Moon of Alabama took off as a blog when Bilmon shut down the comments on his blog the Whiskey Bar, and a number of his regular posters came over to a new blog dedicated to providing a space for commenters.  Bernhard's own posts provided rare insight and inspired responding commentary that made Moon of Alabama unique, and which continued after the Whiskey Bar closed down.  

It needs be mentioned that according to Bernhard, the dust-ups in the recent Iran election threads were not drivers of his decision to close down the blog and were in fact irrelevant to it.  (Really, does ANYBODY, inside Iran or out, know what is going on there?  Which is not to say that US designs on the country are not perfectly clear!--Gaianne)  

On the other hand, many commentors have in retrospect noted how clear, correct, timely, and exceptional was Bernard's coverage and analysis of last August's Georgian War, at a time when most of the internet--including Left Blogistan--seemed at best slow and confused.  But the Georgian War coverage, though exemplary, was not the only example of incisive thinking, which has been applied equally to a wide range of world events.  

But that, and the the community that formed around it, is now coming to an end.  New venues are being discussed and sought.  Perhaps, and more probably, the archives may be saved.  The loss that the end of this internet site represents is obvious, but the good and caring work that was done there is not forgotten.  

--Gaianne

UPDATE: As of today, Thursday, 2 July MOA is still up, but about noon the comments threads was closed to new comments. --Gaianne