Hilzoy, one of the greatest in the game, is stepping out.

Go well, Ms. H.: we’ll all be poorer for lacking your voice, which was always among the sharpest, clearest and brightest on every topic you chose to tackle.  I can think of few bloggers who can approach the quality of writing which seems to simply be your natural element.

I wonder, sometimes, whether Hilzoy still feels, as she did then, “…that the madness is over. There are lots of people I disagree with, and lots of things I really care about, and even some people who seem to me to have misplaced their sanity, but the country as a whole does not seem to me to be crazy any more.”  Her farewell had a tone of finality to it, so I don’t expect she’ll return to blogging, and it would be foolish to begrudge that; but I do miss her voice.