"Patriotism is your conviction that your country is superior to all others because you were born in it." -- George Bernard Shaw

Human beings tend to assume that whatever group they happen to comprise is self-evidently the best, God's chosen ones -- and everyone else's equally passionately held belief that...

So it's finally come to this: one way or another, you're convinced your partner is having an affair. What now?

In "Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality," Cacilda Jethá, my coauthor (and wife) and I argue that there's a good reason long-term sexual monogamy is...

"Marriage as the union between one man and one woman has been the universally-recognized understanding of marriage not only since America's founding but for millennia."

The latest twist in the Levi/Bristol saga--while possibly untrue and certainly unimportant in the larger scheme of things--offers an opportunity to ponder how our ancestors may have understood the process of getting pregnant. The rumor is that Levi's ex had sex with three different guys the week she...

In 1879, Mark Twain made the following observation: "Of all the forms of intercourse," he said, masturbation "has the least to recommend it. As an amusement, it is too fleeting; as an occupation, it is too wearing; as a public exhibition, there's no money in it." We laugh, as Mr....

A seven-year-old friend recently declared that cats and dogs are the same animal, it's just that "the dogs are the boys and the cats are the girls."

Obviously.

It's hard to deny that there's a certain canine simplicity in many men's sexual response; and a feline complexity is apparent in...

Truth, they say, is the first casualty of war. This seems to hold even in chimp war.

It's amazing how eagerly the mainstream media trumpets any and all research findings that lend the slightest support to the narrative in which warfare is an integral, ancient part of our primate past....

Any Sheryl Crow fans out there? If so, you no-doubt love her big breakthrough record, unoriginally called Sheryl Crow. A few years ago, I noticed something very strange about that record. First, there's a song called "Redemption Day" that contains these lyrics:

There is a train that's heading straight

To...

Is there a silver lining in the oil clouding the Gulf of Mexico? No, probably not, but let's indulge ourselves by pretending, even if just for a moment, that there could be.

Any "good news" resulting from this crude destruction would result from finally, finally learning lessons made unavoidable by...

I've just read that the Parents Television Council is threatening CBS's affiliates with a challenge to their broadcast licenses over the TV show based on the well-known Twitter/Facebook sensation, Shit My Dad Says, according to a report in the Hollywood Reporter.

Is it just me, or...

Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court has provoked some interesting discussion of non-traditional sexuality in high places. Überblogger Andrew Sullivan has been asking crucial questions concerning whether Elena Kagan's sexuality is a legitimate issue for public scrutiny. Slate's William Saletan compared Kagan's sexuality to Robert...