Thanks a Million!

Thanks a Million!

Sometime early yesterday morning, I received my one millionth visit. Eleven months and two weeks after my first post on October 12, 2008.

I hope the first million is the hardest. It has been mostly fun, but not easy.

When I started this blog, I really didn’t know what I was getting into. I took to the internet out of sheer frustration and alarm at the mass delusion gripping the nation in October 2008. The modern equivalent of the tulip mania from centuries ago. But instead of tulips, the nation was gripped with euphoric hysteria over Barack Obama.

After one particularly disturbing conversation with a friend, who seemed as if his mind had been snatched by Obamamania, I realized the situation was dire. Our pathetic mainstream media, having abdicated what little self-respect and professional responsibility it had left, gave me no hope that reason would prevail. So I went to the blogosphere to sound my little alarm.

My first post, Obama is Door No. 2, still is one of my favorites. I am proud to say that I was against Obamamania before it was cool to be against Obamamania. My conscience is clear, and I was right that tulips were just tulips.

So I created a blog. I wasn’t really sure what a blog was, and I didn’t spend much time reading blogs. I went to Google Blogger (proving beyond doubt that I didn’t know what I was doing), and I posted.

And then I learned lesson number one. No one really cared what I thought. So I posted some more. If not for my frequent visits to my own blog, I would have had no traffic at all.

Then thanks to Larrey Anderson and Thomas Lifson, American Thinker ran my article A Harvard Trial Lawyer for McCain, which in many ways was my breakthrough, getting my name out there. The article circulated through e-mail groups and posting boards, and went somewhat viral.

And then I experienced, just days after my first post, the joys of the internet. Hate mail. Mild, in comparison with what was to come, but shocking nonetheless. And all from people who claimed to be educated, enlightened liberals, telling me to shut my mouth.

Which was lesson number two, namely, that many highly-educated liberals are among the most intolerant, narrow-minded beings to inhabit the earth. I guess I already knew this, having lived most of my life around such people. But like most of us, in the past I kept my political mouth shut, so I never before experienced the wrath of the enlightened.

I didn’t start out this blog meaning to target liberal America, but liberal America targeted me early on, so I am returning the favor. And the left-wing nutroots have come into my focus as well, being what is left after the liberal sauce has been reduced.

Then lesson number three. The race card. My honesty in calling Obama what he was — an over-rated, TV-style lawyer — earned me the now-common distinction of being called a racist. One blog theme which I have developed by necessity is to fight against the pernicious and destructive use of false accusations of racism as a political tool. I hate the use of the race card because it twists the worst aspects of our history for political gain, drives people apart, and unravels so much of the racial progress we have made.

But it has not been all bad, and mostly has been good. I’ve met (electronically, that is) some really great people, made some online friends, and have had my eyes opened both to the resiliency of this nation and the intellectual threats which lurk at or below the surface.

I survived on this blog through the kindness of strangers. I could not have kept up the good spirits, and survived Blogger Mood Disorder, without the encouragement of and repeated links from Professor Glenn Reynolds and Honorary Professor Michelle Malkin. These are two people who are sufficiently successful that they don’t need to help struggling bloggers, but they do anyway.

There were others who offered early words of encouragement at a time when it was needed, including Claudia Rosett, William Katz, Prof. Darren Hutchinson, and Ron Coleman. It didn’t hurt to have two Grandmas on my side, as well.

And along the way, I marvelled at the generosity of the conservative blogosphere, including (but not limited to!!!), Ed Morrissey and Allahpundit at HotAir, Jim Hoft at Gateway Pundit, John Hawkins, Ace of Spades HQ, Robert Stacy McCain and Smitty at The Other McCain, Pam Geller, Doug Ross, Jules Crittendon, Dan Collins, Don Surber, Tim Blair from Down Under, Dan at GayPatriot, Patterico, Lance Burri, Moe Lane, Cythia at A Conservative Lesbian, Dan Riehl, Jeff at Protein Wisdom, Tom Maguire, JammieWearingFool, Sister Toldyah, The Anchoress, Pundette, Small Dead Animals, Jimmie Bise, all the Chicago bloggers who helped with my Blago coverage (Backyard Conservative, Marathon Pundit, Bill Baar, Illinois Review), Donald Douglas, Pat in Shreveport, Fausta Wertz, Little Miss Atilla, Bill Roggio at Long War Journal, and the folks at Real Clear Politics.

Not to fail to mention recent acquaintences such as Left Coast Rebel, NeoNeocon, Rosita, No Sheeples, Keith Burgess-Jackson, TigerHawk, Soccer Dad, Da Tech Guy, Another Black Conservative, Viking Pundit, The Stray Dog, Hugh Hewitt, and many, many others.

I’m not kidding, look at just about any of the blogs in the left sidebar and I owe each of them a thanks. I probably should not have listed anyone here, because I know I left so many people out.

And for every piece of garbage hate mail I get, I get far more kind notes and words of encouragement from the people I am proud to call my loyal readers.

Thanks to the repeat commenters, the Followers of this blog and my Twitter account, and the people who subscribe to my Facebook networked blog. Your votes of confidence are appreciated.

To those people, like John from Tennessee and that guy from Connecticut, and others who take it upon themselves to spread my links and my tweets (thanks Doug and others), your efforts are not forgotten.

Now comes the obligatory thanks to the wife: To my wife of 25 years, thanks for being patient (yes, honey, I’m coming to bed, no I’m not on the blog again, I’m just checking the weather, heh).

To this great country, you are worth fighting for. The people who think creeping socialism is cool don’t have a clue as to the deep damage they are doing. I will not shut up about it, will continue to post the truth about where we are heading, and will fight with every last electron to stop the decline of this nation at the hands of those lazy, handout-seeking, selfish fools who think everything we have earned came for free, that history began a decade ago, and that they are owed something.

What troubles me more than anything is that this government is stealing the future from my children, and my not-yet-conceived grandchildren. Such generational theft is unforgivable and will not be forgotten.

This is the fight of our lives for the benefit not of ourselves, but of future generations. Will our children and our children’s children have the freedom to make their own way in life, or will we relegate them to being beggars at the alter of government handouts?

This time, it really is all about the children, and our own legacy.

Will we be honored as the generation which finally said no to the welfare state and thereby saved the best economic and political system on earth, or will we be cursed by our descendants as the generation which gave it all away?

So the blog and the fight goes on. Thanks for reading.

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“Blogospheric Neologian”
Add “Blogger Burnout” To The List Of Blogger Ailments
A Test For Internet Addiction Disorder – Take At Your Own Risk

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