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FINAL UPDATE: 6/8
There’s still time to contribute! If you haven’t done so, please consider it. Thank you.
Somehow, I missed my friend Bob Sikes over at the sports/politics/culture blog Getting Paid to Watch, who generously linked to this piece. Sorry ‘bout that Bob. Barry Bonds made me do it.
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This is the third June in a row that I have forthrightly and without any qualms asked the readers of Right Wing Nuthouse to donate funds to this site. And it is the last time I will make such a request.
This is because by next June, I either won’t need the money or will have given up trying to write for a living.
Of course, you are not exactly donating to “this site.” You would be giving money to me, Rick Moran – someone who no doubt has made you laugh, angered you, made you think, or perhaps moved you with his writing. I make no pretense to having a corner on truth, being a superior writer, or even having any special insight. The one quality that I hope you agree I have is honesty. So here it is.
When Sue and I sat down in September of 2004 to decide whether or not I would try to make a living as a writer, we agreed that if I wasn’t contributing substantially to the household income by the end of 2007, I would give up the dream and return to the world of regular paychecks, health insurance, paid vacations, and in my case, 60 hour workweeks. To accomplish this, we recognized that we would have to live a spartan lifestyle, economize considerably, sacrifice many of the little pleasures in life we had come to take for granted, and pray that we both remained relatively healthy.
This we have done. I have made no attempt to exaggerate our financial situation in the past to elicit sympathy nor will I do so now. The money you, my gentle readers, have given us has helped enormously. It has kept our heads above water which, if nothing else, has allowed us to live with a certain peace of mind. There are many of you I’m sure who know what I’m talking about. Living paycheck to paycheck can take a toll on one’s well being as you are constantly worrying about what might happen.
The problem at this point is simple; events and circumstances have occurred over the last few months that have made it imperative that this particular request for donations succeed well beyond what we have been fortunate enough to receive in the past. Several unforeseen and unwelcome expenses have cropped up over the last few months that has us drowning in red ink.
Now we are in no danger of being evicted or filing for bankruptcy. Nor is the repo guy going to show up anytime soon. Creditors are always willing to work with you if you talk with them and let them know that you fully intend to pay what you owe. But the fact is, I made another promise to my Zsu Zsu when she so selflessly agreed to be the primary breadwinner in the house; that if we ever started to live the way we are living now, I would give it up and go back to what I had been doing previously.
So that’s where we are at the moment – totally and completely dependent on you, my friends, enemies, readers, lurkers, fellow bloggers and all the rest to help keep my hopes alive. I do love writing so. And I would hate to give it up without being able to tell myself I did everything I could – including asking for donations from strangers – to keep doing what I have discovered to be a boundless passion so late in life. Especially since in the last month, I have finally begun to sell some of my writing. It’s not much yet. But the promise of more is there.
If you have donated in the past, please consider doing so again.
If you haven’t, please give serious consideration to donating this time.
If you are a blogger, please consider linking to this post and sending some of your readers this way. I’ll be glad to give you a hat tip in an update with a link back.
For your convenience, I have included both an Amazon donation button and a Paypal button below.
No matter how this turns out, I want to thank you for your emails and comments. They have sometimes stopped and made me think. And for that, I am grateful.
UPDATE: 6/4
Sunday’s take exceeded my most optimistic expectations. We’ll see what happens today.
And a great big hat tip to a long, long time supporter of this site Tom over at Hamstermotor. If you’re hungry, he has the recipe for The One True Sandwich.
WELCOME INSTAPUNDIT READERS! Many thanks, Glenn.
AHOY CAPTAINS QUARTERS READERS! Thanks for the kind words, Ed.
HELLO TO ALL MY GOOD FRIENDS AT AMERICAN THINKER! Tom Lifson’s support is, as always, most appreciated.
GREETINGS WIZBANG READERS! I’m a huge fan of Kim Priestap’s writing over there. You should be too. Thanks, Kim.
My old friend Wonder Woman at her new blog The Lassoo of Truth has some kind words. Hooray for the Justice League! (Gentlemen, your attention please.)
Some of my Blog Talk Radio buds link here from American Pundit. Thanks guys!
The whimsically named blog This Ain’t Hell But You Can See It From Here links here. Didn’t know I was a blog faddah. Thanks a million, John.
Mike at Lamplighter throws us a link. He says he has a “little blog.” I can guarantee you Mike, with stories like this - about a scam affecting the wives of our soldiers overseas – you won’t remain little for long.
