lucidity's blog

Red sex, blue sex

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 14:26:44 -0700

Margaret Talbot, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, examines the liberal and conservative attitudes toward teen sexuality:

During the campaign, the media has largely respected calls to treat Bristol Palin's pregnancy as a private matter. But the reactions to it have exposed a cultural rift that mirrors America's dominant political divide. Social liberals in the country's "blue states" tend to support sex education and are not particularly troubled by the idea that many teen-agers have sex before marriage, but would regard a teen-age daughter's pregnancy as devastating news. And the social conservatives in "red states" generally advocate abstinence-only education and denounce sex before marriage, but are relatively unruffled if a teen-ager becomes pregnant, as long as she doesn't choose to have an abortion. [...]

The "pro-family" efforts of social conservatives — the campaigns against gay marriage and abortion — do nothing to instill the emotional discipline or the psychological smarts that forsaking all others often involves. Evangelicals are very good at articulating their sexual ideals, but they have little practical advice for their young followers. Social liberals, meanwhile, are not very good at articulating values on marriage and teen sexuality — indeed, they may feel that it's unseemly or judgmental to do so. But in fact the new middle-class morality is squarely pro-family. Maybe these choices weren't originally about values — maybe they were about maximizing education and careers — yet the result is a more stable family system. Not only do couples who marry later stay married longer; children born to older couples fare better on a variety of measures, including educational attainment, regardless of their parents' economic circumstances. The new middle-class culture of intensive parenting has ridiculous aspects, but it's pretty successful at turning out productive, emotionally resilient young adults. And its intensity may be one reason that teen-agers from close families see child-rearing as a project for which they're not yet ready. For too long, the conventional wisdom has been that social conservatives are the upholders of family values, whereas liberals are the proponents of a polymorphous selfishness. This isn't true, and, every once in a while, liberals might point that out.

It seems that the fear of getting pregnant or getting someone else pregnant and ruining your future might be a bigger disincentive to teenage sex than a lecture from some religious leader about staying abstinent.

A food policy for the new president

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:26:00 -0600

Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, has some suggestions for the next president (New York Times Magazine):

There are many moving parts to the new food agenda I’m urging you to adopt, but the core idea could not be simpler: we need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a diet of contemporary sunshine. True, this is easier said than done — fossil fuel is deeply implicated in everything about the way we currently grow food and feed ourselves. To put the food system back on sunlight will require policies to change how things work at every link in the food chain: in the farm field, in the way food is processed and sold and even in the American kitchen and at the American dinner table. Yet the sun still shines down on our land every day, and photosynthesis can still work its wonders wherever it does. If any part of the modern economy can be freed from its dependence on oil and successfully resolarized, surely it is food. [...]

Federal policies could do much to encourage this sort of diversified sun farming. Begin with the subsidies: payment levels should reflect the number of different crops farmers grow or the number of days of the year their fields are green — that is, taking advantage of photosynthesis, whether to grow food, replenish the soil or control erosion. If Midwestern farmers simply planted a cover crop after the fall harvest, they would significantly reduce their need for fertilizer, while cutting down on soil erosion. Why don’t farmers do this routinely? Because in recent years fossil-fuel-based fertility has been so much cheaper and easier to use than sun-based fertility.

In addition to rewarding farmers for planting cover crops, we should make it easier for them to apply compost to their fields — a practice that improves not only the fertility of the soil but also its ability to hold water and therefore withstand drought. (There is mounting evidence that it also boosts the nutritional quality of the food grown in it.) The U.S.D.A. estimates that Americans throw out 14 percent of the food they buy; much more is wasted by retailers, wholesalers and institutions. A program to make municipal composting of food and yard waste mandatory and then distributing the compost free to area farmers would shrink America’s garbage heap, cut the need for irrigation and fossil-fuel fertilizers in agriculture and improve the nutritional quality of the American diet.

