The story I wrote about recently concerning the U.N. inspector who is a member of Washington-area S&M clubs was given, um, interesting treatment in Slate.

Andrew Sullivan comments:

What to make of this astonishing article at Slate? Am I hallucinating or is Tim Noah actually equating Saddam's torturing of political enemies with consensual safe sado-masochistic sex between adults? Here's one memorable phrase, glibly posited by Noah as if he is saying something clever: "[O]ne man's recreation is another man's torture." Excuse me? Tell that to those tortured to death by Saddam. This moral equivalence is far worse, I think, than equating Miss World contests with forcing women to wear burqas. It trivializes enormous evil; and makes light of the hideous suffering inflicted on Saddam's enemies. Somewhere in some dark prison right now, someone is being electrocuted, or burnt, or pummeled or tortured by Saddam's henchmen. And Noah finds a way to equate that with free, consensual, sado-masochistic games: "It would be less awful if [Saddam's] victims were willing. But how much less awful?" The answer is: less awful by a universe of awfulness. One has to ask: What universe is Noah in that he can even begin to think this way? How desperate is he for something to write that he can come up with this angle? Would he equate Stalin's gulags with leather-fetish clubs? Would he trivialize Hitler's holocaust by remarking how similar it is to some bondage games? Maybe he thinks he's being funny. He's not. He's being depraved.

Yeah, I'd have to agree. Equating consensual play (e.g. asking someone to tie you up during sex) is equal to having your molars ripped out with pliers? What's this guy smoking?