Farewell to a friend

[Long Run]

Lord Jim passed away this weekend, presumably due to the serious medical issues he had dealt with the last 8 months. For some of us, our relationship with Jim in this format goes back 20 years or so, and Jim could count many of us friends. He will be missed for his quality of thinking and writing, his usual good humor, and his love of debate and willingness to point out lazy or specious posts. It is a sad day for this forum, and hard to imagine it without his prolific and interesting posts. Thanks Jim for making this a better place. You will be missed.

[dales]

Let me add a hearty AMEN to that!

[Scooter]

Jim and I rarely agreed on much of anything, but he was always decent in the way he went about putting forth his point of view and responding to yours. But all I can think about is that he has half-grown children who have to face life without their dad.

[Bicycle Bill]

I'll reluctantly accept this, but some documentation (like a link to an obit or a funeral home memorial page) might be in order if for no other reason than the fact that some of us might like to cyber-sign the memorial book as a friend/acquaintance of the man.

Farewell, LJ.

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.  Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

-"BB"-

[Darren]

Lord Jim passed away this weekend, presumably due to the serious medical issues he had dealt with the last 8 months. For some of us, our relationship with Jim in this format goes back 20 years or so, and Jim could count many of us friends. He will be missed for his quality of thinking and writing, his usual good humor, and his love of debate and willingness to point out lazy or specious posts. It is a sad day for this forum, and hard to imagine it without his prolific and interesting posts. Thanks Jim for making this a better place. You will be missed.

I met LJ at a soiree arranged by Guinevere when he still lived in VA. He, BobB and I spent some time off to the side talking. He was someone I was glad to have met. He was a Southern gentleman.

I'm sorry to read he's gone on to the next adventure. He will be missed.

[wesw]

l0rd jesus.

I am s0 s0rry.

Jim was 0ne 0f my fav0rite pe0ple here.

he 0ften disagreed with what I said but he defended, t0 his death, my right t0 say it.

I ll miss him

dammit

[Crackpot]

Many have said it better than I could.

He will be missed.

BB I have been searching for an obit / death notice as well I will post if I find one. I too would like to send a card flowers make a donation or something.

Fuck I miss his posts already

[ex-khobar Andy]

That is truly sad news. He was prolific, reasonable, funny and perceptive. The names above me here in this thread probably never shared a common thought before and may never do again - and that's a testament to the man.

[RayThom]

This is very sad news.

There's an inevitability about death, no escaping it. We get older, we face degrees of adversity -- both mental and physical -- and we work past it, and hope to gain the strength to go a little bit further than the next guy. I never thought I'd be reading about LJ's death.

Damn, I loved the way he could write.

There will be an emptiness in this forum that will echo for years to come.

Rest in peace, Jim

[Long Run]

The best practice is to keep any personally identifying information/links off the public forum, and instead should be shared by PM or email/FB etc. Even after passing, he and we all should continue to have as much anonymity as we wish to provide for ourselves. That's my view, at least.

[Guinevere]

My heart breaks for his kids and the rest of his family, and I am shocked, sad, and bereft. This place will never be the same.

Jim and I came at politics differently, but still saw the world in a similar way. Meeting him in person several times was my great privilege.

If anyone comes across an obituary or has information on where to send a card, please PM me.

[eddieq]

This is very heartbreaking. I was not as active as I once was but always enjoyed reading LJ’s posts even when I disagreed with him.

I will say a prayer for his family. I don’t know his real name but He does.

RIP my friend.

[Bicycle Bill]

My heart breaks for his kids and the rest of his family, and I am shocked, sad, and bereft. This place will never be the same.

Jim and I came at politics differently, but still saw the world in a similar way. Meeting him in person several times was my great privilege.

If anyone comes across an obituary or has information on where to send a card, please PM me.

Ditto.

-"BB"-

[BoSoxGal]

I'm bereft. The last time we exchanged emails over his absence he definitely minimized the seriousness of his health issues.

[RayThom]

I'm bereft. The last time we exchanged emails over his absence he definitely minimized the seriousness of his health issues.

LJ did say he had LVT -- two episodes that he mentioned. Once that was established I knew he was in for a bumpy ride. Sadly, is was an unexpectedly short one. I thought for sure he was destine to outlast me.

You never know.

[BoSoxGal]

He'd apparently been battling cancer for months, with a not terribly positive prognosis - although he’d been determined to be an outlier. The DVT was a mere side effect.

I’m shell shocked and struggling; Jim and I emailed many times off the board, starting years ago when we’d had a huge row and he’d reached out by PM to smooth things over. I wouldn’t say we were close but I respected him and he made clear to me he valued my being here and in the world.

I am just now realizing the person I thought he was from this place and those communications is not who he actually was entirely - no negativity or sullying, the essence was true but many details perhaps not so much.

It’s just a wake up call that many of us have no real clue about one another’s IRL reality. & I’m terribly naive about taking my online friends at face value.

RIP, Jim.

[liberty]

I liked lord Jim. We agreed on many things especially Ronald Reagan. And, he never was ashamed of being a Southerner, not that I can recall. He was a man of honor that possessed a high degree of fairness in his dealing with others. I think this place perhaps with his passing has become a little more unreasonable.

[RayThom]

... I think this place perhaps with his passing has become a little more unreasonable.

Well, if one man's passing is going to make you feel even more awkward than usual, at least you know you have a choice -- should you stay, or should you go?

I'm sure you'll figure it out.

[liberty]

Does it bother you that I post here? I don’t think I feel awkward here at least not any more than anywhere else. The degree to which I post depends on how interested I am and here lately have not been very interested in anything. But as long as I post here you depend on me telling the truth as I see it. The only fault I could see in Lord Jim was that he was so patriotic he could not see the US losing a war to a materially inferior nation such as Russia, but we could.

[Gob]

This is not the thread to have personal spats, leave it out or I will delete you posts.

This is thee worse and saddest news I have had in a long while.

I never met the man, and didn't agree with some of his politics, but we spoke on more than one occasion on the phone*, which confirmed my impression that he was a genuine and decent man.

I'll miss him a lot here.

He presented a case for Republicanism, which gave lie to the stereotype of the party.

RIP Jim, I was honoured to have you as a friend.


* He found my accent very amusing, I found his equally so.