DISQUS

Here's how McCain is going to "lead us out of this dark and terrible time" - with more of the same. He helped dig us into this hole in the first place, after all, and his plans for Iraq and the economy aren't appreciably different from Bush's miserable failures. That's not "leadership", it's bull-headedness.

$113 million is a pretty big "drop in the bucket." I think it would be better to call into question the "critical thinking" of conservative lawmakers who keep spending millions on a program that doesn't accomplish anything. Sounds more like "wishful thinking." Plus, at least where I live, abstinence isn't being offered alongside other "principles and practices" of safety - it's being pushed as the only sex education that should be taught to high school students, which has been shown to leave teens and young adults woefully unprepared if and when they do eventually decide to become sexually active. Abstinence-only programs are counterproductive--unless their real goal is to punish young people for sexual activity, in which case they work very well.

Marvelous smarmy-conservative quote from the article:



"There is no more scientific fact," said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), "that abstinence is the only way to prevent STD's and pregnancy."



That's your abstinence-only take home lesson in a 17-word nutshell, and it's as inaccurate as it is dishonest. Condoms and contraceptives do a darn good job of preventing STDs and pregnancies, too. And while abstinence certainly does the trick, that doesn't change the "scientific fact" that abstinence-only education is a miserable failure - a $113 million Bush-ian pipe dream.

Basic science research findings (see gingertaylor