One of the things I simultaneously love and fear about the internet is the ability of the world to comment on news articles without having to bother with the tedium of finding pen, paper, envelope and stamp and then putting together a letter to the editor.

It’s a wonderful thing, because it’s far more entertaining than just reading one more article about Skank #32 in Tiger Wilson’s Parade of Floozies. Journalists have to pay attention to libel laws, for example, which takes a lot of the fun out of the content. Commenters, especially the anonymous ones, have no such limitation.

It’s also a terrifying thing, because then you start to see the sense in the system that required a commenter to be organized enough to find pen, paper, envelope and stamp, because it tended to filter out the crazies. And the people w ho cannot spell. And the people who do not understand the niceties of sentence structure. Not to mention the people who think white supremacy is a fine and wonderful thing.

So, because I’m deep that way, I’m reading the fine comic strip, Luann, which, according to Wikipedia, “takes place in an unnamed suburban setting and is mostly about teenager Luann DeGroot, dealing with school, her love interests, family and friends.” Every so often something serious happens, but mostly it’s a treatment of what my fifteen year old son calls “unexplained teenaged angst.”

I’m reading this week’s strips online and notice that there are comments on most of the strips. What in the heck is there to comment on about a comic strip about a teenaged girl that today is centered on a caroling trip to a nursing home?

I’m kinda sorry I asked, because to answer that question you have to actually click on the comments and then read them. I went into brain freeze when the ACLU was mentioned, and then was sort of hoping I’d be struck blind when that same commenter dragged NAMBLA into it. (And no, I’m not going to spell it out. I’m still horrified.)

Into a cartoon about little Luann DeGroot, whose biggest contribution to drama and controversy happened years ago when the author covered her starting her period and caused a minor media sensation.

The next thing you know, we’ll find out that Snoopy is not only battling the Red Baron, that pesky little beagle is a Holocaust denier.