Tell me about the rabbits, George

One Christmas, when we were kids, my sister got a remote-controlled car under the tree. Actually, it was a Barbi Jeep, but that's neither here nor there. She opened the box, popped a couple of double-A batteries into the remote, crammed ol' Babs in the driver's seat and promptly, without hesitation, drove the thing down the stairs. It broke and we cried.
The act wasn't malicious, we didn't want it to break, we wanted to test it. But, sadly, the off-road trip was a little too extreme and we lost everything. (Except Barbi, that skank will be around forever.)
The reason I'm telling this story is because I think the commenters on the News-Miner site often go way too far. And if they keep testing the boundaries this way, the whole thing is going to go away.
DON'T SQUEEZE THE RABBITS SO TIGHT, LENNIE!
Some of the people who comment start off OK, but inevitably these bored, sad souls end up bickering with each other and petty name-calling usually ensues. And most of the time, the arguments have nothing to do with the original story. (One story on the site about poaching in Denali Park set off a string of comments about Britney Spears...seriously.) I mean, at least with letters to the editor, people have to stop for a second to think about what they're writing and sending, but it seems people will write anything at all hours on the website.
The comments are controlled, and slanderous or vulgar comments are removed post haste but a lot slide through that are just idiotic and unnecessarily rude. It's amazing how people feel like they have carte blanche to be assholes when they hide behind the name 'Anonymous.'
Peace