No Surprise

A couple of months ago, a lot of backstage drama exploded at South Knox Bubba's blog. He outed himself after threats from a local alt-weekly publisher and businessman, then abruptly shut down his blog with a curt good-bye. He abandoned his own creation, the Rocky Top Brigade, but assisted the survivors when they wanted to keep it going in his absence.

A lot of folks -- liberals and "progressives" especially -- were horrified by his departure, but I suspected he wouldn't stay gone. He's been blogging too long. It gets into you after a while and doesn't let go. The feeling that people listen to what you say, and want to hear what you think, the realisation that you might be making a difference, is a heady one that is hard to give up. Once you get used to speaking your mind, it's hard to stop doing it.

Sure enough, he's back. He got a guest-blogging invite from Facing South and agreed to it. He's blogging as "R.Neal" now, but is clear about who he was.

Before the year is over, he'll be regularly blogging somewhere, in some fashion. Just watch.