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There is no neutral point of view in a love affair gone bad. Jimmy Wales violated Wikipedia's rules in posting a note announcing his breakup with Canadian journalist Rachel Marsden on the world's most exacting collection of urban legends about McDonald's. Marsden has retaliated in kind, or attempted to. Her recent efforts to leave a note for Wales on Wikipedia — "the only way to have any sort of rational or caring discussion with him," she claims — resulted in her account being banned by administrators.

Marsden's extreme political views and amusingly checkered personal life tell us she's no saint. Her relationship with Wales grew out of her efforts to use Wikipedia to obscur her contrail of controversy. Now that they've broken up, and Wales's proxies have allowed all manner of edits they'd previously blocked at his behest, she's upset over the state of her Wikipedia entry.

But the Wikipedia scandal isn't about her; it's about Wales. If you think ill of Marsden, remember that Wales freely chose to associate with her. Wales has made a series of bad choices in terms of who he gets in bed with, in love and in business: Marsden; venture capitalist Roger McNamee; Sue Gardner, executive director of Wikipedia's parent, the WIkimedia Foundation; rock star Bono; and countless others. Someone really ought to list all his mistakes. Perhaps in an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit?

Marsden's Wikipedia missive to Wales:

As anyone who has ever cared about Jimbo here knows, the only way to have any sort of rational or caring discussion with him is in the Wikimatrix here. Alright, fine. Game on, sweetheart. Newsflash: Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia; it is a cult. I wouldn't even be included in a real encyclopedia. I want the Wikipedia entry about me deleted. I don't know why this is such a difficult concept to accept.

This is not a publishing company, nor is it some kind of altruistic venture for the greater good of humanity. Wikipedia is nothing more than the biggest and most prolific defamation machine that the world has ever known, run by people with varying degrees of personality disorders. You couldn't have cared less about my Wikipedia entry until we started sleeping together, Jimmy. At that point, it was nicely cleaned up and taken care of through your proxies here on the site, as per your instructions (and it's not the first time an article has been cleaned up through a proxy, as per your orders...this kind of stuff, contrary to popular belief, doesn't just happen "magically" here on Wikipedia). Now that we're not sleeping together and since you so publicly broke up with my here on this website, the page about me has turned into a complete free-for-all.

Are you aware, Jimmy, that "NPOV" (aka "Neutral Point Of View") is actually an oxymoron? By its very nature, a "point of view" cannot be "neutral". Communism has failed everywhere it has been tried, Jimmy, and Wikipedia is no exception. As for you trying to make it seem as though your invisible hand isn't involved in any of this, perhaps it's wise for people to remember that the greatest feat the devil ever pulled off was convincing people that he doesn't exist.