Category: Politics

Are you ready for some absolutely shocking news about sexuality and teens? Can you handle it?

Comprehensive sex education that includes discussion of birth control may help reduce teen pregnancies, while abstinence-only programs seem to fall short, the results of a U.S. survey suggest.

Abstinence was mildly effective in one instance…

The study found that teens who’d been through abstinence-only programs were less likely than those who’d received no sex ed to have been pregnant. However, the difference was not significant in statistical terms, which means the finding could have been due to chance

Just to clarify… apparently teaching teens nothing about sex is rather ineffective and telling them not to do it is only slightly more effective. Imagine that? Turns out that teens have sex!!!!! And young women who have sex and have had no or little exposure to sex education get pregnant! Could anybody have ever anticipated these results?

And further sex education does not actually force teens to go out and have sex as the right would have you believe. Apparently the right believes teens never even thought about sex until that depraved liberal teacher put the evil, nasty thoughts in their minds. Maybe the right has sex education and porn confused? If my own exposure to sex education in the middle school years is any example, I got the impression they were trying to make it as boring and clinical in order to induce teen boredom. I hope the states that actually teach it still aren’t using that approach.

In addition, there was no evidence that comprehensive sex education increased the likelihood of teen sex or boosted rates of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) — a concern of people who oppose teaching birth control in schools

In nursing we talk a lot about “evidence based clinical knowledge”, this radical concept that what we do in the clinical setting should be studied and compared in order to determine the best practical approach. The federal government on the other hand believes in promoting “myth based” knowledge.

Currently, the federal government champions the abstinence-only approach, giving around $170 million each year to states and community groups to teach kids to say no to sex. This funding precludes mention of birth control and condoms, unless it is to emphasize their failure rates

Got something you’re itching to tell John McCain, or delegates to the Republican national convention?  Here’s your chance.

While some are planning to take it to the streets in St. Paul, one group wants to elevate protesting to a whole new level — the Jumbotron. (See more below on the Labor Day march, and urge St. Paul officials to do the right thing and grant a permit.)

MinnPost reports:

Giant television screens – Jumbotrons, 22 feet high and 30 feet wide – will broadcast anti-Republican-themed messages to convention-goers, the media and the international audience following the proceedings.

Organizers figure they will have much more impact than bullhorns.

The goal is to have pithy, witty and compelling messages laying out the problems in the Republican agenda, and outlining better alternatives, organizers say…

Martha Ballou, an unabashed Democrat who doesn’t mince words: “Every bad guy in the world will be here – Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, gay-haters, immigration stoppers. They’ll all be sitting in a bowl in St. Paul, and we do intend to engage them.”

…”We realize that the people in the Xcel center are never going to agree with us, so our audience is the media and those who watch what’s going on,” Ballou said.

“This could change protest forever,” she said.

Messages on the giant screen could include opposition to the Iraq war as well as thoughts on social issues and labor concerns.

A steelworkers group has contributed $30,000 to the Jumbotron effort, which is enough to rent one screen for a week. Ballou hopes to raise at least $70,000 more, to get two more screens to better blanket the convention area, in the West Seventh Street/Kellogg Boulevard area…

Ballou said that most opponents to the Republicans haven’t yet figured out good ways to get their messages across. “Ironically, the only ones really organized so far are the anarchists,” she said.

“But we’re working hard on this, and our intent is to come up with messages that are witty and technologically sophisticated, so people will want to watch,” she said.

Asked for examples, Ballou said she doesn’t have any yet.

“But the guidelines are: Hold the Republicans to their record. Hang them with their own words. Show people a better way,” she said.

True Blue Minnesota is looking for ideas, and you can offer yours here.

What would you say, if you had a Jumbtron all your own to program and the whole world was watching?

MCCAIN SUCKS?  

OUT OF IRAQ NOW?

WELCOME, LIARS AND THIEVES?

Well, sure, but we can do better than that.  Share your ideas for words, photos and video with True Blue Minnesota.  And, if you’d like, offer some ideas in the comment section here, too.

