted, painted black
Black as night, black as coal
I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
I wanna see it painted, painted, painted, painted black
Yeah!
Posted by: anna missed | Dec 28 2006 10:59 utc | 3
Well, it was a nice break from the goddamned amusement park…
While it lasted…
So long my friend.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Dec 28 2006 11:01 utc | 4
So this is goodbye?
If so, you’ll be sorely missed. With the exception of some area experts (e.g. Juan Cole), your analyses were consistently the sharpest available in any medium.
In my view, you should be the first recipient of a Koufax Lifetime Achievement Award.
Good luck and godspeed.
Posted by: pseudonymous | Dec 28 2006 11:10 utc | 5
Also, Billmon, could you let us know how long we have before billmon.org goes dark — that is, how long we have to create local archives?
Posted by: pseudonymous | Dec 28 2006 11:14 utc | 6
I’m reminded of the Firesign Theatre’s warning, “In the next life you’re on your own.”
All things must pass away.
May the Creative Forces of the Universe have mercy on our souls, if any.
Posted by: mistah charley | Dec 28 2006 12:16 utc | 7
I am sure Billmon will be back…when he feels lonely again…he has things to say and there for he needs an audience. If people like Billmon shut up it will be the end for USA…and wider…So many thingies will happen in years to come…
Posted by: vbo | Dec 28 2006 12:19 utc | 8
Maybe he’s talking about the year 2006….I sure hope so!
Posted by: alabama | Dec 28 2006 12:23 utc | 9
Happy New Year billmon and MoonofAlabamites (I refuse to use ‘moonies’.) May 2007 be better than 2006. Even if it’s not the way to bet.
Posted by: hopping madbunny | Dec 28 2006 13:01 utc | 11
Can’t imagine life after Billmon — we need you, but burn-out is understandable (maybe inevitable). Best of luck in all your endeavors, Billmon. Live well and prosper.
Posted by: msquick | Dec 28 2006 13:51 utc | 12
I’m pretty much hanging it up myself… don’t read much anymore, except here, and I note the comments have decreased…
after all… how many times can one repeat things are a mess, and it’s only getting worse…
Posted by: crone | Dec 28 2006 14:05 utc | 14
crone,
Yeah, no argument but so many in the U.S. listen to Limbaugh and Fox News and don’t think things are a mess.. I hope Billmon is just talking 2006. His voice is valuable and so is each of our voices.
Posted by: Rick Happ | Dec 28 2006 14:11 utc | 15
Oh no … a kinda sick feeling in my guts, then … oh yeah, that’s all … for 2006.
I think hope is a vastly overrated propositional attitude – much prefer reasonable expectations. So on that note…
Thanks Billmon.
Posted by: Hamburger | Dec 28 2006 14:11 utc | 16
I’ll echo Alabama’s hope that b’mon’s just talking about 2006.
In any event, he’s a writer. He can’t not write, despite the need for long respites. Even if he hangs up the blog, I can’t believe we won’t hear from him in other venues and other ways.
Posted by: ralphbon | Dec 28 2006 14:34 utc | 17
Let me take you down, ‘cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real, and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see
It’s getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn’t matter much to me
Let me take you down, ‘cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real, and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low
That is you can’t you know tune in but it’s all right, that is I think it’s not too bad
Let me take you down, ‘cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real, and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
Always, no sometimes, think it’s me, but you know I know when it’s a dream
I think I know I mean a “Yes” but it’s all wrong, that is I think I disagree
Let me take you down, ‘cos I’m going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real, and nothing to get hungabout
Strawberry Fields forever
Strawberry Fields forever
Strawberry Fields forever
Posted by: annie | Dec 28 2006 14:59 utc | 18
Like everyone else, I’m hoping it’s just goodbye to 2006, but if it’s really lights out for good at Whiskey Bar, well, it sure was nice while it lasted. The best free thinking in a dirty glass there is…
or maybe Bill is just offering a final adieu to the loonies, Bugs as Nixon, Daffy as Reagan, Fud as Ford.
