I found myself cheered up by an email from a friend with attached pictures of some of the most grotesque examples of extreme piercings and mutilations ever.

Like this poor fool.

I know it may sound insensitive, but that picture made me laugh at my own problems. I often think I'm neurotic and messed up, but it's reassuring to know that there are people in much worse shape than I am. Most likely, the people who mutilate themselves like this are engaged in a form of self-therapy, as a way of working out their problems. At the very least, it's an extremely passive-aggressive cry for help. People who suffer from a need to do something like that provide much needed perspective on life, and hence I'm cheered up.

From a libertarian standpoint, self-mutilation is a right, of course. Putting people in prison for the crime of making unsightly and unhealthy holes in their heads makes about as much sense as imprisoning them for drugs.

Interestingly, one of the pictures in the email was already familiar to me -- the guy with a corset where his throat ought to be.

In an amazing coincidence, Glenn Reynolds (never one to overlook stylish new trends) had just linked a picture of the very same corset-throated man!

I realize that not everyone likes seeing these images. For those who don't, cheer up. In yet another trend Glenn noticed, it may soon be a "Federal Felony To Use Blogs, the Web, Etc. To Cause Substantial Emotional Distress."

But as I say, one man's emotional distress is another man's nerve tonic.