The spirit of Elvis is on the Tuesday OPEN thread
By special request: Danville native Mojo Nixon!
April 10, 2012 - 9:00 AM
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April 10, 2012 - 9:00 AM
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Sunday, May 19, 2013
THE ROANOKE TIMES
This isn’t about Elvis or Root Boy Slim, however, I think it is good news anyway.
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120410/LIVING01/120410004/Birthrate-U-S-teens-lowest-history?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|IndyStar.com|p
#1 I guess that’s the result of indoctrination by all those godless public schools teaching the kiddies that it’s OK to get pregnant any time you want.
Santorum is out.
#2 Nah gdad, its probably due to the fact that SO MANY mothers of the 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s who got pregnant due to the lack of Morality in schools…realized they didn’t want their daughters to get pregnant as a teen. So best solution was to start them on birth control when they were 9 years old.
Forget teaching what is right and wrong.
The moral fabric of America
Gadzooks is still probably in my Top 3 of all time drinking albums.
Mississippi is the “most religious” state AND the state with the highest rate of teen pregnancy. How’s that abstinence only “education” working out there, Mississippi?
PP…”pregnant due to lack of morality in the schools”? Hon…ask your mom where babies come from. They don’t come from schools.
Deb, sad news indeed.
Do you have any evidence of 9-year-olds on birth control Pistol Pete?
http://www.motifake.com/image/demotivational-poster/0908/media-bias-politics-obama-fox-liberal-whining-demotivational-poster-1250048046.jpg
http://blogsensebybarb.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/dmv-department-of-motor-vehicles-health-care-reform-barack-obama-motivational-posters-demotivational-posters-funny-hot-free-political-humor-parody-gag.jpg
last two posts are funny motivational posters.. I love em!
Something unnerving about adult men seeing 9 year olds as sexually active. That creepster Lake used to say similar things.
Hate to say it, but the discussions have been boring lately.
For those wanting to stop children from having children, why support the elimination of methods that have been shown to work? These include comprehensive sex education and safe, affordable contraceptives. Unfortunately, as irrational as it sounds, the people who are most against teen pregnancy are also often most against sex education in the schools and access to preventative measures. If one truly wanted to reduce the number of teen pregnancies, then embrace these methods. If we could only get the Republicans to stop fighting the war on women – by taking away access to family planning/birth control by defunding Planned Parenthood and also defunding sex education programs in the schools then replacing them with “abstinence only” programs – maybe the rate of teen pregnancy could fall even lower. Time to connect the dots:
☻ Comprehensive sex education is effective at assisting young people to make healthy decisions about sex and to adopt healthy sexual behaviors.
☻ Not one “abstinence-only-until-marriage” program has been shown to help teens delay the initiation of sex or to protect themselves when they do initiate sex
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/publications450
☻ A sexually active teen who does not use a contraceptive has a 90% chance of becoming pregnant within a year.
☻ Despite having declined, the U.S. teen pregnancy rate continues to be one of the highest in the developed world.
☻ Teen childbearing is associated with reduced educational attainment. Teen mothers are substantially less likely than women who delay childbearing to complete high school or obtain a GED by age 22.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/FB-Teen-Sex-Ed.html
@12 – Come on UTR – this vortex of circular insanity? Boring? Next topic will be how the word “boy” used in certain context is racist will begin in 5..4..3.. oh yeah – they did that AGAIN last week. Yea this place is about as stimulating as a glass of warm milk.
Topics for the next eon:
RUSH SUCKS
GUNS BAD
OBAMA GOOD
MORE CRAZY CHRISTIANS
RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY
& My personal favorite…
LETS ALL IGNORE SUZIE – which lasts for 2 days.
Boring? Surely you jest?
BWAAAAAAAHHAAAAAHAAAA
#11 So you would prefer more incivility, lies, distortions, and trolling to make things more “exciting,” UTR? I admit that it takes opposing viewpoints to make things more interesting, but opposing viewpoints weren’t the primary driver of the belittling and snarkiness that went on.
I’m sure it has nothing to do with Dan being on vacation and re-posting columns Uptheriver. Freeper is still open for business if you are jonesing for some ODS.
