What women look for in men has always been money and status, with good looks being used as a tiebreaker, even if the women themselves are not really aware of it.

The man who sings:

I can't give you anything but love, baby

is barking up the wrong tree, because the thing we called love is just another name for addiction to some of the above.

The average American woman does not have a mantra of I will never desert Mr. Micawber!

On the contrary, she will desert Mr. Micawber at the very first opportunity and jump straight into the arms of Uriah Heep if she gets the chance.

Of course there are some women who are so rich and/or successful that they don't have to depend on men--women like Catherine the Great or Jennifer Anniston, and they can take toy-boys for their entertainment, but these are a small number of exceptions.

Naturally there is a bit more to it. Women will say that they want to date men who have common interests, but interests are largely a function of class. A interest in, say, yachting or horse=riding will tend to rule out most unemployed Honduran immigrants and plumbers.

Anyhow, I have no sympathy for these impoverished, impotent ex-bankers and brokers. Let them eat Viagra, I say.

... that in Paul Theroux's latest travel books he says that in Cambodia signs are posted everywhere tourists go, in English, saying "Sex with children is illegal".

Perhaps we need a few billboards along the highways also, in case any Cambodians come here on vacation under a false impression that underage prostitution is an American thing.

For one thing, Brown's "spin doctor" admits that his client is taking the anger management classes because it will "make him look better to the public."

Most people who go to anger management classes are unwilling students, but that doesn't mean they won't learn.

I have no idea if Rihanna would benefit from anger management classes, but she is not the one charged with a crime. Throwing someone's keys on the ground is annoying, but not legally equal to striking someone in the face several times. Not even close.

Former prison psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple has an interesting theory. When he saw men who were recidivist wife-beaters and asked why they did it, they invariably said they had lost control and could not help themselves. When he asked them why they didn't lose control and attack prison guards, they laughed as if he had said something very funny.

So it seems that the certainty of consequences is a great deterrent, and in Brown's case he must have been told by his commercial backers that if this ever happens again he is toast.

These people are both very young. They have the potential to grow up, so let's hope they do. Rihannah may not need anger management courses, but she could certainly benefit from some counseling about domestic violence, and how to avoid potentially troubled relationships.

... he is nuts. End the relationship now, because if you get married he will be watching you through binoculars when you go to work.

... would be whether kids who have Christian music on their i-Pods are less likely to have had sex.

It seems inherently probably that kids who listen to sex-positive music are more likely to have had sex that kids who listen to sex-negative music.

Remember that stunningly cringeworthy video in which pastor Ted Haggard tells us that the men in his church have sex every day with their wives, and that the wives always orgasm? No, well click on my name...

So Christians are very sex-positive when it comes to marital sex, yet Christian music seems singularly lacking in celebrations of sexuality.

But now, the question about explicit rap is whether it is really sex-positive, or is it just bravado? I think mostly bravado. Although they would love us to think it so, probably most of these rappers don't get half the loving they would like.

A young woman I once knew was once hired as a stage dancer by a well-known sleazy hip-hop outfit, or crew (as I believe is the technical term)from Miami to do some shows in the Bahamas. The guys certainly thought that the girls they had hired as dancers would be easy meat, but apparently were disappointed when none of the girls co-operated with the plan.

If a world famous hip-hop outfit can't even manage to seduce the help, then what is the world coming to?

So back to the teens with sleazy rap on their i-Pods. Probably their choice of music to some extent represents more of a rebellious attitude and an indication of difficulty adjusting to the changes of adolescence, and a lack of harmonious relationships with adults, so I wouldn't be surprised if the kids who like this music are more likely to be sexually active, even if the music really isn't sex positive.

Whitehouse and Obama are going to play bad cop/good cop.

Obama will play nice, but when it comes to making decisions about clemency he will show his real hand.

Nice.

Britain's class culture put women in the drawing room. Even the not so rich had servants. In America women were put to work——hard work, housework, farm work. No nannies for the kiddies.

Couldn't one of the slaves have baby-sat the young 'uns, though, while wifey was getting in the harvest.