Sex is good because God created it to be so. Anyone who has ever wondered about the reasoning behind Catholic sexual doctrine (including Catholics!) should read this excellent book.
Good News About Sex and Marriage: Answers to Your Honest Questions About Catholic Teaching
by Christopher West
Here’s an interesting sequence of articles and letters regarding Pittsburgh’s hopes for attracting young people. I like Pittsburgh and I think I’d like to raise a family here. I think I’m a rarity, though. I came to Da Burgh in ’95 to go to Pitt. I’ve been here ever since. Most students, it seems, fly like bats out of hell after graduation day. I think Pittsburgh’s a nice town and instead of cursing the darkness, I’m going to light a candle.
Pittsburgh Is A Pit For Singles
By Davide Dukcevich
“Pittsburgh may be the best place in the world to watch a football game, but it’s the worst place in America to be stuck with a lonely heart.”
Forbes magazine, you’re nuts: I’m 21 and I love Pittsburgh
By Megan Branning
“I would like to respond to the Forbes magazine ranking of Pittsburgh as the worst city for young singles (“No Place to Be Single,” June 8 Business). I think Forbes is way off on this.”
The Post-Gazette’s perky pen pal
By Dave Copeland
Megan Branning, I’m glad you love it here, but I still think you’re going overboard when you call Forbes magazine “nuts” for ranking Pittsburgh the worst of 40 cities for singles. Needless to say, your letter was emailed among the boosters today as if to say “Look! A real live young person likes us!” Unfortunately, Megan is only one of a dwindling many.
A case for Pittsburgh
By Dave Copeland
Way back at the start of the summer (when, having reviewed the archive, I seemed to be much more bitter) I bashed Megan Branning and her letter to the Post Gazette. Megan finally found my little rant, took the high road and sent me this email last night:
I just read your entry regarding my letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Forbe’s magazine’s ranking of Pittsburgh. After reading what you said, I want to clarify some things.
Following up on the previous story…
What Our Kids Know About Sex: All Mechanics, No Meaning
Recently I found myself in a classroom conversation with a group of 15- and 16-year-old girls about sex and relationships. Bogged down at one point over the question of sexual values, I said, “How about if we shift gears? Let’s talk about the meaning that sex is supposed to have in people’s lives. Maybe that will help us think more clearly.” “Meaning?” the girl next to me said, looking totally nonplussed. “Sex is supposed to have meaning? What do you mean by that?” My heart sank.I knew that popular culture had undermined fundamental values, but until that moment I hadn’t realized, or accepted, quite how profoundly. The sexual revolution really is over, I thought, and sex has finally lost.
With crap like this, it’s no wonder why so many kids treat sex like it’s a game.
Online Safe Sex Game Attracts 125,000
"In www.SuperShagLand.com, a parody of Nintendo’s hit Super Mario Brothers, an intrepid man or woman chases the boy or girl of their dreams, gaining points for each condom they gather and losing points for drinking alcohol or bumping into monks, nuns or dogs."
This article doesn't say anything revolutionary, but it does confirm some intuitions about how men and women differ emotionally.
Men: Breaking Up Is Bad Only if Women Do It First
By Alison McCook
"When rating previous breakups, women view the process of ending of the relationship no differently if they are the dumper or the dumpee–but the same is not true with men, new research shows."
"According to researchers at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, men believe there was much more scheming on the part of their partners, less finality in the relationship and less working together during the breakup if they were dumped than if they ended the relationship themselves."