NEWS: Just Say No?

POLITICS: Just Say No?

If only politicians would practice what they preach:

The Dems want to pass the bill because, as the second largest discretionary spending bill (behind defense), it contains money for things like Medicare, the National Institutes of Health and Center for Disease Control, job training programs, unemployment benefits, Head Start, Global HIV/AIDS funding, k-12 school counselors, Pell Grants, Public Broadcasting, and Social Security. (You can download a .pdf of the subcommittee's proposed spending markups here.)



There are two problems with this approach (assuming it works). First, absintence "education" requires that kids be taught

--whether or not such gains actually exist. So abstinence programs "teach" stuff like, absintence until marriage makes marriages last longer (not true) and improves self-esteem (not true). Stuff like birth control's only addressed in terms of failure rates, and

Moreover, studies have found that abstinence education

Doesn't work: kids who get absintence training are as likely as anyone else to fuck around before marriage.

Contain "significant errors or distortions" of fact.

Blur the line between science and religion.

Promote gender stereotypes as fact.

Effectively deny sex education to gay and lesbian students, since gay marriage is illegal.

What's worse, though, is that the people who have the most to gain from that extra $32 million are . . . the political/religious right, who are just going to funnel that money right back into the pockets of politicians who, if the intended compromise here succeeds, care more about lying to kids about sex than they do about things like properly funding proven education, health, and human services programs.



And round and round it goes.



Of course, the truth is that just like teenagers, telling politicians to just say no won't work, because that's not how the world works. People are going to have sex, and politicians are going to make unsavory compromises. Still, you can't help but wish that the shitheads of the world would fuck over someone other than kids.



Bitch_PhD really could have gone her whole life without doing that Google Image search, thereby learning that chastity belts are a kind of modern fetish gear.



Cross-posted, more or less, over at Bitch PhD.

I'm gonna go have pre-martial sex to protest this.
Who is with me??
Eh?

I'm ten steps ahead of you.

It never fails to fascinate me that anyone could actually try to make an argument against THE most natural thing in the world.

It saddens me when good, healthy, helpful information about sex is totally thrown out in favor of "NO NEVER HAVE IT EVER" bullshit. Teenagers want to have sex, it's only natural growing up as a part of humanity. The only thing abstinence only education does is deny them the information they need to know in order to protect themselves and their health.

How many times does it have to fail miserably before people get the hint?

I stayed a virgin til 17 1/2 and I probably am happier and have more self esteem now than ever. I've still only had sex with that one guy, but damn I feel sexy and proud of who I am as a woman.

Alright, let's do it... Actually, I'm married, so I don't know if it'll count, but I'll still have sex with you!


Abstinence only education is worse than teaching kids creationism, but for some reason people don't seem to notice as much.

The consistent rejection of reason and rationality by a significant portion of Americans and American politicians never ceases to disturb and disgust me.

Incidentally, "Just say NO!" was the anti-drug slogan while "not me, not now" was the rally cry for the abstinence campaign.

Just say no is snappier, though.

While I think this is a bummer, I found it hard to muster a lot of outrage. It's like the headline should read: "Legislative process works at the way it is intended! People pissed off!" I mean, I dunno - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you have to bite the bullet. And I'm willing to bet that Democrats are getting plenty of nice bang out of things like, you know, Medicare and unemployment - going over Bush's limit to do shit that needs to be done that has been neglected for far too long.

Also, I'm not clear how money for abstinence only education is being funneled directly back into electing Republicans? I mean, wouldn't the same process work for Democratic secular groups that are aided? That sounds like a funky stretch; it could be I suppose, but I guess I need it spelled out for me?

Man, bush sure has gotten veto happy huh? I bet he gets a boner every time he makes the dems. do exactly what he wants just by threatening a veto. Good job democrats, you spineless pussies!

can you back that up?

"Bitch_PhD really could have gone her whole life without doing that Google Image search, thereby learning that chastity belts are a kind of modern fetish gear."

HA HA HA

Can they?

This is what you focus on? Study after study after study shows that abstinence programs do nothing to change kids approach to having sex and increase risk by not offering information about methods to prevent STDs and you are out to prove that the claims about fidelity in marriage and self esteem are true?

I was one of those underinformed kids. Hell, I never had health class (my parents are nuttier than the govt.). Needless to say I was ill prepared for sex, but had the good fortune to meet partners who hadn't been left completely in the dark. It scares me to think how many teens are out there that are like I was.

I had access to all that information and was told abstinence was a good idea, but at the same time, "If you're gonna, play it safe!"

Am I the only one nerdy enough to have graduated high school before losing my virginity? Wow...I'm gonna go cry now.

I was never taught about contraceptives in school. Maybe in health in high school, but I think I was self-taught by that time, and then it was abstinence only.

In elementary when we had "the talk" at school, they told us only about the female reproductive system and how we were gonna bleed soon. Then they proceeded to tell us that tampons were very dangerous and to avoid them. They said if we HAD to, to use only the "junior" sized ones. It was pretty damn silly.

haha, i remember my dad asking me to have the talk with my littlest brother. i was self taught through asking questions with friends and the great and mighty media.

and no tuba_man. i graduated high school then a week later i lost my virginity.

I wonder if the politician's supporting this are so delusional that they think that this works or do they think that teaching a broken program is worth having kids unknowledgable about protection. Our teen pregnancy rate is sometimes four times that of other industrialized nations.

Sigh, who wants to run away to the moon with me?

I just went on a date last night and she said "NO"

There's also this.

No, you're not. I'm a member of that club, too. So cry with me.