Hoody at Nothing blog – long time reader – shoots and scores us a link. Agree with your “archetype” theory about teams designed to beat the Pistons.
Gentle Anchoress links to this post. She’s the only one on the internet whose site I comb my hair and button my shirt before visiting.
I regularly submit something from Varifrank to the Watchers Council weekly competition because Frank is a great writer, clear thinker, and I usually agree with him. Case in point.
The Oxford Medievalist – who goes by the nom de blog Angevin – seems like the perfect blogger; “Conservative American Anglophile medieval historian and intelligence scholar.” Thanks for the link, your highness.
New to me blog J’s Cafe Nette does me the honor of linking here.
Wide Awakes bud and one of my dearest friends on the net Raven of And Rightly So gives us a boost! Thanks gorgeous!
UPDATE: 6/5
Yesterday’s response was simply overwhelming. On behalf of my live-in lover (not, as some of you think, my wife) Zsu Zsu, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. So many thoughtful people with nice things to say about me. And then there are the few…
Mr. Nosepicker is just jealous, of course. Friendless people usually are.
Meanwhile, today is another day and I hope to match the 48 donations from yesterday if not exceed it! And here are some bloggers who are going to help me do it:
Frequent linker Doug Ross – always with the first link of the day to this site – includes me in his Google Street Views.
Adam of Adam’s Blog misses the Carnival of the Clueless. So do I. Thanks for the kind words, Adam.
Coffee Spy attributes superhero qualities to this site. This post is what blogging is all about. Many thanks…and I’ll take mine strong and black, please.
Another good friend Karen of Pondering Penguin gives us a shout out.
UPDATE: 6/6
Donations fell off yesterday – but that was to be expected. Nevertheless, we are closing in on my goal. (Perhaps if I reach it, I will tell you what that goal is.) A good day today and we might be able to put the tin cup away early. So if you’ve thought about giving but haven’t, I would very much be in your debt if you could see your way clear to donating today.
Meanwhile, another new to me blogger has joined the Hallelujah Chorus. Skal of Skalduggery waxes poetic about truth. I’m honored, sir.
And that eclectic yet very neighborly bunch at Maggie’s Farm link to this post. Eclectic, perhaps. But loads of yankee common sense too. “First they came for my cigarettes…”
UPDATE: 6/7
Just two days to go and we’re closing in on our goal. One big push today will put me over the top. Please consider donating today.
Meanwhile, Slublog thinks he’s late to the party. Yes, but fashionably late. And you look mahvalus!
Physics Geek almost went unnoticed as a linker here until I checked my Technorati links. Many thanks sir.
What’s this? Is the Commissar going soft? What, no withering blast at my purely capitalist method of raising money? No threats to be sent to the Lubyanka for trying to poison the minds of the proletariat? Ah well, I guess that proves that even Commies have a heart. Many thanks, my friend.
2:21 pm
Rick,
I would like to donate. Could you please post the telephone number for PayPal’s problem resolution department? I have tried to work with the site but, it is telling me that another account (which is likely also mine) uses the same credit card. On a previous occasion, they tried to deduct money from a long ago closed bank account despite my having certified a new one for them. If I could talk to a live person, I am sure that this can be resolved and I can happily hit your tip jar.
Thanks.
8:11 am
Rick Moran’s Fundraiser…
One of my favorite bloggers needs your assistance. Rick Moran, of Right Wing Nut House, will hold his third annual fundraiser, as he tries to keep his time free for free-lance writing: This is the third June in a row…...
10:27 am
[...] Rick Moran is asking for help in this year’s donation drive. This is the third June in a row that I have forthrightly and without any qualms asked the readers of Right Wing Nuthouse to donate funds to this site. And it is the last time I will make such a request. [...]
11:15 am
[...] Rick Moran at the Right Wing Nut House probably had more to do with me getting into blogging than anyone – besides my own ego, of course – and he’s contemplating leaving the business. If you can throw a coupla bucks his way, please do so. [...]
11:26 am
Don’t take this the wrong way, but you need to wise up and stop living this writing fantasy.
Look at Lileks. He’s one of the best writers in the country and HE GOT FIRED! Okay? It’s no living, so let the dream die and get on with being an adult.
Do your writing on the side like a hobby and get back in the salt mine like a man.
11:28 am
What would we do, if all the good voices starved to death?...
Some of us do it for kicks in our spare time, to vent pent up frustration or to give ourselves the feeling (however unearned) that we are making a valuable contribution to social discourse in the world. A select few…
2:15 pm
[...] LINK [...]
