rumitoid

A possible high school indiscretion decades ago. Who of us haven't had at least one of those?

Teenage Brains Are Different! It's not so much what teens are thinking — it's how. Jensen says scientists used to think human brain development was pretty complete by age 10. Or as she puts it, that "a teenage brain is just an adult brain with fewer miles on it."

But it's not. To begin with, she says, a crucial part of the brain — the frontal lobes — are not fully connected. Really.

"It's the part of the brain that says: 'Is this a good idea? What is the consequence of this action?' " Jensen says. "It's not that they don't have a frontal lobe. And they can use it. But they're going to access it more slowly."

That's because the nerve cells that connect teenagers' frontal lobes with the rest of their brains are sluggish. Teenagers don't have as much of the fatty coating called myelin, or "white matter," that adults have in this area.

Think of it as insulation on an electrical wire. Nerves need myelin for nerve signals to flow freely. Spotty or thin myelin leads to inefficient communication between one part of the brain and another. This does not mean that all teenagers act inappropriately or their judgment is necessarily always flawed; it means it is not very efficient. Is this a good defense?
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=124119468

The world exploded with commentary when news broke about Christina Blasey Ford’s accusations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had attacked her in high school. Soon enough, there it was: Fox News contributor Ari Fleisher, trying to speak “with a lot of sensitivity,” asked, “How much in society should any of us be held liable today” for an “issue that took place in high school? Should that deny us chances later in life? Even for a Supreme Court job, a presidency for the United States, or…you name it?”

It’s the question countless men across America have been asking: Isn’t there a statute of limitations for the dumb s**t we did way back when? We know men are pondering it—publicly or privately—because we’ve heard it before. Brock Turner’s father used the same defense when he said his son shouldn’t be incarcerated for “20 minutes of action,” a.k.a. sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster. Listen closely to the clip of Fleisher, and it sounds like someone on the Fox set might be applauding.

To be fair, I think we all made mistakes in high school that we’d rather forget. And behavior that inspires a pseudonymous character—Bart O’Kavanaugh, who pukes in someone’s car—in a friend’s book about high school drunkenness and hookups probably makes that list. I’m sure he’d like some takebacks, just as I’m sure he doesn’t ever want his daughters to feel as terrified as Blasey Ford says she was that night.

That high school “issue"? Blasey Ford has been unable to forget it. There's been no statute of limitations on her trauma. She told The Washington Post that what happened that night caused her to struggle to have normal relationships with men, led her to spend hours (and presumably hundreds of dollars) in therapy. We don’t know what chances all of that might have denied her later in life.

To ask if we can just close the book on teenage antics means normalizing bad behavior. (Even today the tendency is to let guys off the hook or let the past be the past: In a Glamour/GQ survey, only 38 percent of men said #MeToo had made them reevaluate their past sexual experiences; a full 84 percent said they worried accusations of sexual misconduct could harm the reputations of men who don't deserve it.) We need to ask why we still cannot create a world where Christine Blasey Ford, or the more than 320,000 women who are assaulted each year, feel comfortable coming forward.

I’ve reported on stories of sexual assault and violence for years, and time and again women have told me how no one believed them, or how they were told there wasn't evidence damning enough to get any attorney to take their case. Imagine if a detective like Andrea Munford, who listened to each and every young woman who had been molested by Larry Nassar, had sat with Blasey Ford, taking down information, phone numbers, and details to build a case. Imagine she interviewed the eyewitness at the party who quoted in his yearbook a line from a Noël Coward play: “Certain women should be struck regularly, like gongs.” Let’s imagine that, instead of the current rate of just one percent of cases being referred to a prosecutor, it was commonplace to send credible cases up the chain, and that a district attorney would have seen no risk to his chances for ree******n if he took the case.

In a justice system like that, it’s reasonable that the attorney could have gotten a conviction. That the judge wouldn’t have suggested that she was “flattered by the attention.”
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/boys-being-boys-world-forgive-193000544.html

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Boys will be boys is a BS!!!Its an excuse...I have a son...And he was brought up to respect women by me,his father my parents his aunt.......Its up to parents to teach boys to be respectful to girls just as for girls to respect themselves and boys too...So this boys will be boys is bogus claim...

padremike Loc: Phenix City, Al

Thank you! I too was brought up to respect elders and to protect and cherish females. My son the same way. Obviously we know who wasn't by his own admission.

rumitoid

You are right! Boys will be boys is a BS!!! Yet numerous voices on the Right make this excuse, and condemn Ms. Ford. Franklin (got it right this time) Graham said, “No, I really don't. Because how far back do we go back in a person's life? There's a lot of things that I've done when I was a teenager (boy being a boy) that I certainly am ashamed of and not proud of. And if we're going to hold people accountable for things that they did 40 years ago and say whether it's relevant or not relevant."

