We should be sympathetic to this. After all, what healthy straight male among us hasn’t been injured after attempting to leap into our 60-inch plasma televisions for a shot at Ann-Margaret in ”Viva Las Vegas,” right?

Right…?

CNN reports:

On the fan forum site “Avatar Forums,” a topic thread entitled “Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible,” has received more than 1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope. The topic became so popular last month that forum administrator Philippe Baghdassarian had to create a second thread so people could continue to post their confused feelings about the movie. (more…)

Government broadcaster PBS is running a new, five-part series on a subject naturally interesting in our time: American Experience: The 1930s. Episodes are available for online viewing here.

The program is just what one would expect from PBS: earnest, well-researched, skillfully presented, and eager to lick the boots of government while criticizing individual freedom for everything wrong in the world.

There are two important lessons to be learned from the Great Depression, in my view:

1. The government causes business cycles and downturns through its erratic, manipulative policies intended to benefit powerful voting blocs at the expense of those less able to fight back. The market works when left alone, and government interference should be limited to redressing actual harms done by one party to another. This includes combating fraud, enforcing valid contracts, and setting clear but liberal guidelines for transactions made across political borders. And nothing more.

(more…)

So according to new research, having sex without a condom is healthy – at least for your head. A leading Scottish psychologist claims that unprotected straight sex can dramatically boost men’s and women’s mental well-being – with or without the kilt. He adds that wearing a condom can increase risk for depression and stress – probably triggered by trying to open those little wrappers with fat stubby fingers.

Now the research was immediately condemned by sex educators, who believe this finding can only lead to unprotected sex, pregnancy, STD’s and tedious play dates at McDonalds. The professor, however, stood strong and said: “Evolution is not politically correct… there is actually only one [sexual behavior] that is consistently associated with better physical and mental health and that is the one… favoured by evolution.” (more…)