At the Twilight's Last Gleaming: Farewell, farewell

January 2, 2006

Farewell, farewell

After a year and a half of blogging, it's time for me to move on to other interests.

If you have tried to run a serious issues-oriented blog, you will probably agree that it takes a lot of work (mostly in the form of time investment) to (1) keep such a blog regularly updated, and (2) develop and maintain a reader base. For me, it's far too much time spent on what is essentially a hobby. Some higher-priority areas of my life are pulling me away from this hobby, and I do so without regret.

For those of you who know me in various other web sites and e-mail lists, I'm happy to say that I'll continue to haunt those places; it's easier to drop in and drop out as circumstances warrant.

Thanks to those who helped to push this blog to just over 30,000 page loads...especially to those who actually took time to read what I wrote! Some even had the nerve to comment constructively.

I'll leave the comments feature open for maybe another month, and then I'll make a decision about what to do with the site.

Have a great 2006!

8 Aug 2006 UPDATE: While I do not intend to post any more to this blog, I am frequently updating my "Readworthy" link list. FYI. FWIW. And all that.

2 comments:

Ray said...: Well, I'm sad to see you go, bro. You were at the top of my favorites list. I agree it's a lot of work to run a serious issues-oriented blog; I don't know how some people do it. I've taken the lighter approach, posting about the family and all, and still feel guilty if I let it lay fallow for a week or so. It's just a fun diversion. And the potential for free deodorant keeps me going (I still get hits from Unilever). You take it seriously and it shows.

Happy trails and I'll see you in those other stomping grounds.; 1/03/2006 6:41 PM
Dale Courtney said...: Tim,

Sorry to see you go. But you are right: blogging is *very* time consuming.

Please swing by my way once in a while.

pax,
Dale; 1/16/2006 7:27 PM

What Happened to C-Pol?

For over a decade, this blog was called "C-POL: Constitutionalist, Conservative Politics". Over time, my deep-thought ponderings have been moving away from the rough-and-tumble of everyday political wrangling and toward the larger philosophical, ideological, and cultural currents of our age.

I've changed the title of the blog to highlight my conviction that the "fundamental transformation" (to adapt President Obama's phrase) of the United States that's currently underway is, in the long run, bad not only for this country but for the world in general.

Scoff if you must; I'm okay with that. I aim to make my case as time goes on. I'm okay with being on the "wrong side of history" if I'm actually right.

Why our country is where it is

As I have traveled across the country, I have been astounded just how many of our fellow citizens feel strongly about their constitutional rights but have no idea what they are, or for that matter, what the Constitution says. I am not suggesting that they become Constitutional scholars -- whatever that means. I am suggesting, however, that if one feels strongly about his or her rights, it does make sense to know generally what the Constitution says about them. It is at least as easy to understand as a cell phone contract -- and vastly more important.

-- Clarence Thomas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, October 16, 2008 speech

The U.S. is not a democracy!

Q. If we are not a democracy, why are our officials elected by a majority of the people, and why are our laws passed by a majority of the lawmakers?

A. We are not a democracy because both the people and the lawmakers are limited by the fundamental law of the land, our written Constitution. Election by the people is not a grant of power beyond the constitutional limits of the office. A representative government limited by law is a republic, not a democracy. In a republic a majority of the people cannot vote away their own rights, or the rights of others -- unless ... unless they step outside the Constitution.

-- Preserve The Constitution, By Don Fotheringham (October, 1995)

The Cancer of Democracy

Bread and Circuses is the cancer of democracy, the fatal disease for which there is no cure. Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader--the barbarians enter Rome.

— Lazarus Long, in Robert Heinlein's To Sail Beyond the Sunset

At the Twilight's Last Gleaming

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C-Poll

January 2, 2006

Farewell, farewell

2 comments: