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Sorry for the lack of posts last week... Between work exploding on me and a few other factors, I've lost track of most of the debating that was going on. ...And I've lost interest, too. When it comes down to it, environmental arguments are a passing interest to me, and I was drawing fire from those who've made it their life's work.

I'll admit it. I don't care as much as y'all do. Like Ford Prefect against the soldiers from Krikkit, I know that a person with a passing interest fighting those with a lifelong mission is going to end up losing.

With that out of the way, I'd like to turn the subject to a favorite of mine. Bikinis. Or more to the point, Lynn's contribution to the ongoing string bikini debate. Specifically, she wonders whether the male libido might be part of the reason that history's standouts are predominantly male (long quote alert):

The male mind is strange and fascinating. Whenever guys act like....well, guys...it's so easy to feel superior to them and to think of them as nothing more than horny adolescents. And yet, men can be fascinating conversationalists, capable of profound insight. Why are there so few (if any) great female philosphers, composers, artists, etc? You can make the argument that it's because throughout most of history women have been repressed and forced into the traditional roles of wife and mother. There is some merit to that argument but I think that to completely dismiss the disparity in acheivement based on this one feminist theory is to deny reality.

[...]But why have there been no women composers to equal Bach, Mozart and Beethoven? Could it be that the beauty and passion of such music comes from little more than the type of sexual tension experienced only by the male of the species?

I think Lynn's on to something here, and not just because she states that men actually can control themselves. :-)

It's my opinion that like hunger, greed, ambition or fear, a rampant sex drive can be a strong motivator, whether its owner has learned control or abandon from it. It's a matter of record that most of history's great generals, terrible conquerors, transcendent artists and world-changing politicians have had elevated libidos; it's not quite a prerequisite, but it's close. If you accept that postulate, then it stands to reason that the half of humanity more prone to high sex drive would appear more frequently in the annals of humanity's great achievements and follies.

This isn't to say that the rest of us poor hard-up schmucks are all closet Caesars and Bachs, but if that can help us get some... ;-)

-Rich