Hillary
I’m pretty sure they already know how to have sex and how to avoid getting pregnant. I doubt there are massive numbers of women walking around who don’t know that sex causes children.
Are there any Abstinence-only programs in the Virginia schools? If not, how’s that Comprehensive sex education plan working?
If Abstinence programs don’t work then what should we be teaching them about smoking? How to do it safely? Should we be teaching them how to drive drunk safely since obviously telling them to abstain from driving drunk won’t work?
UTR, they have been. Pretty much everywhere too, I’ve noticed. Whether it’s been stagnant blogs, slow approval times for posts, or just a constant regurgitation of the same old stuff…my interest in pretty much every blog at the RT has substantially waned of late. Doesn’t help that the weather is great and I’m looking to hit the links soon, and the shooting range, and get our garden going in short order as well. Being tethered to a keyboard is not my ideal way to spend my free time. If it’s raining, maybe…but only if I don’t have other stuff to do.
The Daily Show, SNL, Letterman, Leno, etc. were dealt a severe blow this afternoon with the loss of Rick Santorum and the effective end of the GOP comedy tour. It has been quite a run and I’m sure that Romney will continue to supply some moments of comic relief but it won’t be the same for a while until Palin, Bachmann and company manage to reinsert themselves into the public view.Of course we still have the orange man, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell and guys like Grover Norquist and Scott Walker waiting in the wings.
Wonder how much the robber-barons paid to get little Dickie Sanitorium to fall on his sword?
#13 And yet Walker still reads and sometimes comments. Boringly predictable.
#13 “OBAMA GOOD”
Actually, Walker, for most of the folks who post here it’s more like, “Obama good in some areas, but mostly Obama better than the crazy alternatives being put up by the Repubs.”
Stunningly, that POS Triggerman has disappeared! Shocking! I guess the redneck Good Old Boy network did it’s job screwing around for long enough to allow him to get away. Good job, Floriduh!
George Zimmerman’s attorneys withdrew from the controversial Trayvon Martin shooting case Tuesday, saying they have lost contact with their client, who began making moves without consulting them.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/10/2741248/george-zimmermans-lawyers-withdraw.html#storylink=cpy
Since young people still smoke, and sadder still, continue to drink and drive, why do you think abstinence as a message for sex will “work”? When exactly is that supposed to “kick in”?
Teens are much more likely to try risky behaviors of all kinds and since abstinence has only been somewhat successful, why not use everything in the arsenal? Teens are also notoriously immature and ignorant on many topics. People who protest outside Planned Parenthood never show up at tobacco shops or parties, oddly enough. Some folks still think preaching will save enough of the teens in any area.
Check it out folks!
http://fromtheeditr.blogspot.com/2012/04/dan-casey-good-columnist-and-deserved.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fnnafx+%28fromtheeditr%29
Congratulations Dan! You make the Gonzos proud!
#16 Henry – yes abstinence is taught throughout VA:
Virginia Sexuality Education Law and Policy
“Virginia law requires sex education (also known as Family Life Education) to be abstinence-based. Individual school districts have the freedom to decide what curricula to adopt and how much information to provide in addition to messages about the importance of abstinence and delaying sexual activity. Therefore, the sex education curricula that a student in Virginia public schools will receive varies widely throughout the state. Parents or guardians may remove (or “opt-out”) their children from any or all sex education classes.” http://www.naralva.org/what-is-choice/comprehensive-sex-education/
“Within Virginia, teen pregnancy has generally been decreasing, with every region except the Southwest having a lower rate in 2010 than it did in 2000.”
Henry posted, “I’m pretty sure they already know how to have sex and how to avoid getting pregnant.”
Not so fast – “in 2006, the Federal Government Accountability Office (GAO) concluded that government-approved evaluations of abstinence-only programs fail to follow scientific guidelines.
The curricula reviewed misrepresent the effectiveness of contraceptives in preventing STDs and unintended pregnancy.” [Abstinence Education: Efforts to Assess the Accuracy and Effectiveness of Federally Funded Programs Report]
So Henry, with the new restrictions on health coverage for birth control, and the squeezing of funds from Planned Parenthood, would you like to venture in which direction Virginia’s teen pregnancy will go in the next year or two?
