I'd rather have parents like that, than parents who force their kids to listen to stuff they didn't have questions about and which will only instill feelings of guilt/condescension (if they're white) or of grievance/entitlement (if they're black). If you're starting from the premise that white people *always* have racial issues (whether acknowledged or hidden), then this is bound to happen. That premise, by the way, is false.

My wife and I explain very little to our kids, unless they ask. Kids don't learn from their parents' words so much as from their parents' actions and attitudes. If our kids *do* ask about something, we answer as truthfully as we can. And if we detect racism in them, we point it out right away.

The previous post is very interesting and the point is true.

"Bisexual" is NOT a dysfunction, NOT a sign of trouble, NOT a red flag of any kind.

At least, I hope when you praise pregnant women for daring to be sexy you don't (in the next breath) condemn men for wanting to have sex with them.

The practice of birth control is related not to religion but to wealth. And wealthy, condum-using countries contribute WAY more greenhouse gases than poor, overprocreating countries.

You can shower people with condoms but if their country has poor social services and medical care, no means of taking care of the elderly, and a bleak existence in which sex is one of life's few pleasures -- in other words, if it makes economic and social sense for people to have lots of children -- then they will have lots of children.

It takes on all the many viewpoints that arise out of a rape accusation, and how we bring to it our preconceived notions, or senses of grievance, revenge, judgment, etc.

I stick to only one rule here: don't criticize someone's viewpoint just because of who the expresser of the viewpoint is. For example, don't criticize a man for taking a "sexist" view of the situation when perfectly objective women are taking the same view. Turn this around or substitute race or sexual orientation if this makes more sense to you.

1. The internet is fantastic -- what a great way to look up things. It's a library at your fingertips. I use it all the time. Of course, I grew up with books, and my worldview is still largely based on the 1959 edition of the World Book Encyclopedia. So in looking things up I can quickly tell what's true and what's distorted (or downright false). A good deal of the stuff in Wikipedia, for example, is either poorly written, or biased crap.

2. Some old friends of mine do internet work. They keep harping on how our children are "digital natives" and that memorizing the multiplication tables is as relevant today as learning how to churn butter. They also believe that thousands of Americans have been abducted by extraterrestrials; that there are haunted houses in every community; and that the World Trade Center was in fact destroyed by controlled explosives planted by Cheney's people two weeks previously.

3. My kids are in grade school. We bought a set of encyclopedias for them to use. Want to look up something about Julius Caesar for an assignment? Go to the internet and you get 2 million hits, including a good deal of irrelevant or crazed stuff. Go to the encyclopedia, and there is a one-page article. It's finite. And it's true.

4. One more thing. There is a lot of big money pushing the internet. There is very little money pushing against it. This needs to be kept in mind when listening to the arguments in "A Better Pencil".

The commenters here who are coherent and can write actual sentences are those who were educated in the pre-internet years.

Let's see where we are in 2020 or so. People who were born after 2000 (to pick a year). Can they think? Can they write coherently? Are their ideas and beliefs in contact with reality? Or will there be any way to tell by then?

I don't understand everything he/she is saying (I never cared much for philosophy) but at least he/she's a grownup.

In general, the less I have to do any given day, the more time I spend chatting on the internet. If I had nothing to do, or nothing meaningful in my life, or was trying to avoid the realities in my life, I'd spend a great *deal* of time chatting on the internet. This was true of my friend (referenced earlier) who now believes in alien abductions. He first got into the internet when he was disabled and forcibly idle for several years.

And guess what? This means an awful lot of people might SAY they're pro-choice, but are not truly so.

Oh boy.

Be REAL careful before you start with that.

If there's *one* situation (sex with a parent) where you argue that, then there can be other situations.

Once again, I agree with Tracy's take on this.

This is usually the real answer, folks, to the question, "When did you realize you were gay?"

Not the P.C. blowtorch answer, "When did YOU realize you were STRAIGHT??" Zing!!

Which is why most straight people don't venture to ask that perfectly reasonable question.

Researchers, asking that perfectly reasonable question, found that the answer is 14, 15 or 16.

So stop the blowtorching please?