Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Ashbrook Center

The End

We started NLT in October of 2001.  I thought it was a good idea, as did many of you even back then.  In fact, in my typical bragadoccio mode I warned Jonah Goldberg a few months later that we would put NRO out of business.  I'm glad we didn't do that, of course.  But I am happy that we had a good run at things.  In fact, I am proud of our effort and I want to thank our fine authors.  Thank you very much!  As you know we were one of the few serious blogs where no one was paid for writing, and yet our authors wrote and wrote, plus there were some very good conversations with readers.  Thanks to all of you for that.

Over a decade of writing isn't bad. It's an accomplishment we can be proud of.  I know all our words at NLT were not birds in flight, some were, inevitably, potatoes.  But all of it was thoughtful, sometimes full of flair and ardor, sometimes full of deep learning, almost always revealing a liveliness of mind found only at a few other blogs.  I am grateful to all the bloggers  for their work.  I have learned much.  We have taught one another much.  We acted like citizens.

We will archive it all, and it will be accessible from our new Ashbrook site that will go up in three or four weeks.  It will be a fine site.  I hope you will like it.

I don't have to get too soft and weepy with y'all for you to know that I am--as is everyone at the Ashbrook Center--very grateful that we had this opportunity and that it lasted so long.  God Bless.

Our bloggers can be found at other places, including Postmodern ConservativeLiberty Law, and Power Line.

Categories > Ashbrook Center

Discussions - 32 Comments

Too bad, although this blog last much longer than The Remedy, so congratulations on a long and successful run. Look forward to your new site, which I hope does not have Captcha!

Too bad - I will be sorry to see you go.

I've loved the time I've spent writing for and reading NLT. It was a great and characteristically generous thing you did, Mr. Schramm.

Yes, NLT has been lovely; often a great good time.

Thank you!

Dr. Schramm: I suppose I saw this coming. Blogs of incredibly high quality are yet responsive down to the minute, and their responsiveness is only getting faster. Such is the genuine blessing and the genuine curse of where we stand nowadays... All I have to say is: thank you.

Thank you, Sir, for dragging me - kicking and screaming - into the brilliant and beautiful sunlight of the day! You probably will never know how much it really meant to me. There will be, until my passing days, a peacefulness about my hungry soul that owes a part of its current satisfaction to you.

Thank you so, so much. If God is Truth, then I hope you may rest assured that you steered many young human beings in His direction.

So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ...

1 Peter 2:1-25

God Bless All.

Cowgirl

As I was saying to you the other day, I think I learned more writing, arguing, thinking and conversing here than I did in most of my graduate seminars. It has been a blessing in my life and I thank you for it. I will miss it.

Dear NLTers,

Things come and go, they have their time, and then it's time to move on. This is even more so in the worlds of publishing and internet. So an understandable decision, but a little sad.

For a few years of my life, around 2006-2009, not a few of you were my near-daily internet buddies in the comments section--I enjoyed it immensely, especially as someone who was having to move every couple of years. Probably I should have been going more often to my local bar, church-group, and what-not instead, but the folks there were less interesting than y'all, truth be told.

Best Wishes,

Carl

P.S. I did get to meet Kate once--just as nice and insightful as all her comments would lead you to expect.

P.P.S. Stop by Postmodern Conservative every now and then!

I will suffer from Treppenwitz--thinking what he should have said after he has stepped away from a party put on by an incomparable host.

(But if it wasn't done for profit, what's the reason for calling it quits now? Surely the expense of it was pretty minimal...)

There is an election coming up, after all... Isn't anyone - especially all of the conservative readers and commenters who lived by the concept of "No Left Turns" - wanting some kind of reason for this?

Thank you, all.

To my fellow writers and, especially, our wonderful commenters, I can't express my gratitude for the years we've spent together. It's odd to feel such warmth and affection for folks one has (in most cases) never met, but we've shared so much that I feel that we know one another well. I've read every word you've written and always been bettered for the reading. You were truly exceptional.

I may write elsewhere in time, but NLT is an irreplacable experience. I would welcome the opportunity to stay in touch with you. Facebook, [email protected], smoke signals, carrier pigeons - I hope to cross paths with you all again.

Thank you, all.

A parting verse from my favorite play ~

Forever, and forever, farewell, Cassius!
If we do meet again, why, we shall smile;
If not, why then this parting was well made.

