December 29, 2016

My message to the women's magazine columnist who says she is "terrifed of raising a boy in Trump's America."

Here's "I'm Terrified of Raising a Boy in Trump's America/How can I explain to a little boy that the year he was born, the President of the United States was an admitted sexual predator?," by Jo Piazza writing in the women's magazine Elle.

I've been avoiding reading it... mainly because I encountered it after other people were already talking about it. At first that stops me, because you don't need me to point to it, but sometimes I get around to it anyway. Who knows why?

Well, in this case, I'm a mother of sons, and I raised them when the President of the United States was an admitted sexual predator — in the 1990s — so maybe I can help. Is it harder to raise boys than girls when we know our country's leader preys on young females? I'll leave to the side how much we really know about Trump's sexual predation in comparison to Clinton's. Monica Lewinsky was young and an underling in the workplace Clinton ran, but she seems to have sought him out and fallen into enthusiastic love. Trump bragged about just starting kissing women who let you do it. Clinton exposed his erect penis and said "kiss it" to a woman, Paula Jones, who did not let him do that.

Enough of that comparison. I want to concentrate on the supposed special problem of raising boys. I haven't read Piazza's article yet, only the title. I'm just guessing that her idea is that if you have a girl, you can use the powerful man to teach her what she's up against and steel her for the struggle. If you have a boy instead... what's the problem? Maybe Piazza will say that he's going to identify with and emulate what is a bad example.

But how do you know the girl wouldn't look to the President as exemplifying the kind of man she should admire and seek out? And how do you know the boy wouldn't accept your teaching that the President is a bad role model from which he should strive to distinguish himself?

[INSERTED INFO: At this point, I begin reading the article.]

Piazza originally thought she'd be raising a girl — as she puts it "a small woman" — at a time when we had a female President, which seemed especially nice, but even after Trump got elected, she seemed to think she knew what she would do — teach the girl to work "harder and smarter and better than the men around her" and "to fight for equality and respect."

But then she had that moment when she had to think about the baby being the gender that was not the one she'd been fantasizing about:



Piazza — like Billy Bigelow in "Carousel" — flows with ideas of how to raise a child whose sex matches her/his own but is flummoxed at the prospect of dealing with the opposite sex. She says:
What terrifies me is the idea of raising a boy with good values when a man who represents the male stereotypes we've been fighting for generations is in the White House. A man who bullies both men and women in person and on Twitter. This man could dominate our news cycle for the next eight years. I can't hide his bad behavior from our son.
Oh, come on. The behavior the 70-year-old Trump is going to demonstrate in the White House is not the sudden kissing he talked about years ago when he was off-camera in an "Access Hollywood" van. 
How can I explain to a little boy that the year he was born, the President of the United States was an admitted sexual predator who treats women (including his own daughters) as "pieces of ass"?... How do I explain that grabbing a woman by her genitals is not an acceptable salutation when the man in charge of the country normalized it?
Since President Trump will be out of office by the time your child is 8, I'd suggest not talking about any of that. Piazza frets about "explaining sensitivity and nonviolence" to the boy. I'd suggest demonstrating it, beginning by not going out of your way to express contempt for the President.

A child — boy or girl — lives with real people, and these people set the example that the child will copy. It's not really very much about explanations and characters on television. How about not putting on the television and not talking about politics and sex in front of young children? Give them a real, comprehensible, simple, gentle environment that is on their level.

Piazza worries about explaining "the president's picks for attorney general and CIA director voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act." Frankly, she shouldn't try to explain that to anyone, since she doesn't even understand it herself. Votes against the Violence Against Women Act were not votes for violence against women. If you don't know why, at least have some modesty and restraint about your potential to confuse and unnecessarily rile other people.

Let children be children. And let adults who don't want to understand law — including things like federalism — have some peace. Your hysteria is not helping.

Piazza says: "I want to make a good little man." That's a decent, worthy goal. Start there. I would quibble with the notion that a mother "makes" her baby into the adult that baby will grow to be. It's not scientifically true and, ironically, it's probably not good feminism, but I understand the poetry of "I want to make a good little man."

Piazza gives respect to her husband, the boy's father. He seems to be a good man, whoever made him good. Perhaps his mother made him good, in part, and maybe his wife too. Maybe he made himself good. But Piazza is lucky to have a good man. If the boy has a good father and a good mother and they make a good home and set a good example, that's giving the boy almost everything, and there's nothing to be terrified of from the President, however good or bad he might be in your mind or in reality or in the political movie we'll watch on television and the internet if we don't limit our screen time.

Perhaps if Piazza had a bit more respect for conservatism, she wouldn't look to the President to do so much for her. He's off there, tending to the matters that belong to government, working and bumbling and succeeding in the way human beings do. You might like some or none of what he does. But you and your husband and your home are what matter to a little child, and the fact of his being a boy and not a girl is a diversion of pregnancy.

When he is born he won't just be A Boy. He'll be a particular boy, a particular individual, not the stereotype you dwell on when you have so much time to think about him when he's there but not really there in his pre-birth form. Respect the boy. Respect the person. Respect your own home and the worthiness of your family. Love your husband and let him show his love for you.

Explanations are overrated. The power of the presidency is overblown. Find love and meaning where it really is.

It's much simpler than you're willing to say, perhaps because you have a career writing columns about feminism and politics. That's nice for you, but be careful. It's a brutal template, and you are having a baby.

180 comments:

Yancey Ward said...

She should do her son a favor and give him up for adoption. She is clearly unfit to be a mother to children, much less a son.

eddie willers said...

Mama, don't let your cowboys grow up to be babies.

JHapp said...

Grabbing a thousand girls by the crotch is not in the same league as one abortion.

MAJMike said...

Good Lord!!! The self-appointed elites are most certainly our inferiors.

JaimeRoberto said...

Nice post, but I would tell her that when she has a boy she only needs to worry about one penis. When she has a girl she has to worry about all of them.

Tarrou said...

Well, let's be fair. The chance this trainwreck raises a man is so small as to be inconsequential, no matter the genitalia the kid is born with.

Kevin said...

Piazza worries about explaining "the president's picks for attorney general and CIA director voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act."

Hours after my first child was born I was holding her with the Laker game on TV. When she would occasionally look that way, I would explain to her that one of those people was Shaq and another one was Kobe and they were running something called "the Triangle Offense". Or trying to on occasion. Phil Jackson was not impressed with them that night.

I could explain the Triangle Offense to her, but to my dismay she didn't get it. Great kid, but it was her sister who came along later who liked to watch basketball.

exhelodrvr1 said...

The left is so used to living in it's own echo chamber, that they can't conceive there is a real world out there. The concept frightens them. Like one of those groups of natives on an island in the Pacific during WWII

JaimeRoberto said...

