I think that was about right – though as I understand it he also wanted to spend more time with his family and there was a vague suggestion in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s tribute article that his career wasn’t being helped by his blogging activities.

I did see him pop up in the comments at Glenn Greenwald’s column a month or so ago, just saying “I don’t like to say I told you so, but I told you so” (on a post about the Democrats once again caving in on something or other).

Billmon was the best of all.

I’d nominate something like “If It Quacks Like a Duck” or “The Flight Forward” or perhaps the one where he called the inhabitants of Little Green Footballs “semen stained genocide freaks”…

OH HELL YES

(I also like the story of six—about the renewal of the numbers—but it’s not so politically relevant, and I can’t find it.)

If I had to pick one classic by Slacktivist, I’d go with Reagan’s Bind.

Vote Jim.

So, instead, I’ll just ask if ANYBODY has archived Billmon? Because honestly, he’d walk away with all of these. I mean, digby’s awesome, but c’mon.

Well, almost all. Not the best post, though. The best post is right here. It was Jim Capozzola’s first piece on the media’s “alpha girls and beta girls” structure; how they act like a pack of teenage girls, obsessed over who is and isn’t “cool”. It laid down the real reason why Gore was savaged so severely, and why they gave the benefit of the doubt to Dubya. It’s also why Krugman caught so much flack; because he has a day job and doesn’t really care about whether or not the media think he’s cool, it’s the sort of “gamma girl” that drives the alphas absolutely crazy.

It is STILL relevant today, five years after it was written. It is about the single most important topic to most bloggers: the serious failings of the mass media. Nominating it would be a testament to a man who died needlessly this year for reasons that have everything to do with why any of us bother with this sort of nonsense. It has thoroughly informed discussion of the media subsequent to it. It’s also funny as hell, like most of Jim’s work.

So, yeah, the best post ever was “AL GORE AND THE ALPHA GIRLS: The Enduring Power of Cliques in a Post-High-School World”, by James Capozzola. Damn but do I miss him.

i can’t come up with any individual posts right off hand, but i remember thinking back when he and fafblog were posting, that the two of them were head and shoulders above the rest of the writers on the web.

only digby nowadays rivals billmon at his best—and that is very high praise.