... does denying information lead to less sex?

No. Only unsafe sex that leads to disease and unintended pregnancy.

Raise your hand if you didn't have sex in high school because "my mom and dad (church) (school)(etc.) told me not to." It doesn't count if you didn't have sex in high school because couldn't find a partner. Doesn't count if you didn't "go all the way" but did everything else. It doesn't count if you freely chose not to because you didn't want to.

Only raise your hand if you specifically didn't because someone told you it was bad.

See? No hands.

One of my formative years, mind-altering experiences was traveling in England in junior high, then living there as an exchange student in high school. I came from an American town (not city), where everything was big. Big ranch houses. Big lots. Big cars.

In England, Everything Is Small. Everything. I lived for a year out of a small dresser and a wardrobe. I had my own room, half the size of mine at home. My host family's house had three bedrooms, one bath, and I'd guess it was 1200 square feet. But by English standards, it was spacious. They had a back garden. Never mind that I could reach out the dining room window and touch the house next door. The English (and many other Europeans) have developed many systems for maintaining their privacy in small spaces--net curtains to let the light in and keep eyes out, glass-block windows when the neighbor's wall is too close, and so on. Things I'd never thought of before, growing up in a ranch house on a quarter acre lot.

Everything was small. The fridge, the stove, the washer. They had a dryer, which was rare, and yes, it was small. They had one car, a VW Golf. I learned to ride the bus and read a bus schedule, something I'd never done before. And yes, to connect to this thread about bikes, lots of people biked, in rainy, cold, gray England, in their business clothes.

My English family had visited us in America, and their constant question was "Why is everything so big?"

As a teenager, it was mindblowing to see my own home, my country, through someone else's eyes. Why are our washing machines so big? I have no idea. They just are. Why do our fridges go all the way to the ceiling and not fit under the counter? Why do we have two-car garages? Why are our cars so big? Why can't kids go everywhere they need to on the bus? Why do teenagers need to drive? There are no good answers, of course. Because we see big as "normal." But it's not normal. It's just tradition.

My kids love The Music Man and The Sound of Music. Not all musicals are appropriate for kids or catch their attention, but those do. And it's one of those cultural touchstones--it's important to know what "There's trouble in River City" means, or why Maria is a problem. I love Pixar, don't get me wrong, but musicals are a welcome break from animated cars, fish, and bugs.

We heard "76 Trombones" in a parade this weekend, and my kids could sing the song.

Given the opportunity, my son will choose a video game over reading every time. Of course, we don't give him the opportunity nearly as often as he wants, but there it is. He's passionate about video games. Losing his allotted video game time (half an hour a day) as a punishment for bad behavior is akin (in his mind) to tearing his arms off.

My daughter, however, can take or leave video games. She likes them, but she's not passionate about them. She reads for pleasure, because it's fun, because she likes the stories.

Her brother reads when he has to. Occasionally he gets wrapped up in a book, but only when it's an excuse to stay up late, or if every other option of something to do is closed (it's raining, it's dark, no more video games, TV is off).

So I think there's something there. Some boy-thing that attracts him to digital media like moths to the porch light, that doesn't attract my daughter in the same way. I don't know why it is, but I see it played out every day.

I like your column. I really do. But until someone figures out how to hatch fully grown adults, kids are part of life. We can debate parenting skills all day, and there will always be some sanctimonious a-hole willing to point fingers at any being under 18 and yell "THOSE DAMN KIDS!" However, it makes about the same amount of sense as a white American yelling "THOSE DAMN IMMIGRANTS!" We are (almost) all immigrants, at one time or another. We were all kids at one time or another.

I hope your cloning skills are up to snuff, because without them, your complaints don't hold water.

Jeesh.

If Obama wins in the fall, what in hell is he going to do with Gitmo? We know what McCain will do... more of the same. But what will an intelligent, compassionate, educated person do with this hellhole?

I honestly have no idea. Has he been asked this question in a debate?