513 Comments

When I was a wee lass of 9 years old, I remember all three 4th grade classes at my elementary school being taught comprehensive sex ed for a solid month. Parents were allowed to opt their child out, but not many parents chose that option from what I can remember. I think most parents were relieved that "the sex talk" was going to be taught by qualified sex ed teachers and not themselves. We learned about what to expect with puberty, how pregnancy happens, etc. It's shameful that I got a better education on that subject in 1976 than 8th and 10th graders are getting now. But, I grew up in liberal hell hole WA state instead of family values WV.

Expand full comment

"American Association of Pro-Life Obstetrics and Gynecology" -- well, we now know where not to go for specialized medical care!

Is their clubhouse up a tree, perhaps? With a NO GURLZ ALOWD sign?

Expand full comment

I don't know what it means to say that a blastosphere is "not human". It isn't some other kind of animal. Playing with definitions isn't the way forward, it's attempting to invoke "natural science" in the same way that "natural law" is invoked by fundies, as if words have a magical power. As if somebody is wrong on the internet and we need to respond defcon to their foolish rhetorical arguments. If people are WRONG they must be wronged in every minute detail. The point is not what we or they or somebody CALLS things, it's what we DO about them. With open eyes.

Expand full comment

The war on freedom from religion and scientific rationality continues...

Expand full comment

The "war" is contrived. In reality. there are few differences. For example, the Biblical account of creation fairly closely follows evolution. First God separated the light from the darkness. the Big Bang. Then the first life originated in the waters and eventually came out and. walked on the Earth, followed by land based animals and finally humans. How is that radically different from Evolution? When examined closely and objectively, the Bible and scientific rationality are not that far apart. It is only those who wish to use religion as a power base who perpetuate that myth

Expand full comment

Depends on the religion. The ancient Egyptians thought that Amun created the world from darkness, by jerking off. Makes as much sense as anything else.

Expand full comment

Nice try. Why inject the irrational supernatural into science?

Expand full comment

I don't believe in a distinction between the two. Natural and supernatural are one in the same. The supernatural being only that which we have yet to be able to explain in terms of scientific rationality. "Magic" is simply science we have not yet discovered.

Expand full comment

Faith is the death of reason.

Expand full comment

Not necessarily. Your very existence is a matter of faith. How can I say with 100% certainty that all I see is not an illusion? Reality is somewhat subjective. A cumulative of that which is perceived by your senses. Consequently your "reality" may be slightly different from mine, and faith and reason may actually be inextricably intertwined.

Expand full comment

Cogito, ergo sum. Dunno about you, though.

Expand full comment

It's a giant leap (and a mistaken one, ginned up by the side-effects of consciousness) to go from questioning reality, to believing in a man who lives in the sky and cares about everybody, except when he doesn't. Don't you think the world is complex and inscrutable enough without throwing in the added onus of being in thrall to something absolutely imaginary?

Besides, I could GAF what people want to worship, if they want to waste time on that. Christianity's just one more religion, the problem is the desire on the part of its followers to impose it on other people. That is where this scientific denialism comes in, hand in hand with their urge to subjugate women and to make everyone conform to one mode of thought (a feature, not a bug, of religions everywhere). You believe what you want to believe, but I see religion as one thing humanity would be better off without, if we could ever free ourselves of it. No gods, no masters.

Expand full comment

I view all of the "Holy Books" as Bronze Age mentality. Attempts by bygone people to explain the universe in terms of their macro observation. That is not to say that their centuries of gross observation are totally without merit, nor should be discounted out of hand, We have now the means of a more precise observation of the universe. which can be incorp[orated into what our forebears saw. there is still much wisdom and insight which can be drawn from what has been passed down. I am reluctant to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Expand full comment

I think we're eye to eye on the problem of people who act to restrict others' freedom based on belief. We can agree to disagree on the rest.

Expand full comment

Not far from where I live, a local school board voted unanimously to remove the "Theory of Evolution" from all biology courses taught within the district. It was to be replaced with "Intelligent Design" aka the "Creation Myth" It took two years of court wrangling to reverse their dreadful decision.

