The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Call Me Old-Fashioned, But …

Posted on | June 3, 2014 | 48 Comments

. . . as the father of six children, the standard method of procreation has always seemed to me both efficient and fun.

Others, however, consider the natural way of baby-making to be too messy and unscientific, and so Progress demands a Brave New World of “reproductive technology,” about which Alexis Madigral of The Atlantic enthusiastically cheers. Synthetic gametes? Excuse my skepticism, Doctor Frankenstein, but I still prefer the messy natural way.

 

Category: Science, Sex

Comments

48 Responses to “Call Me Old-Fashioned, But …”

  1. MrEvilMatt
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:35 am

    Call Me Old-Fashioned, But …: , , , as the father of six children, the standard penis-in-vagina method of proc… http://t.co/cx7vcGu8aH

  2. CHideout
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:35 am

    Call Me Old-Fashioned, But …: , , , as the father of six children, the standard penis-in-vagina method of proc… http://t.co/lAQdIu1ftd

  3. Citzcom
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:35 am

    Call Me Old-Fashioned, But …: , , , as the father of six children, the standard penis-in-vagina method of proc… http://t.co/YPO2CFICWo

  4. Lockestep1776
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:35 am

    Call Me Old-Fashioned, But …: , , , as the father of six children, the standard penis-in-vagina method of proc… http://t.co/LgwwDAYBDM

  5. WeRResistance
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:35 am

    Call Me Old-Fashioned, But …: , , , as the father of six children, the standard penis-in-vagina method of proc… http://t.co/EmKD0ZV7k1

  6. RKae
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:41 am

    What’s the opposite of a Luddite? Is there a word for that? Is there a word for people who think science is ALWAYS right, ALWAYS beneficial, ALWAYS “progress”?

    We have no trouble creating people. The damned things are everywhere!

  7. Escher's House
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:53 am

    Yes, it’s Sheldon Cooper. And he prefers this method, much to the consternation of Amy Farah Fowler.

  8. richard mcenroe
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 11:53 am

    Look at the bright side. Synthetic gametes would do away with the need for immigration amnesty since we could just tailor our passive, dependent voters right in the womb.

  9. Old School Procreation | Batshit Crazy News
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 12:10 pm

    […] TOM: Call me old fashioned…. […]

  10. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 12:11 pm

    http://batshitcrazynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/tumblr_mt6oiwU5Bg1s6xwwoo1_500.gif

    Old school!

  11. rsmccain
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 12:11 pm

    Call Me Old-Fashioned, But … http://t.co/SHwz5qVGy8 #tcot @JVLast @jmattbarber @instapundit

  12. eponymous1
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 12:19 pm

    The word that comes to mind for the dogmatic faith in “science” as the universal answer to all human inquiry is “scientism.” I’m not sure if there’s a good word for the adherents of “scientism.”

  13. LiesDestroy
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 12:53 pm

    .@rsmccain How funny!
    http://t.co/bn5q4ubNs2 …
    @JVLast @jmattbarber @instapundit

  14. LiesDestroy
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 1:14 pm

    RT @rsmccain: Call Me Old-Fashioned, But … http://t.co/SHwz5qVGy8 #tcot @JVLast @jmattbarber @instapundit

  15. Dana
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 1:18 pm

    But p-i-v sex is always rape, and you are now revealed as a rape supporter, and rapist! I denounce you!

  16. Dana
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 1:24 pm

    Consider what the author seems to think is a good thing, the ability to move beyond natural copulation to procreate, has wrought. We have had fifty million unborn children slaughtered in this country since 1973, while, at the same time, couples who cannot procreate normally have been spending tens, and sometimes hundreds, of thousands of dollars to have their “own” children. We have people seeking to adopt unwanted babies from Russia and China and other places.

    The obvious, humane solution, would have been to have those couple who want children, but cannot have them, to be able to adopt without so many stupid and expensive restrictions. But I guess that such a simple idea is wrong for our oh-so-sophisticated society.

  17. K-Bob
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 1:34 pm

    If you have something I want or need, and I have something to trade in return, like money, it’s the job of people like barack to insert themselves between us and extort the exchange from both sides.

  18. K-Bob
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 1:35 pm

    Cling-ons.

  19. CrustyB
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 2:05 pm

    Unnatural methods for unnatural people who do unnatural things to each other.

  20. Zohydro
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 2:11 pm

    “Kissed”… I believe we understand what was really said!

  21. pabarge
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 2:53 pm

    Alexis Madrigal is male.

  22. ChandlersGhost
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 2:59 pm

    And yet somehow conservatives are the repressed prudes.