Rev. Wright vs. the pro-Republican 'prosperity gospel'

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:58:51 -0600

Sara Robinson, who also writes about the FLDS, has a new article explaining the historical context of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's theology and why conservatives are so eager to take him down. First, you have to understand the evangelical concept of the "prosperity gospel," also called the "Word of Faith." The following explanation is from Sarah Posner:

How dangerous are the FLDS?

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 12:37:08 -0600

Another in the series on the FLDS from Sara Robinson, who usually blogs at Orcinus. This article looks at the FLDS from the perspective of a 12-point checklist put out by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that helps governments determine when religious or political groups have crossed the line and become dangerous (Campaign for America's Future):

7. Crimes of Intimidation — Groups heading toward violent confrontation usually start with threats and petty violence against members and outsiders who dare to cross them. (Occasionally, these people end up dead — which only makes them a useful warning to others.) Knowing that they can intimidate and silence people raises the leader's sense of invincibility and teaches him that violence works. Both lessons raise the odds he'll resort to more violence more quickly in the future. It also makes life much harder for investigators gathering new information on the group as the risk level rises.

For FLDS members, the cultural atmosphere has always been one of dawn-to-dusk intimidation. As noted, men who don't comply will simply lose everything. Women risk being sent away from their families, reassigned to other households or colonies, or committed to mental hospitals. Children have no choices about marriage, work, or education. Whatever the Prophet says, goes — and God have mercy on you if you dare to refuse.

The New Times account strongly suggests that Warren Jeffs was rapidly ratcheting up the overall level of intimidation within the group — and hinting strongly at violence — before he was arrested. His growing paranoia led him to purge dozens of men from the church as suspected enemies, banishing them and seizing their wives on a scale no prophet had dared attempt before. Removing him from the picture may have slowed the group's acceleration toward violent confrontation; but if he comes back — or another leader takes up these same themes — the group could once again move into the danger zone. After all: they live their lives on the edge of that line.

Score: 4 out of 5

Blogging the FLDS

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 10:49:52 -0600

Sara Robinson at Orcinus is starting a series about the FLDS that includes reporting from Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven and the new book The Secret Lives of Saints by Daphne Bramham. Here's Sara's series so far; check back at Orcinus periodically for more.

One of the things we need to understand is just how the FLDS managed to stay so far under the radar for so long — and what twisted consequences were allowed to follow from that lack of oversight. Bramham shows that they did a stunningly effective job of building their own self-sufficient infrastructure of community institutions — hospitals, police forces, courts, financial trusts, schools, and employers — that allowed the church to function without interacting with the outside world any more than necessary. Most of the group's institutions were designed to mimic and supplant outside authority well enough to keep the group (and especially its treatment of women and children) hidden from the prying eyes of outsiders. And, for 60 years, those who were responsible for providing higher-level oversight for all these institutions have almost always been somehow induced to look the other way. [...]

Like African-Americans in the slavery era, women who tried to run were captured by these police and returned to their husbands for punishment — or taken to the hospital for the dreaded mental health evaluation. The police force's main job is to be the muscle that enforces the Prophet's control of the entire community. When the Prophet decides that a man no longer deserves his home, these are the cops who enforce the eviction. Appealing to the FLDS judges has been useless: due process as we understand it doesn't even enter into the conversation.

There is progress on this front. The state of Utah began to move against the Hildale police force in 2005, revoking the certification of its polygamous chief. Sam Roundy admitted that he'd investigated over 25 sexual abuse cases in the past decade — including one that involved the rape of an eight-year-old — and never reported it to child protection authorities. (He pleaded ignorance of all mandated reporter laws.) However, Roundy was replaced with another polygamous officer who immediately sent Warren Jeffs a letter pledging his loyalty, and I found no word that he's left office since. Later that year, the Utah Supreme Court also disbarred the local polygamous judge, which paved the way for reform of the local courts.

But the Saints are now in many places besides Utah; and officials in these other states shouldn't be surprised if they try to hijack cops and courts and replicate this system wherever they go. In Utah, decades of failure to attend to this effectively deprived tens of thousands of people of their civil rights. It can't be allowed to happen again.

Is commuting worth it?

