Reading archive 2021-02-22

Dean Baquet interview demonstrates why bothsidesism is alive and well at his New York Times

Rush Limbaugh and the Petrification of Conservatism: An extraordinary career for the man, a long defeat for his ideology. [ed. note: Ross Douthat, conservative Roman Catholic OpEd author for NYT]

Solar panels in Sahara could boost renewable energy but damage the global climate – here’s why

‘Allen v. Farrow’: Three takeaways from the searing docuseries’ first episode

Opinion: Iran has taken another American hostage. His ordeal strikes close to home.

Family of 11-year-old boy who died in unheated Texas mobile home sues power companies for over $100 million

History’s deadliest pandemics, from ancient Rome to modern America

 - "Many boys are molested by adults, that’s true. But there are strong signs that children are even more likely to be sexually abused or sexually as­saulted by other children. In one study of 13,000 children age 17 and younger, three-quarters of the boys who reported being sexually victimized said the person who violated them was another child. In a little more than half those assaults, the violator was a girl. Most boys who had been assaulted had never told an adult.

"In 2015, a national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Pre­vention found that nearly 4 million men (and 5.6 million women) had been victims of sexual violence just in the previous year. More than 2 million of those men were subjected to unwanted sexual contact, and more than 800,000 said they were “made to penetrate” another person — an awkward term that doesn’t show up much in the media or in public debate. It means that a man was either too inebriated to consent or was coerced or threatened into sex."

Sexual Assault Against Boys Is a Crisis: It’s far more common than we think. Here’s why we don’t talk about it.