Classic advice about a “violent natural inclination” from sage Benjamin Franklin, supposing that celibacy is not a desirable option:
“But if you will not take this Counsel, and persist in thinking that Commerce with the Sex is inevitable, then I repeat my former Advice that in your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. This you call a Paradox, and demand my reasons. They are these:
1. Because they have more Knowledge of the world, and their Minds are better stored with Observations; their conversation is more improving, and more lastingly agreeable.
2. Because when Women cease to be handsome, they study to be good. To maintain their Influence over Man, they supply the Diminution of Beauty by an Augmentation of Utility. They learn to do a thousand Services, small and great, and are the most tender and useful of Friends when you are sick. Thus they continue amiable. And hence there is hardly such a thing to be found as an Old Woman who is not a good Woman.
3. Because there is no hazard of children, which irregularly produced may be attended with much inconvenience.
4. Because through more Experience they are more prudent and discreet in conducting an Intrigue to prevent Suspicion. The Commerce with them is therefore safer with regard to your reputation; and regard to theirs, if the Affair should happen to be known, considerate People might be inclined to excuse an old Woman, who would kindly take care of a young Man, form his manners by her good Councils, and prevent his ruining his Health and Fortune among mercenary Prostitutes.
5. Because in every Animal that walks upright, the Deficiency of the Fluids that fill the Muscles appears first in the highest Part. The Face first grows lank and Wrinkled; then the Neck; then the Breast and Arms; the lower parts continuing to the last as plump as ever; so that covering all above with a Basket, and regarding only what is below the Girdle, it is impossible of two Women to know an old one from a young one. And as in the Dark all Cats are grey, the Pleasure of Corporal Enjoyment with an old Woman is at least equal and frequently superior; every Knack being by Practice capable by improvement.
6. Because the sin is less. The Debauching of a Virgin may be her Ruin, and make her Life unhappy.
7. Because the Compunction is less. The having made a young Girl miserable may give you frequent bitter Reflections; none of which can attend making an old Woman happy.
8. 8th & lastly. They are so grateful!!!
Thus much for my Paradox. But still I advise you to marry immediately; being sincerely
2/6 Some slipperiness in using “altruism” here (”benevolence” is more accurate for most of the cases she mentions), but Sally Satel’s heart and mind are in the right place about our semi-functional organ-donation system and When Altruism Isn’t Moral. (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) And speaking of morality, Don Boudreaux quotes F. A. Hayek: When Keynesianism Isn’t Moral.
2/4 William Easterly on an entrepreneurial education success story: Ashesi University in Ghana. Back home, poor educational achievement is not a money problem — somewhat exasperatedly, Neal McCluskey explains for the umpteenth time that schools have plenty of money. Meanwhile: Life at Wal-Mart: a former senior writer at Wired magazine gets a new job and ponders upward mobility for low-pay employees. (Thanks to Chris for the link.)
2/2 How many environmental scares have proved to be groundless or grossly exaggerated? John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel, on global-warming-as-doomsday’s history. And former senior NASA atmospheric scientist Dr. John S. Theon comments on NASA’s James Hanson’s contribution to the hysteria. Of course, for many decades we market advocates have also been in the business of making economic scare predictions — and how well has that worked? There’s a lot of truth in this John Hasnas post. And one can almost sense David Boaz’s frustration as he explains, once again, the Keynes-versus-Bastiat choice: creating jobs or creating wealth? Meanwhile, Atlas shrugs in Florida and Victor Davis Hanson asks a good question about bankrupt California: “How does one explain how California is broke, tens of billions of dollars in aggregate debt, despite having among the highest sales and income taxes in the nation? We are naturally rich beyond belief — timber, oil, agriculture, a long sea-coast, wonderful weather, mountains, sea, and valleys — and inherited lucrative industries in tourism, computers and software, defense and great universities.”
