Friday, October 22, 2010

Headlines - Friday October 22

 
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The Failures of Abstinence-Only Education

Really?

Although national teen-pregnancy rates are on the decline, the disparities between states are often dramatic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Wednesday.

[...] In Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont, for instance, 2008 birth rates were less than 25 per 1,000 teens aged 15 to 19, CDC found. In the same year, Arkansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas all had rates topping 60 per 1,000 teens.Mississippi had the country's highest rate (65.7), CDC says, while New Hampshire had the lowest (19.8).

Leslie Kantor, national education director of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said the report "makes it crystal clear that the teen birthrate is lower in states that provide students with comprehensive, evidence-based sex education."

A recent report from the Guttmacher Institute, a women's reproductive health group, bolsters those claims. All five states with the highest teen birth rates have adopted policies requiring that abstinence be stressed when taught as part of sex education, HIV education or both, the group found. Only one of the five states (New Mexico) mandates that sex education be a part of students' curriculum.

Of the four states with the lowest teen birth rates, none requires that abstinence be stressed to students, according to Guttmacher.

There is a serious price to pay for ignorance and yet teabaggers and friends hope for a return to the very time when ignorance of this sort was not only applauded but was promoted by the White House itself.

"Teen pregnancy is a serious national problem, and we need to use the best science of what works to address it," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at the time.

Kantor says the focus on evidence-based reproductive health education marks "a radical change from the Bush administration, which favored and funded abstinence-only sex education."

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Joe Conason: Thugs on the Right Link
 
The Teabaggers have no idea what they stand for.
At their rallies, they say, "I want my country back," which means nothing.
They say, "We believe in freedom and the Constitution," implying what - that we don't?
They say, "We want lower taxes," but Obama gave them that and they don't even know it.

They also want smaller government and they want the government to continue to borrow
money from China so we can further enrich the super-rich - which makes no sense at all.

Their glue is the hope they can get rid of that NitWH - but they can't say that on TV.

Too bad the Democrats don't know how to play politics. While the Right plays hardball,
the best our limp Democrats can do is a lame-ass game of patty-cake.
 
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panic room.jpg
 
Sympathetic Fox news hands Juan Williams a bunch of money
 
Finally, a fresh voice.

Wait a second, does Juan Williams really believe we should be afraid of "Muslim garb" when we see it on a plane? Greg Sargent seems to think so, based on Williams' new statement on what happened. Well forget it. Maybe he is a bigot. If you want further, equally implicit evidence that Williams is a bigot, Fox News just handed him a $2 million contract for an "expanded role" on the network. "Juan has been a staunch defender of liberal viewpoints since his tenure began at Fox News in 1997," Roger Ailes said. "He's an honest man whose freedom of speech is protected by Fox News on a daily basis." Jesus Christ. Fox News is Juan Williams' personal ACLU. READ MORE »

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Sarah Palin fans need "The Constitution for Dummies"......

 
..... And so does Palin, if she thinks Juan Williams' firing is a "First Amendment violation". Fucking idiot.

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Wisco: Some of the tea party's best friends are .....
 
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Glenn Beck and Creationist Idiocy

Every time I hear a creationist claim that evolution is a myth, I shake my head and smile.  And that's because I know only too well that the individual has not taken the time to do their due diligence and actually investigate what it is that evolution is.  And how would I know this?  Well because they spout off the same nonsense that came out of Glenn Beck's mouth yesterday when he said he believes that it is "ridiculous" to believe that "we came from monkeys."

"I haven't seen a half-monkey, half-person yet."

Not content with coming off as a moron with that last line, Beck goes on to say:

They have to force it down your throat. When anyone has to force it, it's a problem. You didn't have to force that the world was round. You didn't have to.

Truth is truth. You don't have to force the truth. You just keep adding evidence and evidence and evidence and evidence until it becomes self-evident.

Wow.  It's hard to imagine that anyone could pack so much crap into a couple of sentences.  But then again, we're talking Beck here, the ultimate bullshit/idiot-meister. I'm not going to bother trying to refute nonsense of this sort.  I've wasted too many hours of my life debating people like Beck – simpletons who would rather hang on to childish fairy tales then actually do the study necessary to allow for intelligent debate.   But if you do care, MediaMatters puts in the attempt here.

I'll just say for the hundredth time that evolution does not speak of the existence of god or gods or for that matter, the beginnings of life.   It says only that the diversity of life we see around us has come about in the most beautiful and elegant of ways – evolution.  It is the individual's choice to study and know or remain clouded in ignorance.  What is not an option though, is forcing their self-imposed ignorance down the throat of schoolchildren.

