Christians saving the environment

Link An amazing story about a church which cares about the environment and saves money at the same time.

How Eliot Spitzer acted as powerful NY AG

Link Once on TV, I saw a speech by Spitzer and was very impressed. This article shows how he almost took down Merrill Lynch while exposing conflicts of interest of analyst recommendations opposite to internal opinions of companies ML asked its clients to invest in.

Of course, it doesn't hurt my opinion of him that he would sign same-sex marriage into law as New York governor -- at least if the legislature gives him such a law.

More Jon Stewart on Sexual Congress

Humorous...

Europe worries on Islam

Link NYTimes piece on how even European progressives are becoming concerned about the lack of integration of Muslims into relatively liberal European societies.

Foley issue: what's age-appropriate?

I think youth oriented culture pervades the gay male sphere just like it does the straights. And despite subtle differences, I think gay and straight men will always like youthful looking men and women -- by this I don't mean teenagers, but young adults in their 20s or 30s. Whether they will be successful in obtaining them is a question to ponder, but I want to highlight the many parallels and differences between gays and straights on this topic.

Similarities

The gay male counterpart to the material girl/trophy wife is the young 'boy toy', and just like female prostitutes there are rent boys, who engage in sex acts for money. Just like prostitutes need to be attractive younger women, these need to be attractive young men. I say this to highlight what men of either gay or straight orientation are willing to pay for, what they find valuable -- and it is youthfulness.

There is some biological process also which seems to age the people one finds desirable. I mean I used to like teenage boys -- but that was when I was a teenager myself. But now I don't take to them. I remember as a teenager liking the relatively older Michael J. Fox and Tom Cruise for a time. Now that I'm in my 30's, my eye can still be caught by a 20-something year old. And I could be wrong, but extrapolating that trend, I don't think I will find 60 year old fat, balding guys desirable when I turn 60 myself. I'll still always like men in their 20s or 30s.

I think what hits both gay and straight males might be practicality. Unless you have money and status to be a sugar daddy, what would drive a younger women to engage with an older man? But this practicality probably hits older gay males even harder. Males are even more attracted to appearance than women (who have supposedly a greater weakness for high status males), so an older gay man would have to be extremely rich and probably also reasonably good looking to get the attentions of a younger gay man.

A person's emotional maturity might have a impact on desirability of that person to a rational gay or straight man, and this is where older might be better. Anyway, I think it makes sense, but I kind of doubt how many men can be completely rational when it comes to attraction?

Differences

There does seem to be less of an outcry about sexual abuse of boys compared to girls. There is the somewhat sexist idea that boys can fend for themselves. The idea is that boys are naturally tougher, and they might not allow unwanted sexual behavior towards them. Whenever you hear about a female teacher having sex with underage male students, it's mostly the end of a joke on the Tonight show. It's just not a big deal -- it seems the boy must have enjoyed it and wanted it the reasoning goes. [NYTimes article on this shows that psychologists believe it will seriously warp the kid.] Of course, this doesn't really apply to gay male pedophila since there's still the idea of penetration or other things distasteful to straights. And while there's no physical equivalent of victim losing his virginity, it's still perhaps rightly considered something like rape. Note: in the Foley case we aren't talking about even a physical meeting, but definitely harassment.

Gay males even today largely live without the counter-balance of marriage and children, despite a large number, maybe even a majority of gays and lesbians wanting a marriage option. My honest opinion is that straight society helps cultivate "age-appropriate" desire in older men. Older men naturally feel desire for protection of their own daughters and adjust their stated opinion of what is desirable to them to an age older than their daughters. Gay men don't have this pressure unless they have adopted children or children from a previous straight marriage.

But then there is the closet. This might be the unique downfall for old gay and possibly Republican males. Unable to acknowledge their true sexual feelings, an old gay male in the closet sneaks around trying to satisfy their needs and the easiest prey is the vulnerable and naive interns and pages.

Conclusions

So... an older gay male finds youth and youthful appearance attractive, just like his straight counterpart, is less restrained by the conventions of marriage and children to develop his desires for older men, but still is restrained by practicality and potential accusations of pedophilia and harassment.

But the further gay challenge of the closet appears to be creating males so desperate for sexual contact that they are willing to sacrifice their careers for some young intern or page.

Fl Rep Mark Foley (R) resigns...

Link Pretty weird stuff. The representative apparently sent sexually inappropriate e-mails to underage male interns. Now that this has been revealed he had to resign. A byproduct of the harassment revelation is another apparent revelation that the unmarried Foley is gay -- and a Republican -- one of those people who can say: my whole life was a lie. Now isn't that satisfying?

I guess I'm still not beyond schadenfreude. He got what he deserved.

-- updated 10/2

Foley now has checked himself into rehab. The standard lawyer tricks. Oh and by the way, Foley now acknowledges he is gay. Dubya's reaction.

