Virginity's value?

As outrageous as her actions may be -- even if it's all a hoax -- the Internet virgin has at least proven something:

Laura Gallier, who runs a Texas-based abstinence education program, was dumbfounded by the news that bidding in the online auction of a California woman’s virginity had reached $3.7 million. "When I communicate to young people that their virginity is valuable, that’s not exactly what I have in mind," said Gallier, author of Choosing to Wait.
Yet if 22-year-old Natalie Dylan has proven nothing else, she has demonstrated that virginity -- though not exactly innocence -- has market value.

That's from my latest column at Taki's Magazine and you should read the whole thing. But as I warned my friends at AmSpecBlog, any critic who accuses me of "cherry-picking the evidence" will be pun-ished.

PREVIOUSLY: Virginity = $3.7 million?

UPDATE: Fredo at The Occasional Observer:

Put another way, as Jason Smee commented at AmSpecBlog, "if a bunch of horny old men bid up the value of virginity (assuming an older virgin is worth more-scarcity, or at least she has to be 18 to call upon her services), this might be much more effective than all the abstinence pledges and other failed initiatives out there."

At a minimum, I would hope, it causes people to stop and think about the underlying issues.

UPDATE II: "[A]s pure as the driven slush."

UPDATE III:The latest news:

WASHINGTON -- Citing his campaign theme that good ideas can come from anywhere, President-elect Barack Obama praised coed Natalie Dylan for auctioning off her virginity to pay her college tuition. He said the 22-year-old's plan will be a model for both his administration’s education and economic policies.
"Ms. Dylan has paved the way for every young virgin to afford to go to college, while helping our distressed economy at the same time," said Obama in an interview on CNN. He noted that the bidding for Dylan's cherry had already exceeded $3 million. "We can tax the proceeds of her stimulus package to pay for ours."
The Government Accounting Office estimates that there will be between 10-12 million college bound virgins in 2009, and that if just 5 percent of those were to receive $1 million dollars or more for the sale of their virginity, the country would make a full economic recovery.
The proposal has received overwhelming, bi-partisan support from rich old men in the senate.

Given the neo-Keynesian twist of Obamanomics, you can almost believe it. Bastiat and the "broken window," anyone?

UPDATE IV: Laura Ingraham discovers Natalie has no shame. "True love or what not." Is anyone surprised?