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.