It’s that time of year again, time to round up the best comments, hatemail, discussions and posts of 2007. This was a year of transition, from fishkite.com to this domain. Along with that move came less frequent posts, and significantly less traffic. Still, the blog managed to generate even more (delightfully) vicious comments and reactions from readers. This year I also endeavored to inject more humanity into the blog, so this time I’ve added a category for the year’s “most personal” entries. I enjoyed blogging this year, and that’s the main thing. And I hope you enjoy this look back at The Best of 2007 at MickWright.net.

I’m thankful for every reader who left a comment this year. I really, truly appreciate your time, encouragement and input. Good comments make all the difference. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Mike: “Too many Americans have chosen to be mushroom voters. Stuffed in a dark room and fed crap.”

2. Bruce VanWyngarden (getting the joke): “So, uh, is there a vote for cloture coming up?”

3. A.C. McCloud: “It is kind of gay how some Republicans go weak in the knees over Fred… This coming from someone who spends all day painting signs about their man with the word love spelled backwards.”

4. Tom Guleff: “Throwing a grenade is a lot like blogging.”

5. Tammie Hacker: “[An ex-homeless speaker] advised us to NEVER give money to anyone begging on the street. He says there are 350 soup kitchens in this city so homeless people can get food every day if they make an effort to do so. He said if we felt called by God to do something for them, to bring them food.”

6. Karla: “Not that I had a lot of respect for [Wendi C. Thomas] before she left… but when she came back to Memphis… because she couldn’t handle being in a big city… I completely lost all interest in anything she has to say. I still can’t believe the CA hired her back!”

7. Mike Hollihan: “I’m surprised Moyers even mentioned Gramsci. He was the author of the blueprint that nearly every Leftist group uses to dominate a society. His practices are nearly everywhere in the American Left but almost no one uses (or often even knows) his name.”

8. Kyle Brice: “I can’t believe that fascist state of Mississippi. Seriously, when I want to kill a baby, I don’t want to have to wait 24 hours for it.”

9. Neil Chilson: “Bad laws shouldn’t be taken seriously - they should be taken out. The touchstone of law is justice; to enforce bad laws may be ‘taking our laws seriously’ but it mocks justice. I’d rather we take justice seriously.”

10. autoegocrat: “Memphis needs a ‘race-free’ month, a time when we can all just take a breather, quit one-upping each other, and step back at the situation and look at it with different eyes. It seems like it’s all race all the time around here, and that’s a warped way to look at the world. If all of life is a yardstick, race isn’t even a whole inch of it.”

My thanks also to the people who left these memorable, hateful comments; because of your work, my posts seem a lot more tame and logical than they would otherwise. You folks have my sincere appreciation.

1. Josh was apparently unhappy with my Everlast criticism:

You Suck.. Maybe instead of criticizing every little detail and any pausible, plausible falicy it may intail, you should respect what it tries to portray. He isnt trying to be completely literal in what he’s saying, hes trying to get a general description layed out. Your a duesch bag and you really need to learn to respect good work especially when, and i highly doubt you could, you couldnt make a better attempt you self. F*CK OFF!!!!

2. John Farmer became frustrated with me after I suggested that he needed to provide support for his reckless statements and assertions, saying: “If Mick is the man, then I don’t want to grow up” and later: “shove your charts up your *ss!”

3. autoegocrat called me a “fully indoctrinated GOP stooge.”

4. Bob coined my new favorite insult, “you are nothing but a troll who lives under his own blog.”

5. “pesdet” took issue with my supporting both the right to life and the right to bear arms: “Great! Save those blastocysts but love those guns! You rednecks are a pretty conflicted bunch… guns and god… good luck on your goals to force your values down peoples throats. Your christianist fascism will not fly in this America.” A study of the IP address suggests “pesdet” is an alias used by William of the Loose TN Canon blog.

6. Jordan resident abdul felt obligated to educate me about the terrorist organization Hezbollah:

you are a bloody stupid wasteman. you have no idea who hizbollah is. they are a force thatis defending muslims from the jewish opresors. you in your lack of knowledge may call them ‘terrorists’ but in actual fact they are the saviours of islam. may god curse the soul that speaks and acts against them. in other words may you die a painful and diturbed death for acusing them of being terorists.

7. After backing down from my debate challenge, Peskyfly auditioned a few names for me, including *ssclown, d*ckhead and McSh*t.

8. Finding himself drawn into the debate debate, Kibitzer dedicated a blog post to mocking me with his best Stephen Colbert impression.

9. Brittany Gilbert wrote to say I was whining and taking myself too seriously in challenging Chris Davis to a live debate; as was typical of her work at Nashville Is Talking, she had entirely missed the point and failed to pick up on the humor and irony of my challenge.

10. Austin Farley worked extra hard this year to take gold in this category, with these worthy contributions:

One: [S]upposed conservative Mick Wright… is MORE PC than ultra liberal, Wendi C. Thomas… No, I do not like Mick.

