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When I graduated from high school in San Antonio, Texas, I can remember at least two dozen girls (out of a class of 600) pregnant or already with babies. It may seem astonishing now, but it was fairly normal in 1991: so normal, in fact, that our high school had responded with an academic track geared toward expectant and young mothers.
Based on this history, I wasn't totally shocked to learn that President Bush's abstinence-only program led to a 57 percent rise in student pregnancy in the Lone Star state.
What was truly shocking were the recent headlines that some Texas schools are abandoning abstinence-only education! No kidding, guys, what tipped you off that it wasn't working?
Abstinence-only programs were big in Texas. The state received more program funding than any other state in the nation. But the biggest experiment of this idea demonstrated the biggest failures. Classic Texas. What can we learn from this?
First, let's be real. Kids are doing it, and they're better off if we admit it and inform them properly. Even though I was in a particularly zealous phase of "I'm waiting until I'm married," my parents suspected otherwise and connected me to information and resources. "Just in case, be safe" was my Catholic mom's mantra.
But in Texas, under these programs, lessons on reproductive physiology were skipped, and information about condoms and contraception was suppressed, but nothing improved. A situation that was never good to begin with got 57 percent worse because adults wouldn't admit the obvious: many young people have sex.
Second, we must acknowledge that having a baby is extremely tough for young people. It's hard on them, hard on their families, and hard for the community as a whole.
Third, let's admit this approach is a failure. Our policies, decided by ideologues in Washington, D.C., have done a terrible disservice to the young people of Texas.
Fortunately, the Austin American-Statesman reported that "The abstinence-only approach to sex education, which has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $1.3 billion since 1996, has fallen out of favor in many parts of the country. Half the states had withdrawn from Title V by the time it ended in June." Despite this evidence, a Senate subcommittee voted this week to restore $50 million in funding for abstinence-only education. It comes as no surprise that the measure was sponsored by Orrin Hatch, the conservative Senator from Utah.
It would be one thing if our political ping-pong were just screwing up our own country, but the United States has exported these same failed ideas to many sub-Saharan African countries. My organization, Population Action International, produced a documentary in 2007 called "Abstaining from Reality" that looked at the damage done by the Bush administration's abstinence-only HIV-prevention programs. In each interview, people told us how deeply their communities had been harmed by policies decided by people halfway across the world. In Africa, as in Texas, it was painfully obvious that the best approach to avoiding devastating infections and unintended pregnancies is to have the ability to make informed choices and have access to appropriate supplies.
If the rest of the Senate opens its eyes a little bit, the United States will have a tremendous opportunity to regain some of the ground lost during the abstinence-only years. The Obama administration has eased some of the restrictions on international reproductive health programming and has talked about how to make the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief more effective. The international aid and development community is pushing for an end to these programs, and to listen to the people on the ground we are working to help.
The solution to this problem stands out like a 16-year-old girl in her third trimester. We can help people in the South make better decisions about their bodies, lives, and their families--be that in Africa or Texas. All we need is a large dose of reality and small dose of leadership.
This piece was originally posted on Feministing.com.
43 Comments so far
Show AllIn defence of Texas:
I live in Vermont. Texans are much more welcoming of outsiders than Vermonters. Texans are less haughty and hypocritical. They are more fatalistic about breathing low quality air due to all the industry caused pollution (Vermonters wiil buy stock in the Texas polluting corporation but won't let business be done in Vermont). Vermonters talk about tolerating minorities but do the exact reverse (they entrap them and jail them on a regular basis). Vermonters are far, far more racist than any Texan. Texans are upfront about who they are and what they believe. Vermonters lie as a cultural religion. Texans are more cordial in everyday conversation. Vermonters are rude and disrespectful unless they are with family, friends or serving the rich. Texans are generally quieter. Vermonters incessantly bitch about everything to their representatives and at town meetings. This would be great if they wouldn't try to get the real stuff done under the table. So, as far as corruption, Vermont is worse than Texas.
Why don't Texas go after their crooked, polluting, Texan killing industries? Maybe they are starting to but the air quality in most Texan cities is atrocious.
If what I have read recently as to the low %age of people that uphold evolution versus a higher %age that believe in mythologies, is it a wonder that something like abstinence is a headliner for an attempt of control over people and that is what it is all about, a control over others in some shape form or fashsion and really just because there is nothing else to do which really sets this country up with a favorite past time of hate and ignorance.