Posted by: andrew in caledon | Dec 28 2006 16:05 utc | 23
You will be back Billmon. Not because you want to, only because you NEED to.
Until then, keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!
Posted by: Rose | Dec 28 2006 16:08 utc | 24
Billmon,
You know, you’ve changed the way a lot of us write.
As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.
–Mohandas Ghandi–
Thanks for the way you think on the page, blogfather.
Posted by: citizen | Dec 28 2006 16:44 utc | 26
If or when Billmon returns in another identity or location I hope all here will shout it loud and wide to the blogosphere. I will still go to Whiskey Bar as the first stop on my daily routine unless someone takes it down.
Posted by: RWH | Dec 28 2006 16:44 utc | 27
I hope this comment is premature and just a hair trigger response to Billmon’s end-of-the-year post. Hopefully I’ll have egg on my face in a few days — the compliment is sincere, however.
No one does it as well as Billmon.
Whiskey Bar is the standard to which we put any media up for comparison. Take a look at everything from a NYT op-ed, a BBC in-depth analysis feature, high & low brow pundits of all stripes bloviating from whatever perch they cling, features from all types of magazines from the Atlantic to the pedestrian military journalism 101 force fed blasto-grams imposed on the lastest occupation de jour.
Billmon is the Gold standard in any medium. When I was a kid growing up, the geezers would speak wistfully about the glory days of baseball and having seen “Babe Ruth play.” (for the Yankees, sadly, not the Red Sox). In the not too distant future, when the great media transformation is studied, blogging will be seen as one of the great transition points to whatever it is that will someday both inform and manipulate us in just a generation or two from now.
When our sheepish and pathetic epoch is studied, I will be able to say — in my best grizzled and slightly demented geezer-esque voice — “when I was your age, I hit the refresh button when Billmon was blogging in real time. His posts were on my computer before they were even cached.”
I gues the only thing worse than someone who does not go out at the top of their game is someone who does. No good deed goes unpunished so: well done and thanks.
Happy New Year Billmon.
sláinte
kfl
Posted by: Kevin Leahy | Dec 28 2006 16:52 utc | 28
Bernhard, do you know definitively if Billmon is wrapping up his blogging at the Whiskey Bar?
Posted by: bba | Dec 28 2006 16:59 utc | 29
Happy New Year and thanks, Billmon. I can’t say I enjoyed your writing on the war in LebaNam, but it was indispensable, beautifully written, clear, interesting and as depressing as its subject. It’s been heartening to know there are kindered spirits out there.
Posted by: kaleidescope | Dec 28 2006 17:57 utc | 30
Thanks, Billmon. You were the best. And if you come back, you’ll still be.
Posted by: PeterG | Dec 28 2006 18:01 utc | 31
“or maybe Bill is just offering a final adieu to the loonies, Bugs as Nixon, Daffy as Reagan, Fud as Ford.”
Posted by: andrew in caledon | Dec 28, 2006 11:05:34 AM | 23
That would be Billmons style alright.
I doubt we’ve seen the last of him.
Posted by: pb | Dec 28 2006 18:06 utc | 32
Billmon, I hate to see this–I hope, like others do, that it’s goodbye only to 2006. You’re a major person in making this country bearable for me in recent years. Thanks thanks thanks.
Posted by: jf | Dec 28 2006 18:28 utc | 33
Billmon is clearly the most compelling voice of our time on the state of the USA and the final adieu to the loonies is classically great stuff. I would be more concerned about his blogging future if it was a James Brown bit.
Posted by: ed | Dec 28 2006 18:42 utc | 34
You’re breaking my heart!!
Please say it’s just good bye to the year.
Please don’t go, please!
Posted by: SME in Seattle | Dec 28 2006 18:58 utc | 36
I suppose it’s for 2006 and this year’s farce, though it may be for good – in which case I expect “Billmon” to pop up somewhere occasionally, maybe under another nickname, either as sharp clever commenter or as blogger.
