So Kids Today! are rude and thoughtless and cruel. My god, stop the presses. *yawn*

You do realize that people were complaining about this very thing in ancient Greece, don't you? News flash: it's in the very nature of adolescents to be self-involved and cretinish. It's a developmental stage. Not surprising at all. I went through it, all my friends went through it, and pretty much everyone I've ever met has gone through a stage of Knowing Better Than The Boring Grown-ups. Every generation has its Asshole Stage, and then twenty years later starts moaning about how The Young Are So Degenerate These Days. It's actually very amusing how humans never seem to learn.

And about those First Amendment Rights that keep getting brought up in these situations: Read the damn Bill of Rights already. The First Amendment guarantees the populace freedom from censorship by government authorities. It does NOT guarantee anyone the right to be an asshole to whoever they please, it does not guarantee the right to go onto privately owned forums (and MySpace is owned by private, not public, interests), and it CERTAINLY does not guarantee anyone freedom from being called on their dipshit behavior. Don't like being called a prick? Then don't act like one.

Simple.

...isn't working. So, since they are your cats and you have a perfect right to have them treated as you wish, just walk up and take the cat away next time. Words only mean so much, and if they're not backed up, the listener will cease to listen.

If you see her manhandling your cat again, reach over and pull the cat away from her. When she whines about it, just say, "I've asked you to stop doing that many times, and you refused. So now I'm going to step in." If she continues to whine, tell her to get her own cat. She can then play faux-mommy all she likes.

I don't know about you, but I don't need graphic details in order to know that screwing kids is wrong and justifiably illegal. Isn't the general concept creepy enough for you? Everybody I know draws the line at the very idea; hearing lip-smacking details about oral sex and defecation is only necessary for those that get off on it. Which, as many have and continue to suspect, is the real underlying motive for all the interest these supposedly godly and Serious lawmakers show in the lurid peccadilloes of twisted minds.

In this respect, child porn is the same as murder and arson and other heinous crimes: all that is necessary is to know that it's wrong and why it's wrong. I for one do not require the exact details of just how the killer disemboweled his victims, and I take an extremely jaundiced view of anybody who claims to "need" that knowledge outside of a courtroom. The day I get called to a jury I'll listen to such trash. Until then, just the concept will do, thank you very much.

...but how is this a women's issue, exactly? I can see no way in which this post relates to feminism or women's health or any other subject which would justify its being placed here. Is Broadsheet becoming a personal playground for its writers to just dish out snark about anything they don't approve of?

And you might just want to re-think the snark, Catherine. A great many feminists are vegetarians and/or vegans. I've commented before on the condescending tone of Broadsheet writers towards the very people they're supposedly championing, but of late it's seems to be getting worse. So these people don't want to have sex with others who don't share their world view. So what? How many raging misogynists have you screwed lately? None? Gee, how strange - by this post of yours I'd have thought you'd consider such sexual self-segregation to be quite ridiculous. Pot, kettle, yet again.

In any case, from what I understand about the "mission" of this column, it's not relevant. Next time, try finding an outlet for your generalized cultural eyerolling elsewhere, and stay on topic, 'kay?