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 …

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. …

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 …

'I'm your social media guru'

H/T Katherine Mangu-Ward at Reason magazine’s Hit-and-Run blog. In August The Bloggess, whom I love pure and chaste from afar, wrote “How not to get fired for using social networking” — speaking of which, while you’re in the neighborhood, I also recommend her post, “Get my husband off Facebook” — I adore her husband, Victor, …

NY Times to cut 100 newsroom jobs

New York, New York, Oct. 19 — The New York Times announced today that it will cut 100 jobs from its newsroom staff by the end of 2009 thanks to efficiencies resulting from publishing only stories dictated or approved by the Obama administration. “With advertising revenues plummeting because we can’t figure out how to compete …

Obama's new two-part plan for Afghanistan

Prof. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection has some pointed questions for Obama about his plans for the war in Afghanistan: And what about the Obama administration’s new strategy announced last March: “Today, I am announcing a comprehensive, new strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan. And this marks the conclusion of a careful policy review, led by Bruce …