1/31 Thomas Sowell on horses and buggies and the Big Three automakers — and notes: “While Detroit’s Big Three are laying off thousands of workers, Toyota is hiring thousands of workers right here in America, where a substantial share of all our Toyotas are manufactured.” Meanwhile, some refreshing news: Ford Has Worst Year Ever But Won’t Ask for Aid. Almost makes me want to go out and buy a Ford. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.) And it surprises me to say, Vladimir Putin’s analysis of our woes is better than the average American politician’s.
1/29 Louis Carabini’s Inclined to Liberty, published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, is a clearly-written series of meditations on classic free market themes with updated social science data. The New York Review of Books publishes China’s Charter 08, in Section II of which appears the following excellent quotation: “… Human rights are not bestowed by a state. Every person is born with inherent rights to dignity and freedom. The government exists for the protection of the human rights of its citizens. The exercise of state power must be authorized by the people. The succession of political disasters in China’s recent history is a direct consequence of the ruling regime’s disregard for human rights.” (Thanks to Tibor for the link.) Meanwhile, as we tilt sharply towards even more state power, Don Boudreaux updates P. J. O’Rourke’s classic title: Parliament of Pimps, not Parliament of Whores. And Robert Bradley, who also has a new book out (Capitalism at Work), reports on the World Economic Forum’s summit in Davos whose high-profile participants are looking for a new economic model.
1/23 A pair of questionable incidents invovling religion in higher education. (Thanks to Matt for the link.) And The New York Times reports on trials for parents who choose faith over medicine. So the question is: At what point does a parent’s intellectual irresponsibility become criminal negligence in caring for their children?
1/20 It’s the twenty-first century, and take a guess what percentage of Americans are functionally illiterate: 13%. (Do I dare issue a sly humor alert for the preceding?) On the positive side of the ledger, the new College of the United States has put online its Mission and Curriculum Plan. And in commenting on the four Great Ideas that were first developed in the West — “1) scientific method, 2) multiparty democracy, 3) the rule of law, and 4) competitive markets” — Lester Hunt argues that the Great Ideas are not just a great idea.
1/14 A finance advisor answers the classic question: Why major in philosophy? (The best answer that question, though, is that you too could become a philosophy professor.) And while we’re patting ourselves on the back, here is some relevant data: average scores on the LSAT and the GRE by major.
1/13 Coming soon: the waistline police. And when they do arrive, the sheriff will immediately shut this place down: the Heart Attack Grill in Chandler, Arizona. (Thanks to Eric for the link.)
1/9 Charter schools in New York reach the ten-year milestone, and for City Journal Thomas W. Carroll assesses the results. Meanwhile, Chicago schools are struggling as always - but school bureaucrats there spent $67,000 on espresso machines.
1/8 Is America the land of liberty — or the land of compulsory service? Is government the servant of the people — or are people servants of the government? Moving one step past “ask what you can do for your country,” Rahm Emanuel has a plan and is quite happy to give orders: universally required service for 18-25 year-olds. (But don’t call it a “draft” or “compulsory” or “slavery,” because that wouldn’t be nice.) (Thanks to Eileen for the link.) Meanwhile, in strong contrast to the call to communal servitude, here is a powerful call for never-give-up self-determination: Are you going to finish strong? (Thanks to Karen for the link.)
1/7 The latest issue of Social Epistemology is devoted to Evidence-Based Medicine, EBM being one of the battlegrounds between reason-based approaches to medicine and their competitor alternative and postmodernist approaches. (Thanks to Roy for the link.) Meanwhile, this medical researcher is still going strong at 95. (Thanks to Eric for the link.)
1/4 Google and Life magazine have teamed up to present Life’s photo archive: “Search millions of photographs from the LIFE photo archive, stretching from the 1750s to today. Most were never published and are now available for the first time through the joint work of LIFE and Google.” (Via Grant McCracken.) And here are National Geographic’s top ten photos of 2008. A fascinating “elbowed” and immensely long-legged squid is caught on video by a Shell Oil deep-water remotely operated vehicle. And a Guardian series on special places: writers’ and composers’ rooms.
