Pardon occasional insensitivity on my part.

The more I read the Tech Forum, and even BC (shudder) once in a while, the more I think it should be called Tech Paranoia Forum. If I sometimes seem insensitive to this, it's because I live in an area where, while BLs are not overly popular, we don't live with this amazing level of paranoia seen in the U.S. (and to some extent England). (Example: the other day I was answering a telephone follow up for a pain center to which I have been referred. At one point the nurse asked if I had much itching. I said "I have so much itching I'm thinking of hiring a 12 year old boy to scratch me." She just giggled and went on to the next question.) That makes it very hard for me to see things from "your" points of view, which is why I try to stay out of such discussions. I'm not saying you don't have reasons to be fearful, just that those reasons don't apply in this neck of the woods so it's hard to imagine living under such conditions. It also makes it difficult for me to answer technical questions about Tor and other types of online security simply because I have no experience dealing with them. I won't go into any details of the precautions I take online, but they are sufficient to protect both myself and my correspondents in this environment. I can't fall back on the "keep a low profile" tactic simply because one can't run boards like this and not be relatively high profile. Well, someone has to do it! I've been doing it for years now and it's been working out. It helps that I'm engaging in perfectly legal activities, I guess, but the cops have never really let that bother them. Still, I know the law, I know which side of it I'm on, I know my rights, and will exercise them. I'm also dying fairly rapidly, which gives a sort of freedom you can't get any other way. Perhaps there are BLs who have found the companionship they need on boards such as this, and have, as a result, avoided some of the temptations that could have had them in serious trouble. Support groups are very good at doing this, even if all they do is bring like-minded individuals together. I'm quite certain that the vast majority of such acquaintances result in less, rather than more, offenses being committed. Stories of KP "rings" and the perception that BLs get together to plan rape and kidnapping and stuff like that are, to me, wildly exaggerated and taken totally out of context. Anyone who does get together with another BL to plan such things deserves exactly what he gets, IMHO. Somersault