Here's a short linkfest to keep you political junkies from having to hit the refresh button at your favorite news sites and blogs in the hope that you'll get some useful information.
1. Here's an argument against early voting. (via Instapundit) For what it's worth, I'm voting NO on the early-vote ballot issue in Maryland. What could possibly go wrong with early voting?
2. Contrary to some expectations, it seems younger Jews are more likely to vote for McCain than older ones. (via Volokh)
3. If you vote, you might be eligible for, er, sex toys. (via HotAir) If you vote early, you need to work on your technique.
4. Speaking of which, the feds may be moving closer to running a strip joint. Insert your own joke here. (hat tip: fee simple)
5. Headline of the day: "Nudist group wants clothing-optional polling site."
6. Obama salutes McCain.
7. Taxman. (via HotAir)
UPDATE: 8. The six most insane people to run for President. (hat tip: Right Hand Son)
Showing posts with label sex. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sex. Show all posts
November 03, 2008
Pre-election linkfest
July 01, 2008
\/\/@t3rm3l0n, the new spam subject line?
Here's a news report that's bound to make guys eat their fruits and vegetables:
Forget the oysters. Texas A&M scientists say watermelon contains ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body's blood vessels and may even increase the libido.(via HotAir) But here's a drawback. Most of the citrulline is found in the rind, so you can just throw out that red stuff with the seeds and eat the green, bitter rind. Mm, mmm!* * *
Watermelon and some other fruits and vegetables contain phyto-nutrients, including lycopene, beta carotene and citrulline, which are compounds that produce healthy reactions in the body, Patil said.
Specifically, scientists believe it's the citrulline that has the ability to relax blood vessels, much like Viagra does.
Oh, yes, one other thing. "Watermelon may not be as organ-specific as Viagra," says Patil. It can do its work throughout your body.
So you should call your doctor if you can't bend your limbs after more than four hours.
April 27, 2008
Sunday evening linkfest
Passover has (finally) ended, and now, once again, it's time for a linkfest of links that have been forming plaque on the walls of my intertubes for the past two weeks or so. Some of them are seriously OLD, but I want you to have them, anyway. Please stay with me till the end, because way at the bottom of this post, I have a couple of future classics from the Sunday New York Times that are almost worth the price of the paper.
1. In the past couple of weeks, the biggest issue in politics, in case you're a Japanese World War II fighter who's been holed up in the Pacific until yesterday, has been whether Obama flipped the bird at Hillary while speaking to his supporters following the final debate in Pennsylvania. The Hillarosphere demands to know. And Baseball Crank has another photo that may provide circumstantial evidence.
2. The Democrats' Nightmare Scenario (via Instapundit)
3. More popcorn, please!
4. McCain goes to NOLA, and an African-American participant at a town-hall meeting says this: "I want to inform you that everybody in the camp here is not a Republican." Does he mean (a) literally no one is a Republican, or (b) colloquially, not everyone is a Republican? Who cares, anyway, besides anal-retentive grammar wackos like me?
5. As Warner Wolf might have said, if you studied math in school since about 1961 . . . YOU LOST! On a related topic, Hillary Clinton does some math trolling for delegates and votes from Michigan.
6. Gov. O'Malley calls a special session of the legislature to pass a law declaring the official state dessert of Maryland. (Only kidding about the special session. Beats the hell out of raising our taxes, though.)
7. The man-cave: "Like most stories that end up with a man mowing his friend's lawn in a dress, it started out innocently enough." (via Fark, of course)
8. Sometimes it pays to test your personal machinery before reporting its theft by voodoo to police. As the police chief himself put it: "'I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke,' Oleko said.
'But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, "How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it",' he said."
9. Public Service Announcement: Be careful when eating in Canadian restaurants.
10. "Le Petit Singly is a farm that specializes in making cheese from women's breast milk." (via Ace)
11. This one's so old, it's already been overtaken by events. You remember the McLean school that banned tag in the schoolyard? Well, tag's back, but not before a week of "reorientation lessons on playground safety." I swear I'm not making that term up.
