Ross makes two comment-worthy posts today.
First, he proposes a truce in the culture wars vis-a-vis sex ed, since the evidence seems to indicate that neither abstinence-only or 'comprehensive' sex ed classes actually improve teen sex outcomes. Now, as a former teenager myself, I'm all for teens having sex, but I think we can all agree that teen pregnancies and STD's are, umm, bad.
I'd be very curious to see what form Ross's proposed truce takes. I think it's ridiculous not to tell kids about condoms and teach them safe behavior. The fact is, even if we can postpone sexual experiences, they are going to happen eventually for most of us, and better to know the basic ins and outs (pun not intended) of the major options, and have them readily available. However, it's also important to say that abstinence is the only 100% effective method, and that sex is a behavior that has some fairly serious potential consequences, hence should be entered into with as much forethought as the primitive teenage brain can muster.
Ross's second post is about the cancellation of Lost, and the fact that he believes the fact that a deadline has been set (3 more episodes this year, then 3 more seasons of 16 episodes, each season to be shown without reruns) is good for the artistic outcome of the show. I agree, but, wouldn't it be insane for a station to cancel its best shows too early, commercially speaking?
Now, a more consistent liberal than me would say that this sort of interest in the value of non-commercial art is the reason that we need government subsidies for the classical arts. Oh, wait, I just said that. It's a bit of a stretch to go from government funding for Piss Christ to government funding so that Lost can end after an appropriate run, but hey, it's the blogosphere!
Not-so-incidentally, this is not entirely unrelated to my opinions about the health care system in America. ABC's goal is to make money. To that end, they make interesting shows that I will watch. But I don't care about them making money, I want good shows that I want to watch, and want them to be put on in such a way as to maximize my enjoyment of them, whereas ABC wants to put them on in such a way as to maximize their profits. Producer and consumer have different goals for the same system.
This is okay when we are talking about the last 3 seasons of X-Files sucking; it's just TV. Not so much when little Bobby has juvenile diabetes, and Dad's employer just signed up for a high-deductible insurance plan, which doesn't cover chronic conditions. The solution, in both cases, is for someone who doesn't have a direct profit interest to be involved. Until CEO's start sprouting wings and harps, that's going to be the government.
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As far as Lost goes, I thought the decision to end the show was brought about by the show not the network. They were talking about it a few months back, saying they wanted to end it on their terms and not let the show run until nobody cared any more. (*cough* seinfeld, x-files, etc)
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