The birth rate among teenagers 15 to 19 in the United States rose 3 percent in 2006, according to a report issued Wednesday, the first such increase since 1991. The finding surprised scholars and fueled a debate about whether the Bush administration’s abstinence-only sexual education efforts are working.
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The federal government spends $176 million annually on such programs. But a landmark study recently failed to demonstrate that they have any effect on delaying sexual activity among teenagers, and some studies suggest that they may actually increase pregnancy rates.
“Spending tens of million of tax dollars each year on programs that hurt our children is bad medicine and bad public policy,” said Dr. David A. Grimes, vice president of Family Health International, a nonprofit reproductive health organization based in North Carolina…
…President Bush noted the long decline in teenage pregnancy rates in his 2006 State of the Union address, saying, “Wise policies such as welfare reform, drug education and support for abstinence and adoption have made a difference in the character of our country.”
The White House did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
But the Heritage foundation commented (from the same article):
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow with the Heritage Foundation, said that blaming abstinence-only programs was “stupid.” Mr. Rector said that most young women who became pregnant were highly educated about contraceptives but wanted to have babies.
Where’s your proof, Bob? We’ve recently seen studies from Florida and Texas that show increased pregnancy rates among young women getting the abstinence-only version of sex education; in Texas, the contraceptive part of the education is reserved for those young ladies who have already gotten pregnant.
Stupid to blame abstinence-only? I think not. Just add it to the list of BushCo failed policies that cost the taxpayers a fortune and ruin lives.
Even CNN reported on this and blamed it on abstinence-only education. Of course, they only said it once, compared with the hundreds of times they have to report on the latest dead or missing white woman.
You’d have to be a total, complete twit to say ” …most young women who became pregnant were highly educated about contraceptives but wanted to have babies.” and to say it out loud. Oy.
I could hardly believe someone could say that out loud and with a straight face. He’s probably a leftover from the days of complaining about “welfare queens” living high on the hog from having baby after baby on the public dime.
it’s almost like being Republican is a sure sign that you’re some sort of deviant these days. Is that all that’s left in their party? OC Weekly
Jeffrey Ray Nielsen–the well-connected Orange County conservative activist who claimed the so-called liberal media, specifically the Weekly, was out to get him by publishing a series of exposés on his pedophile activities–finally admitted on Dec. 5 that he used two boys for sex since the early 1990s.
In open court, a somber Nielsen, who has extensive personal ties to Congressman Dana Rohrabacher and Orange County Republican Party boss Scott Baugh, gave Superior Court Judge David Thompson signed guilty pleas acknowledging two felonies: committing lewd acts on a 12-year-old Virginia boy and 14-year-old Orange County boy.
In exchange, Nielsen, 37, received a three-year prison sentence, which is relatively mild considering he faced more than a decade in state prison if convicted of the 16 charged crimes. On Jan. 14, Nielsen must enter Del Amo, a Los Angeles County sex-offender facility, for a maximum of 12 weeks. Shortly after he completes that program, he will be transferred to an unknown state prison. State law requires that he complete at least 80 percent of his sentence before being released back into society. He must also register as a sex offender for life.
oh boy…this is gonna make some heads explode over on the reich:
Astronauts test sex in space – but did the earth move?
US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit…
[…]
He cites a confidential Nasa report on a space shuttle mission in 1996. A project codenamed STS-XX was to explore sexual positions possible in a weightless atmosphere.
Twenty positions were tested by computer simulation to obtain the best 10, he says. “Two guinea pigs then tested them in real zero-gravity conditions. The results were videotaped but are considered so sensitive that even Nasa was only given a censored version.”
That is hilarious. How did they select the participants, erm, guinea pigs? Did the “guinea pigs” select each other, and then say it was all for the advancement science? (I can just see it now: “Honey, it really wasn’t cheating, it was a rigorous scientific experiment.”)
And just who handed out the censored versions to NASA?
This article really made my day because yeah I can see all the fundies having their heads probably explode because the government no less is sanctioning SEX…and sex in more than one position-oh the horrors!
