So, it's come to this. A service that plays matchmaker for people who seek to commit adultery. Pretty lame. Pretty sick, actually. It does, however, show that business can motivate seemingly impossible levels of greed and selfishness. It's also lazy. If you insist on cheating, then you should at least have to work for it. That seemed to be a reasonable approach while serving as a graduate teaching assistant at a fine academic institution several years back.

Finding happiness these days is supposedly being made easier and easier by technology. There's Facebook, there's eHarmony, there's Match.Com, there's a million more. You can break the ice with an email or text message, instead of sweaty palms and stuttering. This is great, except that the same technology that helps people find a relationship now helps them destroy it. The same way many people use alcohol as "liquid courage", people can use the internet as "eCourage".

Not only are there "services" such as AshleyMadison, but the amount of information provided on internet websites and profiles has removed the necessary effort in relationship building. Normally it would be seen as good thing that you can find out a lot about someone just by reading their Facebook page. Most would argue that this can be used to make a decision of whether you might be interested in someone before getting the guts to ask them out, but is this a good thing? A Facebook profile is not an accurate reflection of someone, regardless of how much detail is given. You never know when something was put on there or in what context. You might find the answer to these uncertainties by actually meeting the person and talking to them about their favorite music, movies, books, etc. Crazy. After all, even if you do decide you want to go out with someone based on their Facebook page, do you really want to start a conversation with, "So, I was just browsing your Facebook page..."?

The owners of AshleyMadison will surely insist that they are just providing a service to those looking for a service to be provided. They'll say they don't encourage or support infidelity, yet their company slogan is "Life is short. Have an affair." Sounds like a winner. They'd even like to put their company name on a major airport as a corporate sponsorship. If there's one thing a major airport does not need, it's another means by which for road-weary business travelers to consider cheating on their spouses back at home.

Seeing things like this makes a TV show like Millionaire Matchmaker seem almost quaint and charming. At least on the show, the queen matchmaker refuses to help millionaire egomaniacs get exactly what they want if exactly what they want is a trophy bride that will be just another "flavor of the week". The show actually attempts to unravel the complex and sometimes not-so-complex personalities that carry all that money around. All at once the show is enjoyable and disgusting, but at least there is a thread of decency running through most of the episodes. The same cannot be said for other outlets of relationships doomed to be dysfunctional from the start.