12. Patch (for women) aims to make you (not you, you) feel sexy. (via Ace)
13. Rick Monday saves the flag. In 1976. But now, there's a video.
14. American expat in Paris whines about the falling dollar. My heart bleeds.
15. False advertising from Moron Pundit: a very non-moronic defense of the tax deduction for child dependents.
16. Doubleplusundead on more misery with McCain. For me, if you want to know why McCain hasn't sealed the deal with conservatives -- I'm going to vote for him, anyway -- read George Will's column this morning. Two words: campaign finance.
17. The Children of Israel were enslaved in Egypt by a Pharaoh who took great pleasure in persecuting gays, who were brutally forced to arrange flowers for the Egyptians. Hence, the orange on the seder plate. Funny, I had always heard that it was supposed to represent Pharaoh's fear of the vagina.
18. And finally, the moment you've been waiting for -- the two classics from today's New York Times: (a) In the travel section: "In 2007, nude recreation represented a $440 million industry — up from $400 million in 2001 and $200 million in 1992." (b) In Sunday Styles: A family adjusts to the father's sex change -- "Through Sickness, Health and Sex Change."
April 09, 2008
Wednesday linkfest
This is the place where I drop links that I've been collecting but haven't had time to write about while I've been trying to figure out my mother's taxes.
1. From the distaff side of the moronosphere, S.Weasel has a delightful tribute to Charlton Heston. Well, to his buttocks, anyway.
2. Speaking of the moronosphere, check doubleplusundead regularly for his daily roundups, called "around the moronosphere in 80 iq points." I think the Moron-in-Chief was responsible for that name.
3. Since it's tax time, I'd like to bring you this: "Woman Apologizes for Pitbull Attack on IRS Employee." (via TaxProf Blog)
4. Here's the barbecue guy who loves the NoKos. The FBI already knows about him, thanks to his dad. Really. Will there be a place for him as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration? And this: A coincidence?
5. Will you be more in love with your wife if she learns to play poker? This article says you will. It sounds totally asinine to me, because you play poker precisely to be alone with the boys, but there are some other tips for women that sound a little better than that.
6. If you live in Minnesota, your tax dollars are funding what may be a madrassa.
7. Ace writes about a post by a user at Obama's site attacking the Jews. A commenter finds the cached link after the post is taken down.
8. From the Department of Old: "Woman's Lawsuit Claims Bra Injured Her / Victoria's Secret Denies Claims." (via Ace's headlines last week)
9. From the Department of Not So New: Starbucks won't let you customize your card with "Laissez Faire" but will let you use "People Not Profits"? (via Volokh)
10. Child "maths" genius-ette becomes a call girl (with probably NSFW photo) (via Fark)
11. Get your ice cold Mets motivational poster, courtesy of Baseball Crank. Not that I've already given up on them -- that'll take another few days like yesterday.
March 18, 2008
Tuesday linkfest
Once again, I'm here with the extra links I've been saving for no particular reason. Some of them are, in internet terms, pre-historic. But I'll let you make the judgment.
1. Before I begin, I want to mention doubleplusundead, the latest addition to my regular, non-Maryland blogroll. DPUD is a moron. (You'll understand what I mean by that if you read Ace, who's a self-described moron-blogger.) In fact, DPUD has a frequent feature of "links from around the moronosphere," covering the other morons. Since I'm an idiot -- but also an honorary moron -- I've been included a couple of times. Check DPUD frequently, because there are a lot of amusing posts over there.