Whatever happens, thanks for all your posts. No one is always entirely spot on on predictions, but on analysis and witty criticism, there’s hardly been much wrong – even if we probably all wished you were wrong all along.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Dec 28 2006 19:23 utc | 37
Oh, and I forgot the essential…
Billmon, good luck and good night.
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Dec 28 2006 19:26 utc | 38
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows
‘Everybody Knows’ by Leonard Cohen
Supposing that this entry means good bye and hoping that Billmon looks in on this thread it’s time, long past time, to say thank you. I have treasured reading your posts. They will be sorely missed. Whatever the path ahead holds for us all I hope your journey is a good one.
Your friend,
Robbie
Posted by: Robbie | Dec 28 2006 19:36 utc | 39
Thanks for the reading over the years Billmon.
If this is a permanent retirement or just a few months off, well…in either case you deserve it.
Cheers mate.
Posted by: Gozer | Dec 28 2006 20:05 utc | 40
Didn’t he bug out on us earlier for an extended hiatus earlier this year and then drop right back into the fray a few days later? We never questioned it. Heck, I threaten to strangle my kids several times a week and they’re still alive…
Posted by: ralphieboy | Dec 28 2006 20:19 utc | 41
Not even a small “surge” in posts? A “phased withdraw”, perhaps?
Jokes aside, cheers for the downpour of thoughtful blogs over the years (tips hat).
Posted by: A | Dec 28 2006 21:00 utc | 42
Over at Firedoglake, there’s a discussion of Billmon’s post.
No one wants to see this end. Billmon is the best there is.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 28 2006 21:01 utc | 43
I’ll miss you, too, Billmon. Your posts were the best.
Posted by: Coral | Dec 28 2006 21:39 utc | 44
talk in ever lasting words
and dedicate them all to me
and I will give you all my life
i’m here if you should call to me
you think that I don’t even mean
a single word I say
it’s only words
and words are all I have
to take your heart away
godspeed….and I don’t mean Haggard’s kind.
Posted by: newbroom | Dec 28 2006 21:54 utc | 45
Billmon:
I am simply adding my own voice to all the others…….Thank You from the bottom of this immigrant’s heart. I hope you are simply saying goodbye to 2006 and will be back. I had almost lost all hope for my adopted country until I found the Whiskey Bar. Thanks again for everything.
Posted by: Graham Brown | Dec 28 2006 21:55 utc | 46
Swopa on Billmon Farewell, Billmon?
Some people, though, might think it’s unfair of Billmon to leave — that as (by acclamation) the most purely talented writer on any blog, we need his gifts more now than ever as we battle to end the war in Iraq and retake the White House in 2008. Although Billmon might consider this comparison to be sacrilegious, I’m reminded of a perhaps-apocryphal story (I can’t find any reference to it via Google) I read once about John Lennon. During Lennon’s five-year retirement from music in the late 1970s, a top rock critic wrote a melodramatic plea for him to return, claiming that only the brilliant John Lennon could make sense of the times and show his fans the way forward.
Lennon supposedly passed on a riposte via a mutual acquaintance: “Tell him I did my part. It’s his turn now.” If Billmon has indeed shuttered the Whiskey Bar for good, that’s the lesson for us — it’s our turn now.
i am holding out hope this is a hangover(yours). there is something very statementy about that cartoon that makes me very uncomfortable. frankly i am more comfortable w/the disappearing routine and was especially impressed w/the departure announcement that proved to be the little engine that couldn’t.
billmon, i can’t stand this. here was my first choice i nixed earlier for strawberry fields. but i find i am getting a little hungabout this.
please please please don’t ever feel like you need to hold on to this position. i suppose saying this borders on cruelty will get me nowhere. maybe this is just some big grand way of saying good bye to the last disastrous year but i think we know eachother better than that.
eloquence and grace have never been my fortes. begging becomes no one. i can’t say good bye. it’s not about being in denial, i’m just going to refuse to accept it is all over between us.
