The Research Is In: Sex Is Good For Men

This is another one of those studies where you wonder whether the research was really necessary. Then again, they used older Finnish men, and they do tend to have a stoic look to them, so maybe you can't tell whether they're getting any action.

THERE'S new advice for older men who want to preserve their sexual function: have sex, and have it often, researchers say.

In a study that followed nearly 1,000 older Finnish men for five years, researchers found that those who were regularly having sex at the start of the study were at lower risk of developing erectile dysfunction (ED) by the study's end.

In fact, the more often the men had sex, the lower their ED risk.

The implication, say the researchers, is that men should be encouraged to stay sexually active into their golden years.

Dr Juha Koskimaki and colleagues at the University of Tampere in Finland report the findings in the American Journal of Medicine. The study included 989 men who were between the ages of 55 and 75 at the outset.

Overall, those who said they had sex less than once per week were twice as likely to develop ED over the next five years as men who had sex at least once a week. Furthermore, compared with men who had sex three or more times per week, their ED risk was increased nearly four-fold.

A number of factors contribute to ED development, many of which could also affect a man's sexually activity - such as age, diabetes and heart disease. However, after taking account of those factors, sexual activity itself remained linked to ED risk, Koskimaki's team found.

It may be a matter of "use it or lose it", according to the researchers.

Instapundit links. Thanks!

Kanerva 'Finnished' Over Texting Scandal

As we noted the other day, obsessive texting can be hazardous to your political career.

Now he's gone.

Finnish Foreign Minister Ilkka Kanerva was forced to quit his job on Tuesday after he admitted bombarding a stripper with mobile phone text messages of a sexual nature, his party announced on Tuesday.

The conservative National Coalition Party appointed Alexander Stubb, a 40-year-old member of the European parliament, as his successor, after weeks of speculation about Kanerva's private life and his political future.

Party leader Jyrki Katainen finally withdrew his support for Kanerva on Tuesday, saying the SMS scandal had tainted the foreign minister's credibility.

"Kanerva has not kept his promise to not let his private life interfere with his political" life, Katainen told reporters in Helsinki.

Kanerva, 60, had made headlines for several weeks after he sent around 200 text messages to 29-year-old erotic dancer Johanna Tukiainen, whom he met at the end of January, and her sister.

The minister had repeatedly denied sending the messages, but finally admitted to doing so on March 10 on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels.

The gossip magazine Hymy on Tuesday published 24 of his SMS messages, some of which contained flirtatious and sexually suggestive content.

One of them read: "Do you want to do it in some exciting place? What could it be?"

Piddling stuff next to the scandals we get here.

When Too Much Texting Becomes a Problem

Compared to good old-fashioned American sex scandals like those involving the disgraced Eliot Spitzer and McGreevey family sandwiches, the Finns seem like real pikers.

All this involves is a politician apparently obsessively texting messages to a stripper.

What's the harm in that?

Finnish minister in trouble over text messages to dancer

Finland's foreign minister faced calls for his resignation on Saturday after a tabloid newspaper published a suggestive text message he had sent to an erotic dancer.

Ilkka Kanerva sent about 200 text messages to Johanna Tukiainen, 29, and at first said they were related to her performing at his 60th birthday party.

On Friday he admitted the messages were not totally appropriate.

"I would not present them in Sunday School, but they are not totally out of line either," the daily Helsingin Sanomat quoted him as saying.

The Ilta-Sanomat daily said that in one of the messages Kanerva had asked Tukiainen: "Would you like to do it in an exotic place? Where could it be?"

When Kanerva was asked whether 'it' referred to sex, he only said it was obvious that his message was an answer to an earlier question, Finnish News Agency STT said.

Fellow parliamentarian Tuija Nurmi, also of the conservative party, has said Kanerva should resign, and opposition leader Eero Heinaluoma said the situation cannot continue as it is now.

Conservative Party chairman Jyrki Katainen said he had confidence in Kanerva but his actions had been rash.

Finnish TV station MTV3 said it had heard from unnamed sources that Kanerva's party has been preparing for his resignation. Kanerva insisted he would stay in his job.

Tukiainen, who has posed nude in magazines and is the leader of the Scandinavian Dolls erotic dance troupe, first sold the text messages to Hymy magazine, and then sought a court injunction to stop their publication. A Helsinki court rejected the request.

Kanerva can't quite brush this off as a one-time thing, however.

This is not the first time Kanerva has been in trouble over his mobile phone use. In 2005, when he was the deputy speaker of parliament, he bombarded two models with text messages.

Thanks to the magic of this Internet thingy, we located some images of the lovely Miss Tukiainen here. I might need to get down to South Beach again sometime soon.

Finns Sell Swastika Rings for Christmas

It comes with the requisite disclaimer that it's a traditional symbol of Finnish culture.

They wouldn't dare offend anyone.

It's just some people might, you know, be offended by this.

Want a present that will raise some eyebrows -- or maybe hackles -- this Christmas? A Finnish charity is selling rings engraved with a swastika to raise money for the country's 80,000 World War II veterans.

The €60 ($86) silver bands feature a swastika flanked by stylized wings. A small rosette sits in the center. The rings are on sale until Dec. 31 at R-Kioski supermarkets in Finland and online. Sixteen thousand have been sold so far. "We thought they would make great Christmas presents for men, or for young people if their grandparents fought in the war," says Finnish Veterans' Association (Sotiemme Veteraanit) head Pia Mikkonen.