The EU special envoy on Kosovo today demanded a retraction of a threat by a senior Serbian official that his country could resort to war if the mostly ethnic Albanian province declares independence.
Aleksandar Simic, an advisor to Serbia’s prime minister, was quoted in the Belgrade media as saying that Serbia had the legal right to use war as a means of defending its territory if Kosovo, a UN protectorate for the past eight years, declares independence in the coming weeks as expected.
Government has closed some civil organizations and placed individuals under house arrest.
Beijing – Last Thursday morning, five law-enforcement agents marched into Zhai Minglei’s Shanghai apartment, seized his computer hard disk and copies of the small magazine he used to publish, and ordered him to report for questioning the next day.
It was the latest blow in what one leader of a nongovernmental organization here calls a “systematic crackdown on the voices of civil society” in China, as the government manufactures the unruffled image it hopes to project to the world during the 2008 Olympic Games.
Civil society groups formed by activists in fields such as environment, social welfare, health, and education “have really suffered setbacks and tougher controls since earlier this year,” adds Wen Bo, China program director for the US NGO Pacific Environment.
Mr. Zhai published an open letter online late last month revealing that his magazine, Minjian, an apparently innocuous publication chronicling NGOs’ development projects, had been forcibly closed by the authorities in July. His quiet efforts to win a reprieve had failed, he says.
Detainees held for nearly six years at the Guantanamo Bay military prison got another hearing at the Supreme Court yesterday, but the justices appeared to remain divided about whether the prisoners deserve a more basic right to challenge their imprisonment before a judge.
At issue is whether the detainees have a constitutional guarantee of the writ of habeas corpus, the ability to try to prove before an independent judge that they are unlawfully held. If so, the court faces the question of whether the alternative military tribunals created by the Bush administration and Congress — which provide a limited role for the federal courts — are an adequate substitute.
It is a case that raises profound questions of the separation of powers and the role of the federal courts during wartime. The scene at the court was befitting of such a moment: Protesters in orange jumpsuits demonstrated outside against Bush administration policies, and more than 70 people spent the night in line to get a place in the courtroom.
bulldozers for the poor and homeless, sweetheart deals and tax credits for the developers.
On the 12th day before Christmas, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is planning to unleash teams of bulldozers to demolish thousands of low-income apartments in New Orleans. Despite Katrina causing the worst affordable housing crisis since the Civil War, HUD is spending $762 million in taxpayer funds to tear down over 4600 public housing subsidized apartments and replace them with 744 similarly subsidized units–an 82% reduction.
[…]
Affordable housing is at a critical point along the Gulf Coast. Over 50,000 families still living in tiny FEMA trailers are being systematically forced out. Over 90,000 homeowners in Louisiana are still waiting to receive federal recovery funds from the Road Home. In New Orleans, hundreds of the estimated 12,000 homeless have taken up residence in small tents across the street from City Hall and under the I-10.
[…]
A federal court has refused to stop the scheduled demolitions. Residents offered evidence to show the three story garden-style buildings were structurally sound and pointed out that the local housing authority itself documented that it would cost much less to repair and retain the apartments than demolish and reconstruct a small fraction of them. The New York Times architecture critic described them as “low scale, narrow footprint and high quality construction.” HUD promised to subject plans for demolition to 100 days of scrutiny–yet approved demolition with no public input in less than two days. The court acknowledged some questions about the fairness of the process but concluded that if the demolitions turn out to be illegal, residents can always recover money damages later.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that requires one for one replacement of any public housing demolished, but Senator David Vitter (R-La) has stopped the Senate version cold.
[…]
HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has his own reasons for pressing ahead with the demolitions. HUD has approved plans to turn over scores of acres of prime public land to private developers for 99 year leases and give hundreds of millions of dollars in direct grants, tax credit subsidies and long-term contracts. One of the developers described it as the biggest tax-credit giveaway in years.
It’s disgusting. The motto of this administration seems to be steal whatever you can for your wealthy friends, and screw the general public as hard and fast as you can while you do it.
