Virginia Governor Kaine has decided to stop throwing good money after bad dumb and has cut a $275,000 expenditure that matched Federal funding for some abstinence-only sex education programs. The Post article on the matter is a cavalcade of baseless blanket statements, irrelevant observations, and poor reasoning. There’s a side order of political incompetence & sloth tossed in at the end, like a ironic cherry.
Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II, recent recipient of a 92 vote mandate, is quoted as saying “The longer you delay the commencement of sexual activity, you have healthier and happier kids and more successful kids,” a point with which I completely agree. Since a study earlier this year showed that abstinence-only programs didn’t discourage kids from starting to have sex one iota we can comfortably cut the funding for them without worrying that we’ll walk away from that goal.
Delegate Robert G. Marshall of Prince William expressed annoyance that Planned Parenthood, who lauded the decision, didn’t make the statement before the November elections. While Kaine’s office published this information in documents over a month ago [pdf], he apparently relies upon opposition groups to read government publications on his behalf and distill the information into sound bites he can more easily lodge objections to.
Victoria Cobb of the Family Foundation offered her objections to the change and pointed out a Virginia DOH study that “found a majority of teenagers agree with abstