"But frankly, abortion stories are better suited to print than film anyway. Unless there’s some sort of crazy complications, there’s not a whole lot of action."

Actually, there is, and probably an intrauterine camera can catch it quite clearly. Make sure the sound is on too.

. . .and spared terrible pain.

. . . but they became babies and she learned to love them and defend them, not kill them.

This is a good way to accommodate this fact, which is irreconcilable with the life schedule of modern society.

. . . it's late.

Well put. This is a horrible situation no matter what decision is made.

Every mother of these sonogrammed creatures calls them "babies".

It might seem creepy, but newborns look a little weird too. (And let's face it -- pro-choicers just don't like having sonograms passed around and publicized, at least not before the third trimester. These creatures look, well, too human.) If this trend continues I can see more acceptance. We ended up accepting earrings on men, right?

Seeing a sonogram pic of your baby, especially your first, is a moving moment for any parent. At least all that I've heard talk about it.

What's a good definition of chaos? Thirteen blind lesbians in a fish market.

(told to me by a lesbian)

I get your point but it's just a joke.

We still crack jokes about "natural blondes" and pubic hair, even though everyone knows that few women with naturally blond head hair actually have blonde pubic hair.

It was the psychologist Abraham Maslow who said that, but it doesn't matter. It still stands as the basic comment about creativity.

Pollan is right, but Kate Harding is right too.

-- because it was aimed at white liberals, specifically, the liberal governor at the time (Mario Cuomo) and the liberal Attorney General (Robert Abrams). Sharpton didn't simply "believe a young lady", as this lame article puts it. He and his advisors wouldn't let her talk to the D.A., wouldn't let her talk to the Special Prosecutor that was appointed at their demand . . . they wouldn't let her talk to ANYONE. They were perfectly happy to have this girl's accusation of gang rape hang in the air without investigation and without bringing the perpetrators to justice. A status of permanent victimhood that white people couldn't do anything about. White people who wanted the prosecutor to interview her were accused of being racist, because (he said) the legal system of course could NEVER treat a black victim fairly.

Conservatives were already against him.

Sharpton's was the most toxic act in race relations in my lifetime.

"to believers, no explanation is necessary."

I don't have anything in common with you Carlene (I was raised Catholic and left the Church long ago) but I greatly respect your journey and your courage in writing about it.

I wonder how Reagan reacted to the sex education episode. Probably slept through it.

"Most of us, of either gender, will grant you that having sex with condoms isn’t quite as much fun."

I'm glad to hear a woman say this. Can we now stop demonizing men who are honest enough to say that they don't like condoms?

I am another man who has never been able to have an orgasm with a condom on (except twice, when I was a teenager). Imagine the mind games this creates the first time you are with a woman and you tell her this truth about yourself. She might think you're a creep who just don't care about giving her STD's. Or you can not mention it, then two hours later she wonders why you still haven't had an orgasm.

. . . and I agree with your final paragraph. Thanks.

It merely points out that the studies purporting to show change were methodologically flawed.

The psychologist John Watson showed a hundred years ago that you can turn an ice-cream-loving child into an ice-cream-fearing child, and back again ("Little Albert").

With the right stimulus-response regimen, you can turn gay people straight, straight people gay, ass men into breast men, butches into femmes, and Methodists into bisexual diaper fetishists who can only orgasm if they're watching "Mythbusters".

The question has always been, "Is sexual orientation something that SHOULD be changed?"

At bottom, caused by the fear of what conclusions scientific research (properly done) might lead to.

I'm not afraid.

Being gay is not some kind of sacred f*cking calling, folks. Neither is being straight. Each of us is the product of accidents of genetics and environment. I could have turned out gay. That would have been perfectly all right with me.

In particular, what women (especially young women) *say* they want (e.g., "kind, generous"), and what they end up going for, are two different things.

In other words, they're the same as men.

I think this changes as you get older. By age 35 or so women know their own minds better, and are more honest with themselves. But for younger men trying to meet younger women, it can be very frustrating. Being in the horniest time of your life doesn't help.

This is one instance where you can actually learn something from mainstream porn.

The biggest porn stars, all hype aside, measure no more than 9 inches or so. And they never go in all the way, at least not when fully erect. There's still two or three inches left over. Even though the women they're with are a lot more experienced and "stretched out" than the typical female.

So I'm glad Tracy points out that "women like 'em big" is a fallacy (phallacy?). I don't think many women actually want a big penis, unless all they want to do is touch it and look at it.