Right Wing Nut House

Note: This is the extended version of the original bleg.

First, allow me to take this opportunity to wish all my readers - left and right - a Happy New Year. I hope 2007 will be a good year for all of us - prosperous, safe, healthy, and filled with joy.

Looking over the past year and taking stock, I celebrated some achievements while coming up with some resolutions for the New Year that I’d like to share with you.

1. The number of Bloglines subscriptions to The House topped 3,500 last year. This is largely due to the fact that the folks at that excellent blog aggregator placed my site in their “Quick Pick” subscriptions for conservative blogs.

2. Several of my articles were republished at a variety of sites including RealClear Politics, Frontpage Mag, and, of course, The American Thinker.

3. I was featured in a story on the Sunday front page of the huge suburban daily here in the Chicago area, The Daily Herald.

4. Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post became one of my best friends, featuring me in his “Media Notes” column more than a dozen times.

5. Readership climbed steadily during the year, passing 80,000 per month in October. After a big decline in December, numbers are on the way back up.

6. My Ecosphere ranking is a joke. I used to put a lot of stock in NZ Bear’s system but when one of my post’s garners more than 30 links and I get credit in his system for only 7, something is screwed up. Be that as it may, I haven’t gone down much and have been as high as the low 200’s.

7. I had several high profile media exposures including an appearance on C-Span’s Sunday Morning’s Washington Journal as well as an appearance on the CBC with Craig Crawford to talk about Jack Bauer. I was also a guest on the nationally syndicated Michael Reagan show and Rush Limbaugh read a couple of my articles from The American Thinker on his program.

Now for my resolutions.

1. This is a make or break year for me as far as writing is concerned. If there isn’t a dramatic change in my fortunes by next fall, I’ve told Zsu Zsu that I’ll quit the blog and my other projects and go back to the 9-5 grind - hopefully someplace where I can still write a little. My dearest has sacrificed a lot to help me pursue this dream and I consider it unfair to her to ask her to continue to bear the burden of supporting us. My part time job is bringing in enough to cover our food and incidentals every week but it is her paycheck that pays the rent and the bills. Our savings are also dwindling and since neither of us are spring chickens, those dollars that are drawn down every quarter or so are going to be harder to recover over the years we have left before we’re both turned out to pasture.

In order to maximize my chances, I’ve decided quite simply that I have to write more. You, my dear friends, will be the beneficiary of this resolution in that I will branch out from my rather narrow focus of politics and foreign policy and delve more into some issues that are important to all of us; homeland security, immigration reform, health care, and a few other issues I have neglected since I started writing this blog.

I will also closely monitor the various investigations that will be initiated by Democrats over the coming months. If you’re a Republican and a conservative, I can guarantee you are not going to like what you hear about Iraq reconstruction, Katrina contracts, and other issues that will come before the various House and Senate committees. I will try my best to cut through the spin and the headlines and get to the real issues that are important in these investigations. But I can assure you, from what’s already been released from trials held here in the US regarding Iraq reconstruction, there will be some shocking developments to report on.

I will also try to write more about ethics. My articles about Terry Schiavo as well as other social issues seems to bring out the best (and worst) in my commenters as well as giving me a chance to think deeply about things that really matter.

And finally, in about a week I’m going to restart my radio program on WAR Radio. The 2nd generation software has been installed and I’ve got some great ideas on how the show will proceed; more interviews with newsmakers, important bloggers, and some authors as well as some lighter stuff I hope you’ll enjoy.

Now to the purpose of this post - my bi-annual request for funds.

I realize that many of you generously gave when I had the “Bleg Blitz” last September - a 12 hour fund raising effort that solved an emergency need for cash when Sue’s granddaughter was born and she had to leave work to take care of her daughter in law for 10 days. For those who opened their wallets back then, I would like to again say “thank you” and please do not feel obligated to donate again.

This bleg will be more traditional. I have placed two buttons below; one connects to Amazon.com and the other to Paypal. Any amount you can give will be greatly appreciated.

I have written before of our rather modest lifestyle so your contribution will go largely to easing our monthly distress of stretching our dollars to make ends meet. If I ever get enough ahead, I plan on redesigning the blog - but so far, that just hasn’t been in the cards.

So if you like what you read here - or if I challenge your assumptions, pique your curiosity, raise your blood pressure, or make you giggle a little - I would be forever grateful of you were to contribute.

Thank you.

Rick Moran
Proprietor