don’t stay away to long. you will be missed, truly
(i’m cryin’)
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 28 2006 22:41 utc | 48
Ah, dear Billmon, no one else in the Blogosphere could so poetically articulate the despair in the depths of my Celtic soul as you could. You’ve nailed so much of what ails us. And when you would periodically ask if you were being too cynical, I would scream at my PC monitor, “No! You’re not! No one can be too cynical or suspicious in these times.” I hope you come back because I enjoy your writing so much. But if you don’t resume your blogging, I, like the commentators above can understand. Whatever you decide, I just want to thank you for helping me feel not so alone or crazy. Best wishes to you.
Posted by: Kathleen | Dec 28 2006 22:48 utc | 49
good grief. there’re a bunch of great writers on the innernets.
Posted by: slothrop | Dec 28 2006 22:52 utc | 50
all i’d ask is that billmon preserve access in some way to the whiskey bar archive.
Posted by: slothrop | Dec 28 2006 22:53 utc | 51
Who else will comment on the gov’t rountinely violating our Constitutional rights?
They violate the 1st Amendment by caging demonstrators and banning books like “America Deceived” from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov’t.
Support indy media, we’ll miss Billmon.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov’t and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
Posted by: John D | Dec 28 2006 23:20 utc | 52
@crone – 14
I’m pretty much hanging it up myself… don’t read much anymore, except here, and I note the comments have decreased…
What’s the last time before this one you commented here ….
john #52, why this thread? you remind me of an ambulance chaser, plllease
Posted by: annie | Dec 28 2006 23:37 utc | 55
Excuse me, but as long as I have been reading Billmon he has taken regular breaks and even sworn off writing of any kind, only to return again renewed and fiery…
Posted by: Sunni-Moonie | Dec 28 2006 23:37 utc | 56
that’s all folks until the next cartoon comes out.
isn’t that how it worked in the movie theater.
lrd
Posted by: larry davis | Dec 29 2006 0:04 utc | 57
I’ve relied on Billmon. Every evening after tedious work and ever more tedious news, I’d check out the Whiskey Bar. If there was a post, I’d be elated! No matter how dreadful the subject, the clarity, the truthfulness just made me feel better. The truth is somehow independently good and beautiful, aside from its function in useful communication.
I also think the bloggers have had a much bigger impact than they realize. Before, we had essentially no checks on the MSM. Now, the rapiers come out within minutes and I’m sure it has cut down on the amount of intentional lies and careless nonsense.
I can see why Billmon would quit – he has to rake the sewers to find his diamonds. Here’s another reader desperately hoping he comes back.
Posted by: South Berkeley | Dec 29 2006 1:22 utc | 58
I also think the bloggers have had a much bigger impact than they realize.
remember the post of billmons (i can’t remember which one) that came out about 4 hrs before one of olbermann’s first real kick ass speechs? he had cited one hell of a very distinctive line of billmon’s the press picked up on. of course billmon never got the credit for it except here and a few other places in the blogisphere.
happened again recently w/some msm parodying one of his posts.
Posted by: annie | Dec 29 2006 1:35 utc | 59
I expect and hope that we’ll hear from Billmon in the future, because “of all the natural shocks the flesh is heir to”, and because “we ain’t seen nothin’ yet”. I toast you Billmon; I raise a glass of Merlot in your general direction.
Training
Not this week nor this month dare I lie down
In languor under lime trees or smooth smile.
Love must not kiss my face pale that is brown.
My lips, parting, shall drink space, mile by mile;
Strong meats be all my hunger; my renown
Be the clean beauty of speed and pride of style.
Cold winds encountered on the racing Down
Shall thrill my heated bareness; but awhile
None else may meet me till I wear my crown.
