Month: November 2010

A reader writes:

I'm a graduate student taking an evolution seminar right now. We were discussing phenotypic plasticity today and read an article from 1970 called, "The Effects of Sexual Activity on Beard Growth in Man" (PDF). I thought you and some of your readers would get a kick out of it. It was published in Nature, one of the most respected, if not the most respected, science journals out there. Money quote:

Perhaps the most interesting feature of these changes was the way the increase in beard growth anticipated the resumption of sexual relationships. The longer the period of abstinence, the more obvious was the anticipatory response (beard growth).

There are some great figures too.

Testosterone is the key of course.

Bernstein ignores the polls:

If you want to know about Barack Obama's chances in 2012, I recommend two things: pay attention to his approval ratings, and pay attention to the economic results and forecasts.  Really, you can completely, totally, absolutely ignore head-to-head polling matchups until Labor Day, 2012.

Agreed. But I remain of the view that the GOP nomination is Palin's to lose. She's running positive infomercials for herself right now on Dancing With The Stars, one of the most popular shows on TV and her TLC series, one of the most popular cable news shows as well. And when was the last time you saw any actual journalist challenge Palin on air?

She always believed a politician should be treated like a Beauty Queen. And she's engineered and run rings around the media so that she is.

Jacob Sullum offers a brief history:

First the government encouraged illicit production of methamphetamine by restricting access to legal speed. Then it encouraged pseudoephedrine-based production by banning or restricting other precursors. Appalled by all the scary, toxic, flammable meth labs that subsequently popped up around the country, it restricted access to cold and allergy remedies containing pseudoephedrine, forcing customers to ask pharmacists for them, sign a registry, and abide by quantity limits. Those restrictions, in turn, encouraged a shift to the "shake and bake" method for producing meth, which is less complicated and does not require as much pseudoephedrine but is in some ways more dangerous and more environmentally destructive. The next logical step, according to Lincoln County, Oregon, District Attorney Rob Bovett, is to require a prescription for products containing pseudoephedrine, thereby banning all over-the-counter sales. This time for sure!

…What Rob Bovett actually demands, then, is that people sacrifice cheap, safe, and effective medicine so he and like-minded authoritarians can look like they are fighting drug abuse. The proper response to this plea is a snot-filled sneeze of contempt.

Conor goes after Palin's cult base:

The most peculiar thing about the affinity of social conservatives for Sarah Palin is that they despise John McCain, distrusting him as much as any other Republican in the Senate… but are completely unbothered by the fact that he was championed by Palin not only on the campaign trail in 2008, but also in his 2010 bid to be re-elected to the Senate. Fellow mavericks! Ask a Palin supporter about this. They’ll usually reply that she was just being loyal to the man who helped establish her on the national scene. Put another way, Palin acted like a typical career politician by supporting someone not based on shared convictions, but because that person helped to advance her career. In other contexts, that sort of quid pro quo is held up as representing everything that is wrong with politics. 

Jonathan Chait reports on the latest doings of James O'Keefe:

This is one of the most stomach-churning things I've ever seen. Right-wing pseudo-journalist James O'Keefe decided to do an expose on the teachers unions. So he sent one of his flunkies to a bar after a teachers' conference to buy drinks for a special education teacher named Alissa Ploshnick, and prompt her to dish about incompetent colleagues while secretly recording her. One of Ploshnick's stories was that a colleague of hers called a student a "nigger" and was demoted but not fired. She was clearly outraged.

Guess what happened? O'Keefe released the recorded, and got Ploshnick suspended for using the n-word. Yes — the teacher who, in what she thought was a private setting, complained about a colleague using a slur is suspended.

William Saletan offers some advice to pro-lifers. Ramesh Ponnuru responds:

Saletan says that if pro-lifers "were to embrace contraception and give it moral sanction," it would reduce abortion more than any anti-abortion law. I'm highly skeptical. Are people really having sex without contraception because pro-lifers have refrained from proselytizing in favor of contraception?

The simple reason for this preference for more unwanted pregnancies by the pro-life movement is that the Protestant wing – which might gladly promote condoms – cannot offend the Catholic wing which does. Until the Vatican hierarchs come around, more abortions will take place – because they'd rather encourage what they regard as mass murder than reconsider their position on rubbers and pills.

Hugh Hewitt's plea for even tighter epistemic closure on the right:

Last week, Politico announced that Nancy Reagan was going to host the first Republican nominee debate at the Reagan Library in the spring of 2011, and that Politico and NBC would be asking the questions. I wrote a column that said that’s a terrible idea. Not only is it too early, but I don’t think that we should cede the right to select the Republican nominee, or at least ask those questions at the beginning, to MSM. It ought to be different kinds of journalists.

By "different kinds" he means a panel comprised of "Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Medved"! It's like Stalin being grilled by the Politburo. Bill Kristol is in agreement and wants Hewitt asking the tough questions:

You live right near the Reagan Library. What are they getting, what, are they going to fly in some NBC guy and Politico guy? It’s really ridiculous.

Palin led the way by refusing any real scrutiny and any press conference as an unknown running for vice-president! In the next cycle, we'll see no GOP pols going on anything but Fox and Facebook.

"It was "my bad" indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things. But honestly Monica, the web is considered "public domain" and you should be happy we just didn't "lift" your whole article and put someone else's name on it!" – Judith Griggs, editor of CookSource, that relied on many plagiarized recipes and articles online, and, after an online revolt against her sleaze and contempt, is now kaput.

Here's Robert Stacy McCain rushing to Willow's defense:

I’m more troubled by the bad spelling and grammar than I am by the “stfu,” and not in the least troubled by the use of “gay” and “faggot” as insults. This is not “homophobia.” This is just how teenagers insult each other. 

Maybe I should defer to McCain as an arbiter of homophobia. He's one of the vilest bigots on the web. But can you imagine young Eric calling Willow a "faggot" on Facebook?

Using the word gay to mean lame as an adjective is a different thing than calling a young man a "faggot". Willow is 16 years' old. Who taught her to use language like that? And the excuse from the Palins? Not disciplining or an apology – but a defense:

A source connected to the Palin family tells TMZ that Willow doesn't usually use this kind of language, but she felt like she and her family were being attacked.

Here's the alleged "attack":

"Sarah Palin's Alaska, is failing so hard right now."

It's a criticism of a TV program, not an attack on a family. The paranoia, thin skin and viciousness is not restricted to the Ivana Trump wannabe, is it?