One of China’s most influential bloggers, Xu Lai, who writes under the pseudonym Qian Liexian, was stabbed at a bookstore after a public reading.

The incident allegedly occurred in the store’s bathroom by two men who fled the scene.

The victim’s blog, “Qian Liexian Wants to Speak,” offers satirical observations on society and politics. Among topics Lai has recently covered include government corruption and the recent scandal of milk contaminated with an industrial chemical. However, at this time, it is unknown whether the attack was related to the blog.

Xu Lai is expected to make a full recovery and we hope he gets well soon.

With the recent spitting incident involving TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington and now this, it might be time blogger looked into hiring personal security details. It’s dangerous times out there, friends!

We’ll keep you posted on this story.

Did a restaurant critic get pounded – literally – for something he wrote on a blog? The folks at Gawker certainly intimate that Steve Barnes, a critic for the Albany Times-Union, was a target. The poor guy really got hammered (see pic).

In this day and age of ‘find anyone, anywhere’ blogging, should opinionated writers be packing heat (or at least hiring a blogging bodyguard)?

It’s nice to think that the words we write don’t live in a vacuum, but that same freedom could come with some serious ramifications.

Speak your mind, but proceed with caution. Not everyone was raised as well as you.

Now excuse me, I’ve got some push-ups to do…