Well, since we are "minimally commercial," I think we should turn it to our advantage. A display ad with a link to Amazon, for such books as
Bias, Hell to Pay, The Final Days, The Decline of the West and
Ten Things You Can Never Say In America would gain Free Republic a 15% commission for every book sold through the link.
Such display ads should be kept off the threads to keep the "minimally commercial" thing going and avoid making any of our members mad. But it could be put on the homepage, the "Self-Search" page and the "Latest Posts" pages. There are a lot of options and this is just one of them.
Since we have the name, we might as well have the game.
I want to have a book review section, and recommended reading in user profiles. Each with purchasing links through Amazon.com (or one of the others.) It wouldn't bring in much, but it certainly wouldn't hurt. (On the order of several good size monthly donations.) And it would not be banner ads!