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Lt. John Pike Goes Viral (9)

In his 1968 book The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten defined chutzpah as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.” In that spirit (though he’s not Jewish), John Pike, formerly a lieutenant in the campus police at the University of California, Davis, filed a worker’s compensation claim with the State of California for “psychiatric injury,” which can result in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). […]

JFK, Tink Thompson, and “Six Seconds in Dallas” (2)

What I took away from Thompson’s book “Six Seconds in Dallas” that nourished my budding inclination to start working as a photography critic was this: Close, patient attention to the particulars of lens-derived images would reward the viewer in unpredictable ways. […]

JFK, Tink Thompson, and “Six Seconds in Dallas” (1)

On November 21 of this year I happened across “November 22, 1963,” a short film by Errol Morris, which features an unlikely interviewee: a Navy Seal turned Kierkegaard scholar turned high-profile private investigator named Josiah “Tink” Thompson. Though I met him only once, almost 46 years ago, I recognized him immediately. […]

Forumization and Its Malcontent (6)

The term “sock puppet” has come to denote people who create false web identities with which to generate online attention to and (usually) praise of themselves ― such as posting favorable comments about and reviews of their own work at Amazon and other sites. We need another term for those who hide behind false names in order to do other kinds of online harm to people, and I propose “web weasel.” […]

Forumization and Its Malcontent (5)

We need to preserve anonymity in some situations― that’s what makes whistle-blowing possible, among other things. But no reputable print periodical would publish unsigned letters to the editor; they require a verifiable sender, though they’ll withhold a name on request if there’s a good reason for it. No reason that online forums, and the comments section of periodicals and blogs, shouldn’t subscribe to the same standards. […]