This year in bloggery: Top 10 posts of 2012

Another year has passed us by, and with it, by far the most traffic this here blog thingy has ever seen (though that’s mostly thanks to one particular incident). Without further ado, here are the ten most popular entries of 2012, as ranked by number of individual visitors:

(NOTE: Stats retrieved 12/31/12 2:13 AM ET by combining browser & mobile traffic data from Google Analytics.)

#10: Australian billionaire plans to build Titanic II
Posted: April 30, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 455 (590)
Aussie entrepreneur Clive Palmer declares his intention to oversee the design and construction of a modern incarnation of the erstwhile Ship of Dreams. I can only wonder how amazed or appalled the strict perfectionist in me will be once it’s completed – if it ever is, of course.

#9: House Republicans hinder abortion access for raped soldiers
Posted: June 13, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 497 (515)
You didn’t think House Republicans would drop their obstructionist vendetta just because a few thousand female soldiers are raped every year and require access to critical reproductive healthcare, right?

#8: Welfare recipients “are slaves to the government and should be reminded of that fact”
Posted: February 28, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 535 (583)
Brion McClanahan at The Daily Caller is peeved at all those freeloading poor people being able to use their food stamps in grocery stores like they’re all that, because “[t]here should be humiliation and pain in government assistance”. (Thanks to Daily Kos commenter dmhlt 66 for the bump!)

#7: This wet koala wants to eat your soul
Posted: July 17, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 550 (705)
Who knew atmospheric precipitation didn’t agree with Phascolarctos cinereus?

#6: More fun with the anti-Atheism+ brigade
Posted: October 20, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 667 (720)
Where I learned one sure-fire way to attract lots of bigoted stupidity is to state the obvious about how opposing the movement for women’s equality is inherently misogynistic, regardless of the typical misconceptions applied. (Thanks to r/atheismplus-ites for the boost!)

#5: Fail Quote: Penn Jillette calls social welfare “immoral self-righteous bullying laziness”
Posted: March 16, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 834 (901)
My enthusiasm for Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller fame) wanes some more as he actually equates government welfare with “helping people […] at gunpoint”. This sort of rhetoric makes it rather difficult for people like me to defend Libertarianism from accusations of being a refuge for anti-government nutjobs, you know.

#4: A few questions about “#FTBullies” and sexism
Posted: July 03, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 914 (1,005)
Written as the “#FTBullies” nonsense was originally revving up, I enquired as to why plainly reasonable requests that men display a minimum of awareness and self-control in their interactions with women are routinely turned into accusations against those who make them of being man-hating fascists and whatnot, among other things. I never did get an answer. (Promoted at Freethought Blogs and by several tweeps.)

#3: Top 20 “unbearable”, “anti-Christian” movies of 2011?
Posted: February 24, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 1,137 (1,367)
You know it’s time for amusement when the pearl-clutching Christianist film review site Movieguide releases its list of the most “anti-Christian”, “anti-God” and “anti-human” (?) motion pictures.

#2: Photo of a self-refuting conservative small business owner
Posted: August 03, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 2,082 (2,357)
Let’s get one thing straight: Unless you were born in the woods, raised by wolves and continue to live without any societal infrastructure whatsoever, you’ve been receiving “government help” all your life. Those who claim to have built their fortunes entirely on their own are only making complete fools of themselves. Maybe they should stop doing that. (Thanks to Infidel753 at Crooks and Liars for the plug!)

#1: Vox Day & co. don’t get satire or basic decency
Posted: October 27, 2012 | Unique (Total) Pageviews: 10,713 (12,117)
By far the most trafficked entry this year (not to mention in Preliator’s history) is that time I pointed and laughed at Theodore “Vox Day” Beale for apparently falling for John Scalzi’s brain-spankingly obvious satire about a rapist who thanks Republican lawmakers for doing their best to make it harder for victims of sexual assault to obtain any help or justice at all. (A major tip o’ the fedora to Scalzi himself for graciously sending his legion of readers my way – I doubt my traffic counter will ever recover from the shock.)

— SUMMARY —

All Unique Visits (Total) for 2012:
89,068 (109,063)

As always, my heartfelt thanks to y’all for making this blog possible – or at least, for making it half as enjoyable as opining to myself would be otherwise. (Except the haters, who don’t matter either way.)

Now that the world hasn’t ended, onwards!