Govt Spending Millions To Preach Abstinence To Adults Up To Age 29...

Why does a certain portion of our society...and particularly our own Government...have such a messed up/hang up issue with Sex?

The % of sexually active people in this age range is enormous, something on the order of 90%.

Isn't this out of touch with reality? this is the wrong segment of the population to be preaching abstinence to.

Education for youngsters is what is needed. Studies in Europe, particularly in the Scandanavian countries show that the greatest positive impact on 1) unwanted pregnancies 2) teen pregnancies 3) sex out of wedlock 4) safe sex practices 5) and less sexual frequency comes from actually EDUCATING young people about Sex, about choosing partners for yourself for the best reasons, and about the realities of Sex, sexual relations, and protecting yourself from disease and pregnancy.

Educating them actually leads to less sex, and more protection, and arms them with what they need to make good and healthy choices for themselves.

Repression, which this sort of abstinence push engenders, (and I am speaking psychologically now) leads to those repressions coming out in negative ways....such as.....

Unprotected Sex...cuz you want it when you have the opportunity, not when you have planned it.

Unwanted pregancies...for the same reasons

Spread of STD's ....for the same reasons

and most likely also adds to the amount of 'date' rape sort of situations.

There is a reason why repression leads to 'dark' behavior in ...oh say, elected officials.

Sexual energy is present in us...it needs a healthy outlet. Let's start by educating people about how to do that.

The federal government's "no sex without marriage" message isn't just for kids anymore.

Now the government is targeting unmarried adults up to age 29 as part of its abstinence-only programs, which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.

Full Article Here

Kucinich Taking Heat...

By Rep. Dennis Kucinich

Editor’s note: The Ohio Democrat sees desperation in the Republican National Committee’s attack on his potential 2006 ascent to a key national security subcommittee.

The Founders envisioned and created a national government with an intricate series of checks and balances. One-party rule has demolished that system. It has led to a government which has abused the war power, corrupted the Bill of Rights, established a national security state, and sharply accelerated upwards the wealth of the nation.

Under these circumstances, the American people, fed up with an illegal and untenable war, are demanding accountability and a true restoration of the two-party system. The 2006 elections will reflect the American people’s desire for a new start and a new direction. The desire for change is palpable. Few are more aware of this shift than the operatives of the Republican National Committee, who, in this election season, have attempted to make a new art form of the political smear.

A few days ago the RNC singled me out for obloquy. Let us consider the source. The tenor of their fear-driven attack is a measure of their anxiety-ridden anticipation: They have been institutionally and constitutionally incapable of publicly (and legally) accounting for their conduct of state.

I will not prejudice with any criticism or charges any oversight hearings of any committee I may chair in the next Congress. However, I do know that the American people still have unanswered questions about 9/11, WMDs, the abandonment of international law and the Geneva Conventions, the war in Iraq, the White House Iraq Group, the Rendon propaganda machine, Afghanistan, Abu Graib, Guantanamo, the Pat Tillman case, Iraq war casualties, the missing $10.8 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds, the human and economic toll of the war, rendition, wiretapping, domestic spying, and plans for an attack on Iran,

I do know that the American people cannot believe what has happened to this country in the past six years. I do know that the American people are demanding accountability.

And, in whatever capacity I serve in the next Congress, I will uphold the solemn oath I take to defend the Constitution of the United States, without regard to fear or favor.

Pee in the Cup, Granny

I found this rather humorous post by Bill Maher on a county in Florida and its rather absurd requirement to be a Volunteer Librarian...

They can't have very nice lives - librarians. It's like being a teacher, only without the opportunities for dating, because the only kids you meet are the nerds. So the last thing America's shsssshing minority needs is the indignity of a urine test. But that's just what we're doing. I'm not sure this is the best use of our time.
The last time a librarian did something really stupid and reckless on drugs was when Laura married George.

