Adieu (au revoir?) Bernhard and Moon of Alabama

I was so busy babysitting my grand-daughter and doing other family business last week that I completely missed the sad announcement from the German blogger Bernhard that after five years of often unequaled commentary he is shutting down his blog Moon of Alabama.
B had told us a short while back that he was considering this move which, he said, he is making for mainly financial reasons. But he is doing one last favor for readers. He has made up a three-CD set of the entire archive of both MoA and its linked precursor blog Whiskey Bar.
You can find out how to get one of these, here.
B was always a completely clear-eyed observer of the tragi-criminal policies the Bush administration pursued in the Middle East and far beyond. He displayed a sure grasp of global Realpolitik. For example, the work he did analyzing the crisis of supply lines that the US military has been suffering in Afghanistan, and the fact that this would inevitably lead to increasing US reliance on Russia, was cutting-edge stuff, certainly in the English-language media. (Try doing a “Google site search” on his site for the keyword Tajikistan, and you’ll see what I mean.)
He was also really good at skewering the pretensions of– and rigorously questioning the methodology and objectivity of– US-based “human rights” organizations when this needed doing. E.g., in his coverage of the way Human Rights Watch used quite unacceptable methodology to accuse Russia of having used cluster bombs in the recent Ossetia war.
Plus, he had a great grasp of international economics and its effects on global balances…
What can I say?
I told B in a recent email that he is one of my “blogging super-heroes.” He still is. Maybe he’ll come back to the blogosphere in some way in the future.
But I also told him that even blogging super-heroes need to have a life, and to take of their own needs, financial, emotional, or whatever.
So the very best to you, B, in whatever you now turn your attentions to. And the moment you come onto the WWW in any form, if I’m still around be sure to let me know!
And now, I need to go and buy one of his CD sets…