When I have found myself, over the past ten years, snagging my fingernails clinging to the fraying ends of the greased tether above the shit-abyss, you-Mr. Kamiya-have been there to remind me I am not alone in my horror of what our country has become.

Sometimes, when one is besieged, it is enough to know that someone, somewhere out there, gets it too...and is similarly outraged over how things are unfolding in the scheme of things.

So thank you so much for that. Sincerely. Salon has literally been a lifeline for me. May the next ten years bring us a sense of hope and resolve, and usher in an era of intelligent rationality to quash the reign of the Stoopids.

(Yeah, right, he goes....)

Pax and Love,

ahansen

As a person of color( a black colored negro) I started reading your publication in the late 90's while stuck in a small cube surrounded by conservatives and white folks who reminded me for years that OJ was not as handsome as me... Despite never having a lot of diversity(racial) on your staff that shortcoming never handcuffed the content plus you even published one of my letters..

Great article, quick question:

Gary wrote:

"...if that event doesn't carry your memory back to Old Kentucky, there is no madeleine in existence that will work on you."

I don't know I've ever seen the term madeleine used in a context like this. Any explanation of that usage, Gary?

Thanx!

I discovered Salon from a little blurb in the New Yorker. It must have been about 1996. My earliest memories of Salon are colored largely by my near constant participation in Table Talk, and some of the personalities and discussions from those board still are with me.

This walk down dot-com memory lane was great, and I am pleased as punch that Salon not just survived, but thrived, after the bust. I've worked in the dot-com world since 1997, and I feel that Salon has been with me all the way. Not just politically (but that too), but culturally and socially.

So thanks to Gary, David, Joan, Laura, Mary Beth, and all the other editors and writers who have made Salon my home page for (nearly) 10 years.

Great going, Gary, you're the best. And since I can't think, write or cajole like you can I going to send you a joke -- enjoy!

In ancient Israel, it came to pass that a trader by the name of Abraham Com did take unto himself a young wife by the name of Dot.

And Dot Com was a comely woman, broad of shoulder and long of leg. Indeed, she had been called 'Amazon Dot Com.'

And she said unto Abraham, her husband, "Why dost thou travel far from town to town with thy goods when thou can trade without ever leaving thy tent?"

And Abraham did look at her as though she were several saddle bags short of a camel load, but simply said, "How, dear?" And Dot replied, "I will place drums in all the towns and drums in between to send messages saying what you have for sale and they will reply telling you which hath the best price. And the sale can be made on the drums and delivery made by Uriah's Pony Stable (UPS)."

Abraham thought long and decided he would let Dot have her way with the drums. And the drums rang out and were an immediate success. Abraham sold all the goods he had at the top price, without ever moving from his tent.

But this success did arouse envy. A man named Maccabia did secrete himself inside Abraham's drum and was accused of insider trading. And the young man did take to Dot Com's trading as doth the greedy horsefly take to camel dung. They were called Nomadic Ecclesiastical Rich Dominican Siderites, or NERDS for short.

And lo, the land was so feverish with joy at the new riches and the deafening sound of drums that no one noticed that the real riches were going to the drum maker, one Brother William of Gates, who bought up every drum company in the land. And indeed did insist on making drums that would work only with Brother Gates' drumheads and drumsticks.

And Dot did say, "Oh, Abraham, what we have started is being taken over by others."

And as Abraham looked out over the Bay of Ezekiel, or as it came to be known "eBay" he said, "We need a name that reflects what we are."

And Dot replied, "Young Ambitious Hebrew Owner Operators."

"YAHOO," said Abraham.

And that is how it all began. It wasn't Al Gore after all.

That's it in two words: the reason that I think you are still flirting with the mainstream media trends. You bought into the 'scream' mania whole hog; I expected better from you. It is easy to bad-mouth Bush, being the closest thing to an evil dictator that this country has ever had; that doesn't make this news organisation cutting edge. Since Bush is just handing it to you on a platter, all you have to do next is dish it up. I wish you had not followed the Democratic Party machine who helped to crush Howard Dean. He would have made a fine president, on or off the dreaded microphone.

All the best on your tenth anniversary.

I came to Salon when I was arguing with some troglodyte on a local newspaper board. I was looking for a cite that David Brock had recanted his stories about Bill Clinton and I found this treasure trove of interesting stuff - not just stories about the dishonesty of the Republican attempt at coup d'etat, but also stories about travel to distant lands, stories about the way sexuality and popular culture evolve, and and most importantly, about how great Buffy, The Vampire Slayer was.

Salon has always managed to annoy me. You publish junk by fools (Camille Paglia, Andrew "RawMuscleGlutes" Sullivan), knaves (David Horowitz - once a commie, always a commie), and twits (Anne Lamott, Rebecca Traister, Farhad Manjoo, and that gamer guy who seemed to think that war = Doom). You make story choices that I wouldn't; you emphasize things that I'd leave below the fold. That being said, Salon is still essential daily reading.

I hope you publish something that acknowledges Table Talk - aside from spawning influential websites like dailykos.com, failureisimpossible.com, and the much-missed mediawhoresonline.com, an online community that has made such a difference in so many lives shouldn't be ignored. I've been inspired by Table Talk posters like Laura Erickson and her contagious enthusiasm and boundless knowlege of birds and Martin Heldt and his crusade to dig up the truth about George W. Bush's "service" record.

Oh, and to the anonymous (cowardly?) poster who wanted Salon to "the Libertarian point of view" - sorry, pal, but Salon is for grown-ups.