DISQUS

McCain was maverick-rolled (I thought of it too, you beat me to it) because he clicked on a link that he thought would lead to a reformer who would energise the Chrisitans and attract some moderate suburban women, but instead got a whole song-and-dance from a power-abusing nut-job who seems intent on making us remember McCain as "the guy whose supporters were reduced to a would-be lynch-mob".

I'd like to see the words "can be" used instead of "is" in a lot of places, and this is one of them. If a man should use pr0n as a way of avoiding engagement with his spouse, there would seem to me to be a similarity with adultery. I think this is bolstered by the human ability to form a "personal" relationship with purely notional persons---pixels, text, a notional deity's kid, corporations, nations, to name a few---which makes it possible for a "relationship" to partially or fully displace a relationship with an actual person.

On the other hand, this assumes a pseudo-{zero-sum} relationship: as one loves the third party more, one loves the party of the second part (or "Chico") less, or that the second party devalues the equal love felt for them [sic] because it is not exclusive. My polyamourous friends assert that this is not the case for them when all such activity is super mensa...I'd say, "I'll believe it when I see it," but I'm not interested enough in them or the practice to look, so instead I'll take them on their word for now.

On the whole, though, I'd avoid the word "adultery" because it's nuclear. I once in 2002 had an e-mail correspondence with a local, half-reasonable radio talk-show host over his use of the term "treasonous" to describe some opponents of Bush's Iraq policy. In the end, he retreated to calling them "morally treasonous", to which I objected on the grounds that using the word "treason" automatically brings more juice to the offence than consideration might well deem reasonable. It's used more as a way of deciding the outcome of an argument, rather than of arguing, tantamount to circular reasoning.