I wish we could dispose of the formulation "Trump's America" or "Obama's America" or "Bush's America". The country is not the property of the President, and it those phrases elevate the importance of the President that he doesn't deserve and should not have.

Quayle said...

Whatever peace or conflict and contention she has in hear heart, she will impart to her child. That is what will dominate that child's insides, not some distant external factor.

That she doesn't already know this speaks volumes.

MacMacConnell said...

I'm not worried about this mother bring up her son to be a complete pussy. Due to the amazing medical breakthroughs revealed this week of testicle and backbone transplants in Hawaii. Seems the only side effects are vindictiveness and pettiness.

Paul said...

It's far easier to raise well adjusted children of either sex with a feminine mother and masculine father. A feminist mother will fuck them up however.

David said...

"Piazza is lucky to have a good man."

She will be even luckier to keep him.

mockturtle said...

When will all this hand wringing stop???

Anonymous said...

"Regardless of whether we have boys or girls we need to raise children who defy these base stereotypes of what is masculine and feminine

I don't know. Pop looks to be a wuss to me.

PS: She left out our creepy VP, Joey "hands" Biden, who seems to like to grope women from 10 to 80.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Uh, isn't all of this super problematic?
It's buying into the regressive gender binary view of the world!
She's calling this person (well, should she decide to give birth to it, anyway) a boy...but she's doing that just on the basis of his morphology/genotype?!
Her possible-child has a "little penis" so it's a boy? Outrage!
I thought there were, like, 26 genders anyway. How the hell can she possibly know that this person identifies as a boy?

What a cavewoman. Shame.

David said...

JHapp said...
Grabbing a thousand girls by the crotch is not in the same league as one abortion.


No, it's a lot worse,


MacMacConnell said...

I forgot to mention, there is about an eight year waiting period.

tcrosse said...

Piazza writes of wanting a woman as leader of the free world. Isn't "The Free World" an obsolete expression from the Cold War, like "The Iron Curtain". One wonders what she would call the Unfree World. Probably Kansas.

rhhardin said...

Women aren't too bright.

rhhardin said...

She's into complexifying.

Women like to read tbat.

It's their own thinking.

Matt said...

Paging rhhardin! Here's a big ol' meatball for you.

MacMacConnell said...

"One wonders what she would call the Unfree World. Probably Kansas."

Kansas is the Free State, it's also a micro brewery in Lawrence, Ks.

madAsHell said...

When did Trump become the admitted sexual predator?? Did I miss the memo?

Matt said...

Bah! 1 minute late.

Fernandinande said...

"I'm Terrified of Raising a Boy in Trump's America"

No she's not.

Normal kids shouldn't, and don't, know or care about the US president until they're around18 or so.

Paul Snively said...

Dr. Althouse: It's a brutal template, and you are having a baby.

It's the nature—hell, it's the definition—of a template to define the shape of whatever is created from it. I'm inclined to think that's the one-sentence summary of why so many of us are fed up with the media in general, and the echo-chamber-left media—which is the overwhelming majority of it—in particular.

The child will be who the child will be, thank God, whatever template mommy dearest has in mind.

sunsong said...

Boy you are really minimizing the impact of a President. It's sad to see you take that position. Trump will negatively impact millions - probably billions world-wide. And his chauvinism will hurt far too many boys and girls, as well as adults. To think that we don't affect each other is ridiculous, imo.

Sebastian said...

I normally love a good fisking, but in this case it's too much. The woman is just virtue-signaling. She won't be "explaining" Trump to a toddler anytime soon. Of course, the prog impulse to try and politicize every damn thing, even infancy, is real enough.

Fernandinande said...

"How can I explain to a little boy that the year he was born, the President of the United States was an admitted sexual predator?"

Why on earth would anyone want to do that?

bagoh20 said...

Now let me see. What kinda man do I wanna be? Pajama boy or Trump? Pajama boy or Trump? I just don't know. I love hot chocolate, but damn, pussy is hot too! Sorry Mom.

rhhardin said...

I'd worry about raising a daughter with all the crap on women's TV.

Rob said...

Thank you for bringing up Billy Bigelow, because it gives me an opportunity to inveigh against the last two lines of the Soliloquy:

I'll go out and make it or steal it
Or take it or die!


Once Billy has said "steal it," "take it" is sadly anticlimactic. Oscar Hammerstein could be saccharine and predictable, but this is downright amateurish. Surely there's a way to rework those lines to maintain the drama. One-syllable rhyming words aren't that difficult to come up with. I'd do it myself, but I don't work for free.

Trumpit said...

"When will all this hand wringing stop???"

Never, ever. The trauma is permanent and perpetual. It will continue even if someone wrings his pathetic neck, or he uses the launch codes and kills us all. The pain is severe, unrelenting, and unforgiving.

We are all grotesquely disfigured and pulverized, and that is an incurable, fatal condition forever and ever.

Happy New Year!

rehajm said...

Elle is a magazine for the the women rhhardin describes.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Your 180 degree turn from calling him a criminal several months back for what the author complains about to telling her to just lighten up is incomprehensible.

Unless one is to conclude that now, because he was elected president, you have decided to endorse a more lenient standard for judging him.

Sucking up to power must be more fun than I could know. Because I wouldn't know.

David said...

They rated a wedding story with a photo on NYT in 2015.

Jo Piazza and Nick Aster were married Saturday at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Glynnis MacNicol, a colleague of the bride who became a Universal Life minister for the occasion, officiated.

The wedding day was also the 35th birthday for the bride, who works in San Francisco as the managing editor for Yahoo! Travel. She is also a freelance writer and the author of “The Knockoff,’’ a novel. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. She received a master's in journalism from Columbia and a master’s in religious studies from N.Y.U.

She is the daughter of Tracey A. Piazza and John J. Piazza of Yardley, Pa.

The groom, 41, who also works in San Francisco, is the founder and publisher of TriplePundit.com, an online publication about ethical and responsible business. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis, and received an M.B.A. from the Presidio Graduate School in San Francisco.

He is a son of Sara Enright Aster and Dr. Richard H. Aster of Milwaukee.

The couple met in January on a boat in the Galápagos, while both were working on projects there. They were engaged three months later.


Aster is a cheesehead. His father is a very prominent and respected hematologist in Milwaukee.

Both mom and dad are writers. He writes about sustainability. She writes about herself and people like herself.

urbane legend said...

tcrosse said...
One wonders what she would call the Unfree World. Probably Kansas.

The Unwheatfree World, anyway.

chuck said...

I suspect the kid will have more problems on account of his mother than he does on account of Trump.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

sunsong blubbered: "Trump will negatively impact millions - probably billions world-wide"

He's certainly negatively impacting you and millions of other weepy liberal crybabies. That delights me.

Anonymous said...

The personal is political!

