But the "why" is interesting - he seems to get very annoyed when people disagree with him. And there have been times when he made clear errors, but seemed bothered when folks caught him on it. Look: Everyone makes errors, and if you are going to say something controversial, you have to expect some are going to disagree. If someone responds, on topic and without being insulting, it is a GOOD thing because it shows people are interested and take it seriously enough to converse.

Yes and no. I agree with you with regards to commenters pointing out errors, on topic and without being insulting -- that's positive feedback, and one should welcome that.

My read on his reasoning is not that he's getting overwhelmed and/or offended by positive feedback, but by the negative feedback -- which for him apparently includes not just the usual cranks and partisans, but also nitpickers who waste his time arguing the minutiae and those who continue to argue the same points like a broken record.

I can sympathize -- it's not reasoned discussion or refutation of whatever point I might be making that irritates me to the point of wanting to close up shop (on the contrary, I wish there were more of that going on here), it's the occasional jackass who comes here and lobs insults and abuse in lieu of arguments. While I say I can sympathize with SDB because of this, I can only guess at how irritating it must be to have hundreds of people doing that every day.

That said, I have to wonder why he doesn't simply turn off his email address, and write whatever he likes.