1/2 Let’s also keep in mind all the positive indicators for the new year. Radley Balko rounds up some of the good news. On the medical front, pioneering efforts in cell regeneration. (Thanks to Karen for the link.) In surgery, the first face transplant in America. And even on the political-economic front, The New York Times reports on China’s slow evolution away from socialism: in the late 1970s, “after decades of isolation and outright hostility to capitalism, China suddenly began loosening state controls over the economy and encouraging its citizens to get rich. What followed was three decades of roaring growth and a export-oriented wealth boom that the World Bank says has lifted 400 million people out of poverty.” (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.)
12/17 Noah Brier reflects on the human capacity for evil: For example, was Hitler “abnormal”, or was he a person with normal capacities who chose an evil path? And speaking of evil: a report on the trafficking in young Nepalese girls for the sex trade in India.(Via ifeminists.)
12/12 Now that the semester is over, time for some amusement: Here is a very thorough video review of the Ford Fiesta:
(Thanks to Karen for the link.) And what about cross-cultural matches made in heaven? The Onion’s take on American women and European men.
12/11 What label best captures the new, younger generation - “Millennials”? “The Net Generation”? Grant McCracken explores some possibilities and two of his commentators suggest that technology and social diversity have moved us into an era of expansionary individualism. As one commentator put it, “The idea of being associated with a group of people because we happen to be the same age seems more ridiculous than ever in the face of this truth.”
12/9 Which college degrees pay the best? An up-to-date table of data in The Wall Street Journal: income and one’s college major. Interesting that Philosophy ties Math for the biggest jump - up 103.5% - from starting salary to mid-career salary.
12/5 ‘Tis the season … for students unhappy with the grades they have received. So here’s a useful tool for professors: the Universal Grade Change Form. (Via EclectEcon.)
12/4 Gene Holloway has a lively, philosophical blog - This is Not the Matrix - with a recent post entitled Kant and the Mindless Sheeple (Thanks for the plug, Gene). Following the links takes us to Roderick Long and Paul Fine’s classic “The Kant Song”. And speaking of Kant and The Matrix, don’t you just wish your philosophy class could be this interesting?
11/30 Free flip flops for drunks: Since your mom can’t always go barhopping with you, the police will now help you with your footwear challenges. (Via InstaPundit.) Some diseases fail the political-correctness test: apparently, cystic fibrosis is just too white. (Via ifeminists.) Can you imagine the uproar, though, if they voted not to support breast cancer research? By contrast, how about opening a serious problem up to a market solution? Philosopher Stone has a round up of posts on paying for organ donors.
11/27 Many grains of truth here: Donald Frazell’s impressionistic survey of American art world. (Thanks to Michael for the link.) Two caveats: Frazell seems to mean by “individualism” a Peter-Keating type of “individualism”; and he brings to the discussion a background cynicism about money’s influence in art. And The Nation’s art critic casts the recent history of art as a quest to answer the philosophical question: What exactly is art? (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.)
11/26 John Allison’s talk to the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina: Effective Leadership. My gloss on the Allison’s two integrating themes: the practical power of philosophy and leaders must be philosophers. Allison’s lecture is also available as a webcast. And on Reason.tv, former Enron-employee Robert Bradley, Jr., explains how Enron is a case study in politicized capitalism. Bradley is the author of the new book Capitalism at Work, from which he has posted online fifty-three appendices.
11/25 While I expect that there were a large number of uninformed voters on the other side, this is still ghastly. But as uninformed as many voters are about American civics, at least they did better than our elected officials. Meanwhile, a very funny four-minute YouTube video with a reality check on our expectations: Everything’s amazing, nobody’s happy. (Thanks to Karen, Marsha, and Anja for the links.)
