Tiger Beatdown is leading the charge against State Rep Bobby Franklin of Georgia, the guy who thinks every pregnancy miscarriage needs to be investigated as a potential abortion. (h/t Echidne)

MN Progressive Project: Those that forget the lessons of history, tend to vote GOP

Balloon Juice: The Comedic Stylings of Pravda DC.

Welcome back to the blogosphere, Amygdala.

Send tips to mbru AT crooksandliars DOT com.

Incertus: How anti-choice really equals forced pregnancy

The NonSequitur: The bold, feudal "moral imagination" of the Wall Street Journal on health care

Zaius Nation: Barack Obama's evil master plot revealed!

Lawyers, Guns and Money: Liberalism's favorite laboratory, and the costs of inaction.

distributorcap,ny: Dear Mr. Sponsor, about your ads in Glenn Beck's show...

Dana Milbank's Mouthpiece Theater was all Lance Mannion's fault

Guest post by Batocchio. Temporarily e-mail tips to batocchio9 AT yahoo DOT com

Obsidian Wings: Here are a series of excerpts concerning the use of torture. See if you can guess the speakers.

Attytood: Philadelphia Inquirer is defending the the indefensible.  They've hired John Yoo to do a monthly column.

Suicide Girls: This will be the first time we are going to have a justice picked by a non-asshole since the 90’s. Let's Go Gay

Matthew Yglesias: Richard Posner throws in the towel on the conservative movement

naked capitalism: Links!

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Big Bank ltd, thump and whip, Conceptual Guerilla, Night Bird's Fountain

balloon juice: More on doing, versus doing well

feministe: Caitlin Flanagan in NYT: Pregnancy is punishment, but you should also be sure to regret abortion and adoption for good measure, you slut.

3 quarks daily: What to do about our democracy's obsession with sexuality

digby: Take the test, then go over to Roger Ailes for the answers

no more mister nice blog: I have a better idea...how about not running at all? For anything?

gristmill: McCain on climate and coal in Michigan

the opinion mill: Bookchat

Those who are concerned with reality probably didn’t need more evidence that abstinence-only programs don't work, but we have some anyway. The nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy released the results of its latest research project this week.

“At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners” among teenagers, the study concluded. […]

The study found that while abstinence-only efforts appear to have little positive impact, more comprehensive sex education programs were having “positive outcomes” including teenagers “delaying the initiation of sex, reducing the frequency of sex, reducing the number of sexual partners and increasing condom or contraceptive use.”

“Two-thirds of the 48 comprehensive programs that supported both abstinence and the use of condoms and contraceptives for sexually active teens had positive behavior effect,” said the report.

You mean, simply telling teenagers not to have sex doesn’t work? And quality, comprehensive education does? And the Bush administration insists on supporting the prior while rejecting the latter? You don’t say.

Crackpot Press:  Texas GOP Governor happy to fund movies made in Texas but wants to okay the final cut.  I think he just wants a free view of Jennifer Anniston's "Lone Star Girls in Prison" movie.

Progressive Historians:  Are the best Presidential candidates those who don't care if they win or lose?

Largest Minority:  Impeachment of Cheney wins more support

Figleaf:  (NSFW) Sam Brownback and the forced pregnancy policy makers who love him.  [Figleaf is NSFW but this link is image-free.]

Truthout:  Surprise!  An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, emails and financial transactions in recent years.

And in C&L news:  Mike Finnigan has his opening gig with Joe Cocker at the America's Cup in Valencia, Spain tonight.  Break a leg, Mike honey!

guest round-up by Blue Gal

We've mentioned this before, but this op-ed in my local paper had me laughing so hard I thought it was worth sharing. Kudos to Hugh for calling my attention to it.

SF Chronicle:

It is the only way to account for something like, say, the latest twist in the Abstinence Education Program from Bush's increasingly laughable Department of Health and Human Services, a $50 million slice of embarrassing government detritus that is now actually encouraging all states to tell their single, youngish residents that they should -- how to put this so you don't shoot coffee through your nose? -- that everyone should avoid sex entirely, until they turn 30.

See? See your reaction? You are like: No way. You are like: Is the United States government really saying that? You are like: Laughter, a smirk, maybe a shrug and a sigh and a sad shake of the head and another glass of wine because, you know, what the hell is wrong with these people?