Last year, Florida's Levy County introduced drug testing for library volunteers. Whose average age is between 60 and 85. The volunteers were required to drive to another city - Gainesville - and urinate in a cup "within hearing distance" of a laboratory monitor. That'll teach 'em for offering to work for free. "Okay, grandma, now get pissing. And I'd better hear a nice even unbroken stream."

And then something weird happened. Inexplicably, the number of volunteers dropped from 55 to two. It's almost like they didn't enjoy being degraded. And they call themselves the greatest generation.

I know what you're thinking. If Aunt Iris has nothing to hide, she can get a little of her own urine on her hands and prove she's not strung out on junk. Then we can feel safe, and she can go back to mis-shelving the Readers Digests. But then a second thought occurs to you, later, when you really, really think about it. And that thought is this: What the fuck is wrong with us? Are we high?

They're not flying planes. They're showing the homeless how to use the microfiche readers. For free. The only people who profit from this are the stockholders of the drug testing company, who stood to make $33 a head, money the library would have otherwise just wasted on books.

A spokesman for the libraries said she wouldn't make the volunteers drive to Gainesville for their cavity searches anymore. And she also thought the problem wasn't the drug test itself, but the method they used. That's why they're looking into switching from urine tests to mouth swabs. The same method used by the Florida Department of Corrections

Rising tide of global warming threatens Pacific island states

An environmental article that I saw today in the Independent

Here is a snippit...

While rich nations tinker with policies that may shave their carbon dioxide emissions, low-lying South Pacific nations such as Kiribati are sinking beneath the waves.

Kiribati, an archipelago of 33 coral atolls barely 6ft above sea level, is vanishing as global warming sees the oceans rise. Yesterday, its president, Anote Tong, warned Australia and New Zealand - the two developed countries in the region - to prepare for a mass exodus within the next decade.

Speaking at the annual South Pacific Forum in Fiji, Mr Tong said that rising sea levels would create countless environmental refugees. "If we are talking about our island states submerging in 10 years' time, we simply have to find somewhere else to go," he said.

Over 92,000 people live on low lying islands throughout the archipelago of the Pacific. All of these peoples and nations have been witnessing their actual amount of land dissapear every year. It seems the consensus among them is that they will eventually be forced to move from their island homes forever.

Advertising Terror

Keith's clips are entertaining. He has a flair for the dramatic.

At the very least, it is food for thought...

Is Sustainability Within Our Grasp?

A section of China's Yellow River is stained red from pollution caused by a discharge from a sewage pipe in Lanzhou, in western Gansu province Monday, Oct. 23, 2006. Environmental protection officials took samples and were trying to determine whether the sewage was toxic.

Perhaps it is, but the real question may be a lot more like this:

Is Sustainability Within Our Consciousness?

article

Humans are stripping nature at an unprecedented rate and will need two planets' worth of natural resources every year by 2050 on current trends, the WWF conservation group said on Tuesday.

Populations of many species, from fish to mammals, had fallen by about a third from 1970 to 2003 largely because of human threats such as pollution, clearing of forests and overfishing, the group also said in a two-yearly report.

"For more than 20 years we have exceeded the earth's ability to support a consumptive lifestyle that is unsustainable and we cannot afford to continue down this path," WWF Director-General James Leape said, launching the WWF's 2006 Living Planet Report.

"If everyone around the world lived as those in America, we would need five planets to support us," Leape, an American, said in Beijing.

People in the United Arab Emirates were placing most stress per capita on the planet ahead of those in the United States, Finland and Canada, the report said.

Australia was also living well beyond its means.

The average Australian used 6.6 "global" hectares to support their developed lifestyle, ranking behind the United States and Canada, but ahead of the United Kingdom, Russia, China and Japan.

"If the rest of the world led the kind of lifestyles we do here in Australia, we would require three-and-a-half planets to provide the resources we use and to absorb the waste," said Greg Bourne, WWF-Australia chief executive officer.

