The comments section today is hurting my brain.

@Connie Boyd: Did you say that you don't have time to do free things, but you're commenting here? If I were you I would contact the Salon editors, because you've been had. You've been providing free content for readers for sometime now. I read your comment and didn't even pay you a dime. You AND Metallica: So ripped off.

Amity writes, "Why can't Wikipedia change instead? Increasingly, the site's articles are becoming annoyingly obscure and less and less useful as they get bogged down in minutiae (not to mention bad editing)."

It's a cumulative site. They don't get rid of the old stuff, and I'll bet you a million billion dollars that you haven't read everything on Wikipedia.

Why can't Wikipedia change instead? Commenting on Salon might have given you the wrong impression about the way life works, but it generally goes like this: If you have a criticism about something, the onus is on you to improve it. Your attitude is why our country is going to shit: Americans believe that the power of their bitching is going to change the world.

I'm female and have contributed to Wikipedia. They were missing (what I believed to be) an important article, and I wanted to provide it. As I remember it, the editing process was a bit lengthy, but not difficult.

Yes, women get hassled for assuming authority over information. It's stupid, and the best way to combat that cultural taboo is to just do it. Over and over again, be the woman that isn't afraid to challenge the stereotype.

Right now I'm looking at the headlines that announce Van Jones' resignation. How many resignations did the Bush Administration brook due to political pressure? Rumsfeld, Michael (heckuva job, Brownie) Brown, Alberto Gonzales. But even with Gonzales, he was being unendingly hounded by legal battles. It was up to him to resign or face impeachment.

And now with Van Jones we have a man who hasn't even been in office a year, and he's chased out of D.C. over something he said BEFORE he got into office. You see where I'm going with this?

Hey guy, I don't go to your Klan rallies to heckle the speaker. So why are you spending your time on Salon? You have a tiny, miniscule commenting past, and they're all from the beginning of August. Your comments are mostly full of hate and invectives. And they seem particularly concerned about the healthcare crisis. Chances are you're either a Glenn Beck fan or a paid operative. So again, why are you coming on Salon to sling mud?

Perhaps healthcare reformers (i.e. pinko commie socialists) need to spend more time returning the good will that you guys have given us. I'm down with that. You think we're all pushovers? I'm looking forward to changing your mind on that, because I am done playing nice.

As someone who has known many contrarians in my lifetime, let me say that you sound like an asshole. Now I know that my fellow readers will be clamoring to say the exact same thing, only in more florid detail. But let's review:

1.) Your parents are liberal.

2.) As a child you strove to rebel against them.

3.) As a result of your own past behavior, you have now vowed to shower your children with toy guns.

Well, since it made the headlines, I think that we Salon readers are entitled to lob a few bombs your way.

You can paint the picture anyway you like, but you're still glorifying violence, still making it look like something it's not.

Now, my (nonliberal) father was VERY pro-corporal punishment. Not only that, but my brother had a fetish for violence that he honed by attempting to beat me into a pulp on a daily basis. He did this by chasing me with a BB gun, by attempting to break my leg, and by sitting on top of me and hitting me in the face with his bare fists. He also owned and operated a set of nunchuks and Chinese throwing stars. So you can make cute descriptions of your childhood play all you want, but you should know that for many kids there isn't that much difference between the play toys and the real thing.

Take care, Mr. Benjamin. Hope your son doesn't turn into the asocial moron that my brother did, not that you wouldn't have it coming.

Assuming that this information reflects some larger reality, I would say that this poll goes a long way towards explaining girl-on-girl crime in the office space.

If you are unhappy in your job, then you are much likelier to spread that unhappiness to the person sitting next to you. For too long women have been distracted from their true obstacles (against equity and equal pay).

Or, to put it a slightly different way, and as Maria Bamford says, "Loreal, because I'm worth it. And because holding myself to an impossible standard of beauty keeps me from starting a riot."