Well my friends it is time for my annual look at what were the most popular articles on Padre Steve’s World.
This year I went over 3 million views since the site began in February 2009 and over a million since the last new year. People from over 200 countries and territories that pretty much act like countries have visited my little cyber space world.
I do find it interesting to see what people are reading on this site, what search terms they are using and what search engines they are using to get to the site. The folks at WordPress.com which hosts this site have a great statistic page for a baseball stat person like me is like a blog statistic version of Saber Metrics. Now if they can only find a way to calculate my site states like the OBP and Slugging percentage…but I digress.
In 2009 I published my top 10 list and in 2010 I did my top 25 list so this year I am doing my top 12 of 2011. All of the articles on this list had over 4000 views each in the last 12 months. Since I have now published almost 1000 articles on this site these are just a taste of what a reader can find here.
The number one article of the year is “Revisionist” History and the Rape of Nanking 1937 . This was something that interested me for a long time and it is rather academic in its focus but has been at the top of my stats most of the year. The article is about those that seek to cover up or minimize the atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese Army in city of Nanking in 1937. I do expect the article to remain at or near the top of the list in 2012 with the release of The Flowers of War http://www.theflowersofwarthemovie.com/ staring Christian Bale in 2012.
Number two on the list is Why Johnny Can’t Read Maps: NCAA Tournament Geography for Dummies and a Solution which I wrote back in 2010 during the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. It is a humorous look at how the NCAA decides what cities represent the various regions of the country. I for one do now see how anything in the Pacific Northwest is part of the Southeast Regional bracket. No wonder people have no clue about the geographic regions of the United States. At least they could do a GPS search.
Number three on the list is an oldie but goodie I Miss the Music of the 70’s and 80’s. The article itself is a musical look at the history of of 1970s and 1980s. Since I grew up with this music it is really a part of who I am. Unfortunately many of the links to the music videos are no longer operative but the article is interesting and anyone with half a brain can find the songs on You Tube or any number of various sources. Since then I have published a number of other articles on the music of this time period which are filed in the Padre Steve’s Music page.
Number four on this site is an article about the death of the noted evangelist David Wilkerson who I had and still have a great deal of respect for; The Unexplained and Tragic Death of David Wilkerson. I wrote the article because of the circumstances of his death. I suggested after looking at the evidence including his writings and the actual accident report and suggested that it was possible that his death was a case of “suicide by car.” I did not expect the reaction that I received. Some people were quite offended that I suggested that Wilkerson suffered from depression and that the circumstances of the accident pointed to either suicide or negligent driving on his part. In fact some of the comments were so abusive and irrational that I finally for the first time and only in the history of this site closed the comments section. I just got tired of the abuse and tired of answering the same abusive comments time and time again. The article and a couple of follow up articles do point out the pressure that many ministers are under and how depression and crisis’s of faith can afflict people of great faith who have helped many people and were not in any way disparaging of Reverend Wilkerson. However I found that even suggesting such is tantamount to smashing idols. Oh well…it is a good article and I do stand by it.
Fifth place goes to an article that I wrote about the nearly psychotic accusations hurled by Iran at the United States for our Navy’s official name for what they call the Persian Gulf, the Northern Arabian Gulf, it is a somewhat humorous look at a rather serious subject. Why don’t we just call it the Gulf of Whatever we want to call it? Padre Steve Says the Iranians Whine too Much
Number six on the hit parade is a rather academic military history article about the Battle of Stalingrad The Anniversary of Disaster: Stalingrad 67 Years Later that I wrote in January 2010. I find that Stalingrad and other campaigns are instructive even today.
Seventh place belongs to a short article about D-Day entitled D-Day: Omaha Beach which is a nice starting point for those interested in the Normandy campaign.
Coming in at number eight is an article about one of my favorite subjects Baseball and civil rights Jackie Robinson and Dr. Martin Luther King they Changed America.
The ninth most popular article on this site is a follow up to the number three article again involving the music of the 1970s and 1980s More about Why I Miss the Music of the 70’s and 80’s .
Number ten is my 2009 top ten article Padre Steve’s World: Top 10 articles of 2009.
Another academic military history article Wacht am Rhein: The Battle of the Bulge came in at number eleven on the list.
Slipping in at number twelve is an article about military recruiting slogans Memorable Recruiting Slogans and the All Volunteer Force.
There are other articles not in the top 12 for this year but that still get a lot of views and are worth reading. A good number are on military or naval history one of the best of which is The Ideological War: How Hitler’s Racial Theories Influenced German Operations in Poland and Russia while two other military theory article is Learning to Apply the Principles of Counterinsurgency Part One: Introduction to the Soviet-Afghan War and The Effects of Counter-Insurgency Operations on U.S. and French Forces in Vietnam and Algeria and Implications for Afghanistan.
Among the music articles I recommend Laughing to the Music: The Musical Genius of Mel Brooks and just for fun there is an article about a little church that gets pretty crazy, almost Iran Mullah crazy without the killing dissenters, Halloween Book Burning Update: Bring the Marshmallows Please!. One of my favorite faith and life articles Star Trek, God and Me 1966 to 2009. There are also a lot of articles on baseball, faith, religion, history and politics on the site.
Anyway, if you are new to the site and haven’t dug around too much just yet those are good starting points. Hopefully anyone that stops by will find something to interest them, thought provoking or funny, academic or asinine, historical or hysterical. Feel free to browse comment and if you like the site subscribe or join me on Facebook or Twitter.
Blessings on you and thanks to all of my readers as well as Cheru Jackson at Alpha Inventions and the folks at Kadency who help publicize this site. I do recommend both, especially Alpha Inventions to bloggers that seek a wider audience for their writings.
Hopefully 2012 will be a good year for all of us and somehow despite all problems that beset our world that 2012 will be better than 2011.
Peace
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