Right Wing Nut House

Nominations for the 2006 Weblog Awards are being accepted. You can go here and leave your nominations in the comments.

I was honored to be a finalist last year in the “Best Conservative Blog” category. And the reason I consider it an honor is the same reason I am promoting the awards with this post.

Kevin Alyward of Wizbang is one of the true gentlemen of the right side of the sphere. Without renumeration, he annually exposes himself to the slings and arrows of bloggers who either think the sphere should be a place of purity and light where such contests have no place or who think he left out some blog or other more deserving than those chosen.

Frankly, if it were me, I wouldn’t put up with the crap. I’d say “Fine. Here you go. See if you can do better.”

But Kevin nevertheless perseveres. And for that, every blogger owes him a debt of gratitude.

Nominations will continue for another week.

While the vast majority of commenters here at The House are bright, thoughtful, and well mannered, the fact is that of late, the tone and quality of comments has deteriorated drastically.

I bear some responsibility for the loss of civility here. And realizing this I have hit upon a simple solution; I will no longer tolerate personal insults to me or to other commenters. If, in my judgement, your comment crosses the line, I will simply delete it. No explanation. No apology.

And if you continue to be insulting, your IP will be banned.

This goes for right and left, liberal or conservative, hawk or dove, Republican or Democrat. If you can’t say what you have to say without personalizing your comment, it will be deleted.

No more gross generalizations. No more outrageous exaggerations. No more non-germane, off topic rants.

I will save this as a page on the blog and add a link in the sidebar when I get a chance. In the meantime, everyone has been warned.

I’ll be liveblogging results along with every other blogger in Christendom. But rather than have you, my beloved readers, troll through the internet looking for different insights, I will do that for you.

I will be keeping an eye on a few blogs:

Hot Air - Allah always has the best roundups
Captains Quarters - Ed and a few others are in DC blogging for CNN
Wizbang - Alex McClure et al are some of the best on the web.
Polipundit - He’s still a great analyst even without the old gang.
Kim Priestap - Kim is smart, savvy, and sexy. ‘Nuff said.
Pollster.com - They should have some interesting info on exit polls.

Coverage here will start at 6:00PM central time with updates every half hour or so.

If there’s a site you want me to keep an eye on, let me know and I’ll add it to the list.

Regular readers may have noticed that posts have been few and far between this week. In fact, yesterday was only the 3rd day since I started this blog more than 2 years ago that I didn’t post a word.

The truth is, I’m a little burned out. Most days I write between 2000 - 3000 words. Usually much more - closer to 5000. I also spend another 8-10 hours scanning and reading blogs, other media, as well as answering 50 or so emails.

Suffice it to say, I’m suffering from mild burnout. I don’t really feel like writing much - something that hasn’t happened before. Can’t get excited about anything lately. In fact, things have gotten downright depressing. However, that’s not the reason I’m taking today off. There’s plenty to write about - just need to get a little motivated to do so.

So I am going to turn the computer off and stay away from it all day and night. Maybe when I get up tomorrow I’ll be re-energized. Or maybe I’ll think I’ll need another day to clear the cobwebs.

In the meantime, why not check out my archives? I’ve got some nice history pieces. And I always thought my Cindy Sheehan stuff was pretty good.

I appreciate everyone’s understanding. Need to get a second wind as we head down the stretch toward November 7.

UPDATE 10/24 - AND THANKS FOR THE SLAP IN THE FACE

Okay, okay. I appreciate the expressions of sympathy. I appreciate even more the two-by-four a couple of you whacked me upside my head to knock some sense into me.

My little vacation (which I enjoyed immensely) is over and I will have a typical snarky take on the new “Liberal Manifesto” sometime early this afternoon.

I got a very nice write up in the Daily Herald, the largest suburban newspaper in Chicago (circ. 770,000).

The reporter asked Hugh Hewitt and Ed Morrissey about me and I was surprised and pleased at what both those gents had to say:

Rick is a superb blogger who brings sharp analysis and very good humor to any story he writes on. He’s often ahead of the blogging pack,” wrote Hugh Hewitt, a syndicated radio talk show host who runs one of the most popular right-wing blogs and wrote a book on the topic titled “Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That’s Changing Your World.”

Hugh has been one of this site’s strongest backers almost from the beginning. His encouragement has always been most appreciated.

Ed Morrissey still wants me to change the name of my blog:

“Rick’s blog name is a dirty lie. Rick is one of the most sane and rational writers in the blogosphere, and his posts are always fun to read. He does not issue polemics, but passionate and rational arguments that always advance the debate,” wrote Ed Morrisey, writer of the popular right-wing Captain’s Quarters blog.

