Capitol Ideas/Festive Foolery

...If the disease's spread is indeed so alarming, why doesn't someone in the mainstream media urge that we practice sexual abstinence before marriage, and monogamy within it...

...All of this would seem to raise questions about the responsibility, indeed the sanity, of the current Stanford University administration...

...Building on success—eight years as governor, six years as President—the President evidently had confidence not only *in what he was doing but in the advisory system that was helping him do it...

...Note the plural.] The Great Condom Rating Contest is brought to you by the Condom Promotion Campaign of the Stanford AIDS Education Project—P.O...

...They certainly won't if society no longer has the courage to give it...

...Notice, incidentally, that in the case of drug addiction the Media Message, formerly "controlled use," has been toughened up: "Say no...

...Ruebush said he had been accused of giving the equivalent of sterile needles to addicts...

...Better to preserve the sexual revolution and reduce its risks with condoms than to run the even greater risk of subordinating it to Christian practice...

...For all I know it does...

...Only a couple of days earlier I had read in the New York Times ("Facts, Theories and Myths on the Spread of AIDS") that "condoms are not foolproof...

...Each packet contains eight brands of condoms, among them "exotic pink and black condoms from Japan, smooth and ribbed condoms, and a condom with Tahiti colors," according to senior Meg Richman...

...those who ridiculed it (and Ronald Reagan, who gave it life) have had to recognize it has had far greater value than they, in their sense of superiority, ever imagined...

...Just imagine if anything comparable could be imputed to Hoover Institution Director W. Glenn Campbell, whose every statement is subjected to obsessive scrutiny for signs of conservatism...

...That's mouth-taste, not good/bad taste...

...But it was utterly false...

...Is there, then, more than one Reagan...

...How often have students of policy observed that the long-run and general (Iran after Khomeini) often give way to the short-run and specific (the hostages...

...Which of us has not discovered himself swearing he would put only so much effort or money or trust into a venture only to go further and further on the grounds, sometimes valid, usually not, that doing a bit more would bring home the grand prize...

...Physicians, heal thyselves...

...Easy...

...So do addicted cigarette smokers who try to quit...

...Box 8265, Stanford, CA 94305...

...So what went wrong...

...Giving out condoms promotes sex is like saying giving out shoes promotes walking...

...4 / APRIL 1987 Aaron Wildaysky, with a reply by James David Barber WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON...

...What if a student came down with AIDS after using one...

...Only when it comes to sex is the suggested exercise of willpower derogated as an inappropriate application of moral principle to bodily function...

...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1987 13 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR VOL...

...In a general way, you've provided all kinds of services and intellectual enlightenment to this place...

...At a minimum, the President had to choose among advisers...

...But even here, sticking strictly to Iran for the moment, critics cannot show even that much...

...In May, 1986, according to an engraved invitation sent to guests, "The Gay and Lesbian Faculty, Staff and Provost James N. Rosse, request the honor of your presence at a reception celebrating the sixteenth anniversary of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance at Stanford," the reception to be held at "Avocado Grove, Humanities and Sciences, Inner Quad Building I." Nine months later Rosse is acting president (with Kennedy on sabbatical...

...Should we say that an advisory system that falls down badly in one case is to be scrapped even though it served this President well over a larger number of cases...

...In one study two cases were documented in which the virus passed between partners who used condoms over an extended period...

...What critics must show is that this system is flawed over a large number of instances and not merely that it fell down in a particular one...

...D ear Dave, In our local paper I read that the President is easily led...

...Sure it would give aid and comfort to Jerry Falwell & Co...

...We don't have to consent to Christian morality in order to take advantage of its utility...

...We don't have a medical solution...

...You would have thought with the "torts," or liability explosion, Stanford would be more cautious about lending its name to the distribution of "safe sex kits" on campus...

...The President is famous for paring his agenda down to the minimal essentials...

...If he fails to campaign for it, or to give support in Congress, it dies...

...I spoke to Ken Ruebush, 22, a senior and German Studies major who is coordinator of the Stanford AIDS Education Project...

...Surely the dissenters did not lack weight within the Administration...

...Is the President, as you and so many others say, "disengaged...

