It’s About Making Babies!

I think it was a FoxTrot cartoon, about 18 years ago, that made a very telling point with me. A girl doing homework at the kitchen table comments. “Some of the parents are against our Sex Ed class. They think if we learn about it, we will want to do it. Didn’t work that way with Math.”

lisaq at 20-forty writes about a moment of embarrassment in her post, “Overcoming Sexual Inhibitions“. lisaq found herself blushing in front of her computer, trying to describe what she would have found comfortable with, with a partner during an intimate encounter. She blames much of her reticence about talking or communicating about sex, outside of an intimate encounter, on her rebellious acting out, sexually, during high school - and on the subsequent taunting she received from other girls.

There is a more universal component, too, I think. Most families I know teach their infants not to refer to breasts and genitals by any name - anything the kid has learned to say is likely to be said in an inappropriate way, in an embarrassing social setting.

As we enter puberty we start becoming aware of our sexual nature, but are never taught appropriate, common terms for what we deal with. We learn ‘vulgar’ euphemisms and terms from seeing what our parents hide from general use, and what we have to hide from parents and teachers in school.

That is - we are taught that talking about sex is shameful, something to hide. Anyone hear the term ‘first base’ used outside baseball?

Many people find their way past the ‘don’t touch’, ‘don’t stare’, ‘don’t talk dirty’ restrictions, but everyone does so through their own experiences and in their own time. Many of our peers retain more of the rules and less understanding of meaning and when to use explicit terms, and that social pressure extends the pressure to avoid ‘talking dirty’ and extends the shame our parents used to avoid being embarrassed.

And that brings me back to high schoolers taunting their peers.

It seems that we become our parents before we really even begin to vow never to be as awful as our parents were.

We live and enforce the social rules - the ‘truth’ - we learned as infants, toddlers, and children on those around us. We first get used to being criticized as our parents correct our behavior into social norms - as we learn to criticize our own behavior and those around us.

It takes repeated experience - practice - to replace old rules with new rules. Some of us learn to replace criticism with tolerance and acceptance. Some of us learn to overcome prohibitions about touching, about talking with strangers, and about crossing the street. This modification of earlier rules takes place as we encounter new people, new situations, and find new examples of behavior.

I have no doubt that lisaq will, with practice, learn to balance clear and frank sexual discussion with appropriate use in appropriate circumstances.

Excuse me, now. I have to find the area of the isosceles triangle that the last patch of grass contains. I mean, I need to finish mowing.

There is nothing spectacular about Sarah Palin.

An answer to fear

Except she appears to be the answer to a lot of fears about the next presidential administration. I had feared the apparent, abysmal lack of competence among the candidates. All of the front runners.

Look at what the Democratic Congress has bought us. Notice the price of your gas, lately? What about all the ‘Help Wanted’ signs around town - for short order cooks and welders? Heard about any major companies laying off more than 1,000 people in the last two weeks? How about airlines folding and cutting flights? Hint: President Bush spends the money that keeps the country running. Congress tells him what can be spent. Want to turn the economy around? We can wait for another Ronald Reagan, or tell the Representatives and Senators in Congress to stop over-spending, stop gutting the collected Social Security fund, and stop with the pork-barrel, special interest stuff. Then wait five or ten years. Because the decay we see today Bill Clinton started 4 years ago, when it became apparent that Al Gore wasn’t going to be continuing the Clinton Years - and political debts had to be paid.

A change in the Republican Party

What placing Sarah Palin on the Republican Ticket means to me, is that the Republican Party recognizes that they were so busy being a party, they stopped being a representation of their members. Bob Dole was an insult to America. A very fine gentleman, my only quarrel was that he had no touch with Americans, he didn’t share the values I find important. I saw Dole, like McCain, as a plodder, a party hack that got to stand at the front of the line, because his turn came around. If any other Republican wants the ‘machine’ to promote and support him or her the next time around, they have to play ball this time. If they keep the patronage and seniority rules going, then it will work for them, maybe, some time in the future.