Congrats to Dan!!
Congrats on the award, Dan!
Aw, shucks, everybody. Thank you. I’ll do a post about this — but I’m a bit uneasy about it because I’m not real good at blowing my own horn.
Fyi, the five columns I’m running as reprises this week are the ones that were entered in the national Society for Professional Journalists competition.
29. Toot away Dan, you deserve it.
6. Kristen – They home school in Mississippi.
Well deserved Dan
and thanks to Sandy for posting the link.
Hillary
Your whole premise is based on women being so stupid that they can’t figure out how to avoid getting pregnant.
So are women that stupid?
“I’m not real good at blowing my own horn.”
I hear Yoga helps with that.
Dan, congrats!
RJB, the parents must not be paying close attention to what’s going on while “homeskooling”.
OUCH – Sandi…sorry for the misspell. Have a longtime friend who has the same name with a -Y-
#33 Henry – teenage girls, young women… different subject than women. Unless teenage girls and boys have education in the area of PREVENTION, they would not necessarily have access to birth control or self control for that matter. Having worked with young people, I found that the HS age teenagers are driven by hormones…and if they haven’t learned the “fact pf life” properly, I can assure you they are often clueless. As a matter of fact, most do not consider fellatio as sex!
So no, of course women are not stupid – but seriously, didn’t you learn that men are part of the formula for pregnancy?
Not “women” Henry, teens and young adults who are not yet grown women. I suppose you were never young and dumb, but many normal teens and even young adults still are. Many are still too embarrassed to seek help or advice too in case you do not remember that period of your own life.
No Worries Hillary! My legal name is Sandra, so any spelling is totally creative, my own or anyone else’s.
Kristen, in Mississippi they are probably using hands on teaching techniques.
Hillary – From rearing three sons, I can vouch that young ladies start chasing boys by 13 and having strict and/or religious parents makes no difference. We used to field phone calls at 3 in the morning from young ladies weekly. Parents who fail to realize or remember their own teen years risk facing their teenager’s pregnancy. Whether you like it or not, teenagers have sex and failure on your part as a parent to recognize this and protect your sons and daughters should be considered child abuse.
Good grief!!!
“Arizona lawmakers gave final passage to three anti-abortion bills Tuesday afternoon, including one that declares pregnancies in the state begin two weeks before conception…”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/az-abortion-bills-arizona-gestational-age_n_1415715.html
Wow, that state has really suffered under the TP/GOP onslaught. I truly pity Arizona women.
If I could blow my own horn I’d never leave the house.
Congrats, Dan.
Breaking News! You can be a pregnant virgin in Arizona!
According to the new law, “A sentence in the bill defines gestational age as “calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period of the pregnant woman,” which would move the beginning of a pregnancy up two weeks prior to conception.”
#39 – I was lucky enough to have two sons…and I couldn’t believe how pushy young girls could be…with the aid of some of their parents…lipstick in 4th grade, really?
My boys were in parochial school, so uniforms did a lot to deter the sexualization of young girls…not to mention nuns…
My wife and I have three sons. Two of the three took after their dad and were somewhat shy and reserved around the young women in their lives. Nonetheless, all three were actively pursued by the young women in their schools and youth groups.
My favorite story about one of my sons however, has to do with a trip he and I made back to my hometown. 30 years after I graduated from high school I was honored to be selected as an “outstanding alum” from that school. The ceremony honoring myself and three other “outstanding alums” that year was scheduled at a time when neither my wife nor our other two sons could attend. So my oldest son & I made the trip together. My brother & sister also attended along with several cousins and many high school friends. I have to mention that my oldest son was 16 at the time and he could have been my identical twin when I was 16. After a wonderful ceremony and dinner there was a great party to which many of my high school classmates came. One of those was a young lady (not so much anymore) I dated in school. Between drinks at dinner and at the party she got somewhat overserved. She met my son as he returned from a visit to the restroom and engaged him in conversation. In her overserved state she was convinced he was, in fact, me. For several very uncomfortable minutes for my son she engaged him in a conversation wanting to know how he avoided the aging process. In her mind I hadn’t changed in 30 years. He was, of course, mortified. My brother eventually rescued him before too much damage was done. After safely getting my son back to our table with my sister, my brother took me over to my former girlfriend and reintroduced us. She was disappointed that I had aged so much in just a few minutes. It is an experience my son reminds me of occasionally from time to time.
