23 responses so far ↓

• 1 Adam // Aug 24, 2007 at 6:32 pm

  Seriously? I rather liked the animal rights posts.

• 2 sangfroid826 // Aug 24, 2007 at 7:18 pm

  I’ll second that. In fact, I was just passing off the “animals have some moral claims, but not rising to the level of rights” bit as my own last night.

• 3 fischer // Aug 24, 2007 at 11:37 pm

  I hope you keep blogging. I check in several times a day.

• 4 Julian Elson // Aug 25, 2007 at 6:38 am

  So you feel that the libertarian AR discussion was somehow fruitless, or you feel burned or disillusioned by it?

  I’m curious about why. I could understand if the discussion had dissolved into acrimony or mutual incomprehension, but that didn’t seem to be how things went, at least to me. What is it about this discussion that you found so frustrating?

• 5 AemJeff // Aug 25, 2007 at 3:23 pm

  Jeeze. You’re not old enough to be that jaded. You have a singular voice and a perch from which at least a few people are willing to listen. This blog seems more or less immune to most the acrimonious BS that plagues most of the politically vocal parts of the ‘sphere. You might not get Atrios’s traffic; (and it’s obvious that’s not what you mean) but, I think you have a privileged spot here. I, for one, am slightly jealous.

• 6 Laure // Aug 25, 2007 at 3:28 pm

  My mom and I think you should reconsider.

• 7 A Yalie // Aug 25, 2007 at 5:25 pm

  This blog is one of my favorites. I really hope you change your mind.

• 8 Cain // Aug 25, 2007 at 7:47 pm

  Vlogging counts as a different medium, right? Right?

• 9 Anonymo // Aug 25, 2007 at 8:42 pm

  Seriously, what they said. I hope you only mean in the context of those kinds of debates, because I and many others really enjoy this blog on a daily basis.

• 10 mtc // Aug 26, 2007 at 2:44 am

  Julian–as opposed to what other medium, exactly? A magazine article or newspaper op-ed that is limited in its length and doesn’t allow for any kind of conversation? Television? Radio? Half-sloshed ramblings at a cocktail party? Way I see it, the only medium where one can consistently say more worth saying would be a full length book. Which is all well and good, but if we had to read full length books just to follow every debate on every topic, the end result would be no one giving a shit about anything.

• 11 Adam // Aug 26, 2007 at 9:10 am

  I hope that you do continue with this blog. It is one of my favorites because of the original ideas and wonderful writing. Perhaps you could just take a sabbatical a la Andrew Sullivan? (he’s on one right now while he gets hitched).

  It would be a shame to lose your voice in the blogosphere.

• 12 Daniel // Aug 26, 2007 at 7:55 pm

  mtc,

  Given Julian’s background as a philosophy major, I’d be a bit surprised if he wasn’t thinking of something like journal articles as an alternative, shorter-than-book-length medium in which arguments about topics like the moral status of nonhuman animals can be developed in far more detail than they can in blog posts.

  However, if Julian thinks that the existence of academic journals makes blogging about philosophical topics pointless, he apparently disagrees with quite a lot of philosophers–there are a number blogs run by philosophy professors where arguments that for whatever reason are not suitable for publication are presented as blog posts; lots of people with ample opportunity to publish articles in philosophy journals find it worthwhile to blog about philosophy too.

  I, for one, hope that Julian keeps posting. Whatever he thinks about the value of his blogging, it seems like a lot of people, myself included, think they’re getting something out of it.

• 13 Swimmy // Aug 26, 2007 at 11:41 pm

  I’ve enjoyed your and Megan’s posts on animal rights, but if you think they’re just confusing the issue, fair enough. But always remember, blog commentators should not be part of the picture. Yes, we humble denizens who post comments on your blog: we are not worth listening to at all. We soil the posts of more talented people daily with our idiotic distortions. Really, comments should be striken from the blog format entirely, and if that’s influencing your decision at all, you should think again.

  (Disclaimer: Some blog comments are worse than others. Your commentators are much better than Megan’s, who are now essentially a forceful and willfully idiotic hate group. But still.)

• 14 Julian Sanchez // Aug 26, 2007 at 11:50 pm

  Thanks for all the kind words folks. But I’m increasingly pretty sure that spending a significant portion of my day reading, writing, and ultimately thinking in hastily assembled 500-word bursts is not especially salutary. This isn’t permanent, though. When I’m properly detoxed (debloxed?) in a couple months, I expect I’ll return, albeit at a lower rate of output.

• 15 Jadagul // Aug 27, 2007 at 6:24 pm

  Please do, Julian. This is probably my favorite long-form-essay blog out there (by which I mean that you and Marginal Revolution are doing fundamentally different things). I’d hate to lose you.

• 16 Greg N. // Aug 28, 2007 at 6:57 am

  You guys are selfish. Stay gone, brother, if that’s what you want. If so, I say you go the extra mile and delete the whole thing.

• 17 thoreau // Aug 28, 2007 at 8:46 am

  Julian,

  If you’re worn out on animal rights talk then we should send you something to lift your spirits. Maybe foie gras, or a gift card for a restaurant with good veal parmesan.

  🙂

• 18 matthew hogan // Aug 28, 2007 at 11:08 am

  Could you blog on what it’s like not to be blogging?

• 19 Emma Zahn // Aug 28, 2007 at 12:28 pm

  Was it something I said?

  Seriously, on the animal rights issue, dogs, especially working dogs, should be granted a unique status as long-time companions and helpers of humans beings. They helped us survive. We should respect that.

  For the record, I don’t keep a dog mainly because I don’t live in an environment that would be suitable for the working dogs that I most admire.

• 20 Jackmormon // Aug 28, 2007 at 2:05 pm

  Blog exactly as much or as little you feel like, Julian. At least, until someone starts paying you, that is…

• 21 matthew hogan // Aug 28, 2007 at 6:09 pm

  Come on, do a little, say, just until you need glasses.

• 22 Adam Durand // Aug 30, 2007 at 2:10 pm

  How about some animal rights vlogging then?

• 23 rea // Sep 13, 2007 at 11:09 am

  As somebodyu who disagrees with you about nearly everything, but admires your integrity, I hope you can bring yourself to return to this difficlt medum in the not-too-distant future . . .