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Strict Constructionists

by digby

Just remember, the constitution was meant to protect Christian conservatives from people they disagree with.
Therefore, they are justified in doing whatever it takes to get their way:

CONSTITUENT: Keith, I have a question concerning the courts. It seems that the courts are having the final say on these matters, the Supreme Court. But isn't it the Congress that can ultimately override the Supreme Court, the checks and balances?

ROTHFUS: Yeah, there are different checks and balances you can do. Congress's ultimate weapon is funding. If the Supreme Court rules you have to do something, we'll just take away funding for it.

Then he said that they need to pass constitutional amendments preventing the court from taking international law into account. (Presumably, this would also require polygraphs to determine if the justices are taking it into account in their minds ...)

These people simply don't believe in democracy and they refuse to accept that they have to share the governance of the country with people they don't agree with.
 
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Digby: Christine O'Donnell really is a typical American

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clarence_t_apologize_200

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/apologize_to_hill/index2.html?rc=paste1&r_by=11941-1728257-OSvnEpx

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Somehow ...

I don't think this was the doing of the evil Muslims:

LATEST: The package that was sent to [Rep. Raul] Grijalva's office today was covered with swastikas and the white powder has been CONFIRMED to be a toxic substance!

This should now be classified as an official TERRORIST attack, just like these types of events immediately after 9/11 were.

...
I wonder if the media will call it a "prank"?
 
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Was it Barbara Eden's 'Muslim Garb' that
made Juan Williams nervous, or was it,
perhaps, something else?
 
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Global Vampire Squid News
 
Here's a real shocker: The thieves and pirates of Goldman Sachs have given millions of dollars to the Chamber of Commerce's slush political campaign, along with the other rapacious bastards in various insurance businesses. Dow Chemical, one of the largest makers of carcinogenic products in the world, gave the Chamber of Corruption well over a million dollars.

If you think that those companies give a flying fuck about you, you are sadly mistaken. They don't care if your health car stinks, if the environment is poisoned or if the climate warms past a tipping point, only so long as their opportunity to rake in boatloads of cash today is not hindered in the slightest.  
 
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Letting your opponents' lies determine your actions: surrenders don't come more abject. "Sikh groups have urged US President Barack Obama not to avoid visiting the Golden Temple in Amritsar during his India trip next month, amid reports he is now unlikely to go there. A US official told the BBC there were "logistical" issues. Mr Obama would need to cover his head to enter the temple and there are reported concerns opponents would use this to show he is a closet Muslim. The Golden Temple, or Harmandar Sahib, is Sikhism's holiest site. Sikhs have been urged to use social network sites to press Mr Obama to go ahead with the visit."
 
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BREAKING: Rich Dudes Love Republicans
 
Artist's depiction of typical Republican donor
 
Because all Republican rhetoric is about how the ELITE represses the PEOPLE and we should always side with the PEOPLE against the ELITE and their SINISTER GOVERNMENT, you might think that America's actual economic elite would be opposed to Republican policies. You would be wrong, though! For instance, over the course of this cycle rich dude Bob Perry has spread a cool $11 million around among Karl Rove's American Crossroads election cabal and the Republican Governors Association. Also, radical outsider Tea Party candidates are getting campaign money from rich Wall Street fat cats, via John Boehner! [NYT, WP]
 
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Remember Ralph Reed, shameless leader of '90s boy band "the Christian Coalition" and smooth-faced huckster for Casino Jesus? Your book reviewer doesn't spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about Ralph Reed, but he occasionally wonders, "How does Ralph Reed spend his time when he's not manufacturing rube hysteria and gobbling up Jack Abramoff lobbying fees to fund his large tacky house in the Atlanta suburbs? Really, what are his hobbies?" Book scientists can now confirm he "writes" novels. Who knew?!

Reed just dropped a hot new pile of slash fiction called The Confirmation. When your reviewer first saw the title, he expected a comic murder mystery set in an Assembly of God confirmation class, with comical down-home dialogue along the lines of, "Why ain't Pastor Slaughter got a head no more? Looks like the Lord needs tah provide uh private detective!" Alas for the universe, it turns out The Confirmation is a roman-à-clef about Latinos on the Supreme Court and Iranian nukes. And Somali pirates. And sinister ships carrying Iraqi "yellow cake" across the sea. And feminists being all angry about some Catholic Mexican on the Supreme Court. And a horny Democratic senator who regularly mounts young interns and staffers. And a hot leader of Israel's Likud Party. All of human life, basically.

Keep reading: http://wonkette.com/427217/a-pirateabortionnukefashion-epic-by-ralph-reed

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Polluter-Funded Groups Spending Almost $70 Million On Anti-Clean Energy Ads

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GOP Candidate Hartzler Wants 'Government To Leave Us Alone' Yet Has Taken $774,325 In Federal Subsidies

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Running For Congress On Opposition To 'Failed' Stimulus, Tim Walberg Acknowledges His Son Got A Stimulus Job