Camp fires

My friend Kari Huus reports in on the latest Aryan Congress in northern Idaho:

Aryan Nations plots a comeback at Idaho campout

As other reports have suggested, the white-supremacist movement is largely in disarray, for which we can all be thankful.

I particularly noted this quote, near the end:

"My impression is that people of Coeur d’Alene don’t like Aryan Nations because it is a fringe group and because it was bad for business," said one Idaho lawyer who asked not to be named. "It bothered me that they didn’t seem as disgusted by what (the racist groups) were saying."

A telling point, and one worth making: Even still, there is far too much excuse-making, rationalization and easy dismissal of white supremacists from all sectors of society, including local sentiments in places where they set up shop.

In the meantime, I could have sworn that was Richard Butler under that hood in O Brother, Where Art Thou? singing, "O death, won't you spare me over till another year..."

To infinity and beyond

Stuart Turner writes in to point out that Orcinus just surpassed the 100,000 visits mark. I have to admit that I don't pay close attention to these things, though I do enjoy cruising through the "Referrals" a great deal. I'm a bit disconnected from the traffic counts, which I gather is kind of a form of idiocy in the blogosphere.

In any case, reaching this benchmark in the five months that Site Meter has been counting (just as an indicator of how clueless I am, I neglected to add any kind of counter for the first month or so that I was blogging) is worth noting, if for no other reason to say THANK YOU to all those visitors who tallied up all those hits. Your interest in Orcinus is deeply appreciated, and I hope to keep it interesting in the months ahead.

Of course, as many of you have probably noted, I'm fully in my previously announced "light blogging" phase. My primary focus right now is working on Death on the Fourth of July (look for an announcement soon) which means only the occasional post for the next two months. I have been applying the finishing touches to the "Rush, Newspeak and Fascism" essay (it came in at 40,000 words and 100 pages) and will have the PDF file to you sometime next week (I hope).

In the meantime, I also want to say THANKS to the many bloggers who've driven so much traffic my way, and are primarily responsible for whatever success the blog enjoys. One of the drawbacks to being so ignorant about protocols in the blogosphere is that I'm sure I overlook the mutual linking that helps create a blog community, and often unintentionally ignore my many benefactors.

In particular, I owe a great debt to Atrios at Eschaton, whose many links over these past months are responsible for the lion's share of those hits; Avedon Carol at Sideshow, Jeralyn Merritt at TalkLeft, Eric Muller at Is That Legal?, Patrick Nielsen Hayden at Electrolite, and Eric Alterman at Altercation. I also owe a great many thanks to Jennifer at Media Whores Online.

I'm hoping the next 100,000 come away as entertained and informed.