Why do you think the net was born? Porn. Porn. Porn.

We talk a lot about porn in my 8:00 am class. A lot.

It's Intro to Mass Communication, so I guess it's a notable topic. It's just not something I get too excited about. On the other hand, however, my professor does.

Extremely excited. His eyes twinkle and his smile takes over his entire face. 'Giddy' is perhaps the most accurate term to describe him when he stands on the balls of his feet and rubs his hands together and licks his lips. That might be a slight exaggeration, but it's pretty close.

We were talking about the internet this morning and porn, obviously, was the first thing we discussed. He noted that in 2004 there were approximately four million porn websites that turned a $54,000,000,000 (the extra zeros just create the effect) profit.

"Wha?!? Fifty-four billion dollars... A YEAR?" gasped the girl at the end of our row.

The same girl, mind you, who was confident in her answer of "Two million!" just a few short weeks ago.

"Why, with that type of money you could buy a small country!"

The professor just kind of stared at her and went on to make his next point: The kiddie-porn industry saw a total of 100,000 websites in 2004 and turned a profit of close to $2,500,000,000.

"That's...that's just, oh, that makes me want to barf, " she said. "I think every one of those dirty old men who look at the websites should be shot. I couldn't care less what happens to them. Hell, just go ahead and castrate the entire lot. Serves them right. Serves them right."