This is just one example of how the vast majority of religious "belief" is misogyny.
Knowing the FACTS of life would help prevent the suppression of women and this fact is not acceptable to most religious people.
It is not a mere coincidence that Jesus, Mohammed, Yahweh, Allah, "The Lord God"... all have penises. It is THE main tool of arrogance, stupidity, and domination.
I fail to understand why citizen of the U.S. would wish to do anything for the inhabitants of Texas, who vote for creatures like Bush, who execute innocent people, who think people rode dinosaurs, and who seem to wish to secede.
Nanoo
Actually I think their wish to secede is great. They should go for it and perhaps it would become a trend. It would be a fine way to end the empire.
Actually I've been contemplating another solution that might actually bring about some World Peace desires.
How about we GIVE all of Texas to Israel.
They could move the entire population here to Texas, create a new homeland allowing the Palistinians to have their own homeland, there's plenty of open space for Israeli homesteaders to go out and create new townships where they please, And the US would be free from regressive thinking politics.
BUT, on the sex and teens issue. It seems to me that every culture up to the modern times has used 14 as the coming of age mark. Yes, they needed to start young because they died young, and they needed people for the labor intensive life styles, but 14 was the age when youngsters were considered to be entering into the adult stage of life. Just perhaps there is a deeper rooted urge that pushes the human being to wish to procreate around those years....hmmm.... nope... I guess not..... JUST SAY NO.
I've long said that the U.S., rather than browbeating the U.S. stooge, the U.N.--formed by the "winners" of WWII--into forming a homeland for the Jews the U.S. overlooked during the "holocaust," we should have given them Delaware. Of course, we'd now have dispossessed Delawareans lobbing missiles and mortar rounds into Wilmington, but...
Texas isn't the worst. Louisiana is even worse.
"But the biggest experiment of this idea demonstrated the biggest failures. Classic Texas. What can we learn from this?"
Well..... one thing we can learn from this: Repeating the same mistake over, and over, and over again, and expecting a different result.... is a form of insanity.
I live in Texas. Imagine my surprise, when I read in Sydney Blumenthal's new book "Republican Gomorrah" that Lubbock, Texas, (which has taught abstinence only in the schools since 1995) has more STD's and more teen-age pregnancy.... than comparably sized U.S. cities.
Abstinence Only clearly does not work.
Why the Congress of the United States would continue to fund it, at the expense of other programs..... that do work.... is, indeed, just a tish insane.
Read my post, just above your own. That's why.
I wonder...When a government institues laws and infrastructures that claim to help, but fail so egregiously, whether that wasn't the intention all along. I'm thinking "abstinence" isn't the goal at all. The GOPers must realize from the itch in their own underpants that abstinence is nonsense for anyone.
So I'm thinking that it is the intention of this ridiculous policy to create lots of extra babies that grow up to be lots of underpaid extra workers, of prisoners for the private prison system, of ready soldiers, of mindless consumers, of students to allocate education and lunch funds - and of cheap farm hands; IOW, lots of cannon fodder for the ruling classes. Families and the taxpayer will cover the costs of processing these extra people at various stages on the conveyor belt, and the ruling class will benefit from cheap, disposable nonentities, especially those with insurance policies that go to the employers.
Yaaah, I'm beginning to think it's a deliberate strategy.
This is a completely stupid article trying to tie Texas to abstinence only education. There are plenty of schools across the nation that take abstinence only very very seriously. But all said, I would accept a balanced approach that took sex ed and abstinence together seriously. I don't know why some people get wacky when I tell them that I was abstinent until I turned 30 and was actually proud of it. I totally disagree with the author that being abstinent led to an increase in student pregnancy. Lack of sex ed? Yes, but certainly not abstinence. What's the point of getting into trouble as a teenager by messing up even on a simple date and then finding yourself in trouble either having to bear the child or having a haunted memory that you ran away from your girlfriend when she got pregnant because you made her so. I am a strong supporter of adding abstinence to sex education. I reexamined the Southern trends and I strongly believe that both abstinence and proper sex education are a must have. I wouldn't be blessed with a loving wife by God if I hadn't been abstinent !
And if you fools are worried about Texas turning out abstinent only politicians, wait until Bob McDonell wins the governor's race in VA and then wins the presidency in 2012. He'll make Texas look like a liberal state. There are other states much worse than Texas. Just because the Democrats lacked the balls and brains to visit the state doesn't make it bad. Chicago is just as bad as Dallas if one were to count the assassination of RFK along with JFK's.