11/23 A Fast Company feature on Washington public schools’ “Iron Chancellor,” Michelle Rhee. And in the context of listing a number of steps he thinks will help fix the economy long-term, Rich Karlgaard makes this key point: “Step 12. Pay teachers more, based on merit. The politically incorrect truth is that smart American women subsidized K-12 education from the 19th century through the 1960s. Since the 1970s, smart women have had more career choices than teaching the three R’s. The talent pool in American K-12 teaching is fished out. By SAT scores and grade-point averages, would-be teachers are asked to clear a far lower bar than other professionals. Education schools are a disgrace, and are wholly unnecessary. If the U.S. wants better teachers, we must pay teachers more. To do that, we’ll have to break the teachers’ unions.” Also: Margaret Soltan reports on another example of how political funding of education leads to political control of education. Kudos to Professor McPherson for resisting the authoritarians.
11/21 Celebrating the great French champion of tolerance, modern science, and the English Enlightenment: François-Marie Arouet was born today in 1694. Here is Oxford University’s Voltaire Project, devoted to Voltaire’s works and eighteenth-century studies. Three of my favorite quotations from Voltaire: On the excellence of England: “Commerce, which has enriched English citizens, has helped to make them free, and this freedom in its turn has extended commerce, and that has made the greatness of the nation.” On the connections between freedom of religion, freedom of commerce, and tolerance: “Go into the London Stock Exchange — a more respectable place than many a court — and you will see representatives from all nations gathered together for the utility of men. Here Jew, Mohammedan and Christian deal with each other as though they were all of the same faith, and only apply the word infidel to people who go bankrupt. Here the Presbyterian trusts the Anabaptist and the Anglican accepts a promise from the Quaker. On leaving these peaceful assemblies some go to the Synagogue and others for a drink, this one goes to be baptized in a great bath in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, that one has his son’s foreskin cut and has some Hebrew words he doesn’t understand mumbled over the child, others go to their church and await the inspiration of God with their hats on, and everybody is happy. // If there were just one religion in England, despotism would threaten; if there were two religions, they would cut each other’s throats; but there are thirty religions, and they live together peacefully and happily.” And on how France is still stuck in feudalism: “In France anyone who is a Marquis who wants to be, and whoever arrives in Paris with money to spend an a name ending in -ac or -ille can say: ‘a man like me, a man of my standing’, and loftily despises a businessman, and the business man so often hears people speak disparagingly of his profession that he is foolish enough to blush. Yet I wonder which is the more useful to a nation, a well-powdered nobleman who knows exactly at what moment the King gets up and goes to bed, and who gives himself grand airs while playing the part of a slave in some Minister’s antechamber, or a business man who enriches his country, issues orders from his office to Surat or Cairo, and contributes to the well-being of the world.” Those quotations are from my favorite of Voltaire’s books, his Letters on England from 1733. Naturally, the King and the establishment were not pleased with the work, so copies were burned and Voltaire, once again, was forced into exile.
11/20 Word-play and the rise of the coercive liberals: Will all the proposed national service programs be mandatory, compulsory, and backed by threats of fines and jail time? Lester Hunt is “just asking”. And speaking of “liberals,” why is it that school choice is strongly desired by the poor, but strongly opposed by their so-called political advocates (including, as Andrew Coulson explains, our president-elect)? Also: David Thompson rolls his eyes: Queen’s University is exploring new frontiers in attitude management. One skeptic thinks “It’s unlikely six facilitators in a crowd of thousands will have much impact on fostering dialogue in residences.” But there’s an obvious solution to that problem: hire 600 “[correct] dialogue facilitators”!!!!
11/19 Atheism and religion: Does religion make you nice, and does atheism make you mean? (Thanks to Bob H. for the link.) And for fans of the great movie Inherit the Wind, the theatrical version is being performed by The College Preparatory School in Oakland, directed by Salil Singh. Love the poster.
11/13 My alma mater’s bragging rights among Canadian universities. Unfortunately, many talented professors are deeply unhappy, such as Professor “John Smith,” who explains why he is leaving higher education.