Everyone would have to change lifestyles -- cutting use of fossil fuels and improving management of everything from farming to fisheries.

"As countries work to improve the well-being of their people, they risk bypassing the goal of sustainability," said Leape, speaking in an energy-efficient building at Beijing's prestigous Tsinghua University.

"It is inevitable that this disconnect will eventually limit the abilities of poor countries to develop and rich countries to maintain their prosperity," he added.

The report said humans' "ecological footprint" -- the demand people place on the natural world -- was 25 percent greater than the planet's annual ability to provide everything from food to energy and recycle all human waste in 2003.

In the previous report, the 2001 overshoot was 21 percent.

"On current projections humanity, will be using two planets' worth of natural resources by 2050 -- if those resources have not run out by then," the latest report said.

eVoting

Your Votes Are Completely Safe

Proponents of electronic voting have found themselves again on the defensive following the unauthorized release of software for voting machines used by the State of Maryland and manufactured by Diebold Election Systems.

and in a related article there are eVoting machines that are cutting off the name of the candidate on the verification page for some voters.

Rebuttal - Military Commissions Act and US Citizens

I appreciate Steve pointing out that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 specifically states that it is in reference to aliens, or non-citizens, wherein they do not retain Habeas Corpus rights. That is a valid point.

However, as we have already witnessed, US Citizens can be picked up as enemy combatants and held indefinitely without recourse, and be subjected to what is arguably torture (see Jose Padilla for further reference. The U.S. administration has in the past described him as an illegal enemy combatant, arguing that he was thereby not entitled to the normal protection of US law, nor protection under the Geneva Convention.)

The real question is will this provision be upheld? isn't the MCA itself a signing into law a series of practices that were previously used and currently used that were against the standing law of the land and the Geneva Conventions? is this a hind-sighted justification of flouting the law?

Certainly, if the provisions in this act were carried out with a foreign national who belonged to one of the other signatory nations to the Geneva Conventions...some of the MCA sanctioned activities and suspension of rights would still be considered illegal.

here is some quoted text from Steve's source on the wiki encyclopedia that is listed under Criticism:

A number of legal scholars and Congressional members - including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-PA) - have said that the habeas provision of the Act violates a clause of the Constitution that says the right to challenge detention "shall not be suspended" except in cases of "rebellion or invasion."[17]

The Act has also been denounced by critics who assert that its wording makes possible the permanent detention and torture (as defined by the Geneva Conventions) of anyone - including American citizens - based solely on the decision of the President.[18] Indeed, the wording of section 948b[19] of the act appears to explicitly contradict the Third Geneva Convention of which the United States is currently a signatory, however as long as the Act is not used when dealing with a country or countries that have also signed the conventions, the Geneva Conventions do not hold any weight.

In the House debate, Representative David Wu of Oregon offered this scenario:

Let us say that my wife, who is here in the gallery with us tonight, a sixth generation Oregonian, is walking by the friendly, local military base and is picked up as an unlawful enemy combatant. What is her recourse? She says, I am a U.S. citizen. That is a jurisdictional fact under this statute, and she will not have recourse to the courts? She can take it to Donald Rumsfeld, but she cannot take it across the street to an article 3 court.[20]

One has described the Act as "the legalization of the José Padilla treatment" - referring to the American citizen who was declared an unlawful enemy combatant and then imprisoned for three years before finally being charged with a lesser crime than was originally alleged.[21] A legal brief filed on Padilla's behalf alleges that during this time he was subjected to sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation, and enforced stress positions.[22]

Amnesty International said that the Act "contravenes human rights principles."[23] An editorial in The New York Times described the Act as "a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation’s version of the Alien and Sedition Acts."[24]

American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony D. Romero said, "The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions." [25]

The law has also been criticized for allegedly giving a retroactive, nine-year immunity to U.S. officials who authorized, ordered, or committed potential acts of abuse on detainees.

