I do read. I've read that condoms are only 86% effective at stopping pregnancy. More teens start prokin', more teens are going to get pregnant. It's a statistical inevidibility.
Apparently you don't read. Either that, or you don't like sticking on topic. Because you've not once, in ANY of your posts that I read, addressed the OP's actual article or statement but just ran off on your own tangent with nothing backing it up.
It's not our president. It's our culture. Off on a tanget here. I'm so sick of people saying Americans are uptight about sex. Our culture is nothing BUT sex. I was reading a gardening site last night, and a pair of t*ts were staring me in the face. :shock:
I agree with a
lot of what you said there StandUpChuck.
However, there's no more evidence that the things you've stated attributed to the increase are the reason than there is that abstinence only education attributed to it. You're making anecdotal conjecture based on correlation, just like the ones saying Bush caused it are.
Could it be social? Yes. Could it be educational? Yes. Could it be something completely seperate? Yes.
We'd need to do a number of things...
Look at places where the pregnancy rates are the highest, and the places where they've risen the most. What sex education was going on there, during what years? If it was once one kind and switched over to another what did the pregnancy and STD rates do in relation to those times?
What is the family life like for these various places? What is the income level? What kind of cultural effects may have played into it. How strict or lax were their parents? How prevelant was sexual encounters in their particular school?
Those that are saying that definitively, unquestionably, this has nothing to do with Abstinence only education and Bush are being just as poor logicly as those that are saying its definitely due to it. Those that are asserting that it is definitively societal issues that causes it without any more evidence than the other side has is just as erronious.
Personally, I think it is a mix of things.
I think a hyper sexualized society where we have people famous for no other reason than the fact they've had sex or act slutty, where even things aimed at preteens are sexualized, where there's so much awareness of sex and sexual practices MIXED with piss poor education about how to be protected is a very, very dangerous mix.
I think its a pathetic, disgusting, and somehow unsurprising look at our country that SEX ED has become such a ****ing partisan topic. Its sickening, its disgusting, and its sad. The fact that both sides must so polarize into the extremes of their sides and stick their fingers in their ears going "LALALALA I can't hear you I must insult you without question lalalalalala" is a disservice to our children and is a glaring example of what's wrong with this country.
Pure abstinence only education is idoitic, irresponsable, unsafe, and frankly insulting. This is doubly true when many of the course material for it out and out purposefully lies or distorts legitimate true information in hopes of scaring and propogandizing kids. We never want our kids to go to a bad neighborhood, we'd alwasy want to make sure they know to avoid it. But would we still not tell them "don't go down dark alleys, don't talk to strangers, don't accept things from people" so that if they somehow DID wind up in a bad neighborhood they'd at least know smart ways to deal with the situation? Condoms are not the devil. They are not evil. They are not villianous. And a CONDOM never MADE someone have sex no matter how much some idiotic conservatives seem to act like they do.
On the flip side.
The idiocy by some on the "comprehensive" side is equally disgusting and irresponsable. No, sex does not need to be promoted as something people need to go out and experiment with when you're teaching it in middle or even high school. We don't need to be urging people to "find their sexuality" which can just as easily confuse kids that would previously not be confused as help those that are. We don't need to be giving out condoms and at times lube freely and willfully while going "You know, just in case". We don't need to go into decent detail about different sexual acts. And above all,
YES, we most DEFINITELY should be stressing to kids, especially ones that are younger, that abstinence is GOOD and the only SURE way to avoid pregnancy and STD's is to NOT engage in sexual conduct. Do we know that some of them are going to anyways? Yes, yes they are, and that's why the other portions are important. But its ALSO important to stress that its probably not SMART to be doing that and the potential risks and dangers of it in a real, legitimate way so that you DO deter some from it.
This idiotic all or nothing position so many people seem to be on baffles my mind and leads me to believe its nothing but pure, pathetic, hyper partisan politics as people try to score political points. We don't need pure abstinence only education, and we don't need hyper sexualized sex education either. We need a balanced, informative, factually based sex education that encourages and promotes abstinence while informing and teaching of the ways to protect yourself when you do eventually become sexually active. Having one, or the other, but not both, is irresponsible and putting politics ahead of logic and the well being of our youth.
