It's not the band we hate...

It's their fans.

In response to this:

Don't get too complacent. I've seen exactly the same behaviour by your compatriots on Usenet. But yes - these people are slightly deranged. Some of them actually believe that denigrating someone over the internet is more reprehensible than battering an old lady to death with an axe. Strange days indeed.

I recall one particular case in which the 'culprit' was a guy from Madison County, Wisconsin. However, I do not remember anyone criticising his physical appearance or suggesting that part of his rehabilitation should consist of performing sexual favours for the opposite sex.

I can't imagine why that could be.

Can you?

Ridiculing

Commodity Fetishism. Note to Apple Evangelists: Steve Jobs is not God. I know because Richard Dawkins told me. In fact, that's the title of his next book. And Bill Gates is not Satan. Get it?

A little online temper tantrum in response to some spoilt little brat who said that she would never date a shelf stacker:

I find it shallow. Shallow and thoroughly unpleasant. You are aware, I'm sure, that there are many reason that individuals may end up in the situation you describe. As it happens I have a friend who is, at this moment, stacking shelves. He developed schizophrenia in his mid-twenties. He has a first class degree from a rather prestigious university. Ask (deleted) or one of the other medics just how difficult it is to sustain a successful career and remain on a high dose of neuroleptics. You may well be academically brilliant but you need to work on acquiring an imagination and a capacity for empathy.

Oh, and how's this for the very epitome of the Karpman Drama Triangle: Victim/Perpetrator/Rescuer? Each playing their alloted roles. Balding middle-aged men on white horses, anyone? No, it doesn't appeal to me much either.

The blogger makes a good point about rampant, untamed typography.