"I can remember when the air was clean and sex was dirty." - George Burns

***

I feel as if I am lacking in erudition.

***

A reader writes:

"I read "Why I Dislike Modern Music" and i just thought it was funny how you said you would some day bankroll, as you put it, a band named H.I.M or H.E.R . Where as there actually is a Finnish rock band named H.I.M that was/is (im not exactly sure i dont personally listen to them) going to change their name to H.E.R apon comming to the United States to release their music. Just thought it was funny how you picked those to examples.

Here's the website just to check it out:
http://www.heartagram.com/"

***

The Right's Wrong Books

"Human Events is a conservative weekly that Ronald Reagan was known to favor, and which the Wall Street Journal called a "bible of the right." It compiled its list by polling a panel of conservative academics (such as Robert George of Princeton University) and Washington think-tank types (such as Fred Smith of the Competitive Enterprise Institute). As such, it offers a fair window into the dementia of contemporary conservative thinking.

One amusing thing about the list is its seeming inability to distinguish between seminal works of social science and totalitarian manifestos. Marx, Hitler and Chairman Mao sit alongside pragmatist philosopher John Dewey and sex researcher Alfred Kinsey. You'll be comforted to know that Mao, with 38 points and a No. 3 ranking, edged out Kinsey, with 37 points. "The Feminine Mystique," meanwhile, checks in at No. 7, with 30 points, just behind "Das Kapital," which totaled 31 points.

Harmful books that got honorable mentions but couldn't crack the top 10 include John Stuart Mill's "On Liberty," Sigmund Freud's "Introduction to Psychoanalysis" and Charles Darwin's "The Descent of Man." Oh yes, and Lenin's "What Is to Be Done." (If you don't see the link between arguing for individual rights, exploring scientific mysteries and constructing a brutally repressive Bolshevik terror state, then clearly you're not thinking like a conservative.) "

The full list is accessible here: HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE :: Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

***

Farrell on 'Why men earn more'

"For example, because men commute 36 percent more than females, they end up earning $1,500 more per year. In another example, the average man works an additional year and half longer in his current occupation, and works between five and nine years overall. According to Farrell, for each additional year a man works he ends up earning 3 to 4 percent annual pay increase.

Until now, the root of the wage gap debate has been based on the presumption that women are discriminated against in the workplace, thus women ending up with lower salaries. But according to Farrell that has not been the case.

"Every time I read a statistic that says males doctors earn more than female doctors, the more I looked into those statistics," said Farrell.

What he found was that male doctors were more likely to work for private companies and work longer hours. Cardiac surgeons were more likely to be male, while female doctors were usually psychiatrists or pediatricians. Female doctors ended up having more control over the hours worked, while male doctors were more likely to work night shifts. Adding up all the different variables explained why men were earning higher salaries over women, not discrimination.

But the great news for women, according to Farrell, is that "when women do those things they actually earn more than men.""

***

Japan and China United in Pedophilia: the unlikely diplomacy of Saaya Irie

"The wave of anti-Japanese sentiment in China continues, more than a month since the first round of demonstrations against the Japanese government’s approval of a controversial school textbook flared throughout the country... At this point, it might seem that a miracle is required to put bilateral relations fully back on track.

Saaya Irie, an 11-year-old Japanese girl, may not be that miracle, but she has clearly played a part in pacifying a certain segment of China’s population, according to Shukan Bunshun.

If anything about Saaya is miraculous, it’s her body—she wears an F-cup bra, though she has yet to reach her teens. So when a photo of her in a bikini was posted on a Chinese Internet forum called “100,” she immediately caused a sensation."

***

Lindsay Lohan's Breasts: An Expert Weighs In - "The Truth in Cosmetic Surgery Blog, run by a Real Plastic Surgeon, may help put an end to one of the internet’s favorite party games: speculating about the vacillations in Lindsay Lohan’s bra size... 'I tend to agree with the suggestion that breast implants have very likely been removed.'"

Bizarre Sex Habits of The Extreme Right-Wing - "Last night, anti-abortion extremist Neal Horsley was a guest on The Alan Colmes Show, a FOX News radio program... In the course of the interview, however, Colmes asked Horsley about his background, including a statement that he had admitted to engaging in homosexual and bestiality sex... Come to think of it, Ann Coulter is reputed to have an unusually, er, wide-ranging sex life, too, though as far as I know it's just confined to men. Still, it doesn't exactly match the profile of an ultra-conservative."