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Nobody is condemning her...We are condemning the timing when all this came out!!!...Waited till 11th hour before coming out with something that happened 36 yrs ago...Do YOU remember what happened to YOU 36 yrs ago???...And if he wasnt nominated for Superior Court Justice, would she still come out with this horrible story???..I doubt it!!1

vernon

You as usual are wrong she said it came back to her while talking to someone.Another thing you
conveniently forgot was that her parents lost a suit that was about a mortgage and kavanough was the judge that ruled against Them.Now another thing you you left out is that she is a radical c*******t and has been in parades with radicals.Nothing you say is reasonable you are a c****e t*****r and have no reasoning powers.

rumitoid

Wow, seriously vernon, that is important. Can you provide a reliable link? This will smother the Left.

vernon

I don't need to,it will come out next week of course you will say its all lies.Look at her year books and see the real"lady".And check out the letter finestein had about Gorucuh and didn't use.the rats are scum of the earth and are working to destroy our country.

slatten49 Loc: Lake Whitney, Texas

Some misinformation there regarding the mortgage foreclosure proceedings, Vernon...

Kavanaugh's mother, according to the following, ruled in favor of Mrs. Ford's parents...the pertinent excerpt(s) following the link:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/kavanaughs-downfall-impossible-now-seems-likely-121329375.html

"John Cornyn of Texas, the Senate GOP’s second-in-command and a member of the Judiciary Committee, lambasted Democrats for having 'egregiously mishandled' the Kavanaugh nomination — presumably by making the accusations against him public so late in the process. Cornyn suggested that Ford’s charge was nothing but 'a smear.'

As did many Trump supporters on social media. Some touted poor student ratings for Ford, failing to notice that they had found an altogether different California professor with a similar name. Others pointed out that Kavanaugh’s mother, also a judge, had been involved in foreclosure proceedings against Ford’s parents. This was true, but this was not revenge served cryogenically cold: Her ruling had been for Ford’s parents, not against them."

This, seemingly, eliminates any "revenge" factor. However, I admit to limited knowledge of all the details.

maryjane

Sorry, but the best brought up boys, and girls, during the teenage years of roaring hormones and little sense, say and do things that are embarrassing in their adult recollections. True of all of us. Just life.

rumitoid

Listen to Trump's recent rants about Ms. Ford.

rumitoid

Good research. Shockingly biting.

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

He didnt really said anything bad...But enough is enough already!!!

rumitoid

Agreed, and I have said that a few times before on this point. (Re-read my thread.) Yet the seriousness of our teen stupidity varies greatly. Embarrassing and criminal are different animals. I have no idea which person is telling the t***h, just that, if it happened Ms. Ford said, it cannot be dismissed as a simple teenage faux pas.

maryjane

She has not claimed rape. It sounds like a case of heavy petting or male pawing. Personally, I think men proven to commit forcible rape should be castrated. Now, that being said, I want her to be asked, "Why did you go into the bedroom with the guy?" And "What did you expect to happen in the bedroom?" It isn't just teenage boys who often make bad decisions in the area of male/female relationships, girls make just as many bad decisions. We should be teaching both boys and girls to be smart, refuse to be controlled by their sexual urges, a few quick moments of sex is not worth a lifetime of sorrow, to stop and think, to stay out of potentially dangerous sexyal situations, etc. We must teach our girls to take responsibility for themselves in these situations, to stay out of bedrooms with guys, etc. This situation sounds like one in which both parties share responsibility, but did anything actually serious happen? Both males and females, of all ages, are often guilty of making bad decisions related to sexual situations, and short of actual rape, should either pay the price forever? These are touchy subjects, especially in today's climate, and situations often differ. So, what is the answer? Should we just declare that, in matters of sex, women have the final word and must always be believed without question? Should we just declare that men must get written permission before engaging in actual sex with a woman? Afraid humans being the sexual beings they are, this is an issue that has NEVER, and will NEVER be resolved.