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Another nail in the coffin of abstinence training...

STD Risk Not Decreased Despite Virginity Pledges

March 20, 2005

A new study has found that young adults who make virginity pledges are just as likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) compared with those who do not take a pledge.

The study, by Yale and Columbia University researchers and published in Journal of Adolescent Health debunks the theory being pushed by the abstinence movement in the U.S.

All of the pseudoscience of the religious right is finally starting to come apart. It was really only a matter of time. The assumption that you could just tell teenagers to "stop having sex" and that this would miraculously end all of the social ills of STDs and unplanned pregnancy has now been proved false. It was a dangerous assumption to begin with.

In these days of fast track political attention for myriad right wing "morality" issues, I would hope that this small study will get some kind of serious attention. I am fairly pessimistic about that but it doesn't hurt to get it out there. The more we hear about the pseudo science surrounding the conservative righ the more frightened I get. This piece takes a bit of the pressure off of the "reality based community" and places it back on the bad science of the Christian right, where it belongs.

There's overkill and then there's this.

Yahoo! News - Woman's Scooter Blown Up in Security Scare

LONDON (Reuters) - Heidi Brown was told she could park her new scooter outside the vehicle registration office while she waited to get license plates.

To her horror, it was blown up by the army after someone reported that it might be a bomb.

Police in Ipswich, eastern England, confirmed on Thursday that a moped had been blown up in a controlled explosion after local business people "raised concerns" that it could be a bomb.

"The moped was chained to the perimeter fence outside the building. We weren't able to identify whose vehicle it was because there were no license plates on it," said a spokeswoman for Suffolk police.

She said the surrounding office buildings were evacuated and three roads were closed off.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported the scooter belonged to Brown, a 22-year-old care worker, who said she had been told she could leave it there awaiting inspection.

Man! talk about a ruthless no parking policy! I mean holy cow!

Bride of reanimator or "Come see the Senate Freak Show"

It seems that the mighty Christian right faction within the US Senate has decided that the best thing to do to keep alive a woman in Florida who has been in a constant vegetative state is to subpoena her to testify on the floor of the senate.

I am horrified. There are some things that I have come to expect from the right, but I just can't get my head around this. the idea that they are getting involved at all is somewhat suspect but the fact that they are essentially puttting this poor woman on display as a freak for the national news media really goes way too far. Shoe some kind of decency.

I have a hard time thinking of how I would react were it my family member. If we had discussed this possible outcome and their wishes had been known. How would I feel to have my family member paraded in front of the hot lights of TV cameras just to make political hay for the pro life movement?

And just how pro life are they anyway? Aren't these the very same people who are all for capital punishment?

I'm disgusted.

Does anybody else think this is a bad idea?

The New York Times > AP > National > Bush to Recommend Wolfowitz for World Bank Post

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Wednesday tapped Defense Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who has been a lightning rod for criticism of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and other defense policies, to take over as head of the World Bank.

Bush told a news conference that Wolfowitz, now Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's top deputy, was ``a compassionate, decent man who will do a fine job at the World Bank. That's why I put him up.''

Yeah, Umm... I guess... If you consider a decent manthe kind that just can't wait to take his country to war under false pretences and then defend those false pretences in the light of mounting evidence to the contrary.... then yes, I guess he would be decent.

The very paragon of virtue our Mr. Wolfowitz.

Then again it would get him out of the defence department...

Oh come on! You've gotta be kidding me...

Yahoo! News - FBI suggests Congress ban gun sales to terrorism suspects

FBI Director Robert Mueller suggested Tuesday that Congress consider barring terrorism suspects from legally buying guns after an audit found that 47 people on a terrorism watch list were approved for purchases last year.

Gun sales are denied to convicted felons, fugitives, convicted drug users, illegal aliens and others under federal gun laws. But a Government Accountability Office report made public Tuesday pointed out that being suspected of having a link to a terrorist or a terrorist group is not among the nine criteria that prevent someone from legally buying a firearm.

I have been taking a bit of a rest here in the last few weeks but this one got my attention in a big way. I mean aren't we ALREADY SUPPOSED TO BE DISALLOWING TERROR SUSPECTS FROM BUYING GUNS IN THE USA? Am I missing something?! Just so I'm clear on this: As a terror suspect you can't ride on an airplane or commercial railroad but you can go through an FBI background check and get signed off to purchase any gun you want?

WTF?!