I think you got it right Rene when you said "respect". It was out of respect for both my parents and the desire to not want to disappoint them. Well and a little fear too!

UN charter/constitution is/are the new Bible.........Maybe that's why the Vatican has a vote, they certainly have all the 'right' rules well enforced for kids and adults alike.......I wonder if they can remotely touch the issues at the polygamist camp or the teen pregnancies in Mass.......

As for the teen pregnancies in Mass.....are the numbers shocking only because they are still in school.....'cause I gotta tell ya,,,,with my small public edumacation,,,,,,schenectady has alot of teen pregnancies---certainly more than 17......

where do the stats come from?? does it only 'matter' when they are still attending school? what about if they 'quit' and then get pregnant?

I'm not sure I see where handing out condoms or birthcontrol 'saves' them-----

if p then q---nah, we're not that simple.......

Quoted from Sombody

A daughter  should expect kindness and compassion from their father -

Everyone learns to live and love within thier family structure- and we take that paradigm with us in life.  My dad is an Italian Catholic Marine-  My brothers and sisters  learned that  " Pain is weakness leaving your body " - great
Parents  might consider  going back to school and learn how  to teach thier children health/sex ed but hey- how about physical education and drivers ed. while their at it ?

I think that perhaps your dad should skip the sex ed. classes and should have attended parenting classes. ITALIAN, CATHOLIC AND MARINE....phew!

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

States forgoing grants for abstinence education Skeptics point to studies, funding precariousness
BY KEVIN FREKING The Associated Press

    WASHINGTON — Skeptical states are shoving aside millions of federal dollars for abstinence education, walking away from the program the Bush administration touts for slowing teen sexual activity.
    Barely half the states are still in, and two more say they are leaving.
    Some $50 million has been budgeted for this year, and financially strapped states might be expected to want their share. But many have doubts that the program does much, if any, good, and they’re frustrated by chronic uncertainty that it will even be kept in existence. They also have to chip in state money in order to receive the federal grants.
    Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, made his decision to leave based on the congressionally mandated curriculum, which teaches “the social, psychological and health gains of abstaining from sexual activity.” Instructors must teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful psychological and physical effects.
    “It was just too strict,” said Emily Hajek, policy adviser to Culver. “We believe local providers have the knowledge to teach what’s going to be best in those situations, what kind of information will help those young people be safe. You cannot be that prescriptive about how it has to be taught.”
    A federal tally shows that participation in the program is down 40 percent over two years, with 28 states still in. Arizona and Iowa have announced their intention to forgo their share of the federal grant at the start of the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
    The program was created by Congress in 1996 as part of welfare reform.
    Since 2002, lawmakers have approved 19 short-term extensions — usually for three or six months at a time. But on three occasions, the program was extended for just a few days.
    Whatever state officials think of the program’s aims, that’s not the kind of bureaucratic consistency they need to budget for employees and to put contracts out to bid.
    “The funding stream became inconsistent. We didn’t know from one quarter to the next whether we’d be getting the rest of the money,” said Elke Shaw-Tulloch of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. “We got to the point where we didn’t have any infrastructure to put the money to use. At the same time, there was mounting evidence the abstinence programs weren’t proving to be effective.”
    Throw in a rising pregnancy rate among 15- to 19-year-olds in Idaho — 2,543 pregnancies in 2006 compared with 2,396 in 2004 — and state officials decided last summer it was time to get out.
    Stanley Koutstaal, the federal official who oversees the abstinenceonly program at the Administration for Children and Family Services, notes that more than half the states still choose to participate. “Obviously, many states still fi nd it valuable and have adopted it as their approach to addressing the sexual activity of teens,” he said.
    He called for long-term reauthorization of the block grants so that states and their contractors can be more certain about the future and can plan accordingly.
    Some states’ officials do speak favorably of the program.
    In Georgia, some 250,000 students have participated in abstinence education since 2000 through schools, church groups and nonprofit agencies.
    Teachers in Georgia go beyond the abstinence message. They stress community service and performing better in school, said Jen Bennecke, executive director of the governor’s office for children and families. Bennecke says the program has led to an almost 50 percent drop in pregnancy rates for Georgia youth ages 15-17 since the mid-90s.
    “We really see abstinence education as a clear, concise and positive message,” Bennecke said. “We’ve presented it as a healthy lifestyle choice.”
    The abstinence-only grants have been controversial from the start.
    Supporters say comprehensive sex education sends a mixed message and that abstinence is the only method that is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Critics say abstinence education simply doesn’t stop teens from having sex and those teens need more information about how to reduce pregnancy and disease.

http://www.dailygazette.com

Quoted Text

Report: Thousands having unsafe sex

    NEW YORK — The city Health Department says tens of thousands of New Yorkers are putting themselves at risk by having unsafe sex.
    A report issued Tuesday indicates about 40 percent of New Yorkers with multiple partners had engaged in sex without a condom.
    Overall, 11 percent of New Yorkers — some 610,000 adults — had more than one partner in the year leading up to the survey. About 5 percent of New Yorkers who were married or in steady relationships said they’d had two or more partners during that same period.
    Men are three times more likely than women to report multiple partners.
    The findings are based on the latest available figures, from 2006, and were obtained during a telephone survey of about 10,000 New York City adults.

Geezzzzeee....and I thought that the millions of dollars in taxpayers money going toward Planned Parenthood and Sex Ed, would have made a difference by now. Guess not!!!!!!! People still do what people want to do!!!

And we are shocked......why?......