0 Snakes on McCain: 10 Best Articles of 2012

This is just me -- can't speak for the rest of Snakes on McCain we're all different people and I, unlike Andrew, have not had any strange dreams about mud wrestling with Hu Jintao.  I'm sure that I missed some articles and I definitely have a bias with respect to what I like to read -- like any blogger.  Also, I'm a twenty-something so I think I know everything.
I decided to do this in the shower yesterday morning so since then I've been scouring the internet in the hopes of stringing together enough keywords to direct me toward the articles I need but, alas, I'm sure that some have slipped by and will go uncelebrated.  Feel free to sound off in the comments on any pieces you think I missed.  These are purely articles I found on the web so anything that is exclusively in print is undetected to the all-knowing-eye that is this SOM list.
Ranking them would be too tough so this is an unranked top 10 with some honorable mentions toward the bottom.  Sadly, I'm not clever enough to have a grading rubric devised.  Some are narratives I wish we talked about more, others are literary and tugged at my heartstrings, then there are others that I just find illuminating and wanted to share (again).
Happy reading and thanks for a great year.  I'll put the stats for Snakes on McCain in a post closer to New Year's Day so you guys can see just how great you all have been.

#ForTheBoys

Holla at the homies (some missing)

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How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America: A Remembrance

Kiese Laymon

Gawker, July 28

Fear of a Black President

Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Atlantic, September 2012

The Anchor

Laura M. Colarusso

Washington Monthly, May/June 2012

On Affirmative Action, African-Americanism, and Anger

Michel-Ange (Mickey) Desruisseaux

With Apologies to Bill Bennet, October 21

Dear President Schapiro: Why I Can't Recommend Northwestern University Anymore

Greg Wright

Wright and Left, October 22

Becoming Obama: Young Barack Obama in Love

David Maraniss

Vanity Fair, June 2012

For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall

Jason DeParle

New York Times, December 22

The Consequences of Caring

Bill Simmons

Grantland, June 8

Kanye West Is Better at His Job Than I Am at Mine (But I'm Way Better at Being a Fake-Ass Feminist)

Kiese Laymon

Gawker, August 25

A New Kind of Blackness: Remarks at Tufts University's Black Solidarity Day

William Brandon Lacy Campos

My Feet Only Walk Forward, November 5

HONORABLE MENTIONS 

The Caging of America
Adam Gopnik
The New Yorker, January 30*

Obama's Way

Michael Lewis

Vanity Fair, October 2012

Destiny is Ruthless

Brian Phillips

Grantland, August 10

Inside Bashar al-Assad's Army

Mike Giglio

The Daily Beast, December 10

Inside the Free Syrian Army's 'Candy Factories,' the Secret Rebel Arms Workshops

Anna Therese Day

The Daily Beast, October 23

What Bill Clinton Wrote vs What Bill Clinton Said

Dashiell Bennett

The Atlantic Wire, September 6

The 'Cac Responds to Kate Upton Body Haters
Emile M. Cioran and Anonymous**
In the 'Cac, July 18
**I'm the anon

Reprint: An Account of Sexual Assault at Amherst College
Angie Epifano
In the 'Cac, October 18

So you're thinking of Birthright: A primer by students who went on birthright for those still considering the trip

Tufts Students for Justice in Palestine (re-published by Mondoweiss)

Mondoweiss, December 20

'Dialogue' stands in way of justice in Palestine

Samee Sulaiman, Sami Kishawi

The Chicago Maroon, December 4

Read a Book! Or, Why I Don't Talk to Strange White Folks About Race

Mia McKenzie

Black Girl Dangerous, July 16

The Israel Lobby Finds a New Face: Black College Students

Seth Freed Wessler

ColorLines, January 18

* BONUS: Top 10 New Yorker Stories of 2012 - The Apostate; The Obama Memos; The Caging of America; The Story of a Suicide; Spoiled Rotten; We Are Alive (Bruce Springsteen); Big Med; Super-Rich Irony; One on One; The Choice