A generation of sad, struggling mommy-esque, feministic politico-psychobabblers is partly the product of many in your generation, Althouse, as well as current incentives coming out of the hollowed-out humanities and media/scribbling publications.

As usual, you display a lot of reasonable honesty and common sense.

Thanks.

Paco Wové said...

The presidency of LBJ turned me into the monster I am today... no! Don't look at me!

Douglas B. Levene said...

Our hostess is very sensible. A baby is a gift from God, not a political project. End of story.

Fabi said...

1. You don't have to explain any such circumstance to your son.
2. He never admitted to being a sexual predator.
3. Grow up.

David said...

The Piazza family had a rough week. Jo Piazza's father died two days ago in Yardley, Pa., at a relatively young age. He had moved to Yardley in 1985, with his family, and worked there as a claims adjuster. Previously he had been a lawyer in Iowa, but he was disbarred in 1987, in a case involving fraudulent personal use of client funds.

You have to wonder what the disbarment might have to do with Jo's outburst about the difficulty of raising a good little man.

Just do your best, Jo. That might involve not making your offspring part of your writing output.

MacMacConnell said...

I imagine the thought of Jo Piazza and Nick Aster actually fucking will be more traumatic to their son than the Trump presidency.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

I was born when a sexual predator - JFK - was in office. My kid brother was born during the administration of yet another Democrat sexual predator, LBJ, who was even more boorish and vulgar than Trump. The only conversation I remember having about JFK was when I asked my mom about the Vaughn Meader album "The First Family," which was in their record collection, because I didn't get the jokes. I don't think they were solemnly discussing the ramifications of the Tet Offensive with my 5 year old brother. Somehow my brother managed to grow up without picking up beagles by the ears or holding court while sitting on the toilet. At least I assume he doesn't do those things. I haven't lived with him in a long time. You never know.

tim maguire said...

She should just be glad we don't have a criminal in the White House who was so craven and power mad she was willing to destroy our status as a republic to get there. Seriously, a Clinton voter worrying about the morals of the president?!? That's like an Obama voter worrying about the qualifications of the president.

Jupiter said...

"I could teach my daughter to navigate the world in the same way that I did, working harder and smarter and better than the men around her in the hopes that it would give her the same mobility, accolades, and acceptance."

Well, then, just teach your son to be a limp-dick slacker like his Dad, so some crazy bitch like you can walk all over him. Or, what the Hell, just cut his balls off. You know you want to.

walter said...

It will be easier since teachers are likely to minimize Trump's existence. For example, not corralling them into "mm, mm Barack O'Bama" style chants.
Has the mom thought through the anti-woman..even anti-girl activities Hil's enabled and defended?

Warren Fahy said...

That's why I read this blog.

Chuck said...

This is the really easy part; laughing at Trump Derangement Syndrome liberals, all freaking out in hilariously hysterical ways.

The hard part is yet to come. Deciding about exercising the nuclear option on the Supreme Court. Crafting replacement legislation for ObamaCare. Doing revenue-neutral tax code reforms. Reforming entitlements.

Comanche Voter said...

Oh come on Yancey---she is probably capable of raising a puppy. A little boy? Not so much.

Real American said...

She doesn't want to raise her boy to be a man. She wants to raise him to be pajama boy.

Bob Boyd said...

My advice: Don't borrow trouble. So many things could go wrong between now and the time the kid is old enough to understand respecting the opposite sex.
For example, let's just wait and see how big his hands are. Trump might turn out to be an inspirational example of someone who overcame physical shortcomings and went on to achieve great things.

tcrosse said...

One wonders what she would call the Unfree World. Probably Kansas.
The Unwheatfree World, anyway.

Maybe what she really meant was the Gluten-Free World. Trump isn't Hitler. He's Gluten !

buwaya said...

You got it in the end - writing this sort of column is how this lady makes a living, so the apparent silliness - what on earth does who is President matter in raising kids ? Really ? - so this is just grist to her mill.
Its more realistic to assume a lack of sincerity in all these cases.

walter said...

"Then November 8 happened and everything I thought I knew about how the world worked was turned upside down, chewed up, and vomited back out as an entirely different reality.

I'd been sure I'd be raising a small woman during a new age of feminism, one where we didn't even need to call it feminism anymore, one where it was normal for a woman to be the leader of the free world. But that was no longer the case.
And I was no longer even certain we were having a girl. What if we had a boy? Was there a little penis inside me? It was a 50-50 chance. So many of the other things I thought were true had turned out wrong this year. Why should I trust my hunches?"

Trump will be gone by the time this kid cares, but this ridiculous, infantile and sexist drivel might still be out there.

Big Mike said...

I agree with commenters who think that Piazza is not going to be a fit mother for a son. Sons need strong male role models to learn how to be a manly man -- not a macho man, a manly man. I hope she knows the difference but I have to wonder. The sort of man who puts himself between their wives or girl friends and danger. Men like those fellows in the Aurora theater who died using their bodies to shield their dates from the gunman.

She doesn't have a clue what that's about.

chickelit said...

That poor little boy...doomed already. She'll probably let the toilet seat slam down on his penis as a lesson for him to sit like a good little man.

n.n said...

Wife, mother, professor, and judge. The Honorable Althouse presiding.

Bruce Hayden said...

I do think that it is probably harder to raise a boy (well) now, than a girl. But, my view there is probably the opposite of hers. I think that the problem revolves around feminism, and the takeover of so many institutions by feminists, starting in elementary school, where boys are medicated when they cannot act like girls, thanks to the feminization of public school systems, and, esp. at the elementary school level, where almost all the teachers are now female. Recesses have been banned in a lot of places, which, in the past were a great way to run off all that boyish energy. Instead, just drug them with Ritalin and the like. College is often not that much better, with double standards becoming ever more prevalent. Plus, there is the bogus "campus rape" epidemic, where young men are routinely found "guilty" of what can best be described as ambiguous behavior. When males and females get drunk together and then have sex, the male is inevitably found to be the responsible one, if the female regrets the drunken hookup. She has no moral culpability for her drunkenness, but he does. Plus, all the way through, from lower school, up through graduate school, more and more grading is done on group projects (where females excel), instead of individually (where males excel).

ON the flip side, raising males is even more critical than ever before, because if they aren't well raised, they are more likely to turn into lawless thugs, running in juvenile gangs, terrorizing their community. It typically takes a good father to prevent this. And, every woman who discredits boys or men, as this woman seems to be doing, just makes this that much harder.

bagoh20 said...

"Your 180 degree turn from calling him a criminal several months back for what the author complains about to telling her to just lighten up is incomprehensible. "

Even an intelligent person can succumb to hysteria, but as long as the skull is thin enough, reason will eventually permeate.

Bruce Hayden said...

The only conversation I remember having about JFK was when I asked my mom about the Vaughn Meader album "The First Family," which was in their record collection, because I didn't get the jokes.