The rings are replicas of the 1940 "Air Defence" ring, which was part of a wartime effort to raise money for the Finnish air force. The campaign encouraged Finns to donate their gold wedding bands and other valuables to support the war effort. In exchange they received a ring made of iron. The swastika is a traditional symbol in Finnish culture, and a blue swastika was used as the symbol of the Finnish Air Force between 1918 and 1945.

Blow for Unions in EU

The EU court system has recognized the realities of the free market.

Blow for unions in EU labour row

The European Union's highest court has backed the right of companies to move to another EU state to cut costs.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) was ruling on a Finnish ferry company, Viking, which replaced the crew on one of its ships with Estonian workers.

Trade unions intervened, preventing Estonian union members from negotiating with the company.

In economics there is a well know concept called "the law of substitutability". In short, it means that where an option exists, you will substitute a lower cost option for a higher cost option. The Estonian workers were a lower cost option and so were used.

The point to be learned here is that you can price yourself out of your market. And if your price is higher, you darn well better be providing a much higher value/productivity to make it worth it.

The Finnish workers were not.

This is nothing more than the "invisible hand" concept that Adam Smith talked about way back in 1776 in his incredible work Wealth of Nations, which some people apparently never learn.

Joe Stalin must be spinning in his grave.

Socialized Health Care May be "Finnished"

Looks like the socialized health care system in Finland is in big trouble. Who could have ever seen this coming?

Finnish nurses may quit en masse

Nearly 13,000 nurses across Finland are threatening to resign next month in a pay row, trade union officials say.

The Union of Health and Social Care Professionals (Tehy) is demanding a 24% wage increase for its members over 28 months, rejecting employers' 12% offer.

Tehy says half of its 124,000 staff are struggling to survive because of low pay, and many now want to work abroad.

If no compromise is found, the mass resignations will cripple Finland's health care system, the union warns

But ... but ... but to hear the socialists tell it, price fixing and nationalizing health care (otherwise known as HillaryCare) is the perfect solution.

So how has price fixing affected the incentive to work in the health care field?

Nurses in Finland's public sector say they are poorly paid and often have to cope with huge workloads.

A nurse's average salary is about 1,900 euros (£1,324), compared to 2,300 euros (£1,602) average pay for full-time workers across the country, Ms Reijonaho said."

According to my calculator, by these figures the nurses are making about 82% of average full time workers. Many have moved away.

Thousands have moved to Sweden and especially Norway since the 1990s because salaries there are so much better," she added.

Of course, that if free market economics coming through the fog of socialism.

What all socialists/communists never grasp is you can fix prices, establish production quotas and trade protections, but you can not force someone to work productively in a given field.

Only the incentive of self-interest (as identified by Adam Smith in 1776) can do that.

Beware of socialized health care, folks.

You just might get it.

So Go On Strike

Talk about people unclear on the concept. Finnish film makers would rival your average Democrat in not understanding economics.

Finnish film-makers go on strike

Finnish film-makers are taking strike action over what they claim is the government's "broken promise" over raising subsidies for movie production.

The protestors say they remain the same in the 2008 budget, despite a pledge to raise them by 1.2m euros ($809,000).

Mean, evil capitalist that I am, I read that and think, "So"? "Be dang glad you are getting a dime."

But that's not good enough for the fil. makers.

The 23 producers have said they will not work on any films until the additional funding becomes available.

So don't. And while you are sitting in your cafes sipping your lattes and feeling so very self-important, you might think about this.

You are being subsidized by the government because your customers do not value your work product enough to pay you a self-supporting wage on your own. That means you really will not be missed all that much when you go. Somebody else will meet the demand for films by the market without you.

So go ahead ... go on strike and see how far that gets you.

And when you're done with that latte, you might as well go ask the owner of the cafe for a counter job.

U.S. Productivity Far Outpacing Europe

Here is one good reason why the U.S. productivity rate is generally higher than that of Europe.

Europe heads to beach, Americans head to work

As Europe's workers take a few weeks of holiday this summer, their American colleagues will be lucky to get a few days off work, says a report published by the European Trade Union Institute.

Finland, followed by France, offers working people the most statutory vacation, at more than six weeks per year, the report, an international snapshot of how much paid leave people get by law and in practice in 21 countries, says.

The United States is the only country where employees have no statutory leave, and they get about half as much time off in reality as Europeans get, according to the report, compiled by the Washington-based Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Of course, the socialists at Reuters write this up with a critical attitude toward the U.S.

"The United States is in a class of its own," the report says. "It is the no-vacation nation."

Andrew Watt, an economist at the Brussels-based European Trade Union Institute, said the report not only highlighted a conscious decision to ensure more free time in Europe. It also showed the errors many economists make when saying U.S. productivity and economic output is better than Europe's.

Errors? Errors! Errors?!? U.S. productivity and output is better than Europe's over time, pure and simple. One of the reason why the U.S. has historically seen higher productivity rates than Europe is we work harder than they do. Six weeks a year vacation? My gosh, if I have any employees that can be gone six weeks a year every year, then I don't need that position to begin with.

This argument reminds me of the sleazy sports agents who whine their client should get paid top dollar even though he sits out half the season every year with minor problems, that but for the injury time off he would be top producer. Maybe, but the fact remains that he took the time off and did not produce.

The market compensates you for the true value of your productivity. You will always see socialists refusing to accept that reality.