–Wilfred Owen
Try this link for archives:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://billmon.org
Posted by: crone | Dec 29 2006 3:34 utc | 63
was it George Clinton or Bootsy Collins who came up with : “free your mind and your ass will follow”
Billmon, be free.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Dec 29 2006 3:41 utc | 64
This http://blogs.philly.com/blinq/2006/04/bartender_ill_h.html together with billmon’s long post from about 12/22, retrieving his Iraq archive, and drawing some rather (unduly in my view) negative conclusions about his own impact all suggest, regrettably, that we may have heard the last from him in that persona.
If so, I sure will miss him. His wisdom and perspicacity on a startlingly broad range of topics, together with his scathing takedowns of the eminently skewerable, showed the way to a style of blog/internet advocacy that really sets a mark, and an aim for us all.
Posted by: dell | Dec 29 2006 4:06 utc | 65
The archive I grabbed when he went off the air last time, as of April 2nd of this year, is here. I was in the process of setting up another batch fetch when the site was pulled, alas.
I respect Billmon but sometimes feel tired of the melodrama. Stay or go — write your thoughts or don’t. Of course his point of view is wonderful to learn — but the disappearance/reapparance with everyone saying “oh no!” starts to feel a bit weird to me. We all run out of things to say to the horror — I have stopped posting regularly on many of my old regular sites — its time for something else — but don’t know what yet.
I wish Billmon the best and miss his good posts. But I suspect that he feels that more good posts just aint cuttin it anymore… just like many of the rest of us less verbally astutue…
Posted by: Elie | Dec 29 2006 4:41 utc | 68
Does this mean billmon is, or isn’t, joining y’all in Hamburg?
Posted by: Rowan | Dec 29 2006 4:45 utc | 69
But, but, what about Luxor?
I’m surely going to miss you.
Posted by: PeeDee | Dec 29 2006 4:48 utc | 70
somebody loonytune claims they saw billmon & bernadine dohrn headed toward the basement w/ a copy of dupont’s blasting handbook
Posted by: b real | Dec 29 2006 5:08 utc | 71
Felt right to stop by here to say, with all of you, thanks Billmon – you’ll be missed!
As I still miss the wild vibrant Billmon of old when the comments flowed and the posts were frequent.
Posted by: Siun | Dec 29 2006 5:31 utc | 73
of course he’s coming to hamburg!
But, but, what about Luxor?
slothrop, you are still on my shit list for your sabotage. oh, i guess it’s time to forgive.
siun, hey, welcome as always/anytime
Posted by: annie | Dec 29 2006 6:10 utc | 74
Jeanne D’Arc immolates herself, and now billmon…
Re:”it’s our turn now.”
thought of Newman’s Cool Hand Luke:
“Oh come on. Stop beatin’ it. Get out there yourself. Stop feedin’ off me! Get out of here. I can’t breathe. Give me some air.”
its just, i’m hungry, and “desire to drink and sup at mahogany’s mass.”
cheers
Posted by: galloping cat | Dec 29 2006 6:17 utc | 75
Site Temporarily Unavailable
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact the webmaster/ tech support immediately to have them rectify this.
Posted by: billmon down | Dec 29 2006 14:06 utc | 76
Wonder if billmon had used up all the time/bandwidth he’d paid for & decided to force himself to break his addiction by not paying for any more.
Posted by: jj | Dec 29 2006 17:37 utc | 77
I found archives dated April 2003 to May 31 2006 at
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.billmon.org
Posted by: Marjie | Dec 29 2006 21:29 utc | 78
Will Saddam say that’s all folks as he drops 3 feet tomorrow?
Billmon, worth all the Gold in the Blogosphere. Rest, fuck off and do your thing. You made your contribution BIGTIME!
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Dec 29 2006 23:00 utc | 79
This is a freakin’ catastrophe.
There are lots of talented bloggers out there, but Billmon is in a class by himself. His erudition is unparalleled, both in its scope and its depth, as his gift for analysis. The next ten best bloggers can’t fill his shoes, not because they don’t have their own strengths, but because between them they don’t have the particular combination of skills that made The Whiskey Bar is a unique font of insight into economics, strategy, and geopolitics, informed by a keen insight into human nature (to which I credit Billmon’s interest in and respect for the study of history, which I share), and the often caustic wit is the cherry on top of the sundae.
