And who do you think just delivered a lecture on the Spanish Enlightenment to students in Louisiana? Yes, that was me.

Thank the Enlightenment for Skype because they are expecting +25C and mosquitoes in Louisiana, so I would not have wanted to visit in person. Of course, if you live in the area where instead of +25C and mosquitoes you have -25C and polar bears, I will be more than happy to come and share my wisdom with you.

In unrelated news, one of the buildings on our campus is plagued by unidentified whistling and howling noises. The Maintenance Department is requesting that anybody who knows where whistling or howling originate inform them ASAP.

If you thought there were many religious people in the US, you were mistaken. There are so few one can barely find them. Instead, we have a crowd of folks who like to repeat the words “God” and “faith” to pass the time but who have no interest in exploring any actual religion. Here is proof:

While only about 3-in-10 (27%) Americans, believe that God plays a role in determining which team wins a sporting event, a majority (53%) believe that God rewards athletes who have faith with good health and success, compared to 42% who disagree.

I thank David Gendron for giving me this link.

For some reason, people are coming to my blog from this idiotic article written by some stupid troll and titled “Do men who wash up really have less sex?”

To visitors who come here from that resource I have to say: if you experienced a need to read this trash for purposes other than to mock it, you are not destined to have much sex ever. There are evolutionary mechanisms in place that will prevent people with your non-existent IQ from procreating.

And to those who are still seeking an answer to the idiotic article’s question, here it is: the reason why your sex life sucks has nothing to do with household chores. Stop blaming your lack of desirability on the dishes and visit a sexologist already.

P.S. Please don’t insult me by suspecting that I have read the article. Life is too short to be wasted on pieces that bear this kind of titles.

 

These people scare me a lot:

The New York article is actually a thoughtful review and discussion of recent research on parental happiness and satisfaction, and these studies, cumulatively, do make a good case that active parents are more tired and stressed, and less happy and satisfied, than non-parents or those whose children are grown. But I don’t think that is an argument against parenthood; rather, it illustrates the relative non-importance of such concepts as “happiness” and “satisfaction” in many parents’ lives and choices.

If she throws such a public fit about sacrificing happiness and satisfaction, I can only imagine the daily dose of guilt her miserable children get from the “I-gave-up-happiness-for-you” mother.

Happiness originates inside people, not outside. If you don’t feel happy, have the maturity to analyze what it is you are doing wrong instead of blaming your unhappiness on your children.

The entire post is very reminiscent of the “marriage is not fun, it is hard work” variety. Poor repressed Puritans who have no idea how to enjoy existence and who blame everybody and everything for their constant misery.

I just spoke to somebody on Skype whom I only knew through blogging and I have to say: you can never really have a good understanding of a person based only on reading their texts. Even if you read tons of their texts. People are not their writing. They are a lot more.

This is why if you meet somebody at an online dating site, the best thing to do is not to drag it out trying to “get to know each other” but just to schedule a real date immediately.

P.S. It was great meeting you, dear Z. 🙂

I haven’t been as excited about a research project of mine as I am about this article I’m working on right now since January 2003. So exactly ten years.

I suspect that this wild enthusiasm is not a good sign.

A couple of very hilarious woman-haters throw a tantrum.

A very short illustration of how people who are completely incapable of self-analysis project their issues on “the world.” The most hilarious thing is that the short post’s author is so oblivious that s/he calls the post “Internalization” without even beginning to notice that it is a perfect example of exteriorization.

Remembering the Holocaust.

“A list of some delicious things: . . . The high after a migraine attack.” I always knew that migraines are completely psychosomatic and bring huge benefits to people who auto-generate them. Here is proof!

A very good, insightful post on leaving an abusive relationship.

A person with an extensive weapons training explains why arming teachers is a horrible idea.

Several stories demonstrating that the immature gun-obsessed idiots are a danger to everybody.

“The stories teachers exchange these days reveal a whole new level of overprotectiveness: parents who raise their children in a state of helplessness and powerlessness, children destined to an anxious adulthood, lacking the emotional resources they will need to cope with inevitable setback and failure.” The article’s author is woefully ignorant about child development but at least she is trying to say something important.

Is Egypt on the verge of a civil war?

Another post on the subject of Egypt. I’m biting my tongue not to say, “I told you so.” OK, I said it.

A very insightful post on what makes people prize their own virginity. Short answer: immaturity and stupidity. I always wondered what makes people think that not knowing how to perform in a vital area of life is somehow a positive thing. Now I have the answer. I remember this guy who tried to make a “gift” of his virginity to me. Obviously, I ran away faster than I would have if he had an STD. [For the dense among us, it is the presentation of virginity as “gift” that chased me away.]

This is what happens when you worship and essentialize ethnicity: the case of Israel.

A person writes a rant on how tragic the lives of professors are and never stops to think that the problem why she is so miserable as a college prof is that she writes things like “I can’t in good conscious” and “Now, having said this, she (thankfully) also seems to be well-liked by her classmates. I say thankfully because I was (at worst) bullied and (at best) ostracized throughout elementary school.”

One man’s story of how he chose to be heterosexual.

And the post of the week: a beautiful collection of evo-psycho myths.

In class, we are discussing a text by Galdos, a XIXth-century Realist writer.

“Which social class do these characters belong to?” I ask.

“The aristocracy!” the students respond in unison.

“What makes you think that?” I ask.

“Because it says here that they have a servant,” students explain.

Many stupid things get written about sexuality. Here is one:

So, among the small number of people who have extremely high sexual interest, the overwhelming majority are male. Among the small number of people with extremely low interest, the overwhelming majority are women.

Apparently, this blogger has never met any women in their 40s and 50s. Because then she wouldn’t be publishing stupid things. Men are the overwhelming majority of people with extremely high sexual interest between the ages of 15 and 25. But that is not the only age group in existence.

At the population level, men, on average, have a higher interest in sex than women. At the same time, women, as a population are more variable than men are.

Erm, which population, lady? That of the planet? Seriously? Or just your own tiny Puritanical village? Because I can point you to one huge population where the case is the exact opposite. Actually, two huge populations. Or three.

Since summer has made a brief reappearance here in St. Louis, I decided to go to work in my summer clothes. This was a mistake because legs look very sad at the end of January. They acquire this tragic color of Soviet sour-cream: very white with bluish tinges. Whenever I catch a glimpse of them sticking from under the skirt, I get scared.

Well, at least their color goes together with the blue necklace I’m wearing.