Sound of Pins Dropping In St. Paul

Tim Cavanaugh | September 2, 2008

Things are looking a little more active today, but boy, yesterday was as quiet as whatever church the churchmouse lives in. How quiet was it? A couple of guys tied on tefillin and started chanting on the concourse at the Xcel Center, and that was about the most exciting thing going on:

Also so quiet that Matt Welch and I headed to a bar called The Liffey, right outside the convention center, and it was almost empty. Fortunately, one of the handful of other patrons was Dan Savage, Seattle Stranger sex columnist and for my money one of the greatest living Americans. Savage is murdering the convention at the Stranger's RNC blog, and I can understand his glee at Sarah Palin's ongoing pecadilloes, but isn't it all good when you get these life/sex stories, because they show how actual human behavior doesn't track to any political dynamic? "Yeah," said Savage, "because all the dynamics of sex are older than the morality and political rules. The rules of sexual attraction go back millions of years, a lot longer than people have been making political parties."

So if things don't heat up today, I'm forming a new political organization: The Sex Party.

Comments

|9.2.08 @ 12:36PM|#

"Well, that's too bad for Johnston, who shot the wrong shit. Perhaps if he and his girlfriend had received a little comprehensive sex education and had access to birth control-over the objections of his girlfriend's mother/the governor of the state in which he lives-Johnston wouldn't be confronting the pressures and responsibilities of fatherhood at 18."

Yes because we know for sure that he didn't use a condom. Condoms never fail. Further every teenager agrees with everything their parents tell them. No teenager ever rebelled. Clearly, the Palin girl owes a full and complete accounting of her sex life to the entire world. Further, no parent who ever handed out sex ed and condoms to their kid ever ended up with one of them pregnant. Clearly, this single example says all we need to know about the subject. There is no need to do studies or anything. Further, God knows that Palin is responsible for her daughter's choice of boyfriends up to and including anything he happens to put up on a myface page. Palin's daughter got knocked up that is all that matters. If this guy is so obsessed with the sex life of teenage girls, they have websites for that and he could spare the world his blog.

Judging by that post, Savage is just a fuckhead. That is kind of crap that people Malkin and Colter put out on the right and rightfully get tagged as assholes for doing so.

fyodor|9.2.08 @ 12:38PM|#

Good luck in your campaigns against the Anti-Sex League! May Big Brother choose the winner wisely (how could He not?)....

|9.2.08 @ 12:42PM|#

Handing out condoms to people who've never been taught to use them properly is a pretty good way to increase their failure rate.

Yup, teenagers do rebel against moral instruction.

Anyone care to write a third argument for comprehensive sex ed over abstinance-only?

|9.2.08 @ 12:47PM|#

So if things don't heat up today, I'm forming a new political organization: The Sex Party.

I'm in.

tim|9.2.08 @ 12:52PM|#

Abstinence-only based education is a failure. Only the wingnuts refuse to acknowledge it. But Savage is an ass - just because we are both gay and he writes a cute little sex column (which I do read weekly) doesn't make him less of one. His act has gotten old long ago.

|9.2.08 @ 12:59PM|#

Palin's daughter got knocked up that is all that matters.

With respect to leading/legislating/lip service on anything having to do with restricting my daughters access to comprehensive sex education, birth control and/or safe abortion, YUP.

|9.2.08 @ 2:13PM|#

Fortunately, one of the handful of other patrons was Dan Savage, Seattle Stranger sex columnist and for my money one of the greatest living Americans.

I'm sorry, no. I've read too many acrid and petty attacks on fat chicks and Republicans from the famed faggot to have any respect left for anything he has to say.

Abdul|9.2.08 @ 2:22PM|#

Well, that's too bad for Johnston, who shot the wrong shit. Perhaps if he and his girlfriend had received a little comprehensive sex education and had access to birth control-over the objections of his girlfriend's mother/the governor of the state in which he lives-Johnston wouldn't be confronting the pressures and responsibilities of fatherhood at 18.

The best thing about this argument is that it presumes that Bristol got pregnant because neither she nor her boyfriend knew how babies were made, and, that they could only learn this gnostic mystery from a public school teacher.

|9.2.08 @ 2:56PM|#

I can forgive an awful lot of the man who invented the term "santorum."

fyodor|9.2.08 @ 3:59PM|#

The best thing about this argument is that it presumes that Bristol got pregnant because neither she nor her boyfriend knew how babies were made, and, that they could only learn this gnostic mystery from a public school teacher.

Good point.

But then, that's exactly what makes me wonder what the fuck (pun intended) they teach in "asbstinence-only" sex ed classes for a whole school semester? I mean, you're exactly right, Abdul, that most kids know all about the basic premise before they walk in: no babies, no STD's, no pokies. So maybe there's a few keen ones who haven't picked that up on their own, and sure there's a handful of nuances that go along with that, like oral sex and such. Still, you need a whole semester to "teach" that???

|9.2.08 @ 4:00PM|#

joe,
well, it could be a lot cheaper. For instance, we could provide abstinence only sex education by just having the principal say "don't have sex, kids" over the loud speaker once a semester. Probably have the same success rate, too.

|9.2.08 @ 4:01PM|#

fyodor,

They spend the rest of the semester making shit up.

|9.2.08 @ 4:20PM|#

So if things don't heat up today, I'm forming a new political organization: The Sex Party.

There was a purple microdot party in my high school, but the sex party sounds friendlier.

|9.2.08 @ 5:15PM|#

Sex Party... is that anything like "Orgy"?

What's the platform?

fyodor|9.2.08 @ 5:17PM|#

Sex Party... is that anything like "Orgy"?

What's the platform?

A king-sized bed?

|9.2.08 @ 6:16PM|#

@ Joe, "handing out condomns to people who've never been taught to use them...". Are you joking with that sentence?

Deus ex Machina|9.2.08 @ 11:39PM|#

Canada is ahead of the curve on the Sex Party thing: http://www.thesexparty.ca/