I don't know how you could be that proud of yourself to be so abstinent as a teen and an adolescent. I was abstinent too but I had gotten into so much emotional despair so often. I frequently became jealous and depressed for being so lonely compared to most students having a partner of the opposite sex to relate to. I was lucky to have barely met a couple of guys who were what most would call "study geeks" like me but I don't understand how you could be this proud to be abstinent and until 30 ?!?!?
"Chicago is just as bad as Dallas if one were to count the assassination of RFK along with JFK's."
Are you suggesting that RFK was assassinated in Chicago? If so, I suggest you have your god update your understanding.
Oops, meant to say Los Angelos. But hey, now that makes California a murder state just like Texas. I guess I need to purchase a 9mm when I visit CA. Oh never mind. My wife won't let me. But there's one thing I might love about California. I can dress in shorts and pantyhose as a guy and nobody will call me "gay". Oh wait, I forgot I can do the same here in VA Beach. HAHA, I don't have to live in CA and put up with those higher costs of living and unfair taxation. And if TX and FL never ever do state income taxes, I think I'll retire there. j/k
"totally disagree with the author that being abstinent led to an increase in student pregnancy"
Based on this history, I wasn't totally shocked to learn that President Bush's abstinence-only program led to a 57 percent rise in student pregnancy in the Lone Star state.
"What's the point of getting into trouble as a teenager by messing up even on a simple date and then finding yourself in trouble either having to bear the child or having a haunted memory that you ran away from your girlfriend when she got pregnant because you made her so."
Here's a hint for you: there are ways to have sex and not get pregnant.
"But all said, I would accept a balanced approach that took sex ed and abstinence together seriously. I don't know why some people get wacky when I tell them that I was abstinent until I turned 30 and was actually proud of it"
I don't know why some people have problem with other people having sex. I don't know why some people get wacky with the idea of other people having sex.
Maybe theoretically true but in reality, most teenagers lack responsibility. At a time when these young minds need to prepare themselves to be smarter and tougher so that they can slow down or even reverse the outsourcing trends, getting into sex is just not appropriate at that age. Sure, I have no problem with these kiddies having sex but if they screw up, well GOD punished them and they must suffer the consequences and learn their lessons. My being abstinent helped me through high school and college. Oh and I did have a sex ed course in middle school and didn't mind getting a C+. I pledged myself to be an abstinent stud so I didn't bother learning. I decided to wait until I felt like learning sex ed.
"Maybe theoretically true but in reality, most teenagers lack responsibility. At a time when these young minds need to prepare themselves to be smarter and tougher so that they can slow down or even reverse the outsourcing trends, getting into sex is just not appropriate at that age."
Reality? Right, because the studies that are based on the REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES of teenagers that show that teenagers who have had sex ed are less likely to end up pregnant are just "theory". Right, because the studies that are based on the REAL WORLD EXPERIENCES of teenagers show teen age pregnancy rates going up since the advent of abstinence only are just "theory".
What do you think requires more responsibility, abstaining or using a condom / birth control pill?
Why do you think that abstaining from sex will make people smarter and tougher? Show me some evidence, ANY evidence that sex is detrimental. Should teenagers start wearing hair shirts and start flagellating themselves too, to "toughen" them up? Why not have them stand out in winter weather in t-shirts and shorts, to "toughen" them up?
In fact, given the number of Catholic priests who have been linked with sex crimes, in the US and in Ireland, I might claim that is is abstinence that is unhealthy. I might claim that it is a repressive fearful attitude towards sex that is unhealthy, that even leads to crimes such as rape of little boys and little girls.
"Sure, I have no problem with these kiddies having sex but if they screw up, well GOD punished them and they must suffer the consequences and learn their lessons"
Yes, it was god that prevented these kids from getting sex education classes. It was god that prevented these kids from getting access to condoms. It was god that prevented these kids from getting access to birth control pills.
"My being abstinent helped me through high school and college. Oh and I did have a sex ed course in middle school and didn't mind getting a C+. I pledged myself to be an abstinent stud so I didn't bother learning. I decided to wait until I felt like learning sex ed."
Again, why do some people have problems with other people having sex? If you don't want to have sex, if you believe that sex is detrimental / unhealthy / bad / evil, you are welcome to abstain.
As a Texas resident, I can affirm, as many others have below, that it is a nation-state that very much lives down to all its worst cliches.