#16 Teach them how to drive drunk safely, Henry? Are you really this dense?
We do indeed try to teach kids not to drink, but then we teach them that if you give in and do drink, WHATEVER YOU DO, do not drive drunk. That’s the comparison that makes sense.
You should quit while you’re only a few miles behind.
#40 Republicans continue to get more stupid.
“Topics for the next eon:
RUSH SUCKS
GUNS BAD
OBAMA GOOD
MORE CRAZY CHRISTIANS
RIGHT WING HYPOCRISY
& My personal favorite…
LETS ALL IGNORE SUZIE – which lasts for 2 days.
Boring? Surely you jest?”
.
.
.
Add “Birth Control Entitlement” and “We Hate Rick Santorum” to the list and you’d pretty well have it covered.
Kristen,
Considering that Zimmerman has yet to be charged with a crime, but the media has already convicted him of murder, tried to tell the prosecutors how to do their job, helped to incite and develop as much race-based hatred of him as possible, and the Black Panthers have a $10,000 bounty on him, I DON’T BLAME HIM! His guilt or innocence in the matter is page 27 news by now. It’s sad that either way, the justice system never got a shot with this one.
Terps will love this.
Why Fox viewers are dumber.
(Warning, requires serious reading.)
No need to add Santorum to the topics of discussions, he’s out. All the other topics are good to go though.
Now, where to start…
I’d say law enforcement did their jibs perfectly, John W. They screwed around long enough for him to escape. I happen to believe in karma though and I suspect it will visit Triggerman.
Reading through the link posted about Arizona, I’d say the war on women is alive and well out there. Keep it up, repuglicans. The country is watching.
Richard “Whether you like it or not, teenagers have sex and failure on your part as a parent to recognize this and protect your sons and daughters should be considered child abuse.”
Haha Richard, you are parent of the year! “Go have sex son, we know you are gonna do it so go for it! If we don’t condone this..it might be considered CHILD ABUSE.”
You win Richard, I give up!!! LOL
http://news.yahoo.com/gsa-video-puts-gsa-issas-crosshairs-154312467–abc-news-politics.html
Ha Ha, Why isnt OWS protesting this?
PP, parents like you are why the “most religious state” has the highest rate of teen pregnancy.
RWers address everything with…”I reject your reality and instead substitute my own alternative reality”. Have fun with that.
Kristen, my reality is to teach that Sex is a sacred act between married couples and I teach that to my children. Anything less than that is condoning it.
Pistol Pete
And after you teach that, children being children and having natural hormonal urges and being human beings, will still continue to have sex and to experiment with sex. Then what do you do and what have you accomplished, except to make them feel guilty for being human.. Do you disown theem, kick them out of the house, have them flogged for hav ing fornicated, have them stoned to death for committing adultery.? Since you seem to be a Biblical strict constructionist, which punishment is appropriate? Are you ready to take the babies into your home and raise them and see that they have a chance in life. Or do you just brand them as bastards and shun them? What’s your validity there?
Pistol Pete – I hope whatever parenting techniques you use works for you, and none of your children have a pregnancy in their future. However, your type of thinking is mostly unrealistic, so more than just a “don’t have sex until your married speech” you may want to accompany it with the, “but just in case you do, here are the facts on how not to get pregnant or have someone become pregnant” speech. Whether your children are male or female, hormones do make teenagers less responsible in many ways. And some food for thought…
STUDY: TEENS WHO PLEDGE ABSTINENCE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE UNPROTECTED SEX
A federal study found that teenagers who pledged abstinence are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not make the pledge…
Those teenagers who originally made the pledge are significantly less likely to use condoms or birth control than teens who did not make the pledge.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,473509,00.html#ixzz1rkNfB1NQ
56 PP Hillary is correct. You should heed her advice. I remember the Baptists’ Abstinence pledge well. Many of those taking the pledge ended up with the parents raising the babies. Realism in life is important, fantasy gets you nowhere.