2. While American forces are doing the hard work, the folks in Prescott, Arizona, are singing kumbaya and erecting a peace post at the fifth anniversary of our intervention in Iraq: "A new monument stands in Prescott - a simple wooden pole bearing the same phrase in four different languages: May Peace Prevail On Earth." (via SondraK, who has a mouseover making fun of this)
3. The Daily Show goes to Berkeley, home of anti-Marine radicalism. Hilarity ensues.
4. Enthusiastic about voting for John McCain? No, but you'll force yourself to do it, anyway? Here's your next stop: The Reluctant Voter (hat tip: fee simple)
5. Eliot Spitzer isn't the only rich dude who uses high-end escort services. "'With the wealthy,' Mr. Prince says, 'it's all about power and control and new experiences.'" (via Fark)
6. Going on a date in China? Looking for a restaurant? Here's my recommendation: "There are several varieties of steamed, roasted and boiled penis at Beijing's quirkiest diner." (via HotAir)
7. Ten great inventions for St. Patrick's Day. Sorry I missed posting this yesterday. Save it for next year. Or consider it on Purim, which falls on Thursday night.
8. "Neocon" transportation policy? (via Heh, indeed.)
9. Shelby Steele on Barack Obama on race bargaining: "And yet, in the end, Barack Obama's candidacy is not qualitatively different from Al Sharpton's or Jesse Jackson's. Like these more irascible of his forbearers, Mr. Obama's run at the presidency is based more on the manipulation of white guilt than on substance. Messrs. Sharpton and Jackson were 'challengers,' not bargainers. They intimidated whites and demanded, in the name of historical justice, that they be brought forward. Mr. Obama flatters whites, grants them racial innocence, and hopes to ascend on the back of their gratitude. Two sides of the same coin."
10. In my family, we have a running joke about enraged bees. There was a story some years back about a truckload of bees that overturned near the Tappan Zee Bridge, which runs over the Hudson River near where I grew up, and the article referred to "enraged bees." ("When the trailer overturned on the westbound exit ramp leading to the Thruway at 8:35 A.M., millions of the enraged bees emerged.") Today's story of an overturned truck carrying bees comes from California: "Millions of swarming honey bees were on the loose after a truck carrying crates of the insects flipped over on a California highway." This article doesn't mention enraged bees, but it refers to "bee wrangling": "Bradley said several beekeepers driving by the accident stopped to assist in the bee wrangling."
UPDATE (3/19): 11. Too good to pass up. Feminist Marianne Williamson (video): "Well, first of all, I'm not going to vote with my vagina."
12. Ten people to avoid at the ballpark. (via MetsBlog) Some of the comments are better than the post.
March 10, 2008
Charles Murray for dogs
There are about a gazillion doggie IQ tests -- you can find 'em by googling -- but only one of them found its way into an article in the New York Post. I don't know what's involved in that test, making it so special, because I was unwilling to spend $79.99 On Sale Now! Just $49.99 to buy it.
But it's no great loss, really, because you can get another doggie IQ test for free from Ace, so long as you're not too offended by some Anglo-Saxon language and (im)mature content (consider that your content warning). Here's a sample from the True/False section:
3. This nasty old rotting canvas sneaker I just pulled out of the mulchpile tastes like that dog's ass, which in turn tastes like my own genitals, which themselves taste like strawberry waffles.That's not even the best part. Ace really had me laughing in a guilty way, so if you can deal with the language, you should definitely read the whole piece.
4. Toilet water tastes much like maple syrup.
On a different note, what breed of dog is Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic Governor of New York? My guess is a beagle. The beagle is number 9 in the list of least intelligent breeds, and Spitzer was Client 9, although that's obviously a coincidence. What I'm thinking is that beagles are considered to have an "independent and willful nature." Which describes Spitzer quite well.
March 06, 2008
The Million Mile High Club?
You adventurers who are planning your first space mission have probably got a few questions.
* How long does the training take?
* What's it like to be weightless?
* Can I have sex in space?
I don't know the answers to the first two questions, but if you believe this article in Pravda, the answer to the third question is Yes.