Expand full comment

"children should be able to count on the information they learn in school, and should be able to trust that it is based in facts rather than propaganda." lolololololol this is why I quit school the same day I came of an age where it was legal and honestly I had checked out LOOOOOOONG before that.

Expand full comment

This is why education standards and curricula should be standardized at the Federal level Every child in the United States should be getting exactly the same education. Just because you happen to have been born in West Poodunk. should not be reason for you to be denied a top notch "secular" education. Letting local Bible thumping school boards determine what children can be taught is complete nonsense.

Expand full comment

Thank you, I have come to the same conclusion, Like with abortion being bodily autonomy, your rights should not depend on your zip-code.

Expand full comment

yeah it is!

Expand full comment

Of course. It is the sacred duty of all good Christian White Men to protect children from the encroaching evils of Satan based "Secular Humanism". The Taliban agrees!

Expand full comment

Sadly far too many are following what they think is biblical tradition, molesting young girls, who are very ripe for being groomed. Young boys too.

Expand full comment

When the state of Virginia voted to secede from the United States during the Civil War (1861-65), the people of the western region of the state opposed the decision and organized to form their own state. They were the "progressive liberals" of their day. So what happened? How did they become the backward assed conservatives of today?

Expand full comment

Coal mining.

Expand full comment

Unreconstructed states gonna do what unreconstructed states do, I guess.

Expand full comment

This problem can be solved by providing the young people with a list of books they are absolutely FORBIDDEN to read.

Expand full comment

these people cant explain the distinction between fertilization and conception

Expand full comment

Yes. Or any other biological distinction, considering many fertilized eggs don't inplant in the uterine wall.

Expand full comment

But why let something so simple as science get in the way if it doesn’t further their means and their ends of course. Also too, kids will WANT to have sex!!

Expand full comment

That is an excellent point!

Expand full comment

I'm pro-Grease 2 and anti- religious bullshit masquerading as science

Expand full comment

So that's what the (slightly) mesmerizing film clip is from! I never thought I'd say these words but "thank you, SurlyAF!"

Expand full comment

The Roman empire was founded with a virgin birth. That's an important thing for kids to learn. It might even inspire some of them.

Expand full comment

A "virgin birth" is theoretically possible. One small problem, the child will be a clone of the mother and therefore female. Jesus was actually a girl!

Expand full comment

In 10th grade biology class in 1970, we were shown a slideshow made by the federal government about the dangers of LSD. One of their claims was that it damaged a user's genes and showed photos of children who were conceived within 24 hours of one or both parents doing acid. They had hands growing out of their shoulders with no arms and legs growing out of their hips with no legs.

In college, I found out those were pictures of Thalidomide babies from the 50's. When I was offered acid, I didn't hesitate. I figured if there was anything actually dangerous about it, the government would have told me that rather than lying to me to scare me away from it.

Expand full comment

At first, in the 1950s, psychologists were using LSD to try to understand schizophrenia (I read the article in TIME magazine, age about 8). In the 60s I was reluctant to try acid for that very reason--I was a psych major who wanted nothing to do with a "schizophrenic" experience.

Expand full comment

My last acid trip was in 1994, at a Pink Floyd stadium concert, after a partial eclipse of the sun. My girlfriend at the time, also tripping, laughed hysterically at all the stage props.

Expand full comment

There has been no real "acid" since Owsley. Most of the shit out there now is not LSD-25 but rather a combination of barbiturates. methamphetamine and strychnine. You can't get lysergic acid as a reagent and to extract your own from ergot of rye or wheat is a pretty complex process. If I had the time, equipment, and motivation, I might consider cooking up a batch.

Expand full comment

Technically it is D-lysergic acid diethylamide.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK553216/

Expand full comment

References, please.

Expand full comment

Common sense. Don't trust or use any street drugs

Expand full comment

Having dropped acid myself, the worst thing that happened was I spent an inordinate amount of time watching a water bottle hula dance. And my friend—who has more experience with the stuff than I do—was welded to the floor and kept saying “I’m so thirsty…” “Well then go get something to drink.” “But I’m so thirsty…”

It was a great night.

Expand full comment

Sounds like a good time for sure.