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 10:39:19 -0700

This is an interesting article from Business Week back in 2005:

Most people travel long distances with the idea that they'll accept the burden for something better, be it a house, salary, or school. They presume the trade-off is worth the agony. But studies show that commuters are on average much less satisfied with their lives than noncommuters. A commuter who travels one hour, one way, would have to make 40% more than his current salary to be as fully satisfied with his life as a noncommuter, say economists Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer of the University of Zurich's Institute for Empirical Research in Economics. People usually overestimate the value of the things they'll obtain by commuting — more money, more material goods, more prestige — and underestimate the benefit of what they are losing: social connections, hobbies, and health. "Commuting is a stress that doesn't pay off," says Stutzer.

No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies, by Naomi Klein

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:22:57 -0600

I finally got around to reading Naomi Klein's 1999 book No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies. It's a critique of the hypocrisy of strongly branded companies like Nike, Starbucks, and Disney, but also an analysis of corporate power in general. It's comprehensive, startling, and infuriating.

By 1997, it had become clear to Nike's critics that if they were serious about taking on the swoosh in an image war, they would have to get at the source of the brand's cachet — and as Nick Alexander of the multicultural Third Force magazine wrote in the summer of that year, they weren't even close. "Nobody has figured out how to make Nike break down and cry. The reason is that nobody has engaged African Americans in the fight. ... To gain significant support from communities of color, corporate campaigns need to make connections between Nike's overseas operations and conditions here at home."

Anti-voucher group needs your help this weekend

Thu, 05 Apr 2007 22:14:16 -0600

Cut and paste from an email that went out today:

In 2007, the Utah Legislature passed on of the "widest-ranging, most poorly regulated" education voucher systems in the country. "The program is projected to cost taxpayers more than $425 million over the next thirteen years, according to legislative fiscal analysts."

WE NEED YOUR HELP IN DEFEATING THIS LEGISLATION!

As you likely know, Utahns for Public Schools are looking for over 90,000 signatures from Utahns who would like to see the bill voted on by the public. This group is VERY CLOSE to reaching their goal! This is the last weekend for signatures.

20% of Americans think the sun goes around the earth

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 14:37:17 -0700

The good news: America's science literacy rate is up from a pathetic 10 percent in 1988. The bad news: it's still only 28 percent (MIT Technology Review):

Okay, now let's talk (dare I say rant?) about the 200 million Americans out there who cannot read a simple story in, say, Technology Review or the New York Times science section and understand even the basics of DNA or microchips or global warming.

This level of science illiteracy may explain why over 40 percent of Americans do not believe in evolution and about 20 percent, when asked if the earth orbits the sun or vice versa, say it's the sun that does the orbiting — placing these people in the same camp as the Inquisition that punished Galileo almost 400 years ago. It also explains the extraordinary disconnect between scientists and much of the public over issues the scientists think were settled long ago — never mind newer discoveries and research on topics such as the use of chimeras to study cancer, or pills that may extend life span by 30 or 40 percent.

As Carl Sagan eloquently wrote in The Demon-Haunted World, ignorance reigns in our society at a moment when science is on the cusp of doing amazing and wonderful things, but also dangerous things. Ignorance, said Sagan, is not an option.

Happy birthday, Charles Darwin

Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:09:33 -0700

In honor of Charles Darwin's birthday (February 12, 1809), here are just a few of the many humorous quotes at The Imminent Demise of Evolution: The Longest-Running Falsehood in Creationism:

1904

"Today, at the dawn of the new century, nothing is more certain than that Darwinism has lost its prestige among men of science. It has seen its day and will soon be reckoned a thing of the past."

Rocky's comments on Divine Strake -- recommended diary at Daily Kos

Mon, 05 Feb 2007 22:17:02 -0700

Mayor Rocky Anderson posting at Daily Kos:

Dear Kossacks,

Thank you so much for your feedback and supportive remarks. We can achieve so much through effective, concerted action like we saw in Washington, DC one week ago.