Found it a couple years ago at my parents' house. It was pretty funny, but became much less so when JFK was assassinated. Playing it 50 years later, I could see why it was funny then, but it was one of those things that you had to have lived through, and cannot really explain to the younger generations. Unfortunately, we played it too many times back then to get much of anything out of it on eBay.

Gahrie said...

Your hysteria is not helping.

...and not unexpected.

Repeal the 19th....

and the 26th.

JML said...

Wesley: Jenny? Things got a little out of hand. It’s just this war and that lying son of a bitch Johnson and…I would never hurt you. You know that.

She will raise a Wesley...

Dude1394 said...

She is an idiot. That so many people feel the need to give a rats ass what she thinks is the sad, sad takeaway.

chickelit said...

She lives in San Francisco, right? If I were she, I would enroll the boy in Spanish language daycare, preferably one run by illegals in that sanctuary city. That way, as the boy become aware of his surroundings, he can learn to internalize the same visceral hatred that she feels. Sometimes, one mother's love is not enough. It takes a village.

walter said...

"there is plenty I can do to make sure he becomes a good man. And I'll start on January 21. I'll be nearly five months pregnant when I travel to Washington, D.C., to march with thousands of other women who want to show our new president that there will be consequences for bad behavior."

Will Femen be there?

ccscientist said...

One of the problems in fact in "Obama's America" is having a president who thinks winning the election means he gets to ram his policies down the throats of the 49% who didn't vote for him. What about considering all the people in the country when making policy and law? That was actually one of the good things about Bill Clinton--he did care about the whole country much of the time and did work with the Republicans on legislation. After 8 years of Harry Reid and ram ram ram down the throats, they seem so surprised that a new president doesn't seem to care much what they think.

Gospace said...

I sincerely doubt that President Trump will contribute to the English language nearly as many words as former President Clinton did.

"You'll have to wait a few minutes. I'm about to get a Lewinsky in here!"

Anyone in the audience not know what that means?

MAJMike said...

The presidencies of Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson turned me into the monster I am today.

MAJMike said...

If only Goldwater would've won in 1964.

Mary Beth said...

It must be difficult when you're pregnant and you know you're supposed to be thinking about the baby, but you really want everything to be all about you.

mockturtle said...

Sunsong, it's really hard to take your whimpering seriously. I can't help but think you are being comedic.

Meade said...

Rhythm and Balls said...
"Your 180 degree turn from calling him a criminal several months back for what the author complains about to telling her to just lighten up is incomprehensible."

Only because of poor reading comprehension on your part, Ritmo. She never called him a criminal. She said that the behavior Trump was describing on the Hollywood Access tape could be criminal assault. You really should try to read more carefully. Then things might not seem so incomprehensible to you.

walter said...

If she hustles, she can make it back home for http://femen.org/the-walk-for-life-on-january-23-in-san-francisco/

Meade said...

David said...
"Just do your best, Jo. That might involve not making your offspring part of your writing output."

Excellent advice.

Edmund said...

Does anyone besides those that the liberal pundits lead by the nose think that Trump's "grab" comment was literal and not metaphorical?

bagoh20 said...

Trump's comment about the susceptibility of pussy to the grabbing was a description of what's wrong with the way we raise girls as much as boys, unless you believe women should not choose how to use their own bodies.

traditionalguy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
traditionalguy said...

Once the kid hears from his own mother that she sees him as being cursed for being a white privileged, strong man, the real trouble will begin for Junior's self image. With a mother like that, you don't need enemies.

William said...

Trump is undoubtedly crass and loutish. Politics is a high testerone business, and it attracts a lot of crude louts. If I were counseling this poor woman in her moments of crisis, I would advise her to consider Trump the way she would such politicians as JFK, LBJ, and Clinton. If she can do this, she can perhaps be successful in not passing along her politicized bigotry to her son......Teddy Kennedy left a woman to drown. JFK committed a kind of Munchaussen rape. Anthony Weiner is some new kind of perv that doesn't even have a slang nickname. Dem politicians have long been on the cutting edge of sexual venality........ If she can only accept Trump's crudités with the same equanimity that she accepts those of her other heroes, her son will grow up to be a proper little man.

walter said...

One hopes they will alter their priorities/perspective a bit once the little feet hit the ground running. Right now they have the luxury of the abstract.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Big Mike said...
I agree with commenters who think that Piazza is not going to be a fit mother for a son."

I don't think she'd be a great mother for a daughter either, unless the daughter grew up to rebel against her mother's relentless politicizing and the imposition of dreary third wave feminism. I agree that young men have it harder these days, but the grim, humorless female SJWs don't seem to be having that much fun either.

Jon Ericson said...

@chickelit:
Extremely amusing.

Ken B said...

I like this post but there is a strong irony here. You put a lot of thought into this but her column is obviously just another excuse to pile on Trump.

damikesc said...

Do these same idiots ever worry about what they'd have told their sons about the President's husband should Hillary have won?

Boy you are really minimizing the impact of a President. It's sad to see you take that position. Trump will negatively impact millions - probably billions world-wide. And his chauvinism will hurt far too many boys and girls, as well as adults. To think that we don't affect each other is ridiculous, imo.

How extensive was Bill Clinton's negative impact?

Malesch Morocco said...

One of the best things you have written Althouse. Kudos

Lewis Wetzel said...

The answer: No one has a "boy" baby or has a "girl" baby. Instead they have a human whose sex is assigned arbitrarily at birth (in fact its humanity is also assigned at birth). Simply assign the child the gender of female. Problem solved! Or simply assign it the value of non-human and toss it in a trash can. Problem solved!
The great thing about the modern age is that it provides solutions to the problems it causes.

gadfly said...

I'll leave to the side how much we really know about Trump's sexual predation in comparison to Clinton's. Monica Lewinsky was young and an underling in the workplace Clinton ran, but she seems to have sought him out and fallen into enthusiastic love. Trump bragged about just starting kissing women who let you do it. Clinton exposed his erect penis and said "kiss it" to a woman, Paula Jones, who did not let him do that.

So we don't know much about Trumps accusers yet, and back in 1998 America knew little about the Clinton accusers. Marjorie Williams writes in Vanity Fair back then:

"Okay, class, let’s review: The man in question has been sued for sexual harassment over an episode that allegedly included dropping his trousers to waggle his erect penis at a woman who held a $6.35-an-hour clerical job in the state government over which he presided. Another woman has charged that when she asked him for a job he invited her into his private office, fondled her breasts, and placed her hand on his crotch. A third woman confided to friends that when she was a 21-year-old intern she began an affair with the man—much older, married, and the head of the organization whose lowliest employee she was. Actually, it was less an affair than a service contract, in which she allegedly dashed into his office, when summoned, to perform oral sex on him. After their liaison was revealed, he denied everything, leaving her to be portrayed as a tramp and a liar. Or, in his own words, 'that woman.'”

