Sullivan's departure & Postrel's comments

As everyone in blogland knows by now, Andrew Sullivan is pulling down his shingle. I didn't read much of what he had to say, not because I didn't like the content, but because I am always looking for sources that will add weight to my arguments. Sullivan is one of the intellectual giants at work today, but his moral compass and mine do not point in the same direction.

Anyway, Virginia Postrel makes an escellent point.

Even the few brilliant scholars (Tyler Cowen, Eugene Volokh, Grant McCracken) who make blogging seem like it should foster serious thought limit their posting to topics they want to mull over in public. Current-affairs blogging of the Sullivan/Instapundit/name your favorite type is inherently quick, dirty, and disposable. It may add to the public discourse, but it doesn't tend to deepen the blogger's own thinking. That, plus sheer laziness, is why this blog has never promised more than a few posts a week, and why I've given up my think-magazine-editor instincts to voice an opinion on everything. For a full-blown argument, I want to write something for a sizable audience and get paid. And I don't really want to post half-baked ones.

"...quick, dirty and disposable." She nailed that one right on the head.
For all it's wonder, the internet is about ten times as bad as television when it comes to sound-bite traffic. Looking for meaningful content is like finding substance in the Congresssional Record.