The following are remarks I gave at a public hearing hosted by Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. on the so-called "Divine Strake" test. This planned detonation of 700 tons of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil on radioactively contaminated land at the Nevada Test Site has received little attention in the national press. The test, however, has the potential to spread radioactivity beyond the bounds of the test site, is being planned in violation of international law, and is widely regarded as the precursor to a renewed US nuclear program.

If you are as concerned about the Divine Strake test as I am, and as many Utah and Nevada residents are, please contact your elected officials and make your voices heard.

Best regards,

Rocky Anderson

Click to read Rocky's remarks.

Abortion: It's about pro-legalization vs. pro-criminalization

Mon, 22 Jan 2007 15:57:02 -0700

On the 34th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision, Barbara O'Brien at The Mahablog suggests a better way of framing the abortion debate than "pro-life" vs. "pro-choice":

Of course it's highly inaccurate and inflammatory to frame the debate in terms of being pro-abortion and anti-abortion. The phrase "pro-choice" isn't entirely accurate either, however, because where abortion is illegal women still choose to have them; they just have to go underground to have them. And underground abortions are far more dangerous to women. The real difference is whether one believes abortion, including abortion for medical cause, should be criminalized in all or most circumstances; or whether one believes elective abortion should remain legal for at least part of the pregnancy and abortion for medical cause through all of it. For that reason I'd rather talk about criminalization versus legality rather than pro- or anti-choice.

The framing of the debate as pro-abortion vs. anti-abortion is particularly meaningless because (1) no one is pro-abortion, and (2) the groups that call themselves "anti-abortion" refuse to support policies that would actually reduce the number of abortions. As O'Brien points out, not one "anti-abortion" organization in the United States supports the use of contraception. Their activism extends to making abortion illegal — and that's it.

Dumbest LTE in quite a while

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 12:30:15 -0700

I just knew some dimwit would write a letter like this after our recent cold snap (Deseret News):

Thank you for your bracing article about record low temperatures in Utah (Jan. 15), notifying us that "Temperatures throughout much of the state this week should range from 10 degrees to 18 degrees below normal." What a contrast with the article a few days ago about the rally in Park City bemoaning how hot Utah is getting because of global warming! The fact we are actually colder than ever before is "an inconvenient truth" many ignore.

Raymond Takashi Swenson
Idaho Falls, Idaho

The gay agenda - REVEALED!

Fri, 27 Jan 2006 10:30:00 -0700

From Mark Morford in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Do you know what it is? Do you want to know the real gay agenda, what 96.8 percent of all gay couples wish for every single day including Sunday? Here it is:

From what I can glean and above all else, the gay people of America seem to want this simply inexcusable level of boundless, unchecked normalcy. It's true. For some reason, they believe the utterly disgusting idea that they should be able to live their lives in peace and trust and health, with full support and assistance from their schools and hospitals and government, just like everyone else. I know. Shudder.

It is, in fact, remarkably similar to what heteros want. And women. And black people. And immigrants. And dwarves. That is, to be able to fall in love and maybe even get married (or at least have the option) and have decreasing amounts of sex and raise a family and hold down a good job and pay their taxes and argue with their lovers over who the hell spent 200 bucks on long distance to their mother, all while not having to worry about getting the living crap beaten out of them with tire chains by Arkansas and Alabama and most of Texas, or secretly loathed by small-minded pseudo-Christians who wouldn't know Jesus' true message if it bit them on the other cheek.

The business of America is business

Sun, 04 Dec 2005 15:05:26 -0700

Compare and contrast to the U.S.'s reaction to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait (Agence France-Presse):

The US knew well in advance of and explicitly approved Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975, newly declassified documents say.

Released this week by the independent Washington-based National Security Archive (NSA), the documents showed US officials were aware of the invasion plans nearly a year in advance.

They adopted a "policy of silence" and even sought to suppress news and discussions on East Timor, including credible reports of Indonesia's massacres of Timorese civilians, according to the documents. ...

Thirty years after the Indonesian invasion, the formerly secret US documents showed how multiple US administrations tried to conceal information on East Timor to avoid a controversy that would prompt a Congressional ban on weapons sales to Indonesia.