Waited 2hrs 25mins to vote, because Los Angeles. Plenty of T-time tonight! Favorite sarcastic bits:

• First

• Second

Coronavirus Live Thread. No. 9.

How insecure these women must be if a bunch of plastic figurines threatens them emotionally. They're either hobgoblins or millennials or both.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-04/fair-work-commission-senior-official-caught-with-anime-figurines/12026180

This tweet is twenty hours old; implications continue. That worm is really turny.

• Too much money in politics. (Some of us are wondering why this lesson was learned in 2016; Trump cheated every little vendor and business partner he ever had, but it's silly to say he bought the election.)

• It's probably no fun being a washed-up actor, but it must be neat to have something like this on your resume.

Waited 2hrs 25mins to vote, because Los Angeles.

Because no paper ballot?

https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1234951237046603776

Coming to a store near you in California. Presuming it hasn't already happened near you.

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1234704596276137985

• "San Francisco mayor London Breed declared the city in a Corona Virus emergency. It was a simple reminder to adopt common hygiene practices. San Francisco residents are now being urged to wash their hands, especially after using the sidewalk." ~#ArgusHamilton

• I agree with Wes Yang about Biden. Reliance on this doddering geriatric is the best imaginable evidence that the Democratic intellectual core has been dissolving, rather than strengthening, for the last FORTY years. He's always been a delirious, randomized personality.

Consider: The best Biden strategy may be zero campaign appearances…

…Because the man's falling apart. This was from yesterday afternoon. This was from this morning…

In the interim, he confused his wife with his daughter, onstage.

Nonetheless, Trump being Trump, he could still lose enormous voter support during debates with Joe Biden.

Good news from Hong Kong.

Diagnoses of EVERY infectious disease in Hong Kong have PLUMMETED in recent weeks, suggesting the low number of COVID cases is indeed due to aggressive hygiene measures NOT underreporting of COVID.

https://twitter.com/lymanstoneky/status/1235039957133045760

I wear a baseball cap and have a bad shave.

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1235192497162399744

I wear a baseball cap and have a bad shave.

https://twitter.com/ClayTravis/status/1235192497162399744

Is it real, or an orchestrated video?

https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1234735028057206784

Corona link roundup.

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/360295/

> Because no paper ballot?

Worse: Because a complex, indiscreet, sweepingly consequential and presumably-hackable computerized system was instantiated throughout the most populous county in the nation without voter enthusiasm and without sufficient instruction.

Iowa: Hi there!

Cali: Hi! Hold my beer…

PoliMath @politicalmath
33 minutes ago

I do have to say that I may have been very wrong about 1 thing:

Since Trump won, I've been telling my liberal friends not to laugh at the GOP b/c one day the Dem establishment won't be able to stop an insurgent.

I was wrong. The Dem establishment is way more powerful.

23 replies 11 retweets 86 likes

But it wasn't Dem machinery that handed this thing to Biden, certainly not over the last two years. If we want to fault them, reflect on the hospitality they've shown to this third-tier personage in the four decades since Reagan was elected. This inane man was Vice President for eight years, and a Senator for I-don't-want-to-think-how-many..

No, the Party didn't bring this to Biden. Their voters did… The ones who quietly show up on election day… Not their flashy, distractable children.

Protect yourselves from Covid-19!

Hold my beer, indeed! #InstantKarma

https://twitter.com/holdmyale/status/1234845052830179328

Cali: Hi! Hold my beer…

Oh.

Biden boys?

https://twitter.com/journalistew/status/1235029689606893574

And Cenk is not pleased.

https://twitter.com/ColumbiaBugle/status/1235154048782753792

Progressive woman shocked to discover that ten years of ideological brainwashing aren't enough to overcome a million years of evolutionary psychology.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2020/feb/24/my-boyfriend-wedding-dress-unveiled-shortcomings-masculinity

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-04/los-angeles-county-declares-coronavirus-emergency-6-new-cases

No, the Party didn't bring this to Biden. Their voters did… The ones who quietly show up on election day… Not their flashy, distractable children.

Yes. But the party did run interference for Quid Pro Joe. Tho putting Beto "Hell yes we're taking your AR-15" O'Rourke in charge of your gun policy wasn't the best choice, long term.

https://twitter.com/JimHansonDC/status/1235195982486396928

Never underestimate the power of a really good pounding:

A female linguist working for the Pentagon in Iraq was charged with handing over classified information about on-the-ground human sources assisting the United States to a Hezbollah-tied foreign national with whom she was romantically linked, according to the Justice Department.

https://mobile.twitter.com/JerryDunleavy/status/1235309460903559175

This is at once wacked out, and yet plausible.

A friend texts:

If Liz doesn’t bail today, it’s because she still sees a clear path to the nomination.

Coronavirus.

She self-isolates, scales back public events. The two geezers keep glad-handing. Coronavirus takes out the geezers.

It’s the COVID-19 candidacy.

You heard it here first.

So there you are.

