Sweet mother of god ... There's a series on KSL (source of the story about the exploding stereo) about porn addiction. "My husband's porn addiction ruined our marriage!" "He was such a spiritual man, then the internet made him a sex addict!"

I made the mistake of reading the comments on the story, hoping I'd see "For heaven's sake get a life" comments. There were three. Most of them were all going "Thank god KSL had the courage to address this horrible scourge!" etc. It nauseates me to think of the ignorance and namby-pambiness of the people sitting around me.

Oh, sure, there's destructive porn out there. I hit some websites, blink in horror, and hit the back button as fast as the mouse can move. People can get obsessed in anything to the point of neglecting their family. There's some people in my office who have a problem with fantasy sports, if you ask me.

They sit there, mouthing ignorant pieties at each other. And I sit there and think, "Guess what, nimrod, I not only look at porn, I've written it." So freaking, freaking sad.

yay more Em pictures!

Hec, I like the way you think of lurking Buffistas.

Dee said it was both weird and exciting to recognize JZ and Emmett when they came in. I think it was probably similar to the sensation we all had when big batches of us first met at the Chicago F2F. You know these people through their words, and some pictures and then BOOM there they are in front of you. Almost like a character had walked off a page.

You can really see a lot of MM's bone structure in that arm-reaching anime eyes picture of Emeline. When I met her I mostly noticed the Aimee elements in her face.

This was, unsurprisingly, a big thing in the freak-ass church. They equated any sort of consumption of porn (i.e., reading Playboy, renting a movie, even if you rent it to watch it with your spouse) with porn addiction, and therefore all porn is the devil's work and destroys families and society.

That's like saying that drinking one beer is alcoholism and therefore all beer is evil.

Like you said, Connie, addiction to *anything* (porn, booze, gambling, shopping) is going to cause serious problems in a relationship. It's the addiction itself, and not the object of the addiction, that's the problem.

"Actually I'm a lurker who supports you in email."

Do you know, I think I might actually tag that, because that's pretty much where I'm at wrt the boards these days, with the best will in the world, and because I think that is just SO fucking cool. Bless. Go Team Sooper Seekrit Buffista!

People can get obsessed in anything to the point of neglecting their family. There's some people in my office who have a problem with fantasy sports, if you ask me.

Word. It's not like marriages didn't break up before the Internet.

I agree to some extent that the internet tends to speed things up, though. I think everything from email to divorce is a little faster nowadays. And having another form of escape makes it easier to dodge issues facing a marriage and it certainly opens up whole new worlds filled with fascinating strangers who can seem like the totally "get" you. That can be enticing to people who feel lonely, alienated and estranged.

Still, I hate it when people blame the means. It's ultimately a person's choice. The medium they use shouldn't be tarred as a result.

Emma is, I'm not the first to observe it, a lovely, elfin-looking girl child.

~ma to Burrell.

Connie, you are very wise to navigate the waters of your family so wisely. I have to be in a separate time-zone from mine in order to preserve sanity.

Thanks, all, for your good wishes and thoughts.

It's not like marriages didn't break up before the Internet.

So true. It only exposes a problem that was already there. It's the catalyst, not the cause.

People can get obsessed in anything to the point of neglecting their family. There's some people in my office who have a problem with fantasy sports, if you ask me.

Agreed, and if people are looking for something to obsess over or to help them escape from their lives they will mostlikely find it.

Hey, I resemble that remark.