[This is an excerpt from Dan Savage's Savage Love column of June 2, 2010. I'm sharing it because it's pretty horrifying to think that a teacher could be fired for being involved in a consensual sexual relationship with another adult human being and for no other reason ( Read more... )

Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land is a book that it seems like I should like. It deals with issues of religion, including a strong critique of religion as we know it, presents socially progressive ideas about sex and relationships, and relies upon a fundamentally humanist, individualist philosophy ( Read more... )

Here's something interesting from Philip Wylie's The Disappearance that didn't find a place in my review. At one point, it comes out that the preacher has had an affair with a soprano in the church choir. Bill Gaunt's response is this:Usually. . . . it's sopranos. Parsons and sopranos. Contraltos seem to be the exception. I've known of half a ( Read more... )

Philip Wylie's The Disappearance was published in 1951 and absolutely reeks of the 1950s, from the gender roles and attitudes about sexuality (homosexual and heterosexual) to its Cold War era fears and technologies.

( Commentary--with spoilers )

Harper's Index always has lots of interesting tidbits. Here are a few from the newest edition ( Read more... )

Representative Henry Waxman of California has examined abstinence-only curricula and found some disturbing things. Here's a sampling of what America's children are being taught about sex ( Read more... )

"Pre-marital sex is really modern germ warfare." --Eric Keroack

"Contraception is the gateway to abortion." --John Mallon, "Death by Sex"The frightening thing is not simply that people believe these things but that they represent a growing anti-contraception movement and, worse, that one of these two men has recently been appointed Deputy ( Read more... )