Now, I know that those of us who grew up in the Cold War were trained not to believe Pravda. There was an old saying among the dissidents that "Pravda (Truth) has no news, and Izvestia (News) has no truth."
But that article is too good to check.
“While a lot of scientists all over the world are busy searching for extraterrestrial civilizations, astronauts plan a more earthly contact, that is conceiving a human baby at the orbital station,” Rostislav Beleda, a Candidate of Medical Sciences said. Mr. Beleda worked as the chief sexologist at the Central Aviation Hospital for 14 years. “The biggest problem is how to conceive, because liquid cannot be spilt under the condition of weightlessness,” he added.I hear you thinking very loudly right now: "Too much information!" But you asked for it, and I provided it.
“But they do not need a bed in space. They can love each other in the air.”
“And what will come out of that? As soon as he touches her, she will fly away in the opposite direction. A bed or at least some fastening device on a wall is more likely to be used.”
“Is astronauts’ sexual need taken into consideration during long-term flights?”
“Certainly. In space men exercise on treadmills. In addition, they can theoretically masturbate too. But they should not forget about condoms or other containers, otherwise drop of sperm will be flying chaotically in the cabin and they will have to collect it. As a matter of fact, humans are not eager to make love in space. ***”
As for the answers to your other questions, you'll have to look elsewhere.
January 17, 2008
Some advice
Some advice:
1. We're professionals; don't try this at home. Or, for that matter, on your campaign aircraft. It's not funny. Trust me.
2. And while you're at it, don't get caught making a scary face when talking to a child. People will make fun.
3. If you fall for this trick, don't admit it: "The woman had agreed to the man using a video camera to project live images of them having sex on to the bedroom wall, but did not know he was recording the action." The man was acquitted in Italy.
January 13, 2008
Visitor of the day -- 1/11
Friday's visitor of the day falls into our "TMI" category. Really, we just don't want to know.
But the good news is: He didn't find the solution to his problem here.
January 08, 2008
Selling electronics and classical music
Instapundit writes: "WHEN PUSHING HD CAMERAS, it's apparently important to have women playing classical music."
And if you think his joke is only about the tenuous connection between electronics and traditional classical music, you need to click on the link above and check the photos.
But it's not just electronics shows that feature "glossies" of the women playing classical music; it's the labels themselves. The cover on virtually any CD featuring a young female classical musician will look like an ad for . . . oh, I don't know what. Here's one of my favorites. It's a great recording, too, by the way.
The moral is that sex sells, even in classical music.
January 03, 2008
I'll have the necklace she's having
Today's movie short: "'When Harry Met Sally' met jewelry advertising."
Or: "When the director tells you to 'fake excitement while lying down, without smiling,' don't be too surprised when you're not portrayed giving a speech before a joint session of Congress."
Video at Ace's. As he says, Moderate Content Warning.
November 20, 2007
Some of what she's having
I regret to report that this story appears to be rather questionable. (Content NSFW.)
November 13, 2007
Wednesday mini-linkfest
[Ed.: Technically, it was a late Tuesday mini-linkfest, not Wednesday. Sue me.]
1. True headline of the day: "Author protests ban over phrase 'generous bazoongas'" (via Fark)
2. Our newest cause for which to raise massive sums of research dollars: "The cause of vulvodynia is unknown. This is partly because there has been a lack of research on the disorder in recent years." (via HotAir, where a commenter posts this video link. Subject-matter content warning, as if the initial link could be justified in the name of Science.)
3. Runner-up true headline of the day: "China recycling used condoms as cheap hair bands" (via Fark)
4. A classic example of the "Nanny State" -- at least where the nanny is dressed in a black leather halter with studs, spiked heels, and a riding crop: "Norway's largest erotic chain store was forced to change the labelling on products such as penis pasta, candy cuffs and chocolate bodypainting, to comply with Norwegian food regulations." (Need I say: also via Fark)
5. Finally, in the category of "Things We Wish We Had Said But If We Had Actually Said Them We'd Wish We Hadn't," Tim Page, the classical music reporter for the Post, responded thus to a blast email press release from an aide to Marion "Bitch Set Me Up" Barry: "Must we hear about it every time this crack addict attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new -- and typically half-witted -- political grandstanding? I'd be grateful if you would take me off your mailing list. I cannot think of anything the useless Marion Barry could do that would interest me in the slightest, up to and including overdose."