I agree, there is easily a masters degree worth of value in the posts. I enjoyed reading relatively original essays and insights from so many contributors. Most of all I enjoyed attacking the contributions from any angle I could dream up as I read along. Everyone had a different style, but the verbal sparring was good.

Thank you.

I'm not sure I understand why you are shutting down the blog. Expense? Legal liability? I have truly appreciated this small island of sense in a world of nonsense, but I'm taken aback that you are pulling the plug.

Please, Dr. Schramm, don't shut it down. One of the few things I have enjoyed everyday over the past couple years since graduation is seeing if there is a new post on NLT.

I don't have much money to offer, but I am sure others feel the way I do, and if there is something we can do to stop this, please let me/us know.

Thank you Dr. Schramm and NLT contributors. I've enjoyed the blog very much over the years.

Thank you Dr. Schramm and all the NLT bloggers who have contributed during the last ten plus years. NLT would have made the Founders very proud. I will certainly miss coming here, and I look forward to the new site.

My theory is that Obammy sent a few of his thugs over to the Ashbrook Center to bust things up.

Ah, Hal. We only need a final contribution from REN. Goodbye and thanks for the terrific conversations and God bless you all.

best,

Pete Spiliakos

This should be like the final episode of some long-running talk show or sitcom, with guest stars popping in to say goodbye. Hey, look everyone--it's Dain! And over there--isn't that Mack Sandpaper? And who could forget Starbuck?

Again, can someone explain why this is happening?

Oh yes... good times.

From suggesting the mass deportation of Muslims in America... and having other commenters cheer it on...

https://nlt.ashbrook.org/2007/01/french-baby-boomlet.php#comment-34887

to claiming that Japan never declared war on the US

https://nlt.ashbrook.org/2009/12/on-the-terrorist-attack.php#comment-66609

It HAS been fun.

BTW, I heard that Mack Sandpaper has gone on to a fruitful career in the Tea Party!

(John Moser, those who have come, come in character. )

I am terribly sorry to hear that NLT is on its way out. For a brief period of time, I was a regular commentator, but have always been a regular visitor. Thanks to all of the bloggers, especially Professor Schramm, Lucas Morel, Joseph Knippenberg, and Justin Paulette. A visit here was always a step back into the world of clear and organized thought. I'll miss the posts, but especially the comments, including Kate, Andrew, John Lewis, and even Craig Scanlon. An excellent run, cheers!

Yes, it was grand. Fare thee well, all.

Ok, Dain, last chance to 'fess up - was that you playing "cowgirl"?

Have fun over at VDare or whatever...

Certainly NLT/Ashbrook's adoration of Glenn Beck made NLT more fun over the years... Dr. Schramm's high praise of Beck after Beck gave his Ashbrook dinner speech, and Kate's husband going to Glenn Beck's 9/12 rally in DC... And then there was silence when Beck promoted the writings of American Nazi Elizabeth Dilling!

https://nlt.ashbrook.org/2010/07/culture-war-and-liberty.php#comment-70006

Pumpkin. Stop. The people who are responsible for the blog have decided to shut it down. The last time I checked, this was still a free country (although that idea is slowly coming to a grinding halt thanks to liberalism) so they have a choice (like abortion) to shut the blog down.

Can you not have a little respect for that and stop the temper tantrum.

Let me explain to you one of the signs of mental illness. For example, the majority of the people who live in the Stupid State keeping electing the same people into office who keep raising taxes and promise big salaries and pensions to state workers. The majority of the people of the Stupid State have been doing that for years. Now the Stupid State is completely broke. Yet I bet in November the majority of the people in the Stupid State will vote for raising taxes and for democrats/liberals.

You have this disease. Stop posting here and get to your local mental hospital as soon as you can.

Regular blogging is a time consuming chore, to be sure, but as Scanlon, I'm puzzled about the timing of this announcement. The most momentous and decisive election of our lifetime is upon us, yet this is the time for those at NLT to bail??????

I think there should be a weighing of the merits and the demerits of this blog. And that should occur prior to its conclusion, and be included in the archives.

I agree with Dan. What is the explanation for ending this blog? It is more than worth saving!

I recall during the 2006 elections NLT bloggers made their predictions and they had them posted on one handy page. They were embarrassingly optimistic (probably from Rove's talk of a "permanent" Republican realignment) and way off. Suffice it to say, that was one item that was NOT archived.

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