R.I.P. Bill of Rights and Habeas Corpus

He Swore An Oath to Defend The Constitution...

Instead...

Today (oct 17th), 135 years to the day after the last American President (Ulysses S. Grant) suspended habeas corpus, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At its worst, the legislation allows President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld to declare anyone — US citizen or not — an enemy combatant, lock them up and throw away the key without a chance to prove their innocence in a court of law. In other words, every thing the Founding Fathers fought the British empire to free themselves of was reversed and nullified with the stroke of a pen, all under the guise of the War on Terror.

Senator Santorum, The Eye of Sauron, and Steven Colbert

How often can you put three things together like that in one place?

Check it...

Got Sunscreen?

OZONE HOLE IS RECORD SETTING THIS YEAR
full article


(snippit)

This year's Antarctic ozone hole is the biggest ever, government scientists said Thursday. The so-called hole is a region where there is severe depletion of the layer of ozone — a form of oxygen — in the upper atmosphere that protects life on Earth by blocking the sun's ultraviolet rays.
ADVERTISEMENT

Scientists say human-produced gases such as bromine and chlorine damage the layer, causing the hole. That's why many compounds such as spray-can propellants have been banned in recent years.

"From Sept. 21 to 30, the average area of the ozone hole was the largest ever observed, at 10.6 million square miles," said Paul Newman, atmospheric scientist at
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. That's larger than the area of North America...

Global Warming, who? oh, that old wives tale, puusha...

A British article in the Independent on the coming drought and water crisis caused by Global Warming...

Here is a short review...

British scientists have issued the harshest warning yet about the devastating impact of unrestrained greenhouse gas emissions: “One third of the planet will be desert by the year 2100.”

This stunning new UK research, from the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, shows

[The] figure for moderate drought, currently at 25 per cent of the Earth’s surface, rising to 50 per cent by 2100, the figure for severe drought, currently at about 8 per cent, rising to 40 cent, and the figure for extreme drought, currently 3 per cent, rising to 30 per cent.

Within 100 years, some 30 percent of Earth will be rendered essentially uninhabitable, leading to mass migrations and millions of environmental refugees. And this result is based on a greenhouse gas emissions growth scenario that ignores key carbon cycle vicious cycles (such as the tundra melting). The Independent reports: “In one unpublished Met Office study, when the carbon cycle effects are included, future drought is even worse.”

The UK study shows that we are already seeing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions on drought: “In the last decade of the 20th century droughts were nearly 25% more widespread than in the previous 40 years.” Climate Progress has noted the undercoverage of the drought-climate link in the major US media, but the British media certainly gets it, as evidenced by the cover story in The Independent. That may be because there is less muzzling of scientists. The Met Office is actually within the UK’s Ministry of Defence.

Full Article Here

No Arms Race In Space

From an article in the Washington Post today

...there isn't an arms race in space...because no one else has the capability of racing there but the US...

Bush Sets Defense As Space Priority
U.S. Says Shift Is Not A Step Toward Arms; Experts Say It Could Be

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests."

The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.

"Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power," the policy asserts in its introduction.

National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said in written comments that an update was needed to "reflect the fact that space has become an even more important component of U.S. economic, national and homeland security." The military has become increasingly dependent on satellite communication and navigation, as have providers of cellphones, personal navigation devices and even ATMs.

The administration said the policy revisions are not a prelude to introducing weapons systems into Earth orbit. "This policy is not about developing or deploying weapons in space. Period," said a senior administration official who was not authorized to speak on the record.

Nevertheless, Michael Krepon, co-founder of the Henry L. Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank that follows the space-weaponry issue, said the policy changes will reinforce international suspicions that the United States may seek to develop, test and deploy space weapons. The concerns are amplified, he said, by the administration's refusal to enter negotiations or even less formal discussions on the subject.

"The Clinton policy opened the door to developing space weapons, but that administration never did anything about it," Krepon said. "The Bush policy now goes further."