Something tells me this paper will be dissected into oblivion:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/data-show-who-was-reading-fake-news-before-2016-us-election/

Well, it is pretty easy to point out it is false. They consider don't CNN “factually dubious content.” Now, how much time did CNN devote to 'Russiagate'? That is a story that is provably false. Even after is was proven completely false CNN kept running stories about it. They published stories they knew were false.

Instead this study shows something pretty obvious. People who like to consume a lot of news are more likely to consume news from fringe sources than people who only read a little news.

It is the same with studies that claim to demonstrate all the violence in the US today is right-wing violence. Once you look at the data with an open mind it is easy to see the study is false.

I spotted something in Slate about how kids can grow up in the same evangelical church and yet grow completely apart as adults. One thing I noticed was how the sex ed teachers they had never talked about consent. I googled and found this:

https://ravishly.com/evangelical-sex-ed-fails-teens

Excerpts:

...This lack of sexual education is the root of the problem. According to Sharon Hollings, who was raised evangelical, it was "just assumed that I wouldn’t be having sex. Meaning I didn’t have any advice or insight on how to handle things when I did.”
I was never taught that my feelings were paramount. I was never taught that it was important to know what you like and dislike.

The magic of sex was that when you consented to your partner on your wedding night, you would like EVERYTHING!

Spoiler alert: you don’t...

...My friend, who was raised similarly, recently put things into perspective for how she approaches the topic with her children: “If you don’t give people a healthy view of sex without the guilt factor, people aren’t going to know how to protect themselves. You won't be able to listen to that little voice that says something about this isn’t right. You need the self-esteem and confidence to go, 'Yeah nope, I’m out.'"...

This lack of sexual education is the root of the problem. According to Sharon Hollings, who was raised evangelical, it was "just assumed that I wouldn’t be having sex. Meaning I didn’t have any advice or insight on how to handle things when I did.”
I was never taught that my feelings were paramount. I was never taught that it was important to know what you like and dislike.

The magic of sex was that when you consented to your partner on your wedding night, you would like EVERYTHING!”

Most of us learn as we go, and all the discussions in the world don’t prepare you for raging hormones or the fact that certain activities work out a lot better in our fantasies than in real life.

A goodly part of the liberal mindset is that endless discussion about various kinds of sex is somehow liberating I guarantee that sex is the last thing your 16 year old daughter wants to be discussing with anyone, never mind her mother.

Perhaps the problem with sex Ed is that evangelicals don’t view sex as a harmless sort of casual recreation.
Neither do I, and I am the furthest thing from an evangelical.

I know the women’s movement thought they could turn it into this.

My son’s girlfriend was raised in one of these dysfunctional relationships. She was smart enough to not get caught up in either the “ life owes me fun free consequent-less sex”, or the “out of wedlock baby trap”.

Life gives you a brain, so you can watch your stupid friends and relatives fuck up their lives, without you having to duplicate their risky behavior. Use it.

Talk to some people who have actually taken those classes Lenona. Get primary sources. Or baring that some real statistics. Reading these silly articles just makes you come off as a nut.

Not a parent! Not inclined to spazz out about this.

But "sex education" doesn't seem like the kind of thing for which schools could or should be held accountable, in any neighborhood.

And you can say 'But then there will be some families where the kids won't get any information at all!'

And you'll be right. But this is intimate stuff, so [A] I don't think you can pay someone to do it for you and have it go as well as if you yourself gave it your best effort. And [B] even if you could, talking over the parameters of the lessons at the school board meetings with the rest of your community would probably convince you to do it yourself.

I'm Gen X, so I come from the last generation of families that had neither sex ed in schools or religious education at home.

And I'm glad of it! Why? Because either one would have felt like a blatant invasion of my emotional privacy. After all, religion often means being pushed to answer all sorts of questions about private matters (of ALL kinds, not just sex) from one's religious leader - almost like when you're alone in the doctor's office in your early teens, for the first time, and you can't believe that you're expected to answer all sorts of gross questions. (Not that any doctor is wrong to ask them, of course.)

But obviously, IMO, that lack of sex ed in schools couldn't go on. Especially once the AIDS epidemic broke out - even if the "hetero epidemic" never happened in the U.S. Better safe than sorry.

The Dutch sex ed programs seem to work incredibly well - what's wrong with them?

As it happens, I had a mother who had the common sense to make anatomy and the facts of life perfectly normal subjects for casual conversation from a very early age (I was also shown B&W pictures of babies being born, she told me, but I don't remember that), while at the same time making it clear that there was a time and place for everything, and that sex talk was private.

Miss Manners had a hilarious column on that in 1984:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1984/03/04/howdy-duty-time/0ae48b2b-ec54-47b2-8d6f-b05ed2aa106a/

Q.In telling children about sex, what terms do you use? Most of my friends feel strongly about using the "correct" terms, because the whole idea about sex education is for them to know the truth, but I have a deep prejudice against hearing small children talking about "penises" and "vaginas." Yet, I admit that the euphemisms are wrong, often cute in a sickly way and misleading.

A.If you are to teach the whole truth about sex, you cannot possibly stop with naming parts and describing what goes where, but must also fearlessly explain prevailing social attitudes. One of them is certainly that it is not always proper to blurt out things that are nevertheless proper to know. This is a secret from many modern children, whose parents, teachers and therapists have actively worked to keep them from developing the essential social and intellectual mechanism to judge a thought or observation--for appropriateness, perhaps just for sense--before expressing it to others.

