This place is... amazing. It's a bit like touring a neocon bathroom. Penthouse tastefully hidden inside a newpaper, pictures of nude pneumatics with discreet Post-Its(tm) fixed, invoice for adult toys crumbled in the wastebasket. Oh, and the Whitman sampler: "NO wanging!!"

I drop by occasionally to see what the inmates are doing to visitors. It's heartening, but not persuasive, to encounter reasonable people -- visitors -- doing their best, like CobaltDream and Dale B, and sad to watch someone like Jim Farris move from amusement to disbelief and finally walk out shaking his head. No doubt he will turn up again some place less like a porn shop owned (but NEVER visited) by a pious deacon.

Thank you, CobaltDream, for the list of sites that are not pandering their soft core porn to "family values." I printed it, and maybe I'll start posting images again elsewhere. (I pulled my gallery after a sanity session with the admins that began when I got slammed for using the Nudity/Language/Violence tags unnecessarily! Never looked back.)

It is also sad to watch someone as pleasant as Acadia morph slowly into another apologist for R'osity's commercial hypocrisy. ... and become angry when we don't like the new look. I'll miss her.

For the record, the most pernicious notion that surfaced in the entire 11-page thread is that we all can agree on what is "tasteful." Implicit in that notion is the dogma that what the speaker considers "tasteful" is the Truth, and all opposing views heresy.  Those of us who genuinely express differences are "hypocrites" and, as I was, can be punished for "insincerity." This kind of close-mindedness, whether genetic or assumed for the rule of "hall monitor," leads to hatred and division.

Anyhow, for those of you new and not entirely sure you came to the right place, welcome to the soft parade.

M