HEADED FOR BLOGGING RETIREMENT
I had given up writing this altogether for almost a month, when a couple of people recently mentioned to me that they still visit it. So I thought I should put up an explanation.

Blogging is harder than it looks, for several reasons:

1) I often write things that I'm ashamed of later.

It's hard to think aloud amidst the flux of events, to be eloquent and yet not let passion carry you to extremes that you soon become ashamed of, to keep things in perspective. I really admire guys like Andrew Sullivan who keep it up for years.

It's interesting: I often feel ashamed to remember things I've written, but when I go back and read them they're mostly all right. Even the frenzied post I wrote after Abu Ghraib, though it makes tough reading (scroll down till you see lots of capital letters shouting: "IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF SADDAM HUSSEIN WERE STILL IN POWER"), I don't regret. But to know that anyone can read these kinds of thoughts makes me feel... well, vulnerable. Anyway, the blog has this strange way of being quite untrue to my real personality. I don't know why that is.

2. Time commitment

I'm looking for a job these days and can't afford the time. A blog is an investment: you gradually accumulate readers, people get in the habit of coming to you, it takes months or years, I suppose. At this point in my life, I can't afford that.

3. Improving my writing.

Blog posts should be short, links should be abundant. But looking around for good links is time-consuming, and requires the humility to know that people don't necessarily want to read you. I know this: but I always want to write long posts anyway.