Gee,

A tall good-looking guy with an outgoing personality and an attention-getting schtick finds that he can attract women. Did we learn something here that decades of watching skanky rock stars, pro athletes and trophy-wife-bearing CEOS having to beat women off with a stick hasn't already taught us?

I think the 'neg as joke' here is that Von Markovik actually believes blowing his nose has anything to do with the ultimate outcome.

Even if we grant that Von Markovik's methods do work, they are ultimately self-defeating, because their use in the Mating Game is a classic Positional Arms Race.

If guy A uses the "Venusian Arts" and guy B doesn't, then guy A gains an advantage. But what if Guy B starts using them? And then not only Guy B, but Guys C, D, E...Y, Z, AA, etc.?

What happens when *every* guy (or at least a large fraction of them) is 'negging' on women?

Then NO ONE gains an advantage and were right back to the same reality as before, except that a lot more men are treating a lot more women in manipulative, condescending and borderline misogynistic ways.

And the tall good-looking outgoing going guy with the shtick will *still* get more female attention than the short big-nosed goofy-looking guy.

I find it interesting that there is substantial public backlash against proposals to help those whose home ownership was made possible by sub-prime mortgages (which is, in effect, a bailout of the banking industry, but still....).

Where was this backlash when the federal government bailed out Chrysler, Continental Illinois Bank, the entire S&L industry, the early-90s banking industry, Long Term Capital Management, the post-9/11 airlines, etc., etc.?

Why is it that when the government is giving a handout to the bigwigs, people shrug and mutter 'business as usual'? But when it's their next-door neighbor who benefits the cries of "Socialism!" and "Where's the moral hazard?" go up?

Stephen Budiansky has written an excellent book about the genealogy and behavior of dogs:

http://www.amazon.com/Truth-about-Dogs-Ancestry-Conventions/dp/014100228X

It was excerpted as an article in the July 1999 issue of Atlantic Monthly and title "Why Your Dog Pretends to Like You".

The introductory paragraph reads (in part):

"...what is it in human psychology that makes us believe dogs are loyal, trustworthy, selfless, loving, courageous, noble and obedient(?)...Dogs take from the rich, they take from the poor, and they keep it all...they commit outrages against our property too varied and unspeakable to name...They decide when we may go to bed...and when we must rise....where we go on vacation and for how long...whom we may invite over to dinner...and how we should decorate....If we had roommates that behaved like this, we'd be calling a lawyer, or the police".

Kamiya wrote:

In November 2004, American voters reelected the worst president in modern history. That election did more than blight the political hopes of half the people in this country, it raised serious questions about America's very identity. What kind of country could possibly reelect a president as manifestly unfit for office as George W. Bush?

It is important to remember that there is substantial evidence (and was in 2004) that we didn't reelect the War-Criminal-In-Chief.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

On the other hand, that very theft does emphasize Kamiya's point about the kind of nation the US has become; A nation where political operatives run elections and (fail to) count votes and where the mainstream media blithely states "There was no evidence of vote counting irregularities..." because they didn't bother looking very closely.

From Goldberg's own mouth:

...There's no such thing as a society undergoing a bout of ultra-nationalism that remains a liberal free-market economy. The two things go together...

And who since WWII have consistently been the "My country, right or wrong"; "God bless AMERICA"; "Dissent gives aid and comfort to the enemy" ultra-nationalists?

Hint: It wasn't the hippies that faked (or bought into the fakery) of the Gulf of Tonkin 'incident'.

In Steven Johnson's Book Mind Wide Open:

http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Wide-Open-Neuroscience-Everyday/dp/B000HEW0R0/

he examines various methods that people (mostly scientists) are employing to understand how our brain states relate to our consciousness.

For a broad survey on the topic, it is an interesting and entertaining read.

What can you really say about "American Gladiators" (8 p.m. Mondays on NBC), except that watching it will make you feel like the lead character in a tragic, futuristic short story about the ills of high capitalism?

When the first AG debuted, I saw it as the next logical step towards the society described in the Stephen King book/Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "The Running Man".

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093894/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgzNfOXW_CM

Mark my words, if the writer's strike continues, there will be a pitch meeting where someone says "It's American Gladiators...combined with Prison Break!"