"Let us not even mention the former lover who was steered to a state job; or the law-enforcement officers who say the man used them to solicit sexual partners for him; or his routine use of staff members, lawyers, and private investigators to tar the reputation of any woman who tries to call him to account for his actions."

"Can you find the problems with his behavior? Take your time: these problems are apparently of an order so subtle as to escape the notice of many of the smartest women in America — the writers, lawyers, activists, officeholders, and academics who call themselves feminists."

Long story short: In 1998 the NOW Gang had no problem with Clinton and in 2016 the lapdog Trumpsters can't see or even inquire as to what has been going on with the women who cross paths with The Donald throughout his adult life. Paula Jones got nothing from Clinton, except enough money to cover her lawyer fees and he admitted nothing. Clinton lost his law license for lying to a judge - that's it!

Darrell said...

I just tell the kids that Democrats are a bunch of lying cocksuckers, so it's best not to pay attention to what they say.

Francisco D said...

I would be happy to comment, but my posts seem to be deleted for no apparent reason.

Caroline said...

The Althouse comment thread: it's my safe space,

Fabi said...

What happened to the plethora of women who before the election were accusing Trump of sexually harassing them? No longer useful, it would seem.

Sally327 said...

I think her son will have many difficult questions about Trump and I can see the struggle. How do you answer when he asks, Mommy why is that man on TV orange? And what is that thing on his head?

Trump is funny looking (and acting) in an entertaining sort of way. The kid is going to be so mesmerized by that. The mango tango crayon will be his favorite. Trump wins again!

damikesc said...

What happened to the plethora of women who before the election were accusing Trump of sexually harassing them? No longer useful, it would seem.

I noticed that as well. They seem WAY less upset now. Sort of like the women who accused Herman Cain of harassing them in 2012.

sean said...

Doesn't it seem like kind of a waste of intellectual firepower for a law professor to be responding to an article in Elle?

Amanda said...

I think electing Trump can be used a metaphor for the back country's values going backwards. I think Piazza was using the Trump election disaster in that vain so yes it concerns what kind of country her son will be growing up in.

The 70 year old man who bragged about sexually assaulting women is now even more powerful and has even more clout to defend himself against any new rape or assault allegations that come forward, Mind you, not theoretically bad behavior but stuff he admitted too doing in the past. Bragged about doing.


Electing Donald Trump when all this was in the wide open unlike Bill Clinton, sends men the message not to worry to much about the consequences of harassing, assaulting or raping women just make sure you have enough power and influence to get away with it.

Fernandinande said...

David said...
a Universal Life minister


Instant Ordination
Notable ULC Ministers
Conan O'Brien
Stephen Colbert
Benedict Cumberbatch
Dwayne Johnson
Richard Branson
Lady Gaga
Paul McCartney
Sir Ian McKellen

Fabi said...

I must have missed Trump bragging about sexually assaulting women. Anyone have a verbatim quote?

Jon Ericson said...

It's always nice to hear what the teens are saying.

Michael K said...

"I think electing Trump can be used a metaphor for the back country's values going backwards."

Does anyone else think it interesting that the left wing commenters seem to appear after sundown ?

Hmmmm.

n.n said...

Trump exposed a sexual revolution run amuck. A sin that cannot be tolerated nor forgiven. He has neither admitted nor has anyone established that he is more than a messenger. In fact, one after another allegation has been confronted and dismissed. The social complex has no idea how to domesticate a human being that responds, confronts, and defeats its complex of JournoLists, warriors, and lawyers.

Jon Ericson said...

Actually, we had one all day. Jew-hater.
Hmmm.
What time was it in Mecca?

walter said...

Michael K said...Does anyone else think it interesting that the left wing commenters seem to appear after sundown ?
--
You seem strangely fascinated by that.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Having determined Bush killed American comedy, and hence a lot more repercussion-wise, I have found respect, semblance-wise.

The Larry Sanders Show was almost all straight prog, but oh so ever funny.

Nevermore will their likes again find satisfaction in less-than-lofty-lovely goals of decency redemption.

Gk1 said...

I think Reggie Dunlop from "Slapshot" has summed up the women who wrote that piece:

Reggie Dunlop: You know, your son looks like a fag to me.
Anita McCambridge: I beg your pardon?
Reggie Dunlop: You better get re-married again, or he's gonna have someone's cock in his mouth before you can say Jack Robinson.
Anita McCambridge: How dare you! How dare you!

Jon Ericson said...

Although I really enjoy the input of Althouse's commenters,
I also share the good doctor's curiosity about the
waxing and waning, the timing, the coordination of
the lamebrains that clot things up at times.

Joe said...

If she lives in San Francisco, explaining the gay pride parade seems a far bigger challenge.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I bought the eggs at Wal Mart.

Didn't think too much of it.

I do remember I compared prices and put back the two dozen pack.

I opted for more, much more.

For not much more money honey.

Then....

(this is climax fyi)

I watched "Deadliest Catch"* and sonofabitch they showed the Sea Brook messing with the Hillstrands and OH FUCK EGGS GALORE ALL AROUND!

*Phil Harris would never have watched anything when he was my age unless he planned on doing it. American. And my free thirty day subscription is ending soon, sad but notly.

tcrosse said...

Imagine trying to raise a son in Hillary Clinton's America. It's a thought too hideous to contemplate.

Jon Ericson said...

Speaking of clotting things up...

walter said...

Maybe the timing seems more odd to the retired.

Jon Ericson said...

Naw, just hip to you youngsters.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

"The 70 year old man who bragged about sexually assaulting women"

Amanda, produce the quote where he bragged about actually doing that. I haven't seen it. I saw a vulgar boast about how he could "grab pussy", and the women wouldn't mind because he was a celeb. Crass, but I'm sure Mick Jagger would agree. However, only in the overheated imaginations of ditzy libs is that actual sexual assault.

Here I was, talking about dreary, dull third wave feminists and along comes Amanda to prove my point!

Henry said...

'What’s 'great' about this column is that it combines so many awful blue columnist trends..."

"... the overuse of black lace, the 'I just survived an attack' aesthetic, and of course, the proliferation of Barbie Crotch. It’s a trifecta of ugly and no one in 2016 managed to top it, as far as we’re concerned. Congrats, girl."

Hardly had to edit that one.

Jon Ericson said...

Plus also,
“I am not young enough to know everything.”
― Oscar Wilde

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Teddy Kennedy not only grabbed pussy, he made waitress sandwiches with his buddy Chris Dodd, the waitress being the filling.

But hell, Amanda doesn't mind that. It's OK for male pols to be pigs if they vote the way Amanda likes.