Perhaps he had one too many colleagues like the guy described in the first paragraph here. Or too many students who were victims of relentless and shameless indoctrination programs, such as this one at the University of Delaware, as described by David Thompson: ‘Staff members kept individual files on students and their beliefs — which were to be archived after graduation. Students with “traditional” beliefs had to become “allies” and “change agents” by their senior year. Posters and door decorations provided the politicized ResLife messages everywhere; one could not escape them. One administrator of the program, Sendy Guerrier, wrote that students “should be confronted with this information at every turn” and that the program should leave “a mental footprint on [students'] consciousness.” The program was called a “treatment” for students’ alleged moral illnesses of consumerism, inherent racism, and oppressive tendencies. UD was proud of this “treatment,” holding an annual Residential Curriculum Institute so that residence life officials nationwide could do the same.’
11/10 An interview with Martin Durkin on Romantic philosophy’s dictating to global warming’s science. A key quotation: “the greens sit squarely in the tradition of Romanticism. Like the romantics, they hate industry, love nature, idealise peasant life, they think capitalism is wicked, they think people in modern society lead depraved shallow lives and have forgotten the true value of things, they don’t like cars or supermarkets or lots of proles taking cheap long-haul holidays.” (Thanks to Charlie for the link.) And how can we separate global warming science from global warming religion? That’s Michael Crichton’s question. (Thanks to Bob M. for the link.)
11/5 Is this the future? Philosophy as played out through video game avatars. (Thanks to Shawn for the link.)
11/28The New York Times reports on further progress for women in India. (Thanks to Virginia for the link.) Prospect magazine has this fascinating overview (statist assumptions aside) of India’s under-achieving middle class. Philosopher Stone has a post with links about India and Ayn Rand. And thanks to my friend Bill, I’ve been watching Bollywood movies this year—let me recommend Guru (“a villager, Gurukant Desai, arrives in Bombay 1958, and rises from its streets to become the GURU, the biggest tycoon in Indian history”), Lagaan (“the people of a small village in Victorian India stake their future on a game of cricket against their ruthless British rulers”), and Veer-Zaara (“the story of the love between Veer Pratap Singh, an Indian, and Zaara Hayaat Khan, a Pakistani”).
11/27 A sad case study in far-left educational culture: Charlotte Allen explains Who killed Antioch College. (Thanks to Charles for the link.) On financial accountability in higher education: Ward Connerly looks at the factors. And Yale professor Anthony Kronman reminds those of us in higher education Why We Are Here.
11/20 Three interesting conferences coming up next April: Objectivity in the Law at the University of Texas, Liberty Studies at the College of New Jersey, and the annual conference of the Association of Private Enterprise Education in Las Vegas. Update: And in February a Students for Liberty conference at Columbia University, featuring speakers David Boaz of Cato, Alan Kors of the University of Pennsylvania, and Will Thomas of The Atlas Society.
11/19 It’s getting better all the time. Graphically-presented data on average income in the USA along with several other progress-related charts and graphs. Here is a website devoted to improvement indicators. (Thanks to Anja for the link.) And why even the optimistic Star Trek series underestimates future potential.
11/16 “In 1993, over a million saiga antelopes roamed the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan. Today, fewer than 30,000 remain, most of them females.” Unintended consequences meet the tragedy of the commons, as Tyler Cowen explains.
11/8 This Friday’s Free Kareem rallies. And while a relatively liberal young man languishes in jail, here is a classic piece explaining the attraction of intellectual-lightweight entertainment superstars to heavyweight-murderous political thugs: Humberto Fontova considers the case of Che.
10/31 John Ellis’s Literature Lost (Yale University Press) is one of my favorite books from the 1990s. Here is a timeless excerpt on how Western civilization’s unique trait of self-reflective criticism regularly becomes perverted to cultural self-hatred.
10/26 I recently got an unexpected chance to visit the Legion of Honor collection, one of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. It has an outstanding collection of Rodins, some fine Impressionist pieces I had never seen before, as well as a solid collection of very good works from the early Renaissance through the early twentieth century. So put it on your must-see list. And here is a good review of the Edward Hopper exhibition at the National Gallery in Washington, which I almost got to see but the lines were waaaaaaaaay too long. (Thanks to Mark for the link.)
