Trolls Under The Bridge

Or rather, in the comments section.

I've learned my lesson.  I stay out of the comments sections on news sites.  I'm still traumatized by the horrible, hateful, downright evil things posted on the New York Post's site when Brittany Murphy died.

And, I know I'm playing with fire when I venture into the comments on Dooce.com.  I have no idea how Heather Armstrong deals with some of the ridiculously petty and sometimes downright nasty things people post.  Although, I am still snickering at one of the latest comments I saw.  Apparently, someone took the time to add up the cost of all of the running gear Heather posted (that's not pathetic, at all....) and then railed at Heather for posting items well out of reach of the majority of her readers.  I'd love to know how she was able to get such detailed demographic information on Heather's audience.

But, I thought I was safe on my friends' blogs.  Not anymore.  Late one night last week I was reading a friend's blog and came across a nasty comment that finished up with the always original threat of divine retribution.  I was so angry I was shaking and promptly typed up a scathing rebuttal....and cut and pasted it onto my desktop.  After careful consideration, I opted not to post my comment (or any of the details here).  One because, after a little bit of online research, there is a good chance this person is unbalanced and two because I think that sort of mud slinging says more about the person throwing it than the person on the receiving end.  (Before you give me too much credit for taking the high road, we're a little scared of this chick.)

I don't even know what to think anymore.  I thought I understood all this boorish behavior as a product of the relative anonymity of the Internet. Then I came face-to-face with a real live Troll.  Someone, after my confirmation that yes, my dog is part Pit Bull, actually said to me "The only good Pit Bull is the one on the other end of my gun."  HUH?  Seriously.  Did the man coming to the vet to have his 3 lb fluff ball's nails clipped just say he wanted to shoot my dog?  This was not some punk kid. This dude was most likely someone's grandpa.

Yep.  My dog is the scary monster....