Happy New Year to all of our blog community from around the world. The four kids made it to midnight again this year even though the parents were beginning to fade. This is a double celebration for me since it is also my 17th – or 25th if you count 8 years of dating as I do (over the objections of Leslie) anniversary. We eloped in Alexandria, Virginia on New Year’s Eve in 1997. With the start of 2015, I thought I would share a few of our annual statistics and successes on the blog.

We are having our New Year’s party with an expected record of 175 guests. I prepare a huge amount of our traditional “Bowl of the Wife of Kit Carson” soup. With the size of the crowd this year, I have smoked three whole turkeys to put into the soup this year. It is like cooking for a Navy Destroyer. I am also making Wasabi Bloody Marys for a flaming start to the New Year.

It has been another great year on the blog. Thanks to all of our regulars and particularly our our talented and popular weekend team of guest bloggers: Mike Appleton, Kimberly Dienes, Cara Gallagher, Larry Rafferty, Darren Smith, and Charlton Stanley. We are closing in on 25 million views and we remained in the top legal blogs in the world. I can now give some figures on our last year.

In 2014, we had roughly 5 million hits and 1553 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 13,504 posts.

In addition to the United States, our two leading contributing countries were again Canada and Great Britain. We have had visitors from 224 countries this year.

The most commented on post in 2014 was “President Obama Trades Al Qaeda-Linked Taliban Leaders For Release of American Soldier.”

Our five most prolific commenters this year were:

1. dagda 11,530 COMMENTS
2. Nick Spinelli 10,075 COMMENTS
3. Inga 7,312 COMMENTS
4. Karen S 4,321 COMMENTS
5. Dredd 4,195 COMMENTS

We finished 2014 with over 530,900 comments.

The five most visits stories last years were:
1. 10 Reasons The U.S. Is No Longer The Land Of The Free

2. Hell: Exothermic or Endothermic?

3. Teacher Admits To Sexual Relationship With 14-Year-Old Student But Is Sentenced To Only 30 Days In Jail

4. “12 Is About As Old As I Can Handle”: Former Illinois Rep Who Sponsored Child Porn Legislation Is Charged With Child Pornography Crimes

5 New Orleans Police Officer Turns Off Body Camera Minutes Before Shooting Suspect In Forehead

Thanks again everyone for making this site and 2014 such a great success!

Best wishes for the New Year!

Jonathan Turley