The reason why bookofjoe 1.0 ended

Hey, wait a minute - what happened to "Never complain, never explain"?

How about,

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines." - Emerson

[Scott Ryan's essay "Rand, Emerson, and 'Philosophical Detection'" at the link above is well worth reading, by the way]

Or

"The previous explanation is no longer operative."

That's what they say in Washington when they reverse themselves.

But this is Charlottesville, not Washington.

And I don't have to worry about being re-elected.

So I'll try to do better.

Let's see.

The best comment I've ever read on changing one's mind or opinion was by an 18th century English lord; I can recall neither his name nor the quotation.

I remember thinking, when I read it, that I needed to memorize it, stone-cold memorize it, so that - when confronted in the courtroom on the witness stand by a fierce cross-examination which reads into the record a statement I made under oath in another state in another case years ago, directly contradicting the statement I am making now - I could simply recite it and completely derail opposing counsel's line of attack.

But, foolish me, I didn't.

Ah, well.

Many joeheads have speculated in the "Comments" area over the past few days about why version 1.0 ended suddenly last Thursday, August 19, when it was apparently achieving critical mass at last and finally taking off.

Many more readers have emailed me directly with their thoughts.

Here is what happened August 19 to cause the events that followed.

Someone very near and dear to me was being hurt badly as a result of the remarks and comments and attitudes of others relating to the content of bookofjoe.

E.M. Forster, in "Two Cheers for Democracy (1951), wrote, "If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country."

In my case, it was a similar choice, and there wasn't even a second's hesitation on my part.

I will always choose those I love over myself.

In fact, one might even consider that a criterion for deciding whom one truly loves.

There was never any legal issue.

There was never any threat related to copyright violation.

There was never any problem with my great host, TypePad, about content, bandwidth, or anything.

In fact, TypePad never said a word about the fact that for my lousy $14.95 a month, I was exceeding my bandwidth allotment by 2,000% with the extraordinary popularity of version 1.0.

Now, I myself wouldn't bother reading bookofjoe in the new version 2.0.

Me, I like to look.

But hey, I sure like writing it.

So there you have it.