That said, I would strongly caution Ms. Ehlers against suggesting that any U.S.-based organization "help" Africans or anybody else in the area of human sexuality. It's too laughable to even contemplate.
If she is serious about "helping" Africans, I respectfully suggest that she assist organizations that are fighting for reparations for Africa (and the various other places that US and European imperialism have ravaged), work to demilitarize the US relationship with Africa, and leave Africans and other human beings alone as they try to figure out complex human and scientific relationships in the contemporary world.
Really, we need to respect the Pogo principle and look in the mirror and stop harming peoples and civilizations to the point that they need our "help."
And yet, more funding has been sent the way of Abstinence-only sex education. What is that all about???
"But the biggest experiment of this idea demonstrated the biggest failures. Classic Texas. What can we learn from this?"
We can learn that mistakes, big mistakes, gargantuan mistakes repeated over and over are perfectly feasible, and highly desirable, as long as we keep fueling the experiments with "cheap" (hide the true costs) fossil energy. We MUST repeat them over and over to displace the pinko-commie issues from the public discourse. Do you want to be labored with environmental issues? Social issues? I think not. Let's keep trying to prove our doomed godz/gunz/gold theory of fulfillment until the oil'z gone. Then we'll sober up to the disgusting reality.
The absolutely stupid comments so far about my state and those to come only highlight the ignorance and cognitive dissidence of those making them.
This type of stereotypical comment points up the real weakness among Progressives. The weakness that is leading any hope of Liberal progress to defeat as we speak.
Lets see, California's schools rate far below ours, their drop out rates are higher, their student pregnancy rate is far higher,you don't even want to think about comparing unemployment figures, they are 40+ billion in the hole and we have 9 billion in the bank......does this make California and its citizens ignorant illeterates ass this piece tries to portray Texans? Of course not.
The real clue to this piece of garbage is right here...
"We can help people in the South make better decisions about their bodies, lives, and their families--be that in Africa or Texas."
Gosh, I hope so, we are having trouble without the Godlike guidence of you enlightened folks from the North or the Coast. Where do these people come from.
If I were grading this on research, comparative statistics, reasoned conclusions I'd give it an F. Nationwide those stats are worse....
This is just disgusting and so are the people that buy this type of trash.
Thomas, if that's you: I live in NC, and although it's a beautiful state scenery-wise, it's generally a very backward one intellectually--at least in the rural parts. Ironic, because we have some wonderful colleges here, including UNC at Chapel Hill. Texas is bigger and more diverse, granted, but the rest of us have seen a lot of pure 'meanness' arise from there. For me, the most despicable character in both visage and action was Tom Delay. GWB was an awful president, granted, but did (or refused to do) some surprising things that made me think he was a mixed bag at worst. He redeemed himself somewhat, in my view, when he refused to pardon Liddy at Cheney's behest. Cheney, on the other hand, well you know...
Also, Texas is extremely gung-ho about the death penalty, as to seem to almost brag about it. Gotta love the "we try em' and fry em'" attitude. No offense, but I hope no more leaders come from Texas. A bright star from the Lone Star state was Molly Ivins. Ultimately then, in all fairness, Texas embodies the worst and best of the US in a huge melting pot. Unfortunately, the voice of the compassionate half seems to have been greatly suppressed there.
I get that you are generally of a conservative bent, but are also attracted to some 'progressive' causes. Overall, I hate labels because they are always too confining, and do not personally support every cause that precesses under the progressive banner. I like to think I'm more about fairness, and call out the good with the bad as I see it. I think The nationalistic and state-istic attitude in any form is destructive because it leads one to take 'pride' in or defend something that's often worthy of neither.
Be well, my friend.
I go back and forth between VA and NC but that's because I live in VA Beach not too far from the border. In some ways, NC is more conservative than TX and vice versa. Obama visited NC last year but not TX but I haven't seen a Democrat visit TX since 1976. How do we know that Texas is all that if nobody visits? I will say one thing about NC. The big cities do a better job of making up for the rural backwards population just like Northern Virginia and to some extent the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas make up for Virginia's rural backwards areas. In Texas, much to my knowledge, there have been no attempts by the Democrats in that state to reach out to the working class in the suburbs which is needed to make Texas a swing state. It could also be that the rural population is much more to overcome unlike VA and NC.