Photo credit: ThreeQBlog.

This from United for Peace and Justice:

ACTION ALERT: Tell St. Paul officials to grant permit for RNC anti-war march

For months now, organizers in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St.Paul) have been hard at work planning for a major antiwar demonstration on September 1, 2008, the opening day of the Republican Nominating Convention in St. Paul. That also happens to be Labor Day and so everyone is hopeful that because this is on a holiday it will be easier to bring large numbers of people to this important mobilization.

The Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, made up of more than 100 organizations from around the Twin Cities and across the country – including United for Peace and Justice – has been seeking permits for the Sept. 1st demonstration since days after the Republicans announced they would hold their national convention in Minnesota. The local organizers have been given a permit to assemble and rally at the State Capitol, but the City of St. Paul continues to withhold a permit for a march up to and around the Xcel Center, where the Convention will be held.

For months, City officials promised that the permit process would move forward at the beginning of March. This past March 3rd, the Coalition finally received a formal response to their application: a “provisional” permit to begin a march at the State Capitol on September 1st, with no route, no times, and with a suggestion that whatever route is eventually granted will not be for our exclusive use for the duration of the protest. The document the Coalition received was a mostly blank form, and was accompanied by a set of guidelines that unreasonably restrict the rights of any protesters planning actions during the 2008 Republican National Convention.

On Monday, March 24th, attorneys from the National Lawyer Guild and the ACLU filed a complaint in federal court, on behalf of the Coalition, asking the judge to order the City to approve the Coalition’s permit application and that no extra guidelines be attached. The hope is that legal action will help win the permit that’s needed – one that takes a massive, anti-war march to the doors of the Republican Convention at the Xcel Center.

Local organizers also know that political pressure is no less important than legal pressure. St. Paul City officials have worked hard to create the impression that they want to work with and even welcome protesters. If they truly wanted to roll out a welcome mat, they already would have. The Coalition is planning for a march against the war on Iraq, and we shouldn’t have to wait for a court ruling to force the City to issue a permit that takes us to the Xcel Center on September 1st.

NOW IS THE TIME TO TAKE ACTION.

1) Contact St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman. Urge him to deliver a final permit to the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War, taking us from the State Capitol to the Xcel Center on September 1, 2008. Mayor Coleman can be reached at [email protected]  or 651-266-8510. Please send a copy of your message to the Twin Cities organizers at [email protected]

2) Send a letter to the editor at either of these two newspapers in the Twin Cities and explain why you believe the permit needs to be granted, now:

    – Star Tribune in Minneapolis – send by fax to 612-673-4359

    – St. Paul Pioneer Press – send by fax 651-228-5564 or by e-mail to [email protected]

this is a short one… but none the easier to digest…

(Much like a traveler to a new city, I’m scoping out new places)

The future, and where humankind will be in that future at some indeterminate point is constantly in my mind. This subject fascinates me to no end.

We have ‘mastered’ some aspects of our limited existence, mapping our genome for example, but yet we as a species cannot come to grips with 10,000 years of savagery on our hands. The technologies that offer us such great hope in understanding the nature of our world provide us with a pathway directly to ours and other species on the planet doom.

There’s little attempt to try to come to grips with how this technology is used, ethically and morally in the blogosphere. How nations, politics, capitalism and corporatism play together with technology sets our path to the future as a species, more than anything else.

So I start with questions about our place, human individuals in a society that uses technology, just as I am doing right now, typing this out.

What are the powers of one individual, in a technological society such as ours?

What can one voice, one individual do to effect change, that might offer a brighter future for all of humanity?

It’s certain that one individual can cause damage, be it political, social, or even to truth and reality itself. What I believe real sustainable change is for the most part, it must come from is cooperative actions on the parts of masses of people. I’m curious to hear what your opinions are about how this can come about.

I’m trying to reassess what role I have to play in all of this, and I appreciate the opportunity to express myself here.

