from my online writing, I have come to accept than a large portion of the people that use the internet use it as a way to just be shitty to other people without having to say it to their faces. That said, its usually the commenters I deal with. I write so that people will read it, and when i say something controversial, I expect to get a reaction. I will also always put my name on it, because if i dont stand by my stance, whats the point of putting it out there?

Name calling serves no purpose and is a cop out for not having anything interesting to say- but i dont think she should have to pay for it.

as for google outing her, that sucks big time. i dont know how big her blog is because ive never heard of it, but if she can prove that them doing so impacted her income, she totally has a right to sue.

On the other hand, part of anonymous commenting is that it has (in my mind) a lot less weight than attributed commenting. Hazy middle ground arises for constructed pseudonymous identities. I think the more the person has invested in the identity the more loaded the question becomes.