Why Trump won, reason #291: because everyone can see the stinking hypocrisy of liberals, except for liberals.

Henry said...

We're pretty anti-Trump in my household, despite my lack of interest in being outraged. My 9-year-old boy has no problem with being anti-Trump. It's very easy to nurture a healthy disrespect for authority in a 9-year-old boy.

It's definitely harder to do that in a one-year-old boy. One-year-olds have different priorities. Maslow could explain.

Jon Ericson said...

On the other hand,
“The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom.”
― H.L. Mencken
So, there you have it.

Amanda said...

If anyone wants to know I am 26 and a second wave feminist thank you very much.

Jon Ericson said...

Whatever that means.

Jon Ericson said...

I'm sure Lazlo could explain...

Guildofcannonballs said...

Not bulls as Rage would have it, but poodles on parade as Dennis Miller might have said were he a low IQ junkie.

This is the funny in the Coen's music in Burn After Reading*.

Guildofcannonballs said...

*knowledge sans wisdom.

Guildofcannonballs said...

As Lazlo, I can explain that fuck Laslo stealing my fucking thunder, you betcha bitch.

Ain't nobody Lazlo but me, and Joe Kennedy, see.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Laslo knew were to go FROM THERE!

But we ain't there now yo.

YO

Guildofcannonballs said...

You white fucks stealing my white "h's" now?

That it, you take this poor dudenesque pride and walk the fuck out?

Fair enough: I walked out first.

!

Jon Ericson said...

Oh my my my
I'm feeling high
My moneys gone
I'm all alone
to much oooh
The world is turnin'
Oh what a day
What a day what a day

Peace and blessings manifest with every lesson learn,
If your knowledge were your wealth then it would be well earned

If we were made in his image then call us by our names
Most intellects do not believe in god but the fear is just the same

Oh on and on and on and on (my cypher keeps moving like a rollin stone)
Whew on and on and on and on (all night till the break of dawn)
I go on and on and on and on (my cypher keeps moving like a rollin stone)
Ohh on and on and on and on (godamnit imma sing my song)

I was born under water with 3 dollars and 6 dimes
Yeah you might laugh 'cause you did not do your math

Like 1.. 2..3.
Damn, yall feel that? Oh...
1.. 2..3.
The world keeps turning
Oh what a day what a day what a day

The man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all
Does it seem colder in your summer time and hotter in your fall

If we were made in his image then call us by our names
Most intellects do not believe in god but the fear is just the same

Oh on and on and on and on (my cypher keeps moving like a rollin stone)
Whew on and on and on and on (all night till the break of dawn)
I go on and on and on and on (my cypher keeps moving like a rollin stone)
Ohh on and on and on and on (mad props to the guy ja bone)

I am feeling kinda hungry 'cause my high is coming down
Don't feed me yours 'cause your food does not endure
I think i need a cup of tea, the world keeps burnin'
Oh what a day, what a day what a day

Your rushin into destruction 'cause you don't have nothin' left
The mothership can't save you so your ass is gonna' get left
If we were made in his image then call us by our names
Most intellects do not believe in god but the fear is just the same

Oh on and on and on and on (my cypher keeps moving like a rollin stone)
On and on and on and on (u cant fuk with me so jus leave me alone)
Ooh ooh wee on and on and on and on (my cypher keeps moving like a rollin stone)
On and on and on and on (.. and on n on)

ERYKAH BADU wrote that.

IT'S CALLED "ON AND ON".

Dig it?

Guildofcannonballs said...

HBO ought hire writers like me, and my puny little sidekick Las(z)lo, in order to not fall into Buckley-level influence alone.

Right but not as important, or right, than decades after your death they will lament.

ThenZ guy apt.

How can anyone make NR or NRO anything but shit?

Z.

Guildofcannonballs said...

Look, Gus Russo already told you.

Guildofcannonballs said...

https://mobile.twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/814561725366366213


You look and you think, think then look.

Derp derp I told a funny so treason is cool derp derp.

(Fact is it is.)

Teddy made ??? And then now.

Lion indeed.

Guildofcannonballs said...

What they call internalize Jon, you ought decipher as turd proclivities unworthy you.

So smart, yet every digit the dummy. And still unprofound.

Given circumstance most would be found to be profound, that lack exubes.

Guildofcannonballs said...

I honestly do not know if I intended exudes or exubes.

Just tink 'bout dat.

Jus ti buh 't.

Jon Ericson said...

We be woke.

Etienne said...

Before I was thrown out of the article by web technology, I noted that the author never mentioned a husband.

It sound like she got knocked-up, and is continuing life as an unwed mother.

I wonder if any of that may be more important to a boy then who the president is?

Gahrie said...

It sound like she got knocked-up, and is continuing life as an unwed mother.

No..she has a man..he's just a pajama boy,,,,,,

gadfly said...

@damikesc said...
What happened to the plethora of women who before the election were accusing Trump of sexually harassing them? No longer useful, it would seem.

I noticed that as well. They seem WAY less upset now. Sort of like the women who accused Herman Cain of harassing them in 2012.

Trump 's parading of the Clinton gals before the camera to do yet another job on Bill was pathetic at best and now those has-beens have seen their last dance. Trump control over TV newsrooms ended the look into the claims of the political class against him, much as Dem control shut down the bad-mouthing of Billy-boy.

As for Herman Cain, he refused to fight the battle publically with Ginger White, so he walked. I really think that saving his marriage to wife Gloria was the reason he wouldn't push the consensual relationship deal with Ginger. But back in 2011, conservatives would not stand for another sex scandal - how the world has changed!

Jon Ericson said...

Testify gadfly!

Anonymous said...

Piazza is not ready to raise a kid. In all my life I have never looked to the POTUS in order to model my behavior. People who do that seem unprepared for life themselves.

Howard said...

Boys have a strong drive to be boys by creating things like weapons, cars, trucks, tanks. On our walk today, we say a 2-yo boy finger-painting with the dried dirt that had caked on the sidewalk following the last rain. His mother tried to reason with him to stop, but he ignored her and kept on going. We always had pajama-boys, they just stayed in the closet. You can't control testosterone.

I hope and pray Pizza's boy drives her nuts.

Jon Ericson said...

I hope and pray Pizza's boy drives her nuts.
And if I were Groucho Marx, I'd have a snappy rejoinder!

Lewis Wetzel said...

From Saki's "The Toys of peace" (1919):
Peeping in through the doorway Harvey observed that the municipal dustbin had been pierced with holes to accommodate the muzzles of imaginary cannon, and now represented the principal fortified position in Manchester; John Stuart Mill had been dipped in red ink, and apparently stood for Marshal Saxe.

"Louis orders his troops to surround the Young Women's Christian Association and seize the lot of them. 'Once back at the Louvre and the girls are mine,' he exclaims. We must use Mrs. Hemans again for one of the girls; she says 'Never,' and stabs Marshal Saxe to the heart."