Maybe you think I am making this up. Maybe you think that our fair government, as sad and lost and nipple-terrified as it is, can't seriously be suggesting that, to avoid STDs and unwanted pregnancy and unchecked misery in their obviously sad and irresponsible little lives, single people under 30 should not have sex, like, ever. And maybe not even then.

You would, of course, be wrong.

It's for real. It's an actual HHS dictum and there are people who actually believe it should be adhered to, and I'm right now guessing you broke this rule this very morning and if you didn't you really, really wanted to, and if you're over 30 and/or married chances are you are sitting there right now wishing you were still single and/or under 30 just one more time just so you could squishily, juicily break that rule again, oh my God yes please. Just a guess.

Read full article here

King of Zembla: The death, three years ago, of British weapons inspector David Kelly smelled at the time. It stinks now.

Democrats.com: Republican hypocrisy on teen pregnancy

Confined Space: Unions petition OSHA to deal with a slow-motion chemical disaster.

Orcinus: That head-scratchin' right-wing logic

The Poor Man Institute: Your professional pundit class in action

Take a look at this powerful video from Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America

NBC News, PEOPLE Magazine commission landmark national poll

The vast majority (87%) of teens aged 13 to 16, have not had sexual intercourse. Most (73%) have not been sexually intimate at all. Seventy-four percent say they have not had sex because they made a conscious decision not to. As many (75%) have not because they believe they are too young. Many say they abstain because they fear the potential consequences—pregnancy (74%), STDs (71%), parents’ reaction (65%). While just more than half say it is because they haven’t met the right person yet (54%), few say it is because of a lack of opportunity (21%). Four in 10 (42%) say they have not because of religious or moral beliefs.

please read the full transcript here

Reading this report should stifle claims by religious groups and others that say our teens are being corrupted by explicit sexual references in televison and movies, but it probably won't. If anything this study shows just how intelligent teens are in expressing their understanding and practices regarding sex.

Teens are most likely to say they talk often to their friends about sex and sexual relationships (62%). Four in 10 (41%) also say they talk with their parents often. Teens are much less likely to speak with school and religious leaders.

Some Abstinence Programs Mislead Teens, Report Says
By Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 2, 2004

Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found.

Those and other assertions are examples of the "false, misleading, or distorted information" in the programs' teaching materials, said the analysis, released yesterday, which reviewed the curricula of more than a dozen projects aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Many American youngsters participating in federally funded abstinence-only programs have been taught over the past three years that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus, and that touching a person's genitals "can result in pregnancy," a congressional staff analysis has found...read on

So just lie to the kids and see how it works. That's a great initiative.

Here are some of them:

Among the misconceptions cited by Waxman's investigators:

• A 43-day-old fetus is a "thinking person."

• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears.

• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.

...One curriculum, called "Me, My World, My Future," teaches that women who have an abortion "are more prone to suicide" and that as many as 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says fertility is not affected by elective abortion the Waxman report said.

I have no objection talking about abstinence as a surefire way to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases," Waxman said. "I don't think we ought to lie to our children about science. Something is seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about basic health facts."

Where was the time tested golden oldie about masturbation: "If you touch yourself, you'll go crazy or grow hair on your palms. Funny... the only thing that did was keep me looking at my hands with a magnifying glass.

How successful was the "Just say no to drugs."

from Salon

In October of 2001, the researchers published their latest report assessing the cumulative effectiveness of all the new ads that had been issued by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign since its launch. The good news was that drug ads targeting parents often do encourage parents to talk to their kids about drugs. The bad news was that, thus far, the media campaign hadn't had a measurable impact on the kids at all.

There is a much greater inherent problem in teaching abstinence from sex than in "Just say no to drugs"

Remember the phrase"It's the economy stupid!"

Well here's a new one: "It's the biology stupid!" It's human nature, it's the body wanting to do what it is created for; procreation. Most people and especially teens can't turn off their sex drive any more than they can stop taking breathes of air.

There is no harm in trying to teach abstinence, it is just doomed to failure. If you are going to teach a concept, at least be honest in your approach. Having an truthful dialogue will go much farther than any lie being told to perpetrate an idea!