"It was temptation by Satan, of course," protests David Stein, 44. The New Mexico state employee fired in December 1998 for accessing credit-card Web porn from his tax-department work site is now blaming his own horny error on Lucifer. Stein is appealing his dismissal despite his earlier confession that he did "look at some pictures and stuff" once because he was curious about "what kind of smut was available out there ... you know, so I could stay away from it." He laments that he became trapped in an "endless loop" of demonic filth as he frantically pressed the "back" button on his browser. "It just kept taking me deeper and deeper," he shudders. He eventually shut off his computer, but in less than an hour he was back at it because, "Satan told me to check it out some more." Stein testifies that he might have been targeted by the Lord of Hell because, "The stronger you are as a Christian, the more Satan works on you because he fears losing his grip on you."