One interesting take on CA. CA would have stayed a Republican state had Pete Wilson not made that offensive remark against Latinos. Another difference between TX and CA is that when it comes to politics, Latinos and African Americans are at odds against one another in TX similar to Cuban Americans vs Jewish and African Americans while in CA the various ethnic groups are united.
Are you Thomas? :o)
Henry8: "The absolutely stupid comments so far about my state and those to come only highlight the ignorance and cognitive dissidence of those making them."
Henry, Henry, you keep shoving your own foot down your throat. It's "cognitive dissonance," and you might want to find out what it means.
Henry8: ... "If I were grading this on research, comparative statistics, reasoned conclusions I'd give it an F. Nationwide those stats are worse...."
So often your knee-jerk responses couched in what you obviously consider logic, evokes a "Huh?" from me. You might want to consider that before handing out Fs to others.
I generally abstain from correcting or picking at someone else's posts, but knee-jerk, angry, defensive, close-minded illogic is what makes so many people, such as yourself, so dangerous and scary. I don't given a damn whether you are a Texan or a Californian or a New Yorker or a Minnesotan. The issue is how best we can help our young people make good choices about sexuality or about anything. And that requires all the frightened children posing as adults to work on themselves and their own way of thinking and their own emotional responses.
COSMOBILLY addresses this issue of sexual sense and sensibilities lovingly, gently, and compassionately. His children and grandchildren are very fortunate. You might want to reread his post, Henry8.
++++++++++
If we really do want a peaceful world, each of us must look within, and ask, "What is MY part in creating the strife"? ... and then stop it by modifying and trying out new and different responses. That takes the guts to be honest with one's self, and that ain't easy.
peace, cm
Hear, hear!
Thank you.
A New Yorker, I take umbrage at the idea that Texas children are "our children." They are children of benighted dopes who CHOOSE to be benighted dopes and who revel in benighted dopiness. Texas should never have been annexed to the U.S. and modern times prove it. It's like calling Uzbeki children "our children." In fact, I probably have more in common with an Uzbeki bookseller that I ever will with most Texans.
"Gosh, I hope so, we are having trouble without the Godlike guidence of you enlightened folks from the North or the Coast. Where do these people come from."
From the article:
"When I graduated from high school in San Antonio, Texas, I can remember at least two dozen girls (out of a class of 600) pregnant or already with babies. It may seem astonishing now, but it was fairly normal in 1991: so normal, in fact, that our high school had responded with an academic track geared toward expectant and young mothers."
If I was grading your post on reading comprehension, I give it an F: the author graduated high school in Texas. She isn't from the North or the Coast.
Not to mention of course, that you conveniently avoid any mention of the main point of this article: the failure of abstinence education.
Henry8 - why insult those you disagree with when making your point? And what makes you think that doesn't make what you have to say trash?
I sincerely doubt that an actual in-depth comparative study across all states beyond California and Texas, and other places we export our ideologies, will support your contention.
As a father to a couple grown daughters with several grandchildren in school I know the popular teenage view finds the abstinence-only educational approach to sex is a grave disservice to them and their generation. Thankfully, my grandchildren are grateful for parents, and grandparents, rooted in the more common-sensical talk-to-us-about-anything-you-want reality. Sex is a very real biological phenomena and intellectual curiosity that actually begins much earlier than adolescence. My kids and grandkids began asking some questions well before their schools were prepared to formally teach sex education.
The ostrich bury-your-head-in-the-sand false reality imposed by preaching "abstinence only" actually alienates kids and precludes them from thinking and felling they can talk to most of their teachers, counselors and even their parents about the very real thoughts and feelings they are experiencing. At a critical juncture in their lives, there we are as a society imposing unrealistic ideologies upon them (especially when considering the messages they receive from popular media) that make them believe that adults just don't get them, that adults don't know what it's like to be them, that adults simply don't understand what they are going through, and we are treating them like, well children, at the very time in their life when they want more than anything else to be treated with respect and trust, like they are growing up and becoming adults, capable of making their own choices - and there we are - treating them like they are still 6 years old, telling them they have no choice but to do what we tell them.
My oldest granddaughter is in high school and abstaining, by choice. She has a boyfriend she is very fond of and she knows all about sex. She is choosing not to have sex, not because she is being preached at about abstaining, but because she has parents and grandparent who she has talked with and whom have shown her that sex is a responsible and loving thing to be taken seriously, and she knows she is not ready. And she knows she can talk to any of us about it anytime she wants. It's a beautiful thing. She may not wait until she is married, but she has plans for her life and I know she won't be irresponsible. She has self-esteem, a family that cares and when that time does come, she will be prepared and will do the right thing, and her entire family will be okay with her about it. I can't imagine it being a more loving and beautiful thing than that.