10/24 How high are the effective tax rates on the American rich? And here’s some good Canadian anti-tax spirit in a spoof posted at YouTube: (Thanks to Craig for the link.)
10/23 Religion and the American experience: A Los Angeles Times review of Gary Wills’s new book. A key quotation: “at the time of the founding, historians estimate that only about 17% of Americans professed formal religious adherence, a historic low point. The framers were deists, who believed in a divine providence knowable only through reason and experience and not prone to intervene in the affairs of men.” And Tom Stone directs our attention to a new wrinkle on the theodicy problem and why God won’t heal amputees.
10/22 The conservatives do have a legitimate complaint about academic diversity. 27 - 0 is not a football score at the University of Iowa. (Thanks to Richard for the link.) And Walter Williams comments on the significance of “Indoctrinate U”. (Thanks to Charles for the link.)
10/17 Cross-fertilization: applying evolutionary biology to design engineering. (Thanks to Joe for the link.)
10/12 In the wake of recent ugliness on campuses over controversial speakers, the American Association of University Professors has issued this timely set of guidelines for invitations to outside speakers. Lester Hunter reflects on the age of apoplexy. And as Harvard’s Larry Summers has been a lightning rod for one issue, here is the text of his speech.
10/10 More major Ayn Rand coverage: After features in earlier this year in The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Times, and Forbes, here is another piece in The Wall Street Journal, this one by David Kelley.
10/4 Tom Palmer praises as Wolfgang Schivelbusch’s Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt’s America, Mussolini’s Italy, and Hitler’s Germany, 1933–1939 as “an elegant treatment of twentieth century collectivism” and links to a review by David Boaz.
10/3 Canada—my (former) home and native land: Jeff Cornwall has this item on the state of entrepreneurship in Canada. Learning (not) from the dismal failure of the drug war in the US, Canada’s conservatives have decided that they too will escalate the drug war. Tyler Cowen links to a piece comparing health care in the US and Canada. And here are some great photos of the Thousand Islands, near the family homestead in Ontario.
5/31 Two recent takes on contemporary intellectual culture: In the Chronicle, Michael Kimmel reviews several trendy novels in the “lad lit” genre, describing that genre as “a sort of anti-bildungsroman, in which a sardonic, clever, unapologetic slacker refuses to grow up, get a meaningful job, commit to relationships, or find any meaning in life.” And Julian Baggini argues that, philosophically, the “comic cartoon [is] the form best suited to illuminate our age”: “To speak truthfully and insightfully today you must have a sense of the absurdity of human life and endeavour. Past attempts to construct grand and noble theories about human history and destiny have collapsed.” (Both via Arts & Letters Daily.)
5/6 Is the evolution of the eye irreducibly complex? In this four-minute video, Swedish scientist Dan-Eric Nilsson demonstrates one possible straightforward evolutionary path. And some actual—as opposed to mythical—intelligent design: This is one Clever design for a car.
5/4 Superstar teacher John Taylor Gatto is working on an ambitious documentary project about American education: “The Fourth Purpose”. (Thanks to Jim for the link.)
5/2 A new book on one of the architects of the Reign of Terror: Maximilien Robespierre. And for something more uplifting, Ken Gregg has a post on a vigorous and fascinating Pole who embraced Enlightenment ideals: Tadeusz Kosciuszko was recruited by Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane, became a great friend of Thomas Jefferson and a hero of the Revolutionary war.
5/1 Logic and economics: Don Boudreaux has a good example illustrating why ad hominem is an invalid argument tactic. And he has a further post illustrating why tu quoque is a perfectly understandable reaction.
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“But if you will not take this Counsel, and persist in thinking that Commerce with the Sex is inevitable, then I repeat my former Advice that in your Amours you should prefer old Women to young ones. This you call a Paradox, and demand my reasons. They are these: 
Art historian Lynn Catterson speculates on the Laocoön scuplture: 