Theresa Hitchens, director of the nonpartisan Center for Defense Information in Washington, said that the new policy "kicks the door a little more open to a space-war fighting strategy" and has a "very unilateral tone to it."

The administration official strongly disagreed with that characterization, saying the policy encourages international diplomacy and cooperation. But he said the document also makes clear the U.S. position: that no new arms-control agreements are needed because there is no space arms race.

Amazon Rainforest Conservation

..another from ENN...

..snip..

Brazil Tells Foreigners Amazon Not for Sale

October 18, 2006 — By Andrea Welsh, Reuters



BRASILIA, Brazil -- Brazil Tuesday rejected a foreign proposal to buy and preserve land in the endangered Amazon and asked former U.S. Vice President Al Gore to support a home-grown rainforest-protection plan.

Gore, who has become a prominent green campaigner since leaving office, is in Brazil to promote the Portuguese-language version of his new book on climate change, "An Inconvenient Truth".

"The former vice president will study the proposal and may become a supporter," Environment Minister Marina Silva said in a statement after meeting Gore in Sao Paulo.

Brazil wants international support to help preserve the Amazon, the world's largest remaining tropical rainforest. Negotiators will present the new conservation plan at a round of global climate talks in Nairobi next month.

Full Article

Private Nature Reserves & Conservation Networking

An article today from the Environmental News Network...

...snip

First Symposium on Private Nature Reserves for Conservation

October 11, 2006 — By the World Land Trust

SUFFOLK, U.K. — Last week the IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands and the World Land Trust (WLT) hosted the first symposium on "Land Purchase as an Intervention Strategy for Biodiversity Conservation". Fourteen representatives of organisations from around the world, and funded by the hosts, gathered in a small hotel inside a Dutch national park to compare and exchange experiences.

John Burton, the WLT's CEO said "Having been to many meetings and symposia over the years, I can confidently say this was by far the most productive I have ever attended. All the participants were enthusiastic, and all very much involved in all aspects of the discussions." The topics discussed included how to make reserves financially viable, strategies for fundraising, and how the organisations could learn from each other. The World Land Trust has agreed to host a website where the case studies and other information made available will be posted, giving other organisations involved in land purchase access to the experiences.

Full Article

New Bill Signed Today That Will Save Us...

...from having fair trials, legal representation, habeas corpus, and from not being able to be put to death on hearsay...

Whew! finally, those witch trials can begin again in earnest...

beatings, torture, why not see if suspected terrorists float or not?

Read Full Article Here

and here is a snippet from the article where the director of the ACLU comments,

The American Civil Liberties Union said the new law is "one of the worst civil liberties measures ever enacted in American history."

"The president can now, with the approval of Congress, indefinitely hold people without charge, take away protections against horrific abuse, put people on trial based on hearsay evidence, authorize trials that can sentence people to death based on testimony literally beaten out of witnesses, and slam shut the courthouse door for habeas petitions," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero.

"Nothing could be further from the American values we all hold in our hearts than the Military Commissions Act," he said.

Multi-Touch Interaction Research

...cool... can't wait for this tech-crack...

check it..

A Loss of Faith

What does an insider say about the Administration and their relationship with the Faith-Base that supports them?

Read this:

(CBS) David Kuo is an evangelical Christian and card-carrying member of the religious right, who got a job in the White House in the president’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He thought it was a dream-come-true: a chance to work for a president whose vision about compassionate conservatism would be matched with sweeping legislation to help the poor.

But Kuo says the so-called compassion agenda has fallen short of its promise and he blames President Bush for that in his new book.

As correspondent Lesley Stahl reports, he also says the White House was a place that cynically used religion for political ends and that White House aides ridiculed the very Christian leaders who helped bring Mr. Bush to office. Continued...

Watch it here: A Loss of Faith

...rumors of build up...

There is talk circulating about a build up of forces near I*ran...

...here is what I have seen lately...

