Surprise! Real Sex Ed Really Works. No, Really.

• We all know that abstinence-only education and purity balls, where you pledge to save yourself for Daddy and Jesus, do not actually prevent kids from doing sex to each other. (Wedoall know that, right?) But there's a new study that suggests real sex ed actually does the very thing that fake sex ed pretends to do: keeps kids from doing sex.

  The results were “quite strong,” according to the lead researchers on the project. The study found that 16 percent fewer boys and 15 percent fewer girls became sexually active by the end of eighth grade after participating inGet Real, compared to the kids who didn’t participate in that curriculum.

  What isGet Real? Oh, just the sex ed program developed by Planned Parenthood to teach boys and girls real facts about sex, instead of that "just say no" nonsense.

  Four premises are built in to the curriculum:

  1. Sexual health is an integral part of health education

  2. Parents/guardians and other trusted adults are the students' primary sexuality educators

  3. Consensual (or voluntary) sexual behavior occurs in the context of relationships, therefore relationship skills are key elements of a comprehensive sex education curriculum

  4. While abstinence from sex is the healthiest choice for avoiding sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancy, adolescents need to have a comprehensive understanding of sexual health, sexuality, and protection methods, which they will need when they become sexually active

  Wow, it's almost as if having open and honest conversations with kids about sex and its consequences leads kids to be more knowledgeable and responsible and to make exactly the kinds of choices that the very people who oppose real sex ed say they should make. Weird!

  And you thought Planned Parenthood just built multi-billion dollar abortionplexes, huh? (No, you didn't really think that because you are not A Idiot. Or Rep. John Fleming. But we repeat ourselves.)

  We assume this study will lead all the conservatives who want to shut down Planned Parenthood and defund real sex ed to rethink their strategy and perhaps support this program. We also expect to see pigs fly by our window any second now ...

• Ben Bradlee, former editor ofThe Washington Post, died Tuesday at 93. ThePost  had a very fine obituary, of course:

  From the moment he took over The Post newsroom in 1965, Mr. Bradlee sought to create an important newspaper that would go far beyond the traditional model of a metropolitan daily. He achieved that goal by combining compelling news stories based on aggressive reporting with engaging feature pieces of a kind previously associated with the best magazines. His charm and gift for leadership helped him hire and inspire a talented staff and eventually made him the most celebrated newspaper editor of his era.

  The most compelling story of Bradlee’s tenure, almost certainly the one of greatest consequence, was Watergate, a political scandal touched off by The Post’s reporting that ended in the only resignation of a president in U.S. history.

  But Mr. Bradlee’s most important decision, made with Katharine Graham, The Post’s publisher, may have been to print stories based on the Pentagon Papers, a secret Pentagon history of the Vietnam War. The Nixon administration went to court to try to quash those stories, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the decision of the New York Times and The Post to publish them.

  But if you really want to honor the man, go read some of his most entertaining correspondence. For example:  

  You sound like one of those publishers who aims to please his pals in the community and give them what they want.

  No one will call you arrogant that way. No one will call you newspaperman, either.

  He was also quite famous, or infamous, for starting a letter "Dear asshole." Nowtherewas an editor.

• Hey, bro, you're jerking off to dudes:  

  The prank went down on Reddit's /r/gonewild, a space for naked dudes and ladies to look and be looked at.

  What was the prank? A picture of "a pair of underwear wedged between a man's asscheeks" that looked like boobies.

  That didn't stop fans from pleasuring themselves to the photo and sending personal messages begging poshpink for more. When she revealed her ruse in a follow-up post , she also shared 51(!) flirty notes from guys who contacted her based on a photo that looked kind of like breasts.

  Boys are such simple creatures, aren't they?

• You want an epic rant about #gamergate? Here, have an epic rant about #gamergate, from epic ranter Chris Kluwe:

  Dear #Gamergaters,

  Do you know why you piss me the fuck off?

  Because you’re lazy. You’re ignorant. You are a blithering collection of wannabe Wikipedia philosophers, drunk on your own buzzwords, incapable of forming an original thought. You display a lack of knowledge stunning in its scope, a fundamental disregard of history and human nature so pronounced that makes me wonder if lead paint is a key component of your diet. You think you’re making piercing arguments when, in actuality, you’re throwing a temper tantrum that would embarrass a three-year-old.

  He's not done. He's only just getting started.

  There’s this herd of people, mainly angsty teenage caucasian men (based on an informal survey of 99 percent of the people who feel the need to defend this nonsense to me on Twitter), who feel that somehow, their identity as “gamers” is being taken away. Like they’re all little Anne Franks, hiding in their basements from the PC Nazis and Social Justice Warrior brigades, desperately protecting the last shreds of “core gaming” in their unironically horrible Liveblog journals filled with patently obvious white privilege and poorly disguised misogyny.

  He's still not done. Not nearly. Go read the whole thing. It's a thing of beauty.

• No,you're  travel-banned:  

  Rwanda's Ministry of Health is requiring visitors who have been in the United States or Spain during the previous 22 days to report their medical condition to health authorities upon arrival in Rwanda, the U.S. Embassy in Rwanda said Tuesday.

• Scouting New York has a real cool story on where your favorite New York City-based sitcom stars lived:

  Did you know Lucy and Desi lived on the Upper East Side?

  I had no idea, but apparently, their apartment was located at 623 East 68th Street. There’s just one problem – that puts them right in the middle of the East River.

  There are plenty more. Go take a look.

• In case you never want to leave your house again and just spend the rest of your life watching "The Simpsons," you can do that now:  

The highly anticipated Simpsons World portal is open for your entertainment. Go forth and browse all 552 episodes, find and share clips, and use the impressive search function to look up every single appearance of Sideshow Mel.