I fear we will not see his likes again.
Also, pseudonymous wrote:
In my view, you should be the first recipient of a Koufax Lifetime Achievement Award.
I could not agree more strongly.
Where can I sign the petition?
Posted by: Lexington | Dec 29 2006 23:08 utc | 80
Billmon was very good, that is a solid fact; and this swine will miss his pearls of wisdom without doubt.
My question is: will this site stay up? There have been several very good posts here; perhaps the “Billmon factor” rubbed of on a few people.
Posted by: bucky | Dec 29 2006 23:37 utc | 81
bucky, this site better stay up! we’ve not heard differently from bernhard. barflies love this place, stick around and comment more often.
Posted by: annie | Dec 29 2006 23:40 utc | 82
@ Marije:
Thanks for the tip about the archives.
I look forward to re-reading Billmon’s posts and the comments. I know it must have been a royal pain in the ass to maintain, but those early Whiskey Bar days when comments were allowed were the best. A cacophony of passionate voices, all struggling to be heard. We must have been annoying as hell, but it kept hope afloat when the MSM were endless parroting each other with no opposing voice to be heard and there seemed no outlet for the loyal and not-so-loyal opposition to vent, to cry, to rage against the madness of The Boy King. I remember it as a lonely time in terms of political dissent. Everyone was so god damned for the war in Iraq..or so it seemed. The Whiskey Bar gave us: the disgruntled homeless barflies of this world, a place to hang our hats.
Perhaps someday, Billmon will pay heed to the call and venture down that curious and seductive rabbit hole of blogging again…right now, life above ground is calling him.
He made a difference. We made a difference..and there’s a hell of a lot more work to be done.
Posted by: byteb | Dec 30 2006 1:28 utc | 84
Actually, one of my fondest memories of the whole trip is spitting on Stalin’s tomb while the guard wasn’t looking. A nice fat loogy. This was in 1996, and Yeltsin was desperately sucking up to the Americans, so the consequences of getting caught probably would have been fairly mild — the guards would have kicked me out of the compound, maybe beat me up a little first.
just reminiscing
Posted by: annie | Dec 30 2006 1:54 utc | 85
Oh, what a sentimental thread. Come on, it is not like this is the first time Billmon quits.
Granted, it is the first time the site goes down, but as long as the adress isn´t bought up by some porno-poker site it can go back up again.
Billmon, if you read this: write that book already. It might have a more direct impact and you know that you would sell a lot without any need for costly commercials, just let the blogosphere know.
Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Dec 30 2006 2:17 utc | 86
We are moving on. Whether we win or not remains to be seen. But on Nov. 7, we made a good start.
And we started from relatively nothing in 2002.
Thanks to a host of people.
Everyone needs to take a break occasionally.
Take care all.
Posted by: Anonymous | Dec 30 2006 2:23 utc | 87
A note to Billmon:
I wish you well; whatever labors you may take on in the future. I would like to say you are wrong about having no effect. No, I don’t mean you changed the world — you spoke truth at a time when truth was hard to come by.
The truth is the central ethical value of humanity, without truth we become bestial. You presented truth with style and flair, and that is enough to be proud of your work.
Over time I would have sent a few “atta-boys” to you but unfortunately I never knew your e-mail address. So, here is one for all those times —- atta-boy Billmon, good job.
Posted by: bucky | Dec 30 2006 11:52 utc | 89
I’m sorry that you wrestled with doubts about your undeniable impact, Billmon. The show will, of course, go on with or without your valuable contributions… but I am very disheartened to think that you are throwing in the towel for good.
I realise that you, like all of us, have petty day-to-day concerns, and I do not judge you for the decisions you must necessarily make based on those factors that I can not know. I judge you for the consequences of your actions… and the consequences of your musings and analyses have brought balance to many of us during some very dark times when we needed reassurance that we weren’t alone in our perception that things were on a bad course.
