The Blogger Who Was Never There
[UPDATE, Sunday, May 13: Bah and phooey. I've been sick with the flu again, but thankfully a much milder version than I had about a month ago. Some flu variant appears to have taken up residence in my eight-unit apartment building. It's gotten almost everyone once, and now seems to be going around again. For the last few nights, I've heard a couple of neighbors coughing their guts out at 3 AM, as I did for over a week. I'm getting over it now, but it's slowed me down a lot the last several days.
But I am working on a number of new pieces. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how they turn out), they're among the most mind-breakingly difficult essays I've written thus far. I'm trying to tie together many strands that I've dealt with separately, in much smaller pieces. So it's taking me quite a while to work through it all. At a number of points, I'll think: "No, that's not quite right," so I have to reexamine the issue at hand from the beginning, do further reading, research questions on the internet, etc. All very time-consuming and mentally demanding.
The first of the new essays (the next installment of the "Dominion" series) will, I hope, be ready for posting sometime tomorrow. Once I begin to break the logjam, I expect the work to progress more easily. And there are about ten pieces already in the works, in varying stages of completion. I'm always looking for "easier" posts to write, and once in a while I find them. The problem is, given the perspective from which I examine any question, one subject tends to lead to another, and another, and...since, you know, all things are connected. Damnable, blessed fact, but there it is.
So I beg your indulgence for just a short while longer. Be back soon, and I have lots to say about a great many things.]
Many of you have been exceptionally generous, and I am deeply grateful for your donations. This has been and continues to be a very difficult time for me (and I still feel lousy physically much of the time, but I'm almost used to that now), but I expect to return to fairly regular writing in another day or two (and hopefully tomorrow, but I can't guarantee it). I've been pulling together an enormous amount of material for a number of essays, and am still in the process of organizing it all and trying to separate it into somewhat digestible chunks.
However, I admit to feeling profound discouragement at the moment. I read this piece by Glenn Greenwald a little while ago, and it is very well done. I might even say it sounds awfully familiar. I wonder why that is...ah, I remember: "Thus the World Was Lost," which I wrote last September. That essay covers much the same ground that Greenwald goes over, with some further cultural and historic context and perspective added (plus a few literary flourishes, which probably please me more than they should).
In fact, I began writing about habeas corpus issues as early as January 2004 (and even before that), as you will see from the post republished as part of this lengthy piece (scroll down a ways for the entry from the long-dead past). And I've written about the Military Commissions Act in many other articles, including "America, Now Without the Revolution," where I outline the strategy that I think those opposed to this destruction of the foundation of liberty ought to follow, the only strategy that I think will ultimately be successful (and which is not the one adopted by the Democrats). [Also see the more recent, "Living Under the Guillotine's Blade."]
But today, when this issue consumes the liberal-progressive blogs, it is as if I never wrote any of this. I feel the way suggested by my headline. My articles, which I intentionally do not write from a perspective restricted only to today or tomorrow (or the next election), and where I attempt to keep the longer view in mind at all times, appear to go into a worm hole which carries them to some distant galaxy. They are consigned to an intellectual deep freeze, where they remain for the rest of time.
I suppose that sounds more than a tad bitter. Oh, yes. Oh my, yes. I try to "rise above that" and carry on, but some days it's just a bit too much. Today is one such day.
Nonetheless, I shall be back soon, and maybe on Thursday. Among other subjects, and even though that article by Greenwald is excellent (as are many of his pieces), I think there is a serious and fundamental flaw in his overall approach, and there is one particular issue I intend to take him to task for in terms that may appear to be quite severe. Aw, just kidding. Actually, I'm not. Well, all will be explained in time.
My profound thanks to so many of you once again. I am deeply in your debt.
P.S. I offer my sincere apologies again to those who have written to me, and have not yet received a response. I haven't felt well enough to do much of anything (except think about and do reading for future essays when I'm up to it), and I haven't made even a dent in the accumulated email. Please bear with me; so many messages have piled up that it will take me a few weeks to go through them all. I hope to begin that tomorrow, too. My apologies once more.
But I am working on a number of new pieces. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how they turn out), they're among the most mind-breakingly difficult essays I've written thus far. I'm trying to tie together many strands that I've dealt with separately, in much smaller pieces. So it's taking me quite a while to work through it all. At a number of points, I'll think: "No, that's not quite right," so I have to reexamine the issue at hand from the beginning, do further reading, research questions on the internet, etc. All very time-consuming and mentally demanding.
The first of the new essays (the next installment of the "Dominion" series) will, I hope, be ready for posting sometime tomorrow. Once I begin to break the logjam, I expect the work to progress more easily. And there are about ten pieces already in the works, in varying stages of completion. I'm always looking for "easier" posts to write, and once in a while I find them. The problem is, given the perspective from which I examine any question, one subject tends to lead to another, and another, and...since, you know, all things are connected. Damnable, blessed fact, but there it is.
So I beg your indulgence for just a short while longer. Be back soon, and I have lots to say about a great many things.]
Many of you have been exceptionally generous, and I am deeply grateful for your donations. This has been and continues to be a very difficult time for me (and I still feel lousy physically much of the time, but I'm almost used to that now), but I expect to return to fairly regular writing in another day or two (and hopefully tomorrow, but I can't guarantee it). I've been pulling together an enormous amount of material for a number of essays, and am still in the process of organizing it all and trying to separate it into somewhat digestible chunks.
However, I admit to feeling profound discouragement at the moment. I read this piece by Glenn Greenwald a little while ago, and it is very well done. I might even say it sounds awfully familiar. I wonder why that is...ah, I remember: "Thus the World Was Lost," which I wrote last September. That essay covers much the same ground that Greenwald goes over, with some further cultural and historic context and perspective added (plus a few literary flourishes, which probably please me more than they should).
In fact, I began writing about habeas corpus issues as early as January 2004 (and even before that), as you will see from the post republished as part of this lengthy piece (scroll down a ways for the entry from the long-dead past). And I've written about the Military Commissions Act in many other articles, including "America, Now Without the Revolution," where I outline the strategy that I think those opposed to this destruction of the foundation of liberty ought to follow, the only strategy that I think will ultimately be successful (and which is not the one adopted by the Democrats). [Also see the more recent, "Living Under the Guillotine's Blade."]
But today, when this issue consumes the liberal-progressive blogs, it is as if I never wrote any of this. I feel the way suggested by my headline. My articles, which I intentionally do not write from a perspective restricted only to today or tomorrow (or the next election), and where I attempt to keep the longer view in mind at all times, appear to go into a worm hole which carries them to some distant galaxy. They are consigned to an intellectual deep freeze, where they remain for the rest of time.
I suppose that sounds more than a tad bitter. Oh, yes. Oh my, yes. I try to "rise above that" and carry on, but some days it's just a bit too much. Today is one such day.
Nonetheless, I shall be back soon, and maybe on Thursday. Among other subjects, and even though that article by Greenwald is excellent (as are many of his pieces), I think there is a serious and fundamental flaw in his overall approach, and there is one particular issue I intend to take him to task for in terms that may appear to be quite severe. Aw, just kidding. Actually, I'm not. Well, all will be explained in time.
My profound thanks to so many of you once again. I am deeply in your debt.
P.S. I offer my sincere apologies again to those who have written to me, and have not yet received a response. I haven't felt well enough to do much of anything (except think about and do reading for future essays when I'm up to it), and I haven't made even a dent in the accumulated email. Please bear with me; so many messages have piled up that it will take me a few weeks to go through them all. I hope to begin that tomorrow, too. My apologies once more.
posted by Arthur Silber at 2:29 PM
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