The People's Republic of Wikipedia

H/T to Kathy Shaidle for drawing my attention to the review by Evgeny Morozov at Boston Review of The Wikipedia Revolution: How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia by Andrew Lih, who joined Wikipedia when it was only two-years-old and quickly became an administrator. The review and comments are well worth reading …

This historic, frightening anniversary

Iowahawk’s column from 11/6/2008 on the election of Obama, which he re-published yesterday, has proved to be prescient. My only quibble is that the presidency is Obama’s second full-time job ever, not his first. He was a copy editor in his 20’s. While others complain that Obama has never run so much as a lemonade …

How to empower disabled members of the Armed Services to thank them for keeping you safe

From a comment here by Viet Nam war veteran and Texan, Peter Davis, son of a World War II veteran, and proprietor of Shakey Pete’s Shootin’ Shack, which will be in my newsfeed when I can figure out how to stop his RSS feed from breaking it: The Armed Services are all about close teamwork …

Kathy Griffin, fiscal conservative unaware

Kathy Griffin made my late life partner, Margaret Ardussi, laugh when she was in pain and dying, as much as I’d ever heard her laugh in our 20+ years together. We watched her first HBO special, “My Life on the D-list,” again and again in the fall of 2004 in the weeks before Margaret died. …

Proven technology for producing peace

This is a video from 1990 of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the founder of the Transcendental Meditation program, explaining how the Maharishi Effect can create peace and positive trends. The Maharishi Effect begins when any given population has at least one percent practicing the Transcendental Meditation program twice a day, or the square root of one …

Best Fisking of the 'Inherited Deficits' assertion

Almost all my friends and family are liberal and occasionally I ask them about the economy and how they feel about Obama. I do this in the scientific way that a cat pats a mouse. What I really want to know is, “Is the Kool-Aid wearing off? Are you still satisfied that you investigated Obama …

So — Muslims can serve in the Armed Forces but we're still purging homosexuals? How's that working out?

I weep for the wounded and dead at Fort Hood — except for the gunman, military psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan (update: he is alive). But when Muslims are allowed to serve in our military, despite the fact that the Koran commands them to deceive and kill non-Muslims, yet lesbians and gays like Arabic-interpreter Lt. …

Carrie Prejean sex tape revelation

Carrie Prejean, the fired Miss California USA who became famous for stating her opposition to marriage equality for homosexuals, dropped her lawsuit against the California state pageant officials on Nov. 3 after they showed her an X-rated home movie in which TMZ.com reports she performed solo. “I just wanted to make an audition tape but …

My father is in pain and that's what I care about today

Dad is taking a nap but in a few minutes I will wake him up and take him to the rheumatologist, Dr. A (not his real initial). Dad’s arthritis was under control on a daily dose of 2.5 milligrams of prednisone, but prednisone has side effects, like reducing bone density, which concerned the doctor because …

Dear Attila

Dear Attila, I am delighted to learn that you have discussed a sleep study with a doctor — I hope, one who is a sleep specialist, since the study of sleep medicine is brand-new and even young general practitioners mostly only know enough about sleep medicine to be dangerous, that is, dismissive of real problems, …