"He bleeds dreadfully," exclaimed Bertie, splashing red ink liberally over the facade of the Association building.

"The soldiers rush in and avenge his death with the utmost savagery. A hundred girls are killed" -- here Bertie emptied the remainder of the red ink over the devoted building --"and the surviving five hundred are dragged off to the French ships. 'I have lost a Marshal,' says Louis, 'but I do not go back empty-handed.'"

http://www.eastoftheweb.com/short-stories/UBooks/ToysPeac.shtml

Qwinn said...

California just legalized child prostitution (yes, really). But Trump is the biggest problem facing her children. Right.

autothreads said...

, she seemed to think she knew what she would do — teach the girl to work "harder and smarter and better than the men around her"

You mean women don't have to work harder and smarter and better than the women they work with? Far from the notion of women singing Kumbaya, my female friends have told me and what women tell pollsters is that women don't make the best co-workers and they're far from the best bosses.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Thank you, Althouse. That was fantastic.

And thank you, Lewis Wetzel, for proper use of "sex" and "gender."

RMc said...

"I'm Terrified of Raising a Boy in Trump's America"

Actually, she's terrified of not having enough material for her latest column in whatever fem mag will print it. (Mortgages don't pay themselves, folks.)

David Begley said...

Great post by Althouse.

Hope Piazza reads it.

whitney said...

Hear, hear!

MayBee said...

Karol Markowicz had a great column in the NY Post, in which she pointed out that liberals don't have to live in a world where their every entertainment is infected with political screeds against them.

http://nypost.com/2016/12/26/the-entertainment-elites-inaugural-boycott-will-backfire-again/

Is there anyone reading Elle for parenting tips? I hope not. Or to find out how to raise boys better? Again, I hope not.
Is it a great place to get political insight? Well, that's not what it exists for. Why does Elle assume people who are interested in clothes and makeup want to read this kind of hysteria?

MayBee said...

ps. Would she really want to raise a girl? Her chances of getting raped in college are 1 in 4! That seems more terrifying.

MayBee said...

Amanda--
unlike Bill Clinton

It's been in the wide open about Bill Clinton for years, and the Democrats still adore him. Still wanted to put him back in the White House. Wanted to elect the woman who remains married to him. Listen with rapture to him at the conventions. Send millions of dollars his way for his foundation.

If you aren't afraid of Bill Clinton, you aren't afraid of Trump. Stop posturing, Democrats.

mikee said...

"Enough of that comparison." Sorry, not quite enough. He raped Juanita Broderick. Rape-rape, to be clear. RAPED HER.

One can ignore as political hypocrisy the bloviations about Trump of anyone who does not condemn the Clintons for their sexual predations. Or, for that matter, the Kennedy family in whole.

mockturtle said...

Yes, MayBee, it is all posturing on the Left and explains how 'feminists' can embrace both Islam and Hollywood but abhor Christianity.

Anonymous said...

Feminist bigot, meet thy spawn. We need to identify these arguments from the (party of) stupid bullies (I do not know what party they are of, could be any of those with a leftist orientation who think they are better than us to the point they want to constrain or freedom of action and ownership of self, including ownership of anyone we are responsible for until they fend for themselves). To force those they identify as their intellectual and moral inferiors to become the perfect communist human if only they would toe their line, flagellate themselves bloody. How many more are you willing to kill for these slaveholder’s beliefs. Those arguments that are at odds with their own belief that nature is not to be trifled with (yes, I’m talking about you, you worshipers of dirt), and the nature given instinct that we strive to control but sometimes escapes all sexes, that we've established institutions for the weak to appeal for relief. No appeal no relief, unless and until it can be shown that appeal was denied. In this case there are no end of examples of in the way of nature where the strong dominate the weak (the female picking the most handsome mate vice flipping a coin, if only to procreate and extend their own family line over others. Such is nature, worship it. Or control it. Don't attempt to control your offspring who observe it and question it. Mother did dad ever grab you by the privates, your hair, or smack his lips? How did you feel about it? When did he get out of jail? Or his jaw or his own crotch heal. Or you didn't? Mom, I'm your daughter and I find the thought of it kind of exciting. As I do walking around Rodin's home. Grow up mom, didn't your mother teach you about the facts of life?

Meade said...

Francisco D said...
"I would be happy to comment, but my posts seem to be deleted for no apparent reason.
12/29/16, 9:35 PM "

Are you sure? If you can tell me the specific post from which your comments seem to be deleted, I'll look into it. Also, anyone is always free to email me with questions about comment moderation. Thanks.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Amanda said...Electing Donald Trump when all this was in the wide open unlike Bill Clinton, sends men the message not to worry to much about the consequences of harassing, assaulting or raping women just make sure you have enough power and influence to get away with it.

Wow, is that the excuse, now? "With Bill Clinton it wasn't wide open." What a thin reed! Sure, he's credibly accused of rape and multiple sexual assaults...but it wasn't "wide open."
Quick question - why was it not "wide open," again? Oh, 'cause he had a friendly Media that refused to open things up, right right. But that's ok, see, since it wasn't wide open.

What message was putting Clinton in office, twice, with pretty full throated (pardon the pun) support from you nice 2nd wave feminists supposed to send, Amanda? I mean, if electing Trump sends the message that a man can get away with bad acts if he's rich enough, did electing Clinton send the message that a man can get away with bad acts if he's well-liked enough by the Left? And somehow you want us to feel like Trump's election signasl a a decline in values?? Your allies on the Left have endlessly mocked "values" my entire adult life! Sorry, but you don't get to pretend like it means something to you now.

You were all fine with a rapist and sexual assaulter when he was your guy. People complained that supporting such an immoral person (and defending him in the ways his wife and allies did) was bad for the nation--your feminist and Leftists friends made fun of that idea and won the fight (Clinton was elected again and remains a very popular person). Now you want to say "oh, values DO matter, pretend we never made sure they wouldn't!?" That doesn't work.

A nation that actually put more value on social probity/personal morality than political effectiveness would have rejected Trump, sure. But you and your allies have done everything you can do (through the Media, pop culture, the academy, etc) to make sure we're not such a nation. It's ridiculous to hear you complain about that fact now.

sparrow said...

"How about not putting on the television and not talking about politics and sex in front of young children? Give them a real, comprehensible, simple, gentle environment that is on their level."

This is excellent advice Ann.

Politics is far too important in this future mothers mind if she worries about Trump.

Anonymous said...

I think your post nailed it. Let's put this to bed.

Phil 314 said...

"Well, in this case, I'm a mother of sons, and I raised them when the President of the United States was an admitted sexual predator — in the '90s"

OUCH!

Dr. Taco said...