  23. V-Lap Obama: Thanks For Bob #Bergdahl! | Regular Right Guy
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 3:00 pm

    […] Call Me Old-Fashioned, But … […]

  24. Zohydro
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 3:49 pm

    That lesbian “throuple” from Massachusetts is ready to embrace these new technologies…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10872361/Three-parent-babies-are-not-unsafe-as-human-trials-planned.html

  25. Quartermaster
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 4:11 pm

    LOL!!!

  26. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 4:13 pm

    http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ly86gq2eo01qjl8b7o1_500.gif

    Anti Science? Come on, there is chemistry!

  27. Quartermaster
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 4:14 pm

    That’s siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick!

  28. rsmccain
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 4:47 pm

    RT @LiesDestroy: .@rsmccain How funny!
    http://t.co/bn5q4ubNs2 …
    @JVLast @jmattbarber @instapundit

  29. EdwdLny
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 4:52 pm

    Those folks just love their eugenics ,don’t they. And, why are they so ashamed of their offspring, or potential offspring. So ashamed that they feel the need to remove nature and all of her vagaries from life.

  30. Evi L. Bloggerlady
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 4:56 pm

    I suspect the one in the middle can do it the old fashioned way (has anyone checked “her” equipment or chromosomes?)

  31. Paul H. Lemmen
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 5:11 pm

    Heh. The trnny in the middle probably has his original equipment attached.

  32. Paul H. Lemmen
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 5:17 pm

    Stupid liberals seems to fit (if repetitively redundant).

  33. Dana
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 5:29 pm

    Oh, I don’t know: the silver haired lady is hot, hot hot!

  34. Finrod Felagund
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 6:16 pm

    I always thought the opposite of Luddite was technoweenie.

  35. Finrod Felagund
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 6:16 pm

    Love is a matter of chemistry, sex is a matter of physics.

  36. Finrod Felagund
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 6:18 pm

    Grin grin wink wink nudge nudge say no more.

  37. Zohydro
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 6:27 pm

    Why, yes… Yes it is!

  38. Zohydro
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 6:35 pm

    Hmmm…

  39. Zohydro
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 6:38 pm

    I rather fancy the blue-haired one…

  40. Bob Belvedere
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 7:50 pm

    At the end of the room a loud speaker projected from the wall. The Director walked up to it and pressed a switch.

    “… all wear green,” said a soft but very distinct voice, beginning in the middle of a sentence, “and Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly colour. I’m so glad I’m a Beta.”

    There was a pause; then the voice began again.

    “Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they’re so frightfully clever. I’m really awfully glad I’m a Beta, because I don’t work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don’t want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They’re too stupid to be able …”

    The Director pushed back the switch. The voice was silent. Only its thin ghost continued to mutter from beneath the eighty pillows.

    –Brave New World, Chapter 2

  41. thatMrGguy
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 8:21 pm

    Call Me Old-Fashioned, But … http://t.co/KI5GXk0oif

  42. Jane the Actuary
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 8:28 pm

    Actually, none of these items are especially radical (#3 is amped-up natural family planning/fertility awareness). The game-changer would be an artificial womb, and I think were a long ways away from that. But everything I see about the “future of reproduction” tends to remove fathers from the picture.

    http://janetheactuary.blogspot.com/2014/06/brave-new-world.html

  43. richard mcenroe
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 8:40 pm

    And sometimes engineering but I don’t judge.

  44. Anon Y. Mous
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 9:16 pm

    #4 is extremely radical. They are contemplating the production of “female sperm” and “male eggs”. See:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_sperm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_egg

    This would allow homosexual couples to reproduce, or for that matter, it would allow asexual reproduction.

  45. Dana
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 9:19 pm

    Well, you would, but I’m 61 years old, and the silver-haired lady appears to be much more age appropriate to me.

    Which brings me to another point, which will (probably) not win wide acceptance: ladies, when your hair starts turning grey, you don’t have to color it! Men know that you’re getting older, and we really don’t care all that much, given that we’re getting older at the same rate.

  46. Zohydro
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 9:35 pm

    The silver-haired tabby is “Brynn” and she’s only 34!

    (The blue-aired tom is “Doll” and 27 and the tall, dodgy looking lemon in the middle is “Kitten”, 30…)

  47. Jane the Actuary
    June 3rd, 2014 @ 10:34 pm

    That’s a fair point, but it’s not a game-changer, since lesbian couples seem to be find with sperm donors, and gay men still need a uterus, not just an egg.

  48. Quartermaster
    June 4th, 2014 @ 6:56 am

    Us Engineers agree.