When bombastic right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart died suddenly a few weeks ago, his surviving minions promised that his mission -- to expose the secret Obama/Hollywood conspiracy to destroy America or something -- would not go unfulfilled, that they would carry his gas-powered torch going forward.

Just a quick note on something that's on my mind today: the death of Andrew Breitbart has served to reinforce the belief that ones social media persona is playing an increasingly greater part in the shaping of identity -- how people perceive you to be when alive, and now, more and more so, after death.

Bombastic conservative activist, political provocateur and web pioneer Andrew Breitbart died last night.