I wish you well, Billmon. I also invite you to return whenever you feel able. The work you have done is good, but good work is not a penance to be performed for a set amount of time. The work will always continue, and your assistance will always be welcome. You have my most sincere thanks for all that you have done up until the present.
Posted by: Monolycus | Dec 30 2006 12:42 utc | 90
Happy New Year, Billmon.
Of late I’ve missed your chronic rage, clarity of thought and amusing prose. Plus all the excellent Cheney-shafting photomontages. (John Heartfield would be proud.) I hope come back in 2007, which is shaping up to be a doozy of a year.
Party on, the rest.
Posted by: Dismal Science | Dec 30 2006 13:29 utc | 91
Billmon, take care of yourself. Thanks for all you did. Thanks, again.
Posted by: Noirette | Dec 30 2006 13:39 utc | 92
This is offered as a serious suggestion. Undeniably Billmon was one of the brightest most perceptive voices on the web. I think he consistently underestimated his impact and his influence. His viewpoint was really welcome (by me andmany others) who find most on the left blogosphere beginning and ending as too much the Democratic Party’s left spokesmen. Increasingly this is inadequate and should be rejected…either the Democratic Party moves much closer to its progressive wing or it forfeits any ability to really deal with the unbelievably serious problems the right wing proto-fascists are leaving us.
Unfortunately, Billmon’s self-doubt, his Hamlet-like inability to see that “the fight’s the thing”, always nagged around his edges. Might I in a friendly way suggest that Billmon consider compiling the best of his remarks (or his favorites) into a book. Many of us would be interested; it might be financially lucrative and that is I know a real issue for Billmon. Please think about it. As I said, I really think there might be a serious market for it.
Posted by: della Rovere | Dec 30 2006 20:22 utc | 94
I am truly going to miss your blog. It was one of the very few that I checked every single day. Your insights and your skill in presenting them are rare and will be missed. Success with however else you use these energies. The gods and goddesses bow down to you in your passage from the blogosphere.
Posted by: Mum | Dec 30 2006 20:45 utc | 95
@ 94
I second the book idea…
our children and grandchildren will want to know what the hell happened… we need books and journals
Thanks Billmon… for all that you gave to us… yours was and is a bright light in all this darkness, please don’t turn it off…
Posted by: crone | Dec 30 2006 21:13 utc | 96
Yep, I’ll miss Billmon–he was one gloomy mother but he could wail like a Delta harp.
Let me take this occasion to tip the hat to all the crack-pot bloggers who have the nerve, dedication and ego to sit down and think out loud on a regular basis (and I can only imagine the technical hassles.) I can surely undertstand if at some point (or points) you have to give it up and walk away. I know I did–before I even started.
Come, Billmon, enjoy the footloose life of a rambling commenter. Hop a post and ride it to places the author never dreamed it would go.
Posted by: BroD | Dec 30 2006 21:29 utc | 97
my suggestion for Billmons book would be to set some time aside for travel overseas, and then & write about it.
I would gladly chip in sponsorship to send Billmon to somewhere like Beirut for a few weeks/months on a working trip. Given the rigor he puts into analysis, facts, history & deconstruction, it would be a truly fascinating read.
Translations into Arabic & French might do well too. Billmons gifted hyperbole might play very well in other languages.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Dec 30 2006 23:29 utc | 98
another thought.
How about Billmon writes a book and Riverbend translates it into Arabic.
Posted by: jony_b_cool | Dec 30 2006 23:33 utc | 99
I don’t know Billmon’s name or his face. I wish we could put some of his best posts (any of them are his best) on the back of a milk carton and send them far and wide. And in suburban Philadelphia–put them on milk cartons, yogurt containers, anything you can.
I’ll wonder who is is, where he is, wish he could still help me see things clearly, using his understanding and the facts.
Hope he’s safe and sound.
Thanks very much, Billmon. Elizabeth Doughty
Posted by: Elizabeth Doughty | Dec 31 2006 13:40 utc | 100