4:18 pm
Rick Moran – Cooler than me…
Rick Moran runs the blog “Right Wing Nut House”, which is consistently one of the better things on the web. Rick is running a pledge drive right now to keep himself in the business of doing what he does…...
4:22 pm
you know, if you offer to set up a webcam and a dunk tank and have terry sit in it and for a 10 dollar donation, the contributor will get three throws in which to “dunk terry”, your donations will skyrocket.
Well, it may not be a great idea but it beats the hell out of a totebag…
Good luck Rick!
4:28 pm
Can you spare a nickle or two?...
One of my daily reads is Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse.
Like most of us at some point in life, he finds himself needing friends to lend a hand so he may maintain his site and continue posting his fine work.
If you are so inclined, head on over to R…
4:54 pm
Help the Right Wing Nuthouse…
Though I’m just a newbie to the blogosphere, I’ve been reading Right Wing Nuthouse from almost Day One. Rick is an intelligent, thoughtful, and witty writer who often puts to eloquence what I and others are thinking, though far better than we could. ...
4:55 pm
Don’t give up the effort—but do give some thought to expanding your writing realm, if you really hope to earn a living at it. I’ve never done anything else but write for a living for the past 20-plus years, raised two children on my own, and own a home, 10 acres and live simply but happily (when the car is working!) Besides talent (no credit to me for that) and hard work, versatility, flexibility and perseverance are the keys to success. Good luck to you.
5:58 pm
[...] Blog friend Rick Moran is asking for HELP, for a damn GOOD cause. You like reading his work? Then help him. NOW. [...]
11:54 pm
Give a Blogger Wings…
Rick Moran of Rightwing Nuthouse is holding his very last blog fundraiser.
Rick has been one of those bloggers I’ve admired over the years and I intend to provide a small token of my support. I miss his Carnival of the Clueless, he was simply one …
5:23 am
Google Street Views: Beltway Edition…
Google, in partnership with Immersive Media, has augmented its mapping service with street-level views. To achieve the effect, staffers drive vans around snapping pictures using special, 11-lens cameras…...
6:00 am
Please don’t stop writing.
7:41 am
[...] Yes, patriots, the Right Wing Nuthouse is in need and only you can help preserve this bastion of reasoned statesmanship from the ravenous hordes of terrorists, evil corporations bent on world domination, and radioactive horrors engineered by the slumbering soviet nations. [...]
8:34 am
Rick,
In all seriousness, there are very few sites I read that I feel make me smarter. Yours is one of them. While Instapundit and others like him get issues in front of people, it’s sites likes Right Wing Nuthouse that dissect those issues from a reasoned angle and bring understanding previously not in existence. Sometimes I disagree with you, but even then I at least understand the issue from a different perspective.
Thanks for that.
10:48 am
I sent it to the Amazon thingy. And I put a shout out on my blog. Good luck, Rick. We need your voice out there.
7:12 am
Rick,
Glad the donations are going well, and I sincerely hope you hit your target and that you transition into an income that etirely supports your writing habit! I didn’t send it to the Amazon thingy, I sent it to the other thingy
Like all of your readers, I believe we need to keep your voice in the mix—it helps to cut through the noise and focus our attention on subjects of substance.
I don’t understand trackbacks, and blogspot doesn’t seem to support them anyway, but I think I’m getting the hang of these “tags?” Skalduggery
Keep up the good fight.
2:04 pm
Rick Moran…
Rick, the esteemed and often-provocative proprietor of the Right Wing Nut House, is indeed nutty enough to try to make a living blogging. Who’s gonna throw that minstrel boy a coin? We’d hate to lose him….
7:57 pm
Late to the Party, But…...
Rick Moran at Right Wing Nut House is crazy enough to try writing for a living and he’s asking for some help…....
9:56 am
[...] Right Wing Nut House » 3RD ANNUAL (AND FINAL) REQUEST FOR DONATIONS This is the third June in a row that I have forthrightly and without any qualms asked the readers of Right Wing Nuthouse to donate funds to this site. And it is the last time I will make such a request. [...]
7:12 pm
Rick I certainly hope you meet your Funding goal. I for one would miss your BLOG.
8:53 pm
I sent a donation, Rick. Sorry I couldn’t quintuple it, but I hope it helps.
1:50 pm
John:
I like you better as Lisa. I bet you look terrific in a dress.
(Next time, try using a different IP address, stupid).
6:11 pm
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2:42 am
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