Two: Mick just what makes you a man? I think you would have to have a set of balls to qualify as a man and I don’t think you have them.

Three: [Y]ou are still a sackless little worm.

Four: Mick is a little punk *sshole.

Five: [Y]ou are an honorless dog.

Six: I just had to say something since I haven’t heard from the little b*stard in a while… I don’t like Mick, I don’t even know what Mick is. Micks give me hives, but I do miss his *ssholish comments…

I must say, the only one of these that really stings is the comparison to Wendi C. Thomas. Ouch!

A few of my readers are non-political, so I try to throw them a bone as often as I can. It’s usually slim pickings, but here are a few juicy morsels:

1. Six Weird Things About Me was just a response to being tagged, but I had fun with it.

2. Stone-Washed Jeans Are Back is a post on my ex-step-grandparents, and their unfriendly dog.

3. The Internets Were Created For Personality Tests revealed some of my vital stats.

4. How To Eat A Kiwifruit is a post about a Christmas tradition.

5. Me and Gramp provides a little series of thoughts about my grandpa.

6. My ’80s Bling offers a glimpse of my 5th birthday.

7. Betcha Didn’t Know… flashes back to what I was like in high school.

8. The Best of Spaceface is a behind-the-music post.

9. Visual Communication reflects on the suicide of Steve Sams, my high school art teacher.

10. My Mom Is A Saint pretty much speaks for itself.

Here are a few of the posts that generated the most buzz this year:

1. SHOCKER: Bush exerts control over executive branch (8) - picked up by Slate.com!

2. Oh, How I adore the Memphis Blogosphere (10) - comments drenched with irony.

3. Intimidation (11) - BOO!

4. The ATM Jesus (11) - Jesus came to earth to eradicate poverty.

5. Wendi Thomas on your right to health (11) - Wendi doesn’t deserve to be healthy.

6. Why Chris Davis won’t debate me (12) - something about “controlling the volume.”

7. CNN on Repeat (13) - the leaker wasn’t a “key player” in the leak.

8. I’ve Got Your Debate Right Here Chris (14) - a filibuster isn’t a debate.

9. The Wisdom of Left Wing Cracker (18) - not a single comment defending LWC!

10. wRONg on the key issue of our time (20) - Paul’s supporters are just as rabid.

Finally, I’ve selected ten of my best blog posts of 2007, as chosen by me. These are the ones I consider most memorable or that I spent the most time researching, considering, writing and laboring over (those two categories typically go hand-in-hand). So here are 10 instant classics:

1. A Surge of Nonsense (a four-part series: one, two, three and four) - a critical look at the Media Reform Conference in Memphis, and the keynote speech delivered by Bill Moyers

2. Murtha Mirth - A school prayer bill authored by an unlikely advocate, and why it’s unnecessary

3. Reasons Why Americans Criticize or Do Not Support the War in Iraq - A regimented study of the Iraq debate

4. Terrorist Deported, Flyer Columnist Weeps - The ghost of a guinea pig attempts a defense of the local alt weekly

5. Blessed by the Fly (and a follow-up: ent truth: some final thoughts on our blog debate) - A back and forth over global warming, Nazi analogies, blogger civility, faulty journalism and more

6. Cheification - How Che Guevara became an icon

7. AU Jumps the Shark - A church-state separatist group defends a public prayer

8. Scott the Homeless Man - Putting a name and a face on homelessness

9. LWC Imitates The Onion - A much-needed fisking over infrastructure and radical partisanship

10. Rep. Curry Todd - The incoherence and foolishness of a Republican State Representative

In addition to these entries at MickWright.net, some of my work was posted elsewhere; below are four of the most noteworthy examples:

- Resurrecting The Overton Shell (Main Street Journal, March) - A public-private partnership gone bad

- On the Campaign Trail: The Permanent Campaign (Main Street Journal, April) - On non-stop campaigning and Democratic racism

- A Word on the Tennessee State Lottery (Main Street Journal, May) - A fresh look at Rep. Steve Cohen’s claim to fame

- The Gadfly Pulls His Own Plug (The Memphis Liar, September) - Some long-overdue media criticism

That’s it.

Thanks again, everyone, for visiting, reading and commenting. I always enjoy sharing my thoughts with you and seeing what you have to say. I wish you a merry Christmas, happy holidays and a happy new year, and I hope we will get to do this again in 2008.

See also: The Best of 2006

UPDATE: A hearty welcome to my Dutch friends at About:blank. I couldn’t have said it better myself:

Although it according to its own figures this year because of a domeinverhuizing significantly less traffic was received on his weblog, it was nonetheless a valuable year. Daarom maakt Mick Wright een prachtig jaaroverzicht met onder andere “beste reacties,” “meest bediscussieerde blogposts,” en “beste hatemail.” So Mick Wright is a wonderful yearly with other “best responses,” “most bediscussieerde blog posts,” and “best hatemail.” Nieuw dit jaar is de categorie “meest persoonlijke posts van 2007.” New this year is the category “most personal posts by 2007.”