October 24, 2007
Another Wednesday linkfest
Some days are good days for drive-by links. Some days are bad days. Today was a good day.
1. If you really want to become a millionaire, don't bother following these rules. You'll become a millionaire in about 40 years, which doesn't really count if you adjust for inflation. Better advice: To become a millionaire, start with $2 million.
2. Why Heidi Klum fell for Seal. (via HotAir, with lots of comments) Hmmm, I wear bike shorts when I ride, and this never happens to me. Back at my high-school reunion, some people were talking about padded bras -- you know, the usual topic of conversation at high-school reunions -- and the gay "partner" of a classmate of mine explained to me that gay men often pad the areas that others are interested in. Not that this explains the Heidi Klum situation.
3. The math of teenage sex: "If you do the math—worthy of an SAT prep course, with fractions and large numbers—you'll find that early sex plus the Pill equals sexually transmitted disease and maybe even pregnancy."
4. There's something peculiarly Japanese about this: "Cell phone message warns train gropers." Huh? Well, read this: "The application flashes increasingly threatening messages in bold print on the phone's screen to show to the offender: 'Excuse me, did you just grope me?' 'Groping is a crime,' and finally, 'Shall we head to the police?'" The only thing more Japanese would be robots.
5. Does this campaign photo of the month remind you of this one -- I mean, the evil grin? (via HotAir, where Allah says, "Mitt should fire his advance team")
6. With the World Series finally underway, we have this year's best baseball injuries from Ken Levine (via Ace). Line of the day: "Somehow in June Washington reliever, Jesus Colome suffered an 'abscess on his right buttock'. The team's General Manager, Jim Bowden is quoted in the Washington Post as saying, 'We pray for his buttocks and his family.'" There's no link to the Post, but I've verified the Bowden quotation here. My own personal favorite baseball injury story was related in Lindsey Nelson's book from the mid-60s called "Backstage at the Mets." Grover Powell, a young left-handed pitcher who'd made a great splash for the abysmal Mets, injured his pitching arm while combing his hair. Casey Stengel quipped: "Greasy kid stuff."
7. If you're a kid who lives in Boston, they want to teach you how to duck to protect yourself against gunfire. (via Fark)
8. You might not want to meet this Australian barmaid in a dark alley, although rumor has it that she's very entertaining in the bar. (via about a million sites)
9. Yiddish makes a comeback in Lithuania, as demonstrated by this syntax: "I feel a very rich person by knowing this language." (via Fark)
10. I just had my 100,000th visitor at Pillage Idiot this evening. Needless to say, it was someone who had been searching for images of the Thai transvestite pageant, which I wrote about two years ago. Somehow that seems appropriate.
September 24, 2007
Monkey business
I need to turn in early, so I'm just going to leave you with this headline from LiveScience.com and the link, and you can write the rest -- or not. Feel free to use the comments section to make the jokes you think I should have made.
"To Get Sex, Monkeys Rub Themselves with Pee"
(via HotAir)
August 17, 2007
Friday linkfest
I don't really know what to do with these stories, given my August doldrums, so I'm putting them in a linkfest.
1. Public service announcement: If you're a police officer having a tryst at the office on work time, make sure to keep your radio earpiece in. In England, an officer who claimed he was "always poised and ready to respond to an emergency because he had his earpiece in" was acquitted of misconduct in a public office. (hat tip: fee simple)
2. You've heard of gay cars. Well, none of those make this list of cars and what they supposedly say about their owners' love style. (This actually has to be one of the stupidest things I've read in a long time.)