-- updated 10/3

Now Foley's lawyer says Foley was molested by a priest as a child.. As if this is an excuse. Next, he's going to say that this made him gay.

-- updated 10/4

Jon Stewart gives some perspective on the Republican blame games:

OPEC getting its act together quietly

Link It seems even the Republicans cannot get OPEC to keep oil prices down coming down the stretch in an election year. Good for OPEC. I hope alternative energy can thrive at around $60 a barrel. And just a little reminder for the voters on failed policies...

-- updated 10/5

I read a BusinessWeek article where Saudi Arabia was for lowering oil prices. But this NYT article seems to contradict that. OPEC now does not announce a price target or intentional supply modifications. A barrel of oil went up $2 yesterday.

Eric Schmidt: Average blog has one reader

As reported by John Battelle's blog, Google CEO Schmidt said the average blog has one reader -- the blogger himself or herself. Crap.

LA, NY lead cohabiting male couples

Link talks about rising housing costs, but also mentions:

"...The data also showed that, among couples living together in Manhattan, about 17 percent were unmarried in 2005, compared with 10 percent nationwide.

Manhattan appeared to have the second highest number of male couples living together, following Los Angeles."

The last sentence doesn't mean a whole lot because LA metro area has 18 million people while New York area has 22 million, but this includes Newark, Bronx, Queens and many areas outside of Manhattan. It makes no sense to compare the huge LA area to the much smaller and although denser, still less populated Manhattan area. For reference, the SF Bay Area including San Jose and Oakland only has 7.2 million inhabitants. Now if they said male couples per 1000 inhabitants, then this would start making some sense. I suppose that since this is a NYT article, they had to say something about NY.

Condi: I don't remember warning from CIA

Link It seems a bit suspicious that she denies such a meeting took place while others say it did. But she doesn't say no, it never took place, she just says she doesn't remember it. In my opinion this should be interpreted that it did take place. She just prefers not to remember it.

-- updated 10/2

Link The dispute continues with White House records showing the meeting did take place.

Some Mona Lisa secrets revealed

Link Using infrared light, we know that Leonardo changed Mona Lisa's pose slightly and modified her garments.

Down-low prevalence at 9.4%...

Down-low prevalence at 9.4%, more among minorities and foreign born -- the idea being that homosexuality is even less accepted in other countries and minority groups.
Link This is a fairly high number. Actually surprises me. Reference my recent post on brokeback marriages and beards.

-- updated 9/27

Link Interestingly a British study conducted in 1949 reported that 20% of men had homosexual experiences. It seems men were much more experimental in the years of WWII and shortly thereafter, if this study is to be believed. These days studies don't seem to reveal quite such a large number.

Politics and the power of YouTube

-- orig post 8/17

An interesting CS article about how an Indian American caught a Virginia Republican Senator on tape calling him a 'Macaca' and has probably ended the politician's possible Presidential bid by posting the video on YouTube.

-- updated 9/25

Link
Looks like in addition to the macaca remark George Allen is getting into more trouble over racist remarks, a confederate flag, and the revelation that he was unaware or insensitive or unwilling to admit to the fact that his mother was raised as Jewish.

Housing inventory increasing, prices drop

Link From my own observations of for sale signs in my neighborhood, some of which have been up for several weeks, I'd say that there is a definite slowdown in housing in the Bay Area.

Preference given children of alumni

Economist story I didn't know that if you are a child of an alumnus of Harvard you are nearly 4 times more likely to be given admission than a child of a non-alumnus. I got admitted to Harvard (but didn't go), so there! One interesting point made by the article is that Asians tend to get the shaft when colleges use such legacy admission policies.

Dwindling pops: Japan, Russia and Italy

The article indicates it's financial reasons driving down birth rate. Also it is socially acceptable (actually becoming the norm) not to have children. I think it's good for the planet, but still potentially destabilizing. These countries will be forced to allow immigration in order to sustain their economies.

Writer found moral imperative in Star Trek

It's interesting what lessons you can learn from television. I'd forgotten how Star Trek's ethics worked. I knew that no central character would ever be truly hurt or taken out (at least until Spock sacrificed himself in one of the movies). But the idea that we respected other civilizations was a forgotten lesson until I read this.

Fame: did you get your 15 minutes already?

Link In light of my brief skirt with mini-fame, I thought this article an interesting analysis of why people want to be famous. I don't think I would mind being famous, if only to use it to get more dates. Perhaps there's a dubious linkage for me there, however, as women tend to see status as important, but men might only find it important for getting women.

Satire, Irony and Lampooning

(What you haven't signed up for a free NYTimes account yet? What kind of luddite are you?)

Link Among other amusing things, this piece takes us through the Colbert Correpondent dinner speech and reminds us to read the Onion.

Congress clinging to earmarks

Link Corruption in the US Congress is still widespread in the form of earmarks added to spending bills. I already pay enough taxes. I refuse to pay for graft.