My blogfest’s back and you’re gonna be sorry–

Hey la, hey la, my blogfest’s back!

(I will never again be able to hear that song without thinking of the “Sesame Street” parody with the Squirelles singing about the boyfriend’s back–and his front.)

Boy were there a lot of people at the blogfest. I didn’t even meet half the people there. It was great to see folks from the first DC fest–Dave Tepper, Unqualified Offerings and Mrs. Offering, and Will Wilkinson (even though I didn’t get a chance to say hi to Will). Also had much fun talking with Eugene Volokh, Jon Adler, Radley Balko, Brink Lindsey, Julian Sanchez (OK OK, you’re not an anarchist!), arrrggghhh–there’s no way I’m going to be able to get everyone’s name in. Why don’t we just call everyone “Kevin“? (You won’t regret clicking that link, by the way.) Apparently there was a sign-up sheet where people wrote their names and URLs, though I missed it. Shamed and Russo were there, arguing that we should attack Iraq (Russo) and that there’s nothing sketchy about chicks in halter tops dancing on a bar and squirting vodka down men’s throats (Shamed of course). Here are many photos. I’m in one of them, but as usual I look like an idiot, so I won’t tell you which one. But here’s a hint: One of the people in this photo is Russo, who isn’t looking like a dork. (My lesson: Look at the camera, you freak!) I do vote that next time we pick a QUIETER and larger place–Rendezvous was very good-looking, but way too loud and crowded. It was difficult to have a good conversation. Nonetheless, Eugene Volokh gave me some very good, sharp (=helpful, acute; not “sharp” as in “ouch, that stings!”) criticism of the points I made in a judicial-philosophy post that has disappeared (uh, where are my early archives? Oh well…); I’ll be mulling that over and getting back to you people on it.

Balko and I went back and forth a bit on “abstinence-only education.” I made my usual point that trying to corral teens within rules and regulations, and emphasizing the riskiness of sex (whether contracepted or not), is never going to work. I suspect many abstinence-only programs fail because they’re about what you shouldn’t do, not what you should do; they’re about abstinence and not marriage. Teens think they’re invulnerable, and they like the risk inherent in sex because a) risk is sexy, c’mon, and b) taking risks “proves” one’s invincibility. So if you focus solely on a “don’t take risks!” approach you’ll never change teens’ behavior. I do think, though, that educating teens about what marriage is, why physical fidelity matters, the emotional turmoil caused by premarital sex, the difficulties it causes for marriage–in short, showing teens an achievable ideal and then pointing out that premarital sex undermines their ability to achieve that ideal–can work. It can only work if you have a believable teacher. I know a woman who does abstinence-until-marriage education, and she talked very frankly about the difficulties of convincing teens she wasn’t scamming them or being a hypocrite. Once she did convince them, however, she said they were in general very enthusiastic, somewhat tripped out (nobody had ever talked to them, in a straight-up, no-bull manner, about marriage), and intrigued. (Obviously this is just going on her word; I hope to take a day off from work sometime soon so I can observe some of her classes.) My only point here is that if you do it wrong, “abstinence only” education can have many of the same flaws as “‘safe’ sex” education (which also emphasizes regulations and risk-avoidance, rather than ideals and goals). But the fact that some people do dumb abstinence-only ed doesn’t mean that all abstinence education is dumb. Here’s a big long review of marriage-ed programs: the good, the bad, and the silly.

Oh, and two people asked me if I was related to my father. I told them that if you ever meet a Tushnet, in any walk of life whatsoever, I’m very closely related to that person. I think the number of Tushnets in the world, total, is in the high teens or so.

Blogadder has some good thoughts, or beginnings of thoughts, about the whole Roman-vs.-Anglo law dispute that’s been rockin’ the Catholic blogosphere.

Social Theorist Trading Cards! (link sent by The Rat, who is blogging like a rat in a coffee can today.)

And you need to read this. Update on Radley Balko’s excellent “Straight” story exposing an abusive “drug rehab” center.