A postdoc by day and a scientific activist by night, Nick Anthis isn't letting his research in protein structure and function get in the way of defending scientific and social progress.
On Friday, Randall Tobias--the Bush Administration's chief promoter of foreign abstinence-only sex education programs--resigned from his position as Deputy Secretary of State after getting busted for frequenting DC prostitutes. If your head hasn't already exploded, check out Timothy Noah's humorous but detailed commentary at Slate.
Tobias advocated an ABC program (Abstinence; Be faithful; a brief, skeptical, and largely inaccurate mention of Condoms). Clearly the A and the B didn't really pan out here (which isn't surprising, since these programs don't actually affect participants' sexual patterns).
But, as others have already noted, here's the real question: what about the C?
Based on the absurdly inaccurate information that abstinence-only programs get away with publishing about condoms, I'd be surprised if anyone coming out of one of those programs ever used one. (This is a joke, kids. Be safe.) On the other hand, maybe Tobias' disdain for the first two tenents of his program extended to the third. Hopefully.
Hat tip to Beth Pearson
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Comments
Oh man, is anyone else looking forward to this?
ABC has used the information to prepare a story to be broadcast this Friday on its show "20/20." In a promotion for the segment, ABC said on its Web site Monday that the list includes "a Bush administration economist, the head of a conservative think tank, a prominent C.E.O., several lobbyists and a handful of military officials" in addition to Mr. Tobias and Mr. Ullman. The network did not identify the customers by name and a spokesman declined to say whether it would do so Friday.
Yes, this will be freakin' awesome.
Posted by: Nick Anthis | May 1, 2007 7:37 PM
Love this bit from the Washington Post story:
Tobias resigned after ABC News contacted him with questions about the escort service, the sources said. ABC News released a statement last night saying Tobias acknowledged Thursday that he had used the service to provide massages, not sex.
I strongly suspect "massages" in this context is a more genteel way of saying "hand jobs".
Posted by: "Fair and Balanced" Dave | May 2, 2007 1:25 PM
What's even better his his direct quote:
According to ABC News, Tobias said he contacted the escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage" and that there had been "no sex" involved.
Posted by: Nick Anthis | May 2, 2007 2:09 PM
> I strongly suspect "massages" in this context is a more genteel way of saying "hand jobs".
Perhaps he's simply doing on-the-ground research for a proposed extension to the "ABC" program: if all else fails, try Digital sex and Diddling.
Posted by: Dan | May 2, 2007 4:10 PM
Didn't Ted Haggard just get a massage too?
Posted by: Brett | May 8, 2007 5:08 PM