Support your local orca

I've now compiled and edited "The Rise of Pseudo Fascism" -- my seven-part essay that ran from September to November of last year, and which recently won a 2004 Koufax Award for Best Series -- into a single document available on PDF.

This version has been edited somewhat, particularly in Part 7, to reflect the exigencies of the post-election environment, as I was writing it just as the election was about to take place. I've also added a brief, two-page Introduction.

You can obtain it by clicking here or on the link in the upper left-hand corner of the blog, right under the shot of the orca. I've also attached, underneath that, a PayPal button.

This is, you see, my sorta annual fund-raiser. I don't like holding out a tin cup, but I am happy to ask people to pitch in to support my work if I can offer them something in exchange. So download the PDF to your heart's content, and if you like what you read, pitch $5 -- or whatever you like -- into the kitty.

I promise not to head for the sticks like, ahem, certain bloggers we could name, a few months after this. I will keep Orcinus an ad-free environment -- not that this makes me purer or anything like that, but just because it simplifies things for me a great deal, especially from an ethical standpoint; my old-fashioned newsroom church-state separation instinct, I'll admit, plays a role in this.

It's also important that the blog not become too entangling, or then it won't be worth it for me personally. Still, I think Orcinus has real continuing value in keeping track of some of the darker impulses at play in our current landscape, and more importantly, getting the information circulated and examined. But I have another book-writing project coming up this summer (I'll blog about it as it gets closer), with a great deal of time spent on research, so I need to see what I can do to make sure the blog pays for the quantity of my time it will be consuming.

In that sense, consider this fund-raiser a chance to support independent journalism. Think of it, if you like, as a subscription of sorts, and donate accordingly.

I'm operating largely on my own these days, and the freedom to publish material like "Pseudo Fascism" or "Rush, Newspeak and Fascism" is in the end utterly dependent on your support. I remain pretty certain I could not have published these in anything approaching a "respectable" printed publication, though I'm grateful for the support of folks like those at Cursor who continue to support my work.

All of you have my thanks just for showing up. I'm flattered and honored to get as many visitors as I do daily. I'm hoping to keep up the quality of work you've become accustomed to (though I can't promise any more Koufaxes). Do what you can to pitch in.

Many thanks to Real Genius for doing all the PDF and footnoting work.

[For those who want to donate by snail mail, my address is: P.O. Box 17872, Seattle, WA, 98107.]