"I haven't read Piazza's article yet, only the title"

What in the hell kind of article can you write about this then?

Ann Althouse said...

""I haven't read Piazza's article yet, only the title" What in the hell kind of article can you write about this then?"

I'm surprised to see that it was at all unclear where I began reading the article, but I put in an insertion so that your misreading would be impossible.

I'm not sure you were sincerely confused. Maybe you're just trying to be funny/annoying.

Meade said...

I've read the entire Piazza article and found this to be particularly interesting:

"We need to raise a little boy who knows he can talk to us about those things, who wants to ask questions about the things that confuse him. We can read our son Judy Blume, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, and all the Nancy Drew mysteries. We can talk to him about the man who was in office when he was conceived, a self-declared feminist who made the world a better place for men and women of all colors and stripes. The burden of raising a good man in the age of Trump is a burden, but it's on my husband and me to make sure that we do this right."

But Jo Piazza was born in 1980. Maybe someone needs to talk to her "about the man who was in office when [s]he was conceived" — the disastrous Jimmy Carter, who, in 1976, had admitted in an unsolicited comment to two Playboy freelance writers that he had "looked on a lot of women with lust" and had "committed adultery in my heart many times," strange revelations all the more damaging because they appeared in a soft-porn magazine.

Ann Althouse said...

"... made the world a better place for men and women of all colors and stripes."

Good new for skunks.

walter said...

That one took me aback as well Meade (the bold portion). But it was such fawning, over the top drivel that it was hard comment on it. I just drifted towards what kind of soundtrack should go with that...and who should read the voice-over.

john burger said...

Good morning, Professor. I copied and pasted your comments on the Piazza article to my Facebook page. I thought your analysis was brilliant.

Thanks.

jvb

walter said...

When you were young and your heart was an open book
You used to say live and let live
(you know you did, you know you did you know you did)
But if this ever changing world in which we're living
Makes you give in and cry

Say live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die
Live and let die

What does it matter to ya
When you got a job to do
You gotta do it well
You gotta give the other fellow hell

Meade said...

And maybe someone needs to talk to Piazza about the man who was in office the year Piazza reached the legal age of consent.

Perhaps Piazza should ask me what it was like being a father in 1998, trying to raise an 11 year-old daughter to become a good woman, in a year that the POTUS admitted to lying about a "wrong" and "inappropriate" sexual relationship with his subordinate intern.

JAORE said...

"Whatever peace or conflict and contention she has in hear heart, she will impart to her child. That is what will dominate that child's insides, not some distant external factor.

That she doesn't already know this speaks volumes."

Wise words, Quayle. And it applies to so many issues.

Vader said...

The only way a child under the age of eight will know that the President is a sexual predator, or have any idea what that actually means, is if the adults around him insist on constantly telling him.

Which is not the right way to raise a boy.

I'm deeply opposed to abortion, but I'm all for birth control ... for the right people.

Vader said...

The only way a child under the age of eight will know that the President is a sexual predator, or have any idea what that actually means, is if the adults around him insist on constantly telling him.

Which is not the right way to raise a boy.

I'm deeply opposed to abortion, but I'm all for birth control ... for the right people.

A to the C said...

Late to the party here, but that really was great, Professor. I saw the Piazza article a day or two ago. Tried to read the entire piece, but had to stop because of repeated ivoluntary eye rolls of great force.
The article made me think of a bit Louis CK did a few years back, answering critics of gay marriage who asked how they would explain to their befuddled children the sight of two men in wedded bliss (paraphrasing): "I don't know, they're your fucking kids! You explain it to them -- don't make the rest of us do it!"
Also, I'm thinking it may be more difficult to explain all the homeless people shitting in the streets the little man will see growing up in Frisco, than the fact of a president Mommy & Daddy don't care for.
Also -- "Was there a little penis inside of me?" I'm no doctor, but I can definitively say there was, at least one time, a little penis inside the author.

Seeing Red said...

Mommy, what's oral sex?

walter said...

A to the C,
Sensitive types may employ the turkey baster method.

soleproprietorPatriot said...

If you are so marinated in politics that you worry about 'what to tell your son' about a president don't like....dude. Read a book.

docweasel said...

After having a boy, we had a daughter (and then another daughter 2 years later) and it was daunting to me; I felt like boys could take care of themselves better and I had fun playing and joking with my son but felt a deep responsibility when I first found out we were having a girl. It actually made me want to be a better person for her (I know, I should have felt this way about my son but it just seemed more natural with him). However, I never fretted we had a race-baiting anti-American in the White House and how that would effect my relationship with a baby.

I also don't burden my 4 and 2 year olds with gay marriage debates, tranny bathroom rights or any other sexual deviancy that poses as a political movement.

Really, this reminds me of LGBTQWERTY people: they seem to wear their sexuality on their sleeve and it identifies everything about them and informs all their relationships and dealings at work, home and play. Leftists as well. They are all fretting how President Trump will effect their kids.

Well kids hardly realize who's president at all, let alone their specific policy proposals or personal foibles. I remember scoffing at the episode of the Wonder Years where a bunch of 3rd graders walk out of school to protest the Vietnam War. That's hogwash. I was in school during the war and basically kids think "well, they are the government, they must know what they are doing" unless some malevolent adult indoctrinates them.

Knowing I was too young to understand the intricacies of international geo-politics my parents wisely refrained from filling my head with leftist talking points.

If the parents weren't such psychotic, neurotic balls of leftist SJW idiots steeped in the fever swamps of the Washington Post and CBS this wouldn't even be a problem. The only thing I worry about imparting to my kids is religion, morals and responsibility from a young age. Politics can wait. Half that crap about President Trump is BS anyway, and indoctrinating your kid on MSNBC half-truths is probably a good way to make sure they grow up Goldwater Republicans in the long run when they rebel against your hippy-dippy socialist worldview.

I predict the next generation is going to rebel in a big way against the entire SJW edifice and come out swinging against multi-culti and taboo words and groupthink.

Get a grip lady. It's a baby and then a toddler. Wait at least until it's a teenager before you start having political arguments with it.

Anonymous said...

My kids were "Clinton babies" as well, glad they did not watch the news. I grew up in a time of race riots and assassinations. My parents gave me a home of love and safety. I suspect Syrian parents are trying their best to do the same.
Trump? He's a character, rude, but no rape allegations.
Protect your babes from the world for a while, then understand they are not "yours", they are their own selves. It's hard, you get some panic disorder at times worrying about them, but there's life and the world and we are not in control.
And just think it Hillary had won, girls would think they must attach to an Alpha male and boys would think they could do anything as long as they won, and the wife would keep her mouth shut because it was in her best interest.

Danno said...

I think she should have an abortion. Idiots like this shouldn't procreate.

Anonymous said...

She should have his balls removed before he
Becomes emotionall attached to them.