Crossposted from The Wild Wild Left and to Station Charon and My Left Wing

You would have thought by now we may have figured out that Saturn’s strategy just might be a flawed one.

I guess it all depends on what one defines as their own.

I am an old fart so I remember the racial divide of the 50 & 60’s, not a good time to be an American.  I also remember how close the races were becoming in the 70’s, which was the closest the two had become in many years.  Then as quickly as it had began it started deteriorating in th Me generation of the 80’s.

Once again I see the races are close to a unity that has been missing and at the same time they are being pushed to segregate themselves along color lines.  The media is doing all possible to widen the expanse—politics of the Dems are also helping—and then there is the American people, they are also helping separate the electorate along racial and gender lines.  

it is just flipping SAD!  There is a chance for the American people to face the question head on and find common ground but they will not at this point.  White blue collars workers in the northeast are holding blacks responsible for their lack of work, when it is a non-caring government and administration that should be the bad guy.  

The Dems, some of them, want this new race battle with the attempt to marginalize a message of hope.  And thanks to their efforts the Dems are losing ground to the Repubs.  And there is a possiblity that this divide will help defeat the Dems in November–yet again.

The outcome is becoming predictable–They will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory–yet again.  Well done.  at least they are consistent.  

Wednesday, October 26, 2014

WASHINGTON, DC:  President John McCain held yet another news conference on Tuesday trying to reassure a weary public about their economic fears.  “My friends,” said the President, “as I have said many, many, many, many times before, we have the most resilient economy in the world.  Everything will take care of itself somehow.”  Vice-President Joe Lieberman then whispered something in the President’s ear, and McCain then corrected himself:  “Actually we have the fourth-most resilient economy behind China, India, and Canada.  That’s still pretty (expletive deleted) good.”  But the McCain administration has continually struggled with economic issues since taking office in 2009.    

Um, I’m sorry. There seems to be some kind of mistake.

When we talked about being open to having… what do you call them… “African-Americans” in leadership positions we were talking about the OTHER KIND.

The “ain’t no big thang” kind.

You know… happy black folk!

There was an interesting article at alternet about why men engage the services of prostitutes in light of the latest public figure/prostitute scandal. The analysis is perfectly reasonable and sound. However, it clearly presents the use of paid sex workers as a pathology in itself. I wonder if the author see the consumers and those who offer it as being essentially in need of treatment solely based on that relationship.

But I pondered one thing…. why is it whenever one of these scandals arises we end up talking about sex via the prism of men? Why is it male sexuality and typically straight male sexuality that appears to define and frame our discussions of sex? Why do we still discuss sex in terms of a tenuous and bitterly tinged negotiation? Why do we assume monogamy is the highest ideal ( I am not against it ) and never suggest that notions of monogamy,and sexual exploration are actually pretty fluid. Monogamy made much more sense when we all got married at 15 and died when we were 45 and had minimal birth control so women were pregnant half their lives anyway. I am not building a personal or societal case against it either but the idea that  consensual sexual relations are a “one size fits all” paradigm is a bit silly.

And yet, unless things change significants the one symbol we never see in popular culture via television and movies is….. I know they exist because I have actually seen a couple.

I have seen countless pairs of breasts especially at work, given that two colleagues have had breast cancer and several others have had enhancements and the first thing they do when they get to work is run into our little closet sized office to show them off.

Michael Bader, who wrote the article at alternet and treats men in his practice argues that the men who frequent the services of prostitutes/sex workers posits that

I have found that for the overwhelming majority of them, the appeal lies in the fact that, after payment is made, the woman is experienced as completely devoted to the man — to his pleasure, his satisfaction, his care, his happiness. The man doesn’t have to please a prostitute, doesn’t have to make her happy, doesn’t have to worry about her emotional needs or demands. He can give or take without the burden of reciprocity

He asserts that

Such beliefs are often exaggerated and based on a belief and perception that women are high-maintenance, helpless, or disposed to be unhappy and dissatisfied. These beliefs are formed in childhood and are reinforced by our culture