3. Paging Harvey Mansfield: The return of manliness, now known as "retrosexuality." But since it seems to involve hair implants for one's chest, count me out. That sounds painful. On the other hand, this sounds good for me and some other MOTs: "some surgeons say that men are also asserting their manliness through rhinoplasty, or nose jobs, asking for a more pronounced proboscis."
4. The latest in technology: Kosher vending machines. More precisely, a "glatt kosher vending machine that can shoot out a hot knish," as if this were some kind of useful Jewish contribution to American culture. Cuteness component: "The vending machines are called Hot Nosh 24/6." Get it? 24/6? Although the machine is not actually shut off on Shabbat, which is more grist for Noah Feldman's next article. And from the "who cares?" department: This is being financed by "Ruby Azrak, a street clothing magnate who launched Russell Simmons's Phat Farm line," who also "runs the House of Dereon, the clothing line of the singer Beyoncé." (UPDATE: I forgot to include the link to the company's website. You can see some of their press coverage there, too.)
August 01, 2007
On vacation mini-linkfest
You're probably pretty bored with re-reading the Bill Clinton photo comic by now, but I'm on vacation, so I'll just give you a little to read for now.
1. If you tell a joke to your grandfather or your father and he doesn't get it, it might be because of cognitive decline resulting from age. On the other hand, it might just be that the joke you told was idiotic.
2. Two can play at that game. Or changing the allocation of electoral votes in large blue states can help Republicans, just as doing so in red states can help Democrats.
3. 237 reasons for having sex? Well, they are college students, after all.
(first two via HotAir)
July 26, 2007
Linkfest
1. We all know that dogs eat grass, but a Ph.D. on the subject? (via Fark)
2. Arlen Specter is a fool. But you already knew that. You also knew that there are some cool anagrams for his name. Arlen Specter = clear serpent = lepers recant = rectal preens.
3. Don't be shy, Granny! Keep a couple of 'em in your purse. Just in case you get lucky. (via HotAir)
4. Homeowner attacks mailbox vandals. The best thing about the story is the Fark tagline: "Men playing mailbox baseball find out it's not as much fun when the homeowner comes up to bat in the bottom half of the inning."
5. Paging O.J. Simpson! A geezer in an electric "mobility scooter" takes Brit police on a highway chase at 8 MPH. And they lose him. (hat tip: fee simple)
6. The new demographic of the New York Times: 20-something "men" who buy expensive (male) fragrances. "I've been in the business for 20 years, and I can't believe how many young men are spending hundreds of dollars on fragrance."
7. Someone's stalking your house. Your house, not mine.
UPDATE (7/27):
8. A late entry from fee simple. Please avert your eyes, you dignified readers, because it turns out there's something called a "gPod," not to be confused with the iPod (Apple litigation to follow): "The 'gPod', a phallic-shaped vibrator, is designed to respond automatically to sounds picked up by an accompanying handset, which can plug into anything from a telephone to a music player to a television."
July 07, 2007
Visitor of the day - 070707 edition
Well, people always say that you can answer any question with a Google search....
June 19, 2007
Perennial question
While I'm busy working on a couple of longer term things, I thought I'd present you with something high up on the Pillage Idiot Advisory System. In other words, very immature, with the twist that this features women.
This video is embedded at Jack's Shack, who is solely responsible for its content. Nah, I'm just kidding. Anyone who actually watches it is solely responsible for its content. Take that as a content warning: NSFW.
If you're not at work, click on the image.
June 14, 2007
Dream on
According to the latest asinine study, women dream about sex just as often as men do, about 8 percent. (via HotAir) The big difference, the study reports, is that:
Men's sex dreams were twice as likely to involve trysts with multiple partners, and were more likely to take place in public.I say this is asinine, because the frequency is obviously wrong. Men dream about sex roughly 100 percent of the time, not 8 percent. Women can't possibly dream about it that often. We already know that men think about sex every 52 seconds while they're awake, and women think about it once a day.
