Furor Uterinus

The population of Western European countries has been aging rapidly, and that is likely to continue over the next several decades. The basic reason: European couples aren't producing enough babies. … Why are there fewer babies? One key reason is that European attitudes toward sex have evolved sharply. One-hundred fifty years ago, it was considered a sin to enjoy sex, the only legitimate purpose for which was procreation. But today, young women believe that sex is mainly a recreational activity.

Robert Fogel, “$123,000,000,000,000
Foreign Policy, January/February 02010

So there you have it: Nobel laureate Robert Fogel finally isolates the cause of Europe’s demographic decline: the unchecked lust of young women.

Impressive.

Corporate Personhood

I don't know if yesterday's Supreme Court ruling is really going to lead to the apocalypse predicted by so many … [b]ut I find myself having the same naive reaction to the notion of “corporate personhood” that I've always had when it's come up: If corporations are persons in the eyes of the law, why has no one pursued the argument that we can do to corporations what we routinely do to persons, namely imprison and execute them? …

We may never again see in America a trend toward progressive legislation, but on the off-chance that it can happen someday, shouldn't some legal theorists be thinking about corporate personhood in ways that subvert the idea as it exists now — i.e., corporations have all the privileges of personhood and run none of the risks?

Steve M., “Taking Corporate Personhood to Its Logical Conclusion
No More Mister Nice Blog, January 22, 02010

fantasy

ladder?

i’ve always fantasized about what it would be like to be robinson crusoe. seeing this photograph of a “halley VI” module in the latest entry of momus’s click opera—“dream away an elastic day over siberia”—captured my imagination in exactly the same way. extreme solitude fascinates me.

many years from now, when i’m too old, too cranky, and too tired to put up with society, i’ll buy one of those modules and have it and me shipped to antartica. i’ll live in it for as long as i can stand it, and then one day i’ll open the door and let myself freeze to death.