In Which I Do My Best Bilbo Baggins, And Disappear Forever...

Bilbo's "Farewell Address", at his birthday party - from The Fellowship of the Ring:

After the feast... came the Speech. Most of the company were, however, now in a tolerant mood, at that delightful stage which they called 'filling up the corners'....

My dear People, began Bilbo...Today is my one hundred and eleventh birthday: I am eleventy-one today! 'Hurray! Hurray! Many Happy Returns!' they shouted.... This was the sort of stuff they liked: short and obvious.

But Bilbo had not finished. Seizing a horn from a youngster near by, he blew three loud hoots.... I shall not keep you long, he cried. Cheers from all the assembly. I have called you all together for a Purpose..... There was almost silence....

First of all, to tell you that I am immensely fond of you all, and that eleventy-one years is too short a time to live among such excellent and admirable hobbits. Tremendous outburst of approval.

Secondly, to celebrate my birthday...

Thirdly and finally, he said, I wish to make an ANNOUNCEMENT. He spoke this last word so loudly and suddenly that everyone sat up who still could. I regret to announce that — though, as I said, eleventy-one years is far too short a time to spend among you — this is the END. I am going. I am leaving NOW. GOOD-BYE!




I thought it would be an apt moment  - on my 8th blogiversary  -to announce that this is THE END of Right, Wing Nut!

And it was too short a time to spend among so many excellent friends and visitors.  But this decision is the culmination of a thought process I began in November, a post-debacle post-mortem in which I tried to figure out if what I am doing here makes even the slightest difference whatsoever in the grand internet scheme of things.

Turns out, I don't.  Or at least I don't feel like I do.  And that's not self-pity, but just the realization that a lot of people do conservative political blogging, and many of them do it better than me.

And I'll admit it - sometimes I ran a particular line of reasoning, or made a certain comparison, or dug up an interesting story...and like the tree falling int he woods, it didn't make much of a sound.  But let a better-connected political blogger make the same connection a week later, and they are hailed and linked worldwide.

The plight of the small blogger everywhere, I suppose. And I'm not sure it's healthy for the genre; we don't want to turn into an online version of the mainstream media, dominated by a few voices.  Still, I'd like to give props to some of the big players who did link here, often more than once - Legal Insurrection, The Other McCain, Michelle Malkin come to mind.  Not to mention every small to mid sized blogger that threw a link my way (Jim at Parkway Rest Stop, Barking Moonbat,  Right Truth, Liberty at Stake, CBC...it's a long list, but thanks to all), and every Twitter follower who re-tweeted a post....

Look -  in general, I wrote because I loved to write.  So many of these 4,635 blog posts were just bursts of political frustration that Right, Wing Nut! gave me an outlet for.  The fact that so many people came by every day to read (600-800, on average) pleased me to no end.

So I'm still gonna blog.  Just not here.  Just not under this particular name.  Just not at this particular blog.  And just not on this particular subject.

I'm going to work the culture angle, because that's where I feel the next battle lies.  And I'm not talking about gay marriage, or abortion, or the proliferation of porn (not specifically).  I'm talking about the complete subjugation of the culture (and the media) to the worldview of the Left, and of the Democratic party.  If we remain a nation where Americans are taught that it is not only proper, but morally correct, to mock every Republican and every conservative concept, then the GOP is dead in the water, regardless of what cosmetic  changes it may make.  And I will address the three topics above, by the way - just in reference to how the culture tries to sell us these oft-distressing behaviors as "normal"...

I'll be coming from the right, of course, and it will be a target-rich environment.  And I'll be doing it because I love to write, and I don't want to give up the fight.  It's just that after eight years, I need a new battlefield.

And I promise I won't forget Jersey.  How can I?  I love this freakin' place. Besides, I need to stay in the good graces of the Jersey bloggers (like More Monmouth Musings...)

I'll probably be ready to go in just a few weeks.  I'll either do a redirect, or just post a link on the top guiding you to where I may be found.

Finally, let me say, from the bottom of my heart...thank you.  Thank you for reading, for linking, for commenting.  I remain honored that I have been found worthy of your attention at all, actually (despite that little bit of bitchiness above).

As I wrote on my darkest day:

Sometimes, when you hurt, you should wallow in your misery. Allow yourself to feel every stab of pain, every pang of loss. And when the black cloud finally passes, you'll find that you suddenly possess the renewed vigor and sense of purpose necessary to move forward. Steely determination replaces weak resolve, and the desire never to return to that dark place propels you ahead, sometimes boldly, sometimes recklessly, sometimes foolishly. But always ahead.


I'm almost there now. I'll let you know when.

Peace.  Love.  And Jersey...