Thanks for the Old and New Years

Thanks for the Old and New Years

This will be my last post of the year, barring some high-profile conservative taking ill and being rushed to the hospital in which Barack Obama was not born just before he was born in that other hospital in the state where Rush Limbaugh is resting comfortably and Sarah Palin was caught defacing a hat, just before Nancy Pelosi arrived for vacation after scheming with Harry Reid on how to destroy our health care system, including the two hospitals in question.

Which pretty much sums up this crazy year.

This was my first full year of blogging. The history of this blog is here (and I again thank all the people mentioned in that post), and the future is here.

I’m not sure how one measures blogging success. My traffic is way up, thanks again to the kindness of strangers who link, and the return and repeat visitors who steadily have moved up the “slow” days to what used to be a great day.

I passed one million visits on September 29 after 11 1/2 months at it, and I’ll pass my next 500k tonight or tomorrow, just three months later. This will be my highest traffic month ever, except for that month we’d rather forget, which proves nothing other than what my wife said: “You’re probably the only one blogging this month.”

I’m not really sure what Technorati ranks, but I’m glad to be ranked (as of today) no. 39 for U.S. Politics and no. 49 for World Politics. Recognition of how much I inspire or annoy people, such that they see fit to link.

I slipped a few notches on John Hawkins’ Best Conservative Blog list, but I’ve made a challenge, and John assures me it is under review in the booth. I’ll find out the results in three months.

I should move up a notch or two on the TaxProf‘s list of most trafficked law professor blogs, but it will be all but impossible to crack the top 5. Instapundit, Volokh Conspiracy, Hugh Hewitt, Althouse and the TaxProf himself are nos. 1-5, respectively. Isn’t it interesting that the Top 3 law professor blogs are outright conservatives, Althouse is deemed conservative by liberals although she’s probably more independent, and TaxProf, well you be the judge. I think this says a lot about the importance of the internet to the expression of conservative, or at least non-liberal, thought.

While the numbers and statistics are a measure, they are not the only or best measure. The hate mail is way down, the fan mail is way up. It makes opening the inbox easier.

Most important, I’ve made a tremendous number of e-quaintances. People from across the country have reached out to me in frustration and anger at the direction the country is heading, and I’ve done my best to keep hitting the keyboard to share my thoughts on the subject.

I still have tremendous faith in the ability of the country to outlast our enemies, foreign and domestic. But only if we don’t give up.

To the nutroots, thanks for the material. (Most of) you are not as bad as “some say.”

To the wingnuts, ignore the nutroots and keep plugging away.

To my wife, thanks for 25 great years, three wonderful children who are almost done with college at which point we can start living again, and for putting up with this new habit.

To my readers, thanks for your visits and (mostly) kind words. You have no idea how much it means to me.

Be safe, so I can see you next year. Happy New Year.

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