The aircraft carrier Eisenhower, accompanied by the guided-missile cruiser USS Anzio, guided-missile destroyer USS Ramage, guided-missile destroyer USS Mason and the fast-attack submarine USS Newport News, is, as I write, making its way to the Straits of Hormuz off Iran. The ships will be in place to strike Iran by the end of the month. It may be a bluff. It may be a feint. It may be a simple show of American power. But I doubt it.

Chris Hedges
Does Bush Think War With Iran is Preordained?
October 10, 2006

Where's yer Habeas Corpus?

You might want to think about the what this means for a country that was established in order to have rights like Habeas Corpus...because not having them was to be the subject of injustice.

Oh, and btw, for those who profess faith in Christianity and promote it as a reason to be followed as a leader...

perhaps the basic tenets of the faith should be reviewed and matched against their actions...

LIVE A LIFE DEDICATED TO:

*Compassion
*Forgiveness
*Humility
*Justice
*Service to Others (particularly those in need, the sick, the poor, the sad)
*Loving your neighbors and your enemies as you love yourself

certainly JUSTICE stands out as one to look at considering the following...

The Science of Fear

...so I ran across the free article today from the WSJ about the psychology of fear and how its influence over people, particularly when it comes to voting...

Snippit...

A growing number of studies offer clues as to how terrorism and other deadly events affect people's voting decisions. The latest research shows that because such violent political acts are brutal reminders of death, they make conservatives, but not liberals, more hostile toward those perceived as different, and more supportive of extreme military policies, according to a study in April in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

For 20 years, researchers have been exploring how people manage the fear engendered by intimations of mortality. Reminded of the inevitability of their own death (which happens to a lesser degree by merely walking past a funeral parlor), people try to quench or at least manage the resulting "existential terror" in several ways. They become more certain of their worldview or faith. They conform more closely to the norms of their society. They show greater reverence for symbols of their society, such as flags and crucifixes.

All of these make people feel more secure and, crucially, a part of something larger -- something that will outlive them.

Building up your own worldview requires disparaging (even unconsciously) that of others. If beliefs that contradict yours have any worth, then by definition they call into question the absolute validity of your own. The result is stronger feelings of hostility toward those with different values and beliefs.

This "worldview defense," says psychology researcher Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College, "reduces the terror that reminders of your own death bring." These results have been replicated in some 300 lab experiments, including in cultures with very different ideas about an afterlife.

Which brings us back to the effect on voters of a terrorist attack and its brutal reminders of mortality. Although some voters would feel betrayed by incumbents who failed to protect them, researchers say, these days that trend would more likely be swamped by a surge toward candidates perceived as hawks on national security.

Interesting no? Psychology, particularly behavioral theories and practices, can be seen in use all over in media, business, and politics. This kind of psychology and tactics are aimed directly at the part of humans that is quite animal because these are such ingrained and inherint hardwired parts of being animal. It actually requires higher consciousness to overcome these simple and ingrained triggers, however it takes conscious awareness of what is happening to do so. Otherwise, by definition, it is unconsciously working on us.

Surely we overcome such impulses daily, and also we follow them daily as well. But to sway large portions of the population what does it really take? appeal, push, trigger the baser instincts that are part of our hard-wired heritage. In other words, treat people like sheep.

The results...you can begin to measure the actual conscious awareness of the population. Aint that sad. Okay, maybe that is simplification. But that is in general how I see it.

The article is saying, apply fear of death and everyone sticks to their guns more, their point of view more. That is interesting. But I think it would take more research to explain why fear of death would drive liberally leaning folks to be more liberal? for me, the effectiveness of psychological manipulation rests within the realm of self-awareness and level of consciousness within the individual and society.

Day One

since I tend to barrage my friends with articles and information and whatnot that I find interesting, or appalling, or noteworthy....

I decided to have mercy and just place them on a blog so they could be all in one handy place and not filling up inboxes :)