Centerfield

for abstinence education (never mind that it's been shown not to work)

Citations, please. Of studies done in America, not other cultures. I've been through that research, and it doesn't seem to be any less (or more) effective overall than other forms of sex ed when used in general populations, and somewhat better in some circumstances. (What shouldn't be surprising to anyone is that ANY sex ed seems to be better than none.)

The hat trick I usually see pulled out with that claim is comparing results of programs targeted towards at-risk youth being compared to general population studies, which is the wrong baseline for comparison. Apples to apples, please.

I personally suspect the enhanced results in "focused" abstinence programs are mostly due to the focused mentoring support substituting for the same non-existent parenting that makes them at-risk kids in the first place. But I can't prove it.

To me, equal results mean there's no point in being all moralistic about sex education. You might as well be reasonable with the kids if it makes no difference. And, to me, there's a downside to sex pledges: they result in alot of guilt, hypocrisy and blame due to the inevitably high failure rate.

What justification is there for GOP refusals to fund non-abstinence-based AIDS education?

It's possible I might feel differently if I had a girl instead of a boy ;-).

Scenario, McCain tragically dies of a heart attack days after the election and Palin takes over. Putin sees an opportunity and moves into the Ukraine, how does she react? Will she believe that it is part of some "Divine” plan that let her take over the government? Can she rationalize any action as being part of some unfathomable Divine plan? Can she launch the nukes as part of some preordained Divine plan? You can use Gods Will to justify, and not think about, any course you take. Everything all part of some master plan and you are just there to carry out orders. Palin being a 72 year old heartbeat away from the presidency is a real problem.

Some answers to the Questions Jon raised in his o initial post:

Would people hit by hurricanes be told they deserved it for being sinful?
I think she is too good a politician to actually say that to Americans. But she might well think it -- and that thought could color her reactions. And hurricanes outside the US would likely get little or no attention from a Palin-lead US government.

censorship of Library of Congress or NIH's research library?
Might try it, but probably not a priority.

stop government research in those areas?
Yes

fire people for daring to care about facts, or being Democrats, or even moderate Republicans?
Even more than the current administration, but probably not attempt a wholesale housecleaning of the Federal government.

inspired by the Bush DOJ ideas to hire only radical right bureaucrats?
Primarily, but perhaps not quite "only"

Put the President's Bioethics Council in charge of reviewing medical grants?
Maybe not that particular group, but some kind of theocratic/radical right group, very likely.

pick theocratic SCOTUS judges?
Try, but perhaps not succeed.

As for the issue that grognard raised in the previous comment:
I would be surprised if Putin didn't push somewhere. Perhaps not Ukraine, at least not militarily, at least not initially. But if he doesn't get effective resistance the first time, I expect he would keep pushing until he did.

Would putin push hard enough that it came down to nuclear weapons? I don't know enough about Putin's views on gender roles to know whether he would be inspired to make assumptions about what a President Palin would do.

This Palin pick says more about McCain than it does about Palin.

He told us all in no uncertain terms that he'd pick someone who shares his values and beliefs.

As an ex-McCainiac I look at this pick, look at what McCain has said about her, and then look back to when I passionately supported him and all I see back in 1999/2000 is a chump who stupidly bought into the rhetoric of yet another say-what-they-want-to-hear politician.

Inre to sex ed the Catholic HS my daughter attends teaches both but they are pretty realistic in that they include drug and alcohol talks as they relate to teen sex.

McCain speech.
Had to go to parent night but caught repeats.
With two notable exceptions, Viet Nam and a "wag of the finger"(and boy was it ever a wimpy wag) at the spendthrift GOP it's Bush's speech 8 years ago but like someone told your high school kid to do the 2008 speech without plagiarizing the 2000 speech but he "rephrases" it anyway. Thought I was going to be bored to death listening to the same old GOP talking points (hell couldn't he just do a power point and leave it at that?) but fortunately could split watching it in pieces while I was working on a major project from home. Nutshell: McCain lost a big chance to do something as compelling as the Palin choice in his speech. Like ask our generation to pay more taxes to pay down the debt created by the past 8 years (about 5 Trillion's worth). You know, a call to duty. .Maybe assure nervous pro-choice voters about Roe v. Wade although that would have been another flip flop. Or a call for heavy banking regulation but that would repudiate his economic advisor Phil Gramm who set up a lot of this mess via various rule changes and laws.

I like the calls from the repubs on stage to vote republican to take care of the problems of the last 8 years - nevermind they've been in charge.
Revisionism. bleh.

Funniest was watching the inadvertent green screen with the wrong picture no less ...heh heh, break out my After Effects program and composite McCain over the Tropic Thunder set.....
god that was a funny movie.

With the problems at FDA, Interior, Justice and just about every other department we need a Democrat in the White House to just take on the Herculean task of cleaning out the stables and the riff raff. The GOP had virtually 8 years to run the government with their philosophy and its been a catastrophic failure that's going to cost us for generations to come.

Oh lost in the news, Abramoff gets another 4 years.

and another thing - this Fannie Freddie bailout and the bank failures are going to cost us tens of billions that we'll be paying interest on for generations.

Thanks to the philosophy of deregulation.

No thanks.

Inre to sex ed the Catholic HS my daughter attends teaches both but they are pretty realistic in that they include drug and alcohol talks as they relate to teen sex.

GOOD school!

Revisionism? Better go check your calendar and the Congressional balances over the last eight years, Marcus. I don't think it will say what you seem to think it says. It takes mutual effort to screw things up that well. :-)

Citations, please. Of studies done in America, not other cultures.

There's an article in yesterday's USA Today about it:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-09-07-sex-education-main_N.htm

They talk a little about the studies that have been done. And there's apparently a new review of all the studies that's just been published. Here's how they summarize the results:

"The newest review, published in the September issue of Sexuality Research & Social Policy, is by Douglas Kirby, a senior research scientist at Education, Training and Research Associates, a non-profit in Scotts Valley, Calif. Kirby, who has studied sex education programs for decades, reviewed studies of nine abstinence programs and 48 comprehensive sex education programs.

He says a couple of the abstinence programs showed "weak evidence" for delaying sex, but most did not delay initiation of sex. Nearly half of the comprehensive programs delayed first sex, reduced the number of partners and increased condom or contraceptive use. One-quarter of the 48 programs reduced the frequency of sex."

It's sad and pathetic that the United States has come to this--that a major presidential candidate would nominate a complete wacko with no discernable qualifications for the job and the party would go wild with glee. Not only that, but our American public doesn't give a damn. If this was any other western country, nominating someone like Palin would be greeted either with outrage or laughter. (Although Austria has elected some pretty extreme characters as well.)McCain will win and then we will have to hope and pray he stays healthy.

I was never this partisan before but I despise the GOP. McCain completely sold out to the right although I suspect he might not really believe it. I am literally nauseous over the possibility--I think likelihood--that this ridiculous ticket will win.