And another Chicago area blogger Dave Schuler of the excellent site Glittering Eye weighed in as well:

“I think he is one of the fairest and the savviest of the bloggers,” said Schuler, who describes himself as a centrist. “He’s an analyst. You always learn something when you read one of Rick’s posts.”

Thanks to all my blogbuds for their support.

AND FOR ALL OF YOU VISITING VIA THE DAILY HERALD, WELCOME! ON THE LEFT SIDEBAR ARE SOME CATEGORIES FOR ARTICLES THAT YOU CAN USE TO PERUSE THE SITE FOR WHAT INTERESTS YOU.

TALK RADIO THAT PULLS NO PUNCHES - ALL CONSERVATIVE ALL THE TIME!

More than 1500 posts. More than 14,000 comments.

Exactly two years.

Two years ago today, I started this blog with the intent of rediscovering my writing skills while trying to make a living as a writer. As for the former, writing every day has in fact re-acquainted me with the nuts and bolts of the craft. That process alone was worth starting the blog because I get more enjoyment from writing than almost any other activity in which I engage. There are days it is torture and days when it is enormously satisfying (even if no one reads what I have to say). I am proud of much of what I’ve written - less so of others.

As for making a living as a writer, the sum total in two years of what I’ve made as a writer would be a good monthly salary for many of you out there. Both Sue and I have made a lot of sacrifices in order to give this middle aged dream of mine a decent chance at success. I’ve made a decent start and hope that the coming year will bring more opportunities.

To all of you, my faithful readers, I thank you for your continued support.

First, I apologize for the screwiness of my blog today. Evidently, if you have clinked a link to a specific post on this site, you get an error message redirecting you to the blog’s general URL.

It may be a problem with the server. Or I could have screwed something up myself. Either way, I have Blogs About Hosting looking into the problem and hope to have things resolved later this morning.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

NOTE: I also just discovered why I haven’t gotten any comments or trackbacks since 4:15 yesterday afternoon. The same Blogs About error message occurs if you try and leave a comment or trackback.

The fact that I haven’t heard from anyone about this is disturbing. I feel so isolated and alone.

Can anyone read what’s on this blog at the moment?

UPDATE

Okay…Things are back to normal now. Very weird. I guess it was a problem with the way the site was resolving archives or something. Anyway, all is well now.

BTW - If you are a subscriber to this blog via Bloglines and if you’re not able to access the site or my feed, let me know.

Very sorry for the slow loading of the site this morning. For a while, the site was completely down.

I am informed by Blogs About Hosting that the problem is a DDOS attack on the server. They are handling it and things should be back to normal within a few hours.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

On the 25th of this month, this blog will celebrate its second anniversary. During that time, I have used this site exactly three times to solicit funds.

The first time I requested monetary assistance, I think I had a grand total of 175 readers a day. Nevertheless, people were very generous and I was surprised and grateful at the response.

The other two blegs came this year with one in January and one in June. Both times I was amazed that so many were willing to help support me in my “mid life change of career” to writing. But I vowed to myself to make the bleg only a twice-a-year event for the blog, believing that anything more smacked of hubris.

Thus, it is with the greatest reluctance that I impose upon your good will and generosity, gentle reader, by asking that you assist Sue and I in dealing with something of a family emergency.

No one’s life is at risk, thank God. But Sue must leave her job for a few weeks in order to attend to a health problem involving a member of her family. This means that our primary source of income for the next few weeks will not be flowing into the household account.

Thankfully, Sue and I live extremely modest lives with very little in the way of monthly bills to worry about. (The largest single bill we have outside of rent for the house is the $165 a month for cable TV/broadband). We share the use of one car (paid for), rarely go out, and haven’t had a vacation for almost two years. Prior to my beginning this quest to try and make a living as a writer/commentator, we paid off all of our debt (we have one credit card between us), and reduced expenses to the absolute minimum.

So our needs are modest. And unlike the last two solicitations, I am going to request that no more funds be given once the target amount is achieved. That amount is $450, which combined with other income and my savings, will get us over the hump until Sue gets back to work in 2 or 3 weeks.

I know from experience that you will be supportive in your response. I have provided a link to both my PayPal and Amazon donation accounts below.

Thank you.

UPDATE:

Right before 8:00 PM Central this evening, my target of $450 was reached.

To all of you who gave so generously, Sue and I thank you. I really am humbled that so many of you were willing to help us.

I hope I can continue to give you what you come here for - a little diversion from the everyday and a little pep to rev up your soul.

Rick Moran

The site has been up and down for the last several hours. Not sure what the problem is but I have a maintenance ticket with Blogs About and hopefully, they’ll be working on it.

In the meantime, bear with us. I apologize for the inconvenience.