I don’t know how we can survive another year of this sh*t. I really don’t.
I wonder what more damage bushco can do also CG in this next year..you’d think they have already looted the treasury and then some but then again criminals can always come up with new schemes to take your money.
I half way expect to get a letter telling me my very small disability income check is going to be cut in half due to ‘fiscal responsibility’.
There doesn’t seem to be a limit to how low they’ll sink. And they do target the people in our society who are the least able to fight back.
I think they’re even starting to scare their own media cheerleaders. But will anyone actually do anything, besides worrying about their own re-election bids in ’08? I’m not too hopeful.
This really is the up is down administration…almost a Billion dollars to tear down houses/apartments instead of using that money to restore and repair them. I can only say sick sorry bastards so many times before it becomes an almost meaningless mantra.
how’s that working, again? NYT
But the Heritage foundation commented (from the same article):
Where’s your proof, Bob? We’ve recently seen studies from Florida and Texas that show increased pregnancy rates among young women getting the abstinence-only version of sex education; in Texas, the contraceptive part of the education is reserved for those young ladies who have already gotten pregnant.
Stupid to blame abstinence-only? I think not. Just add it to the list of BushCo failed policies that cost the taxpayers a fortune and ruin lives.
Even CNN reported on this and blamed it on abstinence-only education. Of course, they only said it once, compared with the hundreds of times they have to report on the latest dead or missing white woman.
You’d have to be a total, complete twit to say ” …most young women who became pregnant were highly educated about contraceptives but wanted to have babies.” and to say it out loud. Oy.
I could hardly believe someone could say that out loud and with a straight face. He’s probably a leftover from the days of complaining about “welfare queens” living high on the hog from having baby after baby on the public dime.
What an idiot.
it’s almost like being Republican is a sure sign that you’re some sort of deviant these days. Is that all that’s left in their party? OC Weekly
oh boy…this is gonna make some heads explode over on the reich:
“guinea pigs?!”…wait’ll chris finds out…gives new meaning to the term: space exploration.
lTMF’sA
That is hilarious. How did they select the participants, erm, guinea pigs? Did the “guinea pigs” select each other, and then say it was all for the advancement science? (I can just see it now: “Honey, it really wasn’t cheating, it was a rigorous scientific experiment.”)
And just who handed out the censored versions to NASA?
1996…hmmm…must be clinton’s fault.
lTMF’sA
This raises a number of questions:
Numbers 3 and 5 were definitely on my mind.
wouldn’t #9 be shuttlecock? <rimshot>
This article really made my day because yeah I can see all the fundies having their heads probably explode because the government no less is sanctioning SEX…and sex in more than one position-oh the horrors!
As if the Balkans need more war…
Top Serbian official issues war threat over Kosovo
China cracks down on NGOs
Justices Appear Divided on Detainees’ Rights
bulldozers for the poor and homeless, sweetheart deals and tax credits for the developers.
the ugly never stops. this is an outrage, and adds insult to injury, with overt racist undertones, yet it receives no national exposure.
l really don’t recognize this country anymore.
lTMF’sA
It’s disgusting. The motto of this administration seems to be steal whatever you can for your wealthy friends, and screw the general public as hard and fast as you can while you do it.
I don’t know how we can survive another year of this sh*t. I really don’t.
I wonder what more damage bushco can do also CG in this next year..you’d think they have already looted the treasury and then some but then again criminals can always come up with new schemes to take your money.
I half way expect to get a letter telling me my very small disability income check is going to be cut in half due to ‘fiscal responsibility’.
There doesn’t seem to be a limit to how low they’ll sink. And they do target the people in our society who are the least able to fight back.
I think they’re even starting to scare their own media cheerleaders. But will anyone actually do anything, besides worrying about their own re-election bids in ’08? I’m not too hopeful.
This really is the up is down administration…almost a Billion dollars to tear down houses/apartments instead of using that money to restore and repair them. I can only say sick sorry bastards so many times before it becomes an almost meaningless mantra.