It would be great if the schools didn't have to get involved at all, but that isn't the reality. And that, my friend, is what we are talking about here. There are lots of kids that don't have the support mechanisms at home, with parent that they can talk with openly and honestly, nor do they have the personal inner esteem and self-guiding principles for their life that can keep them on the straight and narrow. For those kids, they need a safety net; those kids need an educational system with teachers that can answer the tough questions in real and honest ways, not with ungrounded ideology of what should be but with pragmatic common sense answers that speak to what is.
Well said.
I think you should remember that many humans are brainwashed. To them,
ungrounded ideology EQUALS pragmatic common sense. They aren't simply reticent to question their basic ideology; they will fight anyone who does. They were trained this way to perpetuate the flawed ideology. They wrongly believe that their mental and physical state of entitlement is due to their loyalty to the flawed ideology. These humans change when they enter into life crises like extreme poverty. Nothing else will change them or make them question their entitlement. Even then, many of them are so rigid that they commit suicide rather than adopt critical thinking.
At any rate, this economy will produce a lot of critical thinkers, so there is a bright side to all this. As to the sexual education subject, I think it was just a scam to put money in certain pockets. We have the internet. In one hour you can learn a great deal of the Kama Sutra and every position two humans of whatever sex can engage in. Pictures, anatomical drawings, animations, sperm gameto-genesis to fertilization through embrio growth to viable fetus, alkaline and acidic vaginal conditions enhancing sperm viability or the opposite are all there in living color. The days of the 60s when my kid sister of 14 wanted to know if you could get pregnant from sperm in the belly button are long gone.
Sioux Rose
COSMO: Sensitive and compassionate post. Your Granddaughter is lucky to have you!
There is always someplace worse therefore we have nothing to learn from anybody is hardly a solution to any of the worlds ills Henry8 and it a theme you repeat all the time.
I don't believe the stats nationwide are worse. You live in the state where ignorance and greed are most pronounced, and the mantra of "Fuck the poor" shines most brilliantly.
I MIGHT be willing to read your postings if you would edit what you write. Please explain to me what "cognitive dissidence" is. You have used it here as well as in another posting. Also, what is an "illeterate"? You spout numbers but do not tell us from whence they came. I find it incredible that you believe that Texas has such a wonderful education system!
texas what a country. the mexican government wants to put
a fence up to keep texans out.seems their lack of education
was confusing mexicans who get theirs from schools not fox!
It's a whole other world. When the kids' bands go there, we call it "puttin' on our spacesuits". We wish we could bring our own air and not just because of Houston Dallas, etc pollution.
texas what a country. the mexican government wants to put
a fence up to keep texans out.seems their lack of education
was confusing mexicans who get theirs from schools not fox!
Absence only education makes a Texas Scholar.
I'll bet that the daughters of filthy rich white men didn't have babies in high school.
The atmosphere and Attitude in Texas has always been one of Classism. The $30,000 a year millionaires talk like they know everything, repress those who are not going to church and like them young. This is the wonderful culture that gave Georgie boy the presidency, and like every good president in the whitehouse, Bush the Turd sent money to the people connected to the money-church culture that put him there. These folks from the Texas Tradition have been spreading their Breed of Love in many southern states for a long time, and this includes Utah.
When the money comes down the pipeline, it always about letting those downstream know that they should do what they have done the last time, and help the next guy in line get elected. Does anyone honestly think that it is about giving a Rat's Behind about whether a hot young girl is being protected? No! She is in my son's class, and my son is such a stud!!!!
The reason Texas is still somewhat awash in funds is because of this culture and the Bush presidency (and of course, Oil). It is never about caring, especially not with these folks.
There are a few liberals in Texas, but they are repressed and find it hard to be heard. Even though these strains are louder in Austin and Houston, some people who participate in more open minded groups still hang on to heavy repression that they have picked up in their backgrounds.
And since Money Talks, we cant put a Hatch on Mr. Orifice's uppermost.
Love
Zero
If the report is correct that I heard earlier this week an NPR, the US Congress (the allegedly Democratic Party controlled Congress) recently approved $50 million for abstinace education.
That sounds like abstinence from education...
Yes Obama did.
Love
Zero