Women were twice as likely to dream about sex with public figures, according to the researchers.
And if you're still in doubt about the study's validity, listen to the author: "'Observed gender differences may be indicative of different waking needs, experiences, desires and attitudes with respect to sexuality,' said Antonio Zadra, the study's author, in a press release." I could tell you what that is, but it would be more than a fleeting expletive.
June 12, 2007
Happy Fathers' Day
I can't possibly do justice to this idiotically cute article in the Science section of the New York Times about sperm. Yes, sperm: "Sleek, Fast and Focused: The Cells That Make Dad Dad."
I don't even want to try.
Certainly not with an article that starts this way:
We are fast approaching Father’s Day, the festive occasion on which we plague Dad with yet another necktie or collect phone call and just generally strive to remind the big guy of the central verity of paternity — that it’s a lot more fun to become a father than to be one.And ends this way, after discussing the mechanics of fertilization:
The wheels are in motion. How do you like your new tie?It's not even worth doing the Beavis and Butthead review of the article. ("Heh, heh, heh, she said 'strokes.'") Finally, it's not worth groaning over lines like these: "Sperm do not really hit their stride until they are deposited in the female reproductive tract * * *." "The ovum eggs them on * * *."
And there's not even a single mention of the female orgasm. What a total waste of ink!
June 07, 2007
May 06, 2007
Aging boomers' endless introspection
Brought to you by the same folks who used to say, "Don't trust anyone over 30": The New York Times magazine has an issue devoted to aging boomers. Feh! Won't these people ever stop talking about themselves?
I have no intention of reading most of the articles, but I did notice two things. First, there's a short piece with photos of 10 men and women talking about sex at their "advanced" ages: "Ten women and men discuss what sex is like when you're old enough to know better." It's connected to a film called "Naked" by Rachel Dretzin, which you can see clips from here, if you can stand it, which I can't. The two-page spread in the magazine, which is all I'm willing to take in, suggests that normal, happily married couples need not apply. I guess it's "Don't trust anyone over 30 who's happily married."
Second, my old friend, Randy Cohen, The Ethicist, hears from a man whose wife, after 30 years, announces she's not interested in sex any more. The man thinks, OK, fine, I'll get it elsewhere. The woman is angry. The Ethicist actually takes the man to task, but only because of his dishonesty, not (God forbid) his adultery. He should have discussed it with his wife first: "You and she might agree that because she no longer wants sex, you may seek it elsewhere — discreetly, tactfully, striving not to cause her embarrassment. Or she might find this modus vivendi intolerable and, if forced to choose, decide to live apart from you. But you gave her no chance to decide anything." This may actually be a case of "When you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail." Randy Cohen sees it as an ethics problem (as does the man). But the situation really calls for some counseling. Why did the wife make this announcement without discussion? Why did the man not discuss things and just go off and have affairs? There's got to be something going on here that doesn't lend itself to resolution by an "ethicist."
UPDATE (5/7): As Dilbert said this morning, "90% of happiness is picking the right ethicist." Coincidence? You make the call.
April 25, 2007
Late April linkfest
I barely have time to yawn these days, but I didn't want a few classic stories to go by unnoticed. So you'll excuse me if I put them in a linkfest.
1. You know how little kids have potty mouths these days? Well, check out the newest fad: potty heads.
LONDON (Reuters) - Firefighters said on Wednesday they had come to a [2-1/2 year old] boy's rescue after he got a toilet seat stuck on his head which he couldn't get off.That must have been some party!
2. Florida: A state senator who was "convicted of grand theft for paying his office staff with state money while he worked on his re-election campaign" but is still in office has introduced a bill that would allow schools to suspend students for up to 10 days for showing their underwear. The bill is called "Pull Up Your Britches." The link contains video.
3. A British documentary on the "telly," called "Human Footprint," makes a remarkable claim: "The average person will eat over 10,000 bars of chocolate, shed 121 pints of tears and have sex more than 4,200 times" over a lifetime. The article at the link is accompanied by a chart stating how much or how many in a lifetime for a whole variety of things.
Particularly relevant to Pillage Idiot is this: "35,815 litres of wind passed." This figure might make sense to me if I knew how many inches there are in a litre.
And if you believe all of these figures, that means you had better get going if you want to have sex 4,239 times in your lifetime, which coincidentally is the exactly the same number of rolls of toilet paper you'll use. Unless, of course, you're Sheryl Crow.
4. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi speak to the press, and Harry puts his hand on Nancy's shoulder. Nancy pretends she doesn't mind. But she's faking it.
(1-3 via Fark, 4 via Hot Air)
UPDATE: 5. Ace updates a post from HuffPo about how to tell if your husband is gay. My answer: "Are you a man? If so, your husband is gay. So are you."
April 23, 2007
Visitor of the day -- 4/23
If you've ever had the pleasure of driving on Rockville Pike, MD 355, a six-lane road that runs through the heart of Rockville and is described in a Wikipedia entry as "home to many strip malls and ... notorious for its congestion," I think you may appreciate today's visitor of the day.
Two words: Forget it.
March 08, 2007
Up in Canada
I don't know how I could possibly have let The Pubcrawler scoop me on this: "You've heard of green cars, green tourism and green weddings. Now Canadians should ready themselves for green sex."
March 07, 2007
Spider genitals
Reading The Voltage Gate, a fellow member of the Maryland Blogger Alliance, I discovered something I totally didn't realize: Spiders have genitals. Not only that, but certain male spiders use the tip of their genitals to "plug up" the females so that no other males can couple with them:
A male orb-web spider leaves behind a post-coital gift that helps to ensure that any subsequent offspring are his. He leaves the tip of his genitals in the females' sexual orifice, effectively blocking future males' efforts to inseminate the female, new research shows.Let me rephrase this point: Male spiders engage in self-circumcision in order to put a chastity belt on the females.
Wow!
The amazing thing is that Maryland truck drivers aren't hanging fake spider genitals from their trailer hitches.
March 04, 2007
"Sexlessness" in Japan
One of Mark Steyn's arguments in America Alone is that western nations can't deal with the threat of radical Islam when their birthrates are below replacement level, approximately 2.1 live births per woman. The birthrate figures he gives for Europe are pretty shocking (1.38 live births per woman), and Japan is even lower (1.32).
But the Japanese are becoming painfully aware of their low birthrate. You'd think that the people who have perfected consumer electronics and automobiles could come close to figuring out the mysteries of sex. But you would be wrong.
A Japanese doctor, Dr. Kunio Kitamura, has been focusing on what he calls "sexlessness" among the Japanese, which he defines as "a lack of consensual intercourse or sexual activity (kissing, petting or lying naked in bed) for at least one month without a special reason for not doing so." Surveys, apparently, have shown that as many as 40 percent of Japanese couples were not having sex. Which is pervasive enough that the Japanese government has to make it a non-issue:
It seems like yesterday I was having a quiet chuckle after being told by a pen pusher at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which is supposed to be tackling the low birthrate problem, that "'People of Japan, Have Sex' is not an appropriate government policy."This is actually a much more serious problem than my smartalecky treatment of it would suggest. But Dr. Kitamura does himself no favor by publishing articles called "Twelve steps to stopping sexlessness," and "Resemblance of the genitals shows mysterious nature of humanity," which elicit smirking from idiots like me. (The latter article, by the way, may be better in the original Japanese, because, just in case you're a total dope, it has illustrations, about which I should give you a content warning.)
In the end, though, the whole subject is pretty depressing, because no society can survive this way.
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