Does Virtual Cheating Still Count?

Yes yes yes yes. This should ALWAYS be considered before you post--however you want to skew the issue, AWM's comment here is spot on, and is the only way to start your own internal-dialog about, "is it OK?"

I suppose we Will have to Agree to Disagree, Our Value systems are Different where this issue is concerned, But One Final thought, Turn it around for a moment, How well disposed are you to the idea that your Spouse, or Partner May be "Protecting You" in that Fashion? Is it REALLY that comforting a thought?
I doubt if you ever found out that was the case, that their Thoughtfulness and Consideration of your feelings would be of much consolation to you.

I Agree with this 100%.
It is BEFORE the fact that one should be Most Concerned with ones partners feelings. Having a Good Constant communication With your partner is the best way of Knowing whether your Planned actions are something that will Harm your Current relationship.

Angel.

Im not sure where she said it was Thoughfulness and Considerate. I looked back to make sure and didnt see it.

The fact that its not always best to admit it to the partner - doesnt mean its thoughtful and considerate.

Just pragmatic.

It's not thoughtfulness or consideration, really, or something that would be "consolation" in any way -- it's just that in *some* cases disclosure may do more harm than good, again, if the situation is a one-off, non-repetitive thing. If my partner had a one night stand with someone six months ago that she never told me about and hasn't repeated that since then, do I really want to know about it now? No, I can't say that I do, to be honest. It's done, it's not present now, and it has no impact on me or my relationship with her, and in that case, raising it with me would do more harm than good. Let it sleep.

Every situation is different and needs to be assessed uniquely -- I'm really not a big supporter of one size fits all rules that apply to *all* situations, and this is one of those cases I suppose.

"I had been happy, if the general camp,
Pioneers and all, had tasted her sweet body,
So I had nothing known. O, now, for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!"

"It is necessary to the happiness of man that he be
mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist
in believing, or in disbelieving, it consists in
professing to believe what one does not believe"
-Tom Paine

"Can you smell what The Rock is cookin'?"

-The Rock

"Men are but children of a larger growth;
(Y)our appetites as apt to change as theirs,
And full as craving too, and full as vain"
-Dryden

Ooooh, I just thought of a good one to use next time there's a nasty retailer/land grabber/"someone stole my money" thread......

"What hand and brain went ever paired?"
-Browning

Actually I was thinking more of
"People of the same profession seldom meet, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public."
-Adam Smith

It is not the monsters which rise up from the gloom and threaten to eat us whole which are our undoing. It is the ducks floating serenely on the placid lake of our daily lives. By appearing tame and domestic, they tempt us to pass them by without notice, giving them the opportunity to attack en masse and peck us to death.

I have an alternate suggestion to the case of your spied-upon acquaintance, if he absolutely cannot, will not dump this terminally neurotically jealous woman and find a normal one. Have him put it to her this way: If she keeps him busy enough and happy enough in her bed, he will not have the time or energy to look elsewhere, never mind the inclination, and anything he does look at will be just reading the menu of a restaurant he will not enter because he is over-sated already. If her issue really is faithfulness, she has the solution in her own hands, as it were, to apply at any time. If her real agenda is psychological control and domination over him, and not really sexual fidelity at all, this solution will not satisfy her, and he really, really needs to get rid of her, fast.

"It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare..."
- Burke

"The squeaky wheel doesn't get the grease. Nobody uses grease anymore. The squeaky wheel gets tossed out, replaced by a newer, prettier, younger quiet wheel."

Name Withheld

Wise words.

"All moanday, tearsday, wailsday, thumpsday, frightday, shatterday"
-Joyce

How is one to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in life, when one finds darkness not only in one's culture but within oneself? If there is a stage at which an individual life becomes truly adult, it must be when one grasps the irony in its unfolding and accepts responsibility for a life lived in the midst of such paradox. One must live in the middle of contradiction, because if all contradiction were eliminated at once life would collapse. There are simply no answers to some of the great pressing questions. You continue to live them out, making your life a worthy expression of leaning into the light.

-Barry Lopez

Where are we going with this Oryx McShmoryx?

"Knowing your destination is half the journey."
-Anon

Actually I have no idea. Conan started it!

Did I?

Oh yeah! So I did!
I think I just got bored of the thread.

"To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.."
-Lao Tzu

Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.

and

Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true. [paraphrased]

- Buddha

Rotten Conan. See what you've done?

"The places we have known do not belong solely to the world of space in which we situate them for our greater convenience. They were only a thin slice among contiguous impressions which formed our life at the time; the memory of a certain image is but regret for a certain moment; and houses, roads, avenues are as fleeting, alas, as the years."

--Marcel Proust

'He bored with his augur, he bored once and twice
And some were playing cards, and some were playing dice'

"Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid."

George Carlin

Reminds me of the conversation we had yesterday.

"Those who control their passions do so because their passions are weak enough to be controlled." -- William Blake