The fact is that everything is not acceptable everywhere. There you are, teaching that sex is beautiful, no doubt, but neglecting to indicate that the police do not consider it so when practiced in a public park. An essential task of child-rearing is developing in the child a sense of what vocabulary, behavior and dress are right for what occasions.

Yes, you do teach the child the correct names. But you also teach him the current euphemisms. Giving him one without the other is unfair. (A consequence of being too euphemistic was dramatized for Miss Manners by the most mesmerizing social incident she ever experienced, unfortunately as one of the principal characters. The child of her hosts at a dinner party showed her a tender book designed to instruct children about love-making, but giving the idea that hugging, hand-holding and something called "being close" was about it. Later in the evening, Miss Manners was sunk into an armchair, on the arm of which the host was perched. As he got to the point of an amusing story, he leaned forward and draped an arm companionably on Miss Manners' shoulder. "Mommy!" shouted the newly educated child, observing this, "Daddy is having sex with Miss Manners!" Miss Manners has never so completely captured the attention of a roomful of people before or since.)

Actually, by the time you are explaining sex, you should already have taught the child the difference between descriptive language and euphemisms. The person who grows up saying, "I'm going to go have a bowel movement now," is not going to have much of a social life.

(end)

Oh, and Ben, I've mentioned Elizabeth Smart more than once, and, to infer from her interviews, there doesn't seem to be anything that unusual, in Utah, about 1) her being taught, indirectly, that lack of consent - AND terrifying circumstances - didn't make any real difference in a woman's "badness," if she loses her virginity (which is why she contemplated suicide when her kidnapper first raped her), or 2) that she wasn't really ever taught how to fight against Mormon men, physically or mentally, even criminal ones.

As former polygamist Debbie Palmer said: “Mitchell would never have been able to have such power over a non-Mormon girl.”

Turns out Palmer died this year, aged 64:

https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/daphne-bramham-outspoken-activist-against-polygamy-dies

Fascinating.

I WILL say that people have complained that when it comes to "comprehensive" sex ed in the U.S., such courses don't include enough discussion about the emotional aspect of it - as in "what casual sex does to your heart." (This can apply to boys as well as girls, so there's no need to say that it doesn't.) Not to mention that if it's OK to be LGBTQ, it should also be OK to be asexual until one's death, if one IS truly asexual and healthy and not just traumatized from some past event.

I would add that the emotional trouble with BOTH sex and abstinence, when you're a teen, is that either one can convince you that you've found "true love" when you haven't. This is why you can't use either one as an excuse to marry at 18 or even 21.

But again, I have never heard a good reason why we can't just do what the Dutch schools do.

And I also can't imagine that lonely, desperate teens (I LIKED solitude, so this wasn't MY problem) would appreciate NOT being taught about what is a contraception myth and what isn't, when the consequences of ignorance could easily be disastrous. Same goes for STI myths, of course.

One simple lesson could be: "Contrary to what you see in movies and novels, there is no such thing as truly romantic, spontaneous sex, even if you firmly believe that only sex in marriage is romantic. Why? Because if you're young and heterosexual, you still have to deal with contraceptives, over and over, unless you WANT a baby every year or so. Plus, whether you're gay or straight, if you're having premarital sex, you have to assume everyone has an STI and just hasn't had any symptoms yet."

The late Dr. Sol Gordon said, “My most valuable contribution to the field of sexuality education is having created the concept ‘Are You an Askable
Parent?’ If a child asks a question about sex, the only appropriate response for a parent is — ‘that is a good question,’ and then proceed to answer it. Parents are the main sex educators of their children, whether they like it or not. If they want to be ‘askable,’ they must be prepared for any question or incident that involves their children’s sexuality. Parents must convey to their children that nothing that ever happens to them will be made worse by talking about it to the parents, and the best first response is — ‘I’m so glad you are able to talk to me about this.’”

And:

"If you're a liberal, read "National Review.' If you're a conservative, read 'The New Republic.' "

And in "Seduction Lines Heard 'Round the World and Answers You Can Give":

"I have some great booze upstairs."

"Oh, so that's why you keep the cheap stuff downstairs."

Reader's review of "The Teenage Survival Book":

"Sol Gordon really knows what a human being needs to do not only to survive but also to blossom in the world. This is NOT one of those 'You're OK; just say no to drugs' treacly teen books that parents want you to read. It confronts the fact that life isn't always nice and fun and happy and instead helps you work on developing your skills to be strong enough not only to survive whatever badness you're going through now, but also to make your life and relationships better. Gordon also doesn't pretend to have all the answers and a perfect life himself; he just seems to be really good at sorting out what is worth doing and what isn't. I think most people could benefit from reading this book even after they are teenagers. The only bad thing about this book is that it was originally written in the 70s so sometimes the language is a little silly (like when he talks about things being 'a major bummer' and 'head trips' and stuff like that), but the book overall is definitely worth it."