Expand full comment

I dropped not very good acid on a nighttime train trip . Spent most of the night looking out of the window, and as the car was lighted, all I could see was the reflection of the car's interior, including shadows on the wall opposite of some shelving. Of course it all danced and waved and breathed, the way it does on acid. And I remember thinking "I'm hallucinating on the reflection of a shadow" and it seemed the most profound insight into the nature of existence. Plato's cave, sorta.

Expand full comment

so do these people celebrate their conceptionday or do they celebrate their birthday?

Expand full comment

NO! Cuz then they’d learn that mom snd dad did “it”.

Expand full comment

I remember when all the kids started realizing their parents 'did it', at least as many times as there were children in the family. The Catholic kids with their stairstep kids, roughly one per year, were traumatized.

Expand full comment

I remember when my best friend told me in 5th grade that her mom said that men ejaculate a milky emission. I said, “She’s lying!” And she goes, “Well, she’s had 4 kids so I think she would know.”

Mind. Blown!

Expand full comment

It is pretty weird if you think about it!

Expand full comment

What in the ever loving fuck is wrong with them? Since when is it reasonable for a legislature to mandate one specific video to teach any concept? That would be weird even if it were passed by a school board. Legislation for curriculum tends to say “Students will be taught a comprehensive unit on the Holocaust in grade 11,” not “Every student will watch the 1959 version of The Diary of Anne Frank.”

Imagine the amount of work they have to do regularly amending the School Code if they pass crap like this! I know they don’t trust teachers or librarians, but good lord, who is paying them off for this grift?

Expand full comment

It’s almost as if some sort of tax payer grift is also involved. I’ll bet those videos come at a premium price.

Expand full comment

Praeger u has been trying to infiltrate that market to some sucess.

Expand full comment

That’s a good point, I bet it’s a related scam. Remove the professional librarians whose job includes selection of print and digital materials, drive out the veteran teachers who will protest what you are doing, and work towards getting your crap curricula into the schools instead. Reenact Edward Bloor’s _Story Time._

Expand full comment

Believe me those winger know how to indoctrinate, and they know the key is to do it when their brains are forming, but before they get to the critical stage where they question everything.

Expand full comment

This, thank you. Even if I agreed with what they were teaching, this is inappropriate use of legislation.

Expand full comment

Anti-abortion assholes like the u-line office supply guy (can't spell his name sorry.)

Expand full comment

Re: Gary's that nation policy post. Was locked so commenting here. Locking comments for folks who disfavor genocide is not a good look.

The title and tone of this article says plenty, and props to Gary for it. Withdraw troops, Ouch, close comments. Stated plainly, ev.er.y murdering of any one or group is bad. It is possible to be anti-RW-Bibi-ish-regime of whatever nation without being seen as anti-semitic or anti-zionist or pro-Hamas or whatever. It has felt for months that any criticism of the first automatically makes you the other 3 . It seems that there is some yet-unattained magic number of atrocities before the Bibi hug may be backsied or some other too-late too-gentle gesture. Is it 50k? 100k? How is one to imagine that a "temporary" ceasefire for Ramadan is some gift to these hapless civilians, for what, to make final religious preparations for their total annihilation?

Expand full comment

if people weren't being shitty and shirty to each other in the comments, I wouldn't have had to lock them.

Sorry you think that's a "bad look."

Expand full comment

What makes you think Hamas will abide by a cease-fire?

That’s the question everyone who advocates a “cease-fire” must ask.

Expand full comment

I'm re-reading my post looking for where I thought they might and don't find it in there. In the November pause I don't recall them breaking it. Not to say they are "honoring" anything. I am not suggesting a cease-fire here, which is only being considered to try to get hostages back. Then the complete devastation will continue. Israel's "defense" was prevention. They are given bazillions and have developed superpowerful technological military "impenetrable" wizbang systems few other countries can even dream of, to prevent any penetration. Yet they fxxed up - bigly. Now their new "defense" response is the mass civilian casualties, displacement, and starvation the world is seeing. Perhaps cease-fire is not a good idea and rather they should continue to mow down the remaining 2 million Gazans to ensure there is no trace of Hamas left. Thereby saving the world billions in food, medical, and restoration aid.

Expand full comment