Absent real reform, such as educationrnvouchers that would allow those folksrnwho drive secondhand Toyotas the opportunityrnto shop around for a betterrnplace to educate their children, peoplerncontinue to demand cure-alls, whilernhoping the bill won’t be too high shouldrnthey actually succeed in obtaining them.rnThe teachers, however, are demandingrnmore — especially from the federal government.rnPresident Clinton, in his Staternof the Union address this year, called forrnanother 100,000 of them, as if staffingrnthe schools had suddenly become a federalrnresponsibility (and as if demographicsrnhas anything to do with it). “Whatrncounted was (and is) subjective perception,rnnot objective reality,” Dr. Liebermanrnwrites in The Teacher Unions.rnJust as the unions of professionalrnathletes strive to convince theirrnmillionaire members that the latterrnare being mistreated by their employers,rnthe teacher unions persuadedrnthe most highly paid teachersrnthat they were being mistreatedrnby school boards.rnMuch of Dr. Lieberman’s work couldrnbe called having an ax to grind, and bullyrnfor him that he does. His book sets outrnan ambitious premise, and it largely succeedsrnbecause Dr. Lieberman sticks tornthe subject that he knows best. Hernpainstakingly chronicles the rise of bothrnthe National Education Association andrnthe American Federation of Teachers,rnand the politicization of both organizationsrnto the point where they now standrnas among the most powerful of unions,rnstill on the upsurge at a time when otherrntrade unions have all but withered away.rnAs he demonstrates, such clout paysrnthe unions —both of them supposedlyrnbipartisan —big dividends, especiallyrnwhen it comes to matters concerning thernDemocratic Party. By helping electrn”pro-teacher” candidates to everythingrnfrom local school boards to the Oval Office,rnthe unions assure that their issuesrn(many of which have nothing to do withrneducation) will be heard and, most likely,rnbecome public policy. More insidioush’,rnsuch politicking also shuts out realrndebate on education reform, since anyrnlegislature packed with representativesrnwho won office with teacher union endorsementsrnis likely to dismiss reformersrnas being “anti-education.”rnHowever unwittingly, therefore. Dr.rnLieberman’s book may be a strong incentivernfor the reader to throw up hisrnhands on education reform, enroll hisrnchildren in a private school, and visit thernnearest Chevy or Ford dealer to price thernnew Suburban or E.xpedition.rnJames Hill writes from Scottsdale,rnArizona.rnThe SmuttyrnProfessorrnby Daniel ]. FlynnrnKinsey: Crimes & Consequencesrnby Judith A. ReismanrnArlington, Virginia:rnFirst Principles Press;rn323 pp., $24.95rnFifty years ago, Indiana Universityrnprofessor Alfred Kinsey launchedrnwhat was perhaps the first salvo in thernSexual Revolution. Sexual Behavior inrnthe Human Male, the work of Kinsey,rnWardell Pomero), and Clyde Martin, hitrnpostwar America like a sucker punch.rnClaiming that 85 percent of Americanrnmales engaged in premarital sex, 70 percentrnhad paid for sex with prostitutes, andrnbetween 10 percent and 37 percent werernhomosexual, the Kinsey Report revolutionizedrnAmerican law, culture, education,rnand a host of other areas. Critics ofrnthe report were to Kinsey what thernChurch was to Galileo. Kinsey was, afterrnall, a “scientist.”rnThe picture of Kinsey that has beenrnpassed on by college texts and popularrnhistories is that of the disinterested scientistrnwhose research is unimpeachable. InrnDavid Halberstam’s The Fifties, Kinseyrnis “prudish,” “old fashioned,” and “thernvery embodiment of Middle Americanrnsquare.” Rutgers University professorrnWilliam O’Neill praises Kinsey in AmericanrnHigh as a “hero of science”; thosernwho pressured the Rockefeller Foundationrnto cut his funding won “a victory forrnsmall mindedness.” William Manchester’srnKinsey in The Glory and thernDream is “an objective investigator,”rn”a stickler for explicit detail,” and a “disciplernof truth.” “As a scientist,” saidrnManchester, “[Kinsey] had naturallyrnplayed no favorites.”rnKinsey, as we know now, was a veryrndifferent kind of “scientist.” A homosexual,rna wife-swapper, a sadomasochist,rnand perhaps a pedophile, Kinsey wasrnmuch more involved in his work thanrnthe keepers of the tablets would have usrnbelieve. The real Kinsey loaned his wifernout to other men. His attic served as arnpersonal pornographic movie studio.rnHis fellow researchers, Pomeroy andrnMartin, also served as his sex partners.rnSo powerful was Kinsey’s addiction tornmasochism that an incident where hernstrung a rope around a pipe, tied thernnoose around his genitals, and leapt off arnchair hospitalized him for weeks andrnmay have helped cut his life short.rnKinsey’s bizarre personal life providesrna motive for why he attempted to uprootrnthe sexual mores of mid-century America.rnKinsey: Crimes & Consequences,rnhowever, demonstrates just how hernskewed his data to get the results he desired.rnAlthough the total number of men hernstudied is in dispute (estimates rangernfrom 4,100 to 6,300), at least 1,400 membersrnof the sample group were prison inmates.rnFor Kinsey and his fellow researchers,rnbasing their survey on therninhabitants of an environment that is arnnotorious breeding ground for perversionrnwas still not enough to skew the datarnto their satisfaction. By developing keyrncontacts in the urban gay subcultures ofrnChicago, New York, and other big cities,rnKinsey was able to interview hundreds ofrnhomosexuals —and procure sexual liaisonsrnfor himselfrnReisman demonstrates that this samernkind of statistical trickery is pervasivernthroughout his study of women. Prostitutes,rnfor instance, were reclassified asrn”married women” in Sexual Behavior inrnthe Human Female.rnThe keystone of Reisman’s work, however,rncontinues to be Kinsey’s role in thernabuse of hundreds of children. Attemptingrnto prove that humans are sexual fromrnbirth, Kinsey collected data on at leastrn324 (and perhaps as many as 2,000) children.rnInfants as young as five monthsrnold, said Kinsey, achieve “orgasm” afterrnbeing stimulated by “partners.” Symptomsrnof sexual climax for young children,rnKinsey claimed, often includedrn”sobbing,” “violent cries,” “loss of color,”rnand an “abundance of tears.”rnKinsey and his apostles have maderncontradictory claims concerning thernSEPTEMBER 1998/33rnrnrn