Comments on: Credible Sources

By: arthur

arthur — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 20:16:31 +0000

Start with the proposition that all variable activities must happen more at one time than at another. I don’t understand why it concerns the AMA that drinking and sex happen more on vacation than during class times. Don’t most professors prefer students to concentrte tehir soobriety during the school year?

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:36:45 +0000

Other parental fears that “some kids” strenuously call overblown

I apologize if I’m misreading you, Kieran, but it sounds as though you think that parents are right to be seriously concerned about this issue and young people are self-interested and misguided when they say parents’ fears are overblown.

With all due respect, I very much disagree. Teaching your child to be wary online is a great idea. Believing that evil predators are very likely to successfully entrap your child, especially without a lot of progressively stupider decisions on the child’s part (revealing a last name, agreeing to meet in person) is not consistent with reported crime rates.

Emotionally speaking, this a frequency/intensity problem. True, if something happens, it’s awful. No one would wish it on any child. But the frequency with which something like this happens – especially without a heck of a lot of warning signs in advance – is extremely low.

Here’s an analogy: Would I be worried about letting a child fly alone on a commercial flight? Sure. Do I understand that that child has a much, MUCH greater chance of serious injury or death just by riding around in car, especially without good seatbelt habits? Yes. Moral: Teaching kids to be cautious = good; teaching them to accurately assess risk = equally good.

By: blah

blah — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:23:19 +0000

In other news, the DOJ has warned men not to put roofies in women’s drinks. The men might be tempted to rape the unconscious women, thereby putting themselves at risk for criminal prosecution.

By: Barbar

Barbar — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 18:07:32 +0000

Sounds like good reasons to warn men about drinking—it brings out their inner predator and increases the odds that they’ll get an STD or impregnate someone. Have they been told?

By: blah

blah — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:31:53 +0000

Among men, research indicates that greater alcohol use is related to greater sexual aggression (12). Sixty-seven percent of the male sexual aggressors at one university, as well as about 50 percent of female victims, had been drinking at the time of the sexual assault or other incident of victimization (13). Binge drinkers appear to engage in more unplanned sexual activity and to abandon safe sex techniques more often than students who do not binge drink (3).

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa29.htm

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:15:06 +0000

The assumption isn’t that girls are bad, boys are innocent, but (and this is just as harmful) that girls are innocent, boys are incorrigible.

But barry’s comment was still kinda funny.

By: Barbar

Barbar — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:11:47 +0000

More sexual activity among women ==> greater chance of rape.

And walk around in a short little miniskirt… well, what do you think was going to happen?

Uh huh.

By: Western Dave

Western Dave — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 16:51:37 +0000

When guys getting date raped by girls is as big a problem as girls getting date raped by boys, some of the snark in the comments thus far might actually be funny.

By: Barry

Barry — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:58:38 +0000

Well, Auderey, if the poor, innocent young men come within the grasp of those Evul Coeds, they can’t be held responsible for their actions, can they? Some innocent young All-American Boy walks into what he thought was a restaurant, sees what he thought was a bunch of poor women (they couldn’t even afford modest clothing!), and was offered what he was told was an innocent American drink – iced tea, like back in good ol’ Long Island.

Then he wakes up, days later, in a motel room, surrounded by these Evul Coeds – couldn’t be his fault, could it?

By: auderey

auderey — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 13:26:19 +0000

Nice how they’re warning girls not to drink and have sex, eh?

By: ajay

ajay — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 10:17:00 +0000

The point was made elsewhere that the AMA survey asked not about “heavy” but “heavier than usual” drinking and shagging. Presumably the rest of the sample are like that all the time (medical students…)

By: theogon

theogon — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 07:30:23 +0000

Only 83/74?

By: Omri

Omri — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 06:03:14 +0000

Moralists are far less grating when they cite the Bible instead of citing statistics.