...REAGAN, IRAN, AND THE PRESIDENCY An exchange between two distinguished political scientists, sparked by a pair of op-ed pieces by Mr...

...Safe...

...It happens all the time, and not only to Presidents...

...But we have other evidence on other matters...

...I'm grateful for what a lot of the people in this room have done for this university," he continued...

...White Plaza is only a short distance from the Hoover Institution, so I went to take a look...

...Repeatedly we are told that there is Aaron Wildaysky is professor of political science and public policy at the University of California-Berkeley...

...How about abstinence...

...If he lifts a pinky, it is a nonstarter...

...So let's throw everything at the disease, including the most effective of all barriers to its transmission—abstinence...

...If we see sex and lust as a good thing," he told the Stanford audience, "I don't see why we should separate it as a category apart from other things...

...It contained seven condoms and a mauve brochure reading: YES, WE ARE SERIOUS The purpose of this first annual condom extravaganza is to provide an opportunity for you to sample the many different types of condoms currently available...

...Rosse was in late January reported to be "very surprised" when he learned that the death of Earth Sciences Dean Allan Cox was being investigated by the San Mateo County Sheriff's Department as a possible suicide...

...I'm very glad to be here," he said...

...I do know that if a racist were invited to speak on campus the group that invited him would be in trouble with the University administration...

...How long before Christian dogma itself would be back . . . ? Such were my thoughts on February 16, when I opened the Stanford Daily and read the front page headline: "Campus Launching Condom Week...

...Now we know better...

...Without Reagan, there is no reform...

...Are they not promoting promiscuity in the guise of "safe sex...

...That would be terribly unprogressive—giving up all those hard-won '60s "gains" against conventional morality...

...If we had a big drug problem on campus," he said, "I would be in favor of giving sterile needles to addicts...

...He was president of the whole university, not just part of it...

...Or are we to conclude that the chief of staff was not strong enough because this matter apparently did not go through him...

...James David Barber is professor of political science at Duke University...

...In a system loaded against leadership, I think Reagan is right...

...Probably...

...They are sex-addicts, and some (e.g., those who go to "Courage" meetings, THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1987 11 community when the [AIDS] phenomenon hit us...

...Indeed, when the economists of the nation were lined up insisting that the President abandon his most important policy, he consistently and persistently refused...

...We want you to have safe hot sex that is also healthy sex...

...Likewise millions of anonymous alcoholics believe that the freedom of the will is not an outmoded idea...

...On the day when Stanford students were rating condoms for "taste," the Stanford Daily reported as a front-page, above-thefold story: "The Faculty Senate will consider tomorrow a motion to censure Hoover Institution Director W. Glenn Campbell for claiming that the location of the Reagan library on campus allows the University to 'boast' of its `Reagan connection.' " The censure motion passed unanimously...

...Were we to take a more dispassionate view, difficult as that appears to be, we would say that Presidents should choose advisory systems that both suit their own needs and that will give them better results over the largest number of instances...

...In any event, Presidents who acted otherwise have not, by and large, fared too well...

...I don't think it makes sense and I don't think people will follow that advice...

...When David Stockman tried to get the President to raise taxes, the director of the budget failed over and over and over again...

...The rating forms are due to be returned Friday, and those interested could know by next Monday which condoms Stanford students like best, according to Richman...

...The incremental illusion is also common...

...Students will be asked to rate the condoms according to color, size, shape, texture and taste...

...So if it is true that the President saw a value in the Iranian venture that turned out to be illusory, it is also true that his critics have been similarly mistaken and arguably on matters of much greater magnitude...

...They have yielded to temptation so many times that the fires of lust burn within them, making it indeed difficult for them to control themselves...

...A reasonable conclusion would be that when the President speaks sense to the people they go along with him, and when he appears to speak nonsense, 14 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR APRIL 1987...

...A s for Acquired Addiction Syndrome—the idea that abandoning oneself to sexual temptation only increases the addiction—it belongs in the growing category of Thoughts that are Forbidden in Our Day...

...The first thing I saw was a table set up with a big sign reading: STANFORD SAFE SEX KITS...

...It is said that we had a teflon President who either mesmerized the public with nonsense syllables or was apparently so charming that nothing could stick to him...

