Some days, you take a look around the world and wonder how the hell humanity made it this far. In addition to everything else, now the US government has asked ICANN to put a hold on approving a new .xxx domain suffix. The process of creating the suffix, which was originally going to be completed later this week, has been underway for five years. The suffix itself has actually been approved by ICANN; the pending matter is a contract for a company to run the TLD.

But this isn't what bothers me the most. What really gets me is the response to this by the Family Research Council. Now, I disagree with most every point that site makes on just about every issue, and this is no different. My problem here is that I simply can't understand how people can possibly be so ignorant as to completely miss the point.

According to FRC's statement, "Pornographers will be given even more opportunities to flood our homes, libraries and society with pornography through the .XXX domain." I suppose the fact that any sites that move to a .xxx domain can be blocked with ease, while not affecting non-pornographic sites (a problem with many current filtering systems), means that somehow more pornography will get through.

"To some this [creating a .xxx suffix] may initially seem like a good idea but it is one that has been considered and rejected as ineffectual for years. This will NOT require pornographers who are on the .com domain to relocate to the .XXX domain." But for those that do relocate, it is much easier to block them by blocking all .xxx domains.

"The .XXX domain will increase not decrease porn on the Internet." Neither will not having it; at least when it exists, it's easier to filter out porn sites that are going to exist with or without a new domain suffix.

Just when I thought that people (especially unhinged religious nuts) couldn't possibly get any stupider in my eyes, they do something like this. Thanks for making me realize that, as a species, we're completely and totally doomed.