Gee Pistol Pete, I wonder why no parents before you ever thought of that?
#56 PP, I hope your children take that to heart. Of course the reality is that way more than 90 percent of American males and females have sex outside of marriage — and that includes an incredibly high percentage of religious Americans. No matter what you teach your children, they will most likely be doing some sperimentin’
I applaud and commend you Pistol Pete 1) for being an involved Father with your children and 2) teaching morals. Best of fortunes to you and yours.
So you think that parents of teens who make mistakes did not teach them morals and were not involved in parenting? Really?
53. PP – My children are grown and doing well thank you, no unexpected babies. They came through teenage years healthy and wise whereas many of their friends did not. Close your eyes to sex, alcohol and drugs and you had best lock your children in the basement.
I was talking to my youngest about our dog just the other day as to why he will look right at me, turn and run off. My son had happened to have looked that up; apparently the trainers say the dog calculates the desire to please me vs. the desire to do what he had planned to do and his plans won. Teenagers with friends tend to give less credence to pleasing the parents as well.
62. Up – being an involved Father and teaching morals is what we all do, thank you. Unfortunately, the Lord gave teenagers free will as well as the rest of us.
52.”I’d say law enforcement did their jibs perfectly, John W. They screwed around long enough for him to escape.”
Kristen, if the power were vested in you to be judge for a day and IT WAS REAL, would you be comfortable convicting Zimmerman from your chair right now? Would you sentence him? Would you say that you are not qualified and he is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law?
56.”Kristen, my reality is to teach that Sex is a sacred act between married couples and I teach that to my children. Anything less than that is condoning it.”
Hopefully, they’ll be able to work up the nerve to tell you of an unplanned pregnancy before it can no longer physically be hidden.
62.”I applaud and commend you Pistol Pete 1) for being an involved Father with your children and 2) teaching morals.”
So do I. The difference is that unlike baking a cake whose ingredients do what you told them per the recipe, kids have free will and their own mind. If they have unmarried sex, I won’t see that as a negative reflection on you. I hope you fare as well with the folks in your church.
PP,
Whether I agree whole heartedly with your view point I respect the root of your moral teachings and I also respect (and admire) that you are trying to instill those values in your children.
However, I have to respectfully criticize the naivety of your position. Educating your children on birth control and safe sex practices does not necessarily condone such behavior.
The simple minded idea of ‘because I taught my children this way, they will not stray from my path’ rarely exists in this day in age.
Even in a loving and committed marriage, there is still sometimes a need for birth control methods.
It’s the type of situation where although you may sternly fall on an extreme end of a spectrum, it is still a situation where I believe people should err on the side of complete education, and then have faith that the values you have instilled hold true.
Apparently closing your eyes to reality is being an ‘involved father’.
JohnW, do you find it surprising that the prosecutor is reportedly now going to “charge” Mr Zimmerman now that his lawyers have admitted he ran and is safely away? It’s a remarkable coincidence.
And frankly, telling kids that sex is a “sacred act between two married adults” might just be enough of a turnoff to delay the inevitable for a few years. Something about that phrase makes me want to put on my flannel nightie, stat.
Kristen in flannel!! Whew!
As you know by now, Kristen, he turned himself in and is in custody.
Hey debit just saw that on aol. I can’t see where he turned himself in, but I guess he must have.
Re: #69
do you find it surprising that the prosecutor is reportedly now going to “charge” Mr Zimmerman now that his lawyers have admitted he ran and is safely away?
———-
Do you wish to reconsider that assumption of the lack of due process?
Debbie, not debit.
Dave H, clearly he didn’t run away he was just dodging his lawyers. I’m not sure where the lack of due process is. Again, had the job been done correctly in the first place, no one would be having the conversation
69.”JohnW, do you find it surprising that the prosecutor is reportedly now going to “charge” Mr Zimmerman now that his lawyers have admitted he ran and is safely away? It’s a remarkable coincidence.”
Ironically, the hurry-up getting a murder charge together, may be what fails to get a murder conviction.