My 50th Blog Post

I began my Hardly Tolerable blog 5 years ago at the recommendation of a good friend who has since past away.  At that time, I expressed concern to him that I would soon have very few friends remaining on Facebook if I continued to assault them with my religious and political posts. 

This marks my fiftieth post since that time.  To no one's surprise, I am sure, about 2/3 of my posts have been of a religious or political nature.  The rest of my posts have touched on a wide variety of topics, such as history, military service, etiquette, pipe smoking, ancestry, and even satire.  Satire was by far the most fun and I really hope to do more of it.  However, in the words of wise Gandalf, "Who will laugh, I wonder?"

I thought it would be worth mentioning the top 3 most viewed posts over the past five years. 

Coming in 3rd was The Clinton Case, which was a political post about corruption in both the Republican and Democrat U.S. parties and the importance of laws applying equally to all citizens, to include the rulers.  My guess as to the popularity of this post is that it involved a high profile candidate running for President.

My 2nd most viewed post was Star Trek Convention, George Takei, and the 2014 Winter Olympics, which was a short post of a political/theological nature.  I would like to think that this post received so many views due to the really cool picture of me sitting in the Enterprise-D captain's chair while in a Starfleet uniform.  I doubt it.  The view count was likely due to the controversial nature about homosexuality in regards to religion and politics.

My most viewed post by far over the last five years was actually one written earlier this month; Presbytery: The Judicial Center of Gravity.  Surprisingly, this post was about Presbyterian church government.  I thought this would be a very boring topic, but perhaps I did add a bit of controversy towards the end when I took a jab at presbyteries that fail to live up to their intended roles.

While I do not write blog posts for the purpose of receiving high view counts, it is reassuring to know that at least some people read them.  I also find it interesting to discover what type of issues draw the most views.  It seems that the very issues that I was concerned would lead me to lose friends on Facebook are the very issues that seem to draw the most view counts on my blog.  Despite this, I plan to continue using my blog and leaving my Hardly Tolerable commentary here.