October 18, 2006

Mailbag

A Brooklyn reader writes in via an E-mail entitled "Why the Silence?":

Dear BD- After previously writing so much about the issue of "torture", detainee treatment, Geneva Conventions etc - why have you been so silent about the recent McCain-Warner-Graham compromise with the White House? Surely you owe your readers some comments....

The short answer is yes, most assuredly, I do (though note a brief mention of my deep unhappiness with the legislation in this recent post). The longer answer, unfortunately, is that I have less and less time to spend here. As regular readers know, I have a demanding day job that takes up at minimum around 12 hours a day. Add family time, the typical madness of New York City, and varied errands and other extra-curriculars--it's extremely hard to find more than an hour (sometimes two) a day to devote to this site--at least if I mean to get any sleep. And so I grapple with the usual tension, knowing that running a top-notch site with longer pieces that are more provocative and challenging is usually impossible (at minimum I'd think this would take 3-4 hours daily, which I don't have save occasionally on weekends), but at the same time not wanting to fold down the site because I am something of a foreign policy junkie and enjoy this outlet. In short, I'm dong the best I can to put up at least somewhat interesting content, writing usually around 11PM or so on weeknights, but please excuse lack of editing (run-on sentences, spelling errors and other nits) as well as the fact that I may not have gotten around to the topics you believe merit covering in typical 'blog-time'.

Greg, I look forward to reading your posts (and the reader comments...and following the links you provide) and am amazed you fit in all your 'regular' life duties with regular posting on this blog.

Please don't stop....in this time of crisis every well informed viewpoint on "what the hell are we going to do with this mess we have????" is important to consider, and I appreciate yours. Thanks!

Posted by: susanne at October 19, 2006 08:09 AM | Permalink to this comment

I too look forward to your postings, and think you do an escellent job given your time constraints. I don't feel you "owe" me anything. None of us is superhuman.

Posted by: AndrewBW at October 19, 2006 03:36 PM | Permalink to this comment

I third those sentiments; and don't even worry about the grammar and spelling.

Posted by: MuddyMo at October 19, 2006 08:35 PM | Permalink to this comment

I'll echo & say whilst you might not have the time one would desire, the contra side is you end up focusing on only those critical issues.
That lack of time can be a blessing in disguise, necessity being the mother of all invention & all.
As a particularly avid ready who daily checks this site for a fix of intelligent thoughtful analysis I'd say anything is better than nothing & I suspect(hope) this blog is read by the very people(albeit summarised) who can make make your very worthwhile suggestions a reality.

Posted by: Nigel at October 20, 2006 03:10 AM | Permalink to this comment