Sarah Palin has worked with the Federal Bureaucracy. She has served a couple of years as Governor of the second largest state in the Union, with communication and infrastructure problems that make the job tougher than elsewhere.

Oh, my. I just realized - I don’t know if she prefers ‘Ms. Palin’ or ‘Mrs. Palin’ I am sure Governor Palin is a good way to waffle around the question, but there is a reason I hesitate. See, Hilary Clinton wants us to forget the Rodham in her maiden name, the family that raised her. Hilary also doesn’t want anyone calling her Mrs. Clinton - she is no wife, her role of wife is *not* important to her. For Governor Palin, I want to respect her preference. She is married, a mother of five. And happy with her work and her family. True, the photos and sound bites may have caught her in the midst of shock and jubilation at being asked to partner McCain - but she appears to be a genuinely happy individual. I pray that she holds onto that joy, those values, and that they still mean the same to her after her stint in the White House.

Because Obama/Biden looks like an old-school ticket. Biden brings the foreign affairs experience. Obama brings a seat in the Senate - except he never found anyone willing to work with him. And he has been willing to abandon his constituents for a year to play the campaign game. Chicago’s Democratic Machine may be playing Mayor Dailey style power games, but outside Chicago, Obama can’t really point to many accomplishments. So he *had* to pick someone like Biden, for credibility. And Barack Obama really hopes voters confuse having experience on the ticket, with *Obama* having experience.

And what McCain appears to be doing by picking a young, talented, non-Washington, DC politician, is to offer a real change. McCain appears to be pledging to serve the younger, vital Republicans - and the whole country. That change must be rocking the Republican party. I hope it is a permanent change for the party.

Family Values

I realize that Family Values got a bit old, as a political slogan, a couple-five elections back. Yet here we have a VP candidate with a growing family - of five children, with a husband. A ‘gun toting soccer mom’ as I heard a friend describe her. I expect family issues, and realistic views on finances, on freedoms an rights, and discipline.

One for instance, with a vital Republican ticket, I can look forward to curtailment of parts of the Patriot Act, and a review of the Department of Homeland Security. Maybe we could, please, dismantle the Department of Education this time?

A ray of hope, late in the season.

Governor Palin’s ‘Palin Effect’ is mostly hope, for me. A chance for a bit of optimism.

Welcoming Governor Palin

Well, then their is the splash made on the Internet.

Some wise-acre decided this Mother of Five rated well on his site of ‘Mothers I’d Love to F***’ (something like, ‘fool around with’). I suppose that is a compliment, I have heard women consider themselves complimented. Me? I figure there is only one woman that has ‘worth’ that is affected by my sexual jollies, and she would be my mate. Worrying about ’scoring’ is disrespectful and crude. I also don’t like the ‘Vice President I’d Like To F***’ (VPILF, for the non-Adult kink crowd).

Then there are the made-up ‘little known facts’ about Sarah Palin on the Internet today. I made up a few myself. I found the thread at Looking for Lissa Palin-Effect, and then at Rachel Lucas. I liked my own ‘facts’ from my comment on ‘Lissa:

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin is grand daughter to Michael Palin. One of her conditions for running, is that John Cleese will be named Secretary of State.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin is honest, disciplined, and loyal to friends, courteous to all.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin balances the family checkbook, as well as the state treasury, because she enjoys the tasks.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin created the Northern Lights, as portrayed on Al Gore’s Internet.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin was named ‘Eskimo’s Friend’. They named a pie after her. It looks like a big, cold Oreo cookie.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin’s favorite day is Monday. She gets to brag about the weekend’s hunting.

Little Known Fact: Sara Palin’s favorite color is blue. Sky blue. She enjoys laying out liberals to watch her favorite color.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin brings hope of sanity and a rational government to the looney-tunes vaudeville acts of the 2008 Presidential race. As a mother of five, she has heard and dealt with more BS than most Senators have heard from all the lobbyists in DC.

Little Known Fact: Sarah Palin brings a stable family life and an honorable husband with her. This may overset the current understanding of ‘family values’ among liberals.

My best wishes to Governor Palin, her family, and the United States.