The Biggest Obstacle to Blogging
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
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Megan McArdle reports that she has had a fourth bicycle stolen since moving to DC, all of them locked, all of them at her home, the most recent inside a stockade fence. In frustration, she observes, “I think I’m done with bike commuting. I’d rather just hand out $100 bills to random people on the street; at least I wouldn’t be rewarding theft.”
This is followed by a remarkably heated exchange in the comments section, numbering 60 as of this writing, wherein readers lambaste Megan for being a dingbat and each other for various transgressions.
Freddy Mercury and company offer some related thoughts:
About James Joyner
Presumably, some of the comments have been to the effect that if DC allowed concealed carry there would be less bicycle theft.
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Not among the first 60 which, surprisingly, were even more insipid than that!
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I stopped reading Megan’s blog because of the weirdos stalking her in the comments. No one reasonable would want to be associated that pack.
I do think she sometimes takes a narrow view, or perhaps makes an argument in the adversarial sense, knowing it is weak … but in the hue and cry the thread of actual content is rapidly lost.
(I notice that bike theft correlates pretty well to bike ridership. There is, very unfortunately a critical mass, when enough people are riding the crime becomes profitable. I do think plagued cities should stop it somehow.)
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Did any of the insipid commenters call her a slow learner?
Personally, I think twice might do me. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…won’t get fooled again!”
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