...But we can't have that, can we...

...Perhaps acting president Rosse would have been less surprised if he had attended the GLAS-sponsored talk by the pedophile Dutchman...

...But look folks, the message is that we've got a real crisis on our hands...

...The father of the alleged molestation victim studied for his doctorate under Cox at Stanford, according to a report-yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle...

...The objectives one has in mind are both long- and short-run, general and concrete...

...Sure that would constitute an endorsement of Christian morality...

...Why might a President feel it desirable to override his Secretaries of State and Defense...

...Give him the shoe analogy," said Daniel Bau, a junior...

...As part of National Condom Week at Stanford, the AIDS Education Project will distribute 500 packets of condoms today and tomorrow in White Plaza [centrally located on campus] between 11 a.m...

...Barber last fall...

...I see education as the only means of preventing this tragedy," he said...

...The Stanford Daily reported: None of this came out in the New York Times expurgated obituary of Cox, nor in the lengthy Los Angeles Times puff piece on Stanford, heralding the university's $1.1 billion centennial fund-raising drive...

...I think that people are basically sexual entities," he said...

...The role that the Gay and Lesbian Alliance has played on campus may be gauged by the invitation they extended in March, 1984, to a once-imprisoned Dutch parliamentarian and pederast named Edward Brongersma to speak on campus...

...something terribly wrong with the chief of staff system in the White House...

...The same charge surfaced there...

...True, he does not deal with "details," having Darman and Baker to do that for him, but at every strategic step, without which there would be no reform—insisting on revenue neutrality, trading higher effective taxes on business for lower individual rates—Ronald Reagan was the creative force...

...20, NO...

...Are we to conclude from this accusation that the problem was that everything had to go through a single person...

...is a visiting media fellow at the Hoover Institution and The American Spectator's Washington correspondent...

...But it tends to be particularly true of unnatural forms of sex and explains why homosexuals often have so many partners...

...My point, rather, is that the errors in regard to Iran are not extraordinary, revealing of exceptional incapacity, but of the garden variety by which the high and mighty, as well as the rest of us, are brought low...

...Over a wide range of issues, I think the accusation does not stand up...

...Abstinence is 100 percent effective but not 100 percent realistic," said Meg Richman, a senior from Los Angeles, who was also handing out kits...

...The reaction to SDI tells us something else that is wellto keep in mind...

...I do not say this to absolve the President...

...I was handed a safe sex kit...

...Was Cox present...

...Aphorisms abound: "The measurable drive- out the more important but impalpable...

...He told an audience of fifty that sexual relations between adults and children should be permitted by law, "provided the child consents...

...He is a professional politician and public official responsible for his actions...

...H ow did the President and his NSC staff get sucked ever deeper into this morass...

...The parents reportedly said Cox had sexual contact with their 14-year-old son when the family was living on the Peninsula, and claimed that Cox had been sexually involved with the now 19-year-old since then...

...For example, he said, sex between a 30-yearold man and a seven-year-old boy would be fine...

...Does pedophilia fall into the category of intellectual enlightenment...

...Might he not be in a position to sue...

...Either the President had failed to override them before, to his regret, or, more likely, he had done so before, when horrible consequences were predicted, only to discover that things turned out all right...

...Insofar as we know, the Secretaries of State and Defense were opposed to this Iranian venture while the Attorney General and the Director of Intelligence were in favor...

...Perhaps the invasion of Grenada, the bombing of Libya, and the Strategic Defense Initiative fit that mold...

...As all students of the subject know, but are strangely reluctant to say now in regard to this episode, there is no ideal mode of organization that fits all people or Presidents or that guarantees good results or the avoidance of basic errors in all situations...

...Only a few weeks later university president Donald Kennedy spoke at ceremonies for the 10th Annual Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week...

...He had ridden his bicycle into a tree, a day or two earlier having been told of a pending criminal complaint of child molestation against him...

...I just wrote a lengthy chapter about the major tax reform recently passed...

...and 1:15 p.m...

...Given the risks out there (unwanted pregnancy and incurable sexually transmitted diseases) we want to help you develop an erotic sex life that at the same time displays responsible, safe and healthy behavior between you and your partners...