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We can only hope that he will find somewhere else to put his enormous talents to use for the good of all. I hear that the MSM could use some decent pudits to replace the duds that have almost always been wrong on almost every issue for years now.

Anyways… Best of luck, and may his dirty glass always be filled to the rim with the finest of whiskeys.

I wrote: It bagatelled along.

Scratch that and replace it with:

It dolphined along.

SusanUnPC, who, if I’m not mistaken, is Larry Johnson’s wife, has posted a very worthwhile to read, albeit long, post about Somalia:

http://noquarter.typepad.com/m…..ion_i.html

The Incursion Into Somalia

Truth be told, I tuned in this morning to BBC World Service to escape the incessant, repetitive U.S. news about Gerald Ford’s death.
(snip)

Incessant.

Repetitive.

U.S. news.

There’s a new book coming out about Shakespeare. Apparently some scientist has wired up people and then run some Shakespeare past them. The wiring monitors and records the electrical activity in the brain. What he found was that when the writing is fresh, unorthodox, unusual – when Shakespeare’s breaking norms – using nouns for verbs, writing unconventional “constructions”, etc. – the electrical activity in the brain surges. Or spikes if you prefer, which you probably do.

The other side of that coin of course is that when the “message” is “incessant and repetitive” the electrical activity flatlines.

Now what’s this have to do with Billmon? Well, what I’m getting at here is the quality of his prose. It was very sharp. It bagatelled along. And it took us all with it. In more ways than one.

Whereas his opposite numbers – little green droppings, Jonah whatever his name is, etc. – well, it’s like reading cement. It flatlines. And there’s a knock-on effect of course in their choir: their voices are even duller, drearier, flatter.

It doesn’t really come as any surprise when you think about it, but it’s nice to know that there are sound scientific reasons why they’re all mouthbreathers.

And flipping the coin back over aain, well Billmon’s and the Firedoglakers’ and Digby’s, etc. being splinter-sharp (stimulating, fun-to-read, if you prefer) will in turn have sharpened a lot of minds, a lot of prose, in this community.

All those electrical surges. As opposed to incessant and repetitive…flatlining.

You’ll outfleet them, folks. Outwit ‘em. So have at ‘em.

More likely, he enjoys it a bit overmuch.

It’s not an “oasis of sanity.” It’s a self-congratulatory digital masturbation festival….

One would think from your post that you don’t like masturbation.

His writing is spectacular. Billmon’s essays are the Spectator of our generation. In some future age of English Studies, they will be read and treasured.

Damn! I’m going to miss his work.

Please don’t do anything with the archives. Keep them available as an excellent reference for the near future.

his site is down already here are some archives http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://billmon.org