While it is absolutely dead-certain you will hear about Sarah Palin's much-hyped memoir when it comes out on November 17, the mainstream media PR machine is likely to give short shrift to a compelling collection of essays that ought to make a lively companion piece to Palin's ode to… Read full post »

Bless her soul, our very own feed vigilante, the endlessly empathetic Cartouche pointed the way late last night to the harrowing tale of OS member Rutilus Extraho and has since  been tirelessly pounding the hustings for people to make it go viral through Digg and Reddit.

She's a smart cookie, th… Read full post »

In response to a Federal Communications Commission Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published Thursday, John McCain introduced his own Internet Freedom Act of 2009 in the United States Senate, revealing the administrative style the U.S. would likely have faced had he won the 2008 presidential el… Read full post »

Lamentations on Truth, Justice and the American Way

A headline in Thursday's USA Today spoke of President Barack Obama's "defining moment" in Afghanistan -- the theater former President George W. Bush chose eight years ago to showcase for the world the United States' response to the infamous 9/11 t… Read full post »

"Technology guy." That's what the Dalai Lama said to his translator when he first heard the question I posed to him last week at a media briefing His Holiness was giving in Memphis, prior to receiving the 2009 International Freedom Award from the National Civil Rights Museum.

I had wrangled my… Read full post »

Only the educated are free.
          -Epictetus

President Barack Obama addressed the nation's school children without incident Tuesday, imploring millions of Americans aged 5 - 18 to "get serious this… Read full post »

I've been here well more than a year. And as much as I love food - love to buy it, love to prepare it, love to cook it, love to eat it - I have yet to do a Foody Tuesday post before today.

Time was, Dan-onymous owned Foody Tuesdays around… Read full post »

Puddin', schmuddin'.

I went to Las motherfuckin' Vegas and got in the middle of an Extreme Panty Off. 

What can I say? They call me Mr. Lucky.

You want hurt? You want to be sickened? You want to know what it's really like to eat at the kewl kidz… Read full post »

When I joined Open Salon last April I had already been unemployed since the previous August, when I was let go one Friday afternoon from a six figure position with a successful telecommunications company and Internet service provider here in San Francisco.

At the time, I had ver… Read full post »

Dakini Dancer's ashes rest in that pretty box, there, with the colorful bow and the lovely beads wrapped around it, looked over by a statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, a Christian Saint with whom she had a personal visitation late in her life, and who became an important… Read full post »

Well, it seems like there's a penchant at the moment for lists of 25 and in the ongoing fantasy where I one day manage to actually strike while the iron is hot, I was thinking today what kind of a list of 25 I might be able to come up with,… Read full post »

Author's Note:  In the interest of not appearing completely the insufferable egotist the following post might portray,  I commend you, dear reader, to the Fathers' Day post I did last year, El Jefe -- a portrait of my own dear, departed father, who I miss terribly, today and eve… Read full post »

I don't know who or how many saw this today, but there may have been a spillover from Trig Palin's Drew-Silla post last night. Or else Thomas has been hitting the crack pipe again. Either way, I'm sure Freaky would be proud.

  Read full post »

In case you missed it, the Obama administration's appointment of 6' 4" Texan "Big Ed" Whiteacre to the Chairmanship of General Motors Tuesday was the official signal that you can now take down all your blue and red HOPE and CHANGE and PROGRESS posters. I took mine down a while ago;… Read full post »

Purewire Trust today released a comprehensive study purporting to quantify somewhat the reach and influence of users of this year's wildly popular social media application, Twitter.

Purewire calls it 'Twitter's Dirty Little Secret,' but it's not surprising, actually, to learn that 10% of t… Read full post »

There was that time back in the 80's though, when I got swept up by the whole poofed-hair, Working Girl concept and did it all for tips
on Mardi Gras day in Old New Orleans.

I'd say I got it down pretty well for someone who hadn't had… Read full post »

I'm pleased to see Open Salon becoming comfortable with itself. Just in time for summer.  Anybody wants to join me for a game of ultimate frisbee some weekend, just let me know.

No makeup required. Read full post »

I remember hearing the thwacka-wonga-wonga of the diving board so loud, moments before a cool sploosh of swimming pool water enveloped me and gave way to azure silence as I dove into my parents' pool that August afternoon, not long after I'd returned home from spending most of the summer ridin… Read full post »

Well, I promised my next post was going to recount the story of my picnic on Elvis Presley's grave, but sometimes I am just a damn liar - and this is one of them.

The video above is making the rounds and not only is it… Read full post »

or⋅gy

–noun, plural -gies.

1. wild, drunken or licentious festivity or revelry.
2. any actions or proceedings marked by unbridled indulgence of passions: an orgy of killing.
3. orgies, (in ancient Greece) esoteric religious rituals, esp. in the worship of Demeter or Dionysus, charact
… Read full post »

In the fall of 1986 I traveled to Mainland China for the first time, with my friend Howie, a classmate from law school who shared my love of adventure and a predilection for exploring altered states in all their terrifying, magnificent glory.

I was just coming off a nine month stint… Read full post »

I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die... not really. I just wanted to type that out to see what it would look like.

 OK. Here goes:

1. I was detained on suspicion of espionage in China in 1986.

2. I have participated in several orgies.

3. I… Read full post »

Oh my, but a good time was had by all last night at the Open Salon One Year Anniversary Party! 

You really had to be there, and some were -- virtually, anyhow -- through the magic of LonnieCam.  I regret that inherent technical limitations of the audio channel, together with… Read full post »