You might remember back when Jay Mariotti, deeply hurt by critical remarks on Wikipedia, asking the site to take down those mean, mean words. You might have thought he had grown a thicker skin since then. You'd be wrong.

You know how, the other day, we told you that you could comment on Mariotti's columns in the Chicago Sun-Times. Well, Jay has put the kibosh on that.

Earlier this week, the tough-guy columnist asked management to remove reader comments from its Web site. So if you want to rip Mariotti for ripping Jim Hendry in his Thursday column, you're out of luck. Kind of. A few readers slammed Mariotti at the bottom of a Greg Couch column Thursday.

You know, people love to ask us, in a snickering way, what we think of Stephen A. Smith's blog. Honestly, we think it's great; it takes real cojones to be a national television presence like Smith and not be afraid of open comments. The guy can take it. The guy has balls. No matter what your thoughts about him, you have to respect him for that.

Jay Mariotti, as if this was possibly in doubt, does not. He's a very sensitive boy.

Silence Is Golden [Chicago Tribune] (second item)

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