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Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Vacation I'm taking off on a little vacation for the rest of the week. I'll be back next Tuesday. Until then, check out some of the great sites on my links page. See ya! posted by chris at 5:47 PM   I pledge allegiance to my virginity... Teen-agers who take virginity pledges - public declarations to abstain from sex - are almost as likely to be infected with a sexually transmitted disease as those who never made the pledge, an eight-year study released yesterday found. Although young people who sign a virginity pledge delay the initiation of sexual activity, marry at younger ages and have fewer sexual partners, they were also less likely to use condoms and more likely to experiment with riskier activities such as oral and anal sex, said the researchers from Yale and Columbia universities. -clip- The study, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that 20 percent said they had taken a virginity pledge. Bearman and co-author Hannah Bruckner broke them into two categories -"inconsistent pledgers"and "consistent pledgers"- to reflect that some changed their status or their responses between interviews. Among those youngsters, 61 percent of the consistent pledgers and 79 percent of the inconsistent pledgers reported having intercourse before marrying or prior to 2002 interviews. If the kids are still having sex, you'd think it would make sense to fund family planning, birth control and teen pregnancy programs. You'd be wrong. posted by chris at 11:58 AM   ------------------ Monday, March 21, 2005 The obligatory Terry Shiavo post Digby points out that in a Republican nation, the Terry Shiavo case would be practically a non-issue. But not for the reasons you'd hope. I'll summarize them quickly here, but you should really go read Digby's post. 1. When Bush was governor of Texas, he signed a law that gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. A baby in Dallas was just removed from life support against his mother's wishes this past week becuase of that law. 2. The House's recent budget resolution slashes the Medicaid funding that pays for the sort of care that someone like Terry Shiavo has relied on for so long. 3. Congressional Republicans also support tort reform which would eliminate malpractice claims like the one that has paid for Terry Schiavo's care for the past many years. 4. The bankrupcy bill that was just overwhelmingly passed in Congress would make it nearly impossible for families like Terry's to declare bankruptcy in the face of insurmountable medical bills. 5. True conservatives want the government OUT of private individual's lives. In other words, in a Republican nation, Terry Shiavo would have been dead a long time ago. This whole ridiculous circus isn't about a "culture of life." It's about cheap political points and appealing to the conservative Christian base. If you think that's just rhetoric, check out the GOP memo which calls the debate of the Shiavo case "a great political issue" and "a tough issue for Democrats." I'll give Digby the last word: One of the things that we need to help America understand is that there is a big difference between the way the two parties perceive the role of government in its citizens personal lives. Democrats want the government to collect money from all its citizens in order to deliver services to the people. The Republicans want the government to collect money from working people in order to dictate individual citizen's personal decisions. You tell me which is the bigger intrusion into the average American's liberty? posted by chris at 12:35 PM   Preemptive strikes now US policy Two years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, the Pentagon has formally included in key strategic plans provisions for launching preemptive strikes against nations thought to pose a threat to the United States. Respected global organizations seem to be viewed with suspicion. In describing the vulnerabilities of the United States, the document uses strong language to list international bodies - such as the International Court of Justice, created under a treaty that the United States has declined to sign - alongside terrorists. The changes codify the more assertive defense policy adopted by the Bush administration since the Sept. 11 attacks and are included in a "National Military Strategy" and "National Defense Strategy," reports that are part of a comprehensive review of military strategy conducted every four years. More. posted by chris at 12:27 PM   The blame game Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Sunday used the second anniversary of the American-led invasion of Iraq to answer the most tenacious criticism of the war effort - that the Pentagon did not commit sufficient troops to the major offensive or to stability efforts after Baghdad fell. The fault, Mr. Rumsfeld contended in two appearances on television talk shows, rested with Turkey, a NATO ally, which would not give permission for the Fourth Infantry Division to cross its territory and open a northern front at the start of the war in March 2003. It's always someone else's fault. posted by chris at 11:16 AM   Same WMD lies, different country In an effort to increase pressure on North Korea, the Bush administration told its Asian allies in briefings earlier this year that Pyongyang had exported nuclear material to Libya. That was a significant new charge, the first allegation that North Korea was helping to create a new nuclear weapons state. But that is not what U.S. intelligence reported, according to two officials with detailed knowledge of the transaction. North Korea, according to the intelligence, had supplied uranium hexafluoride -- which can be enriched to weapons-grade uranium -- to Pakistan. It was Pakistan, a key U.S. ally with its own nuclear arsenal, that sold the material to Libya. The U.S. government had no evidence, the officials said, that North Korea knew of the second transaction. Pakistan's role as both the buyer and the seller was concealed to cover up the part played by Washington's partner in the hunt for al Qaeda leaders, according to the officials, who discussed the issue on the condition of anonymity. In addition, a North Korea-Pakistan transfer would not have been news to the U.S. allies, which have known of such transfers for years and viewed them as a business matter between sovereign states. All the controversy surrounding the intelligence on Iraq's WMD was focused on the intelligence gathering communities. But the real crime was the White House's liberal interpretation or more often, misrepresentation of that information. These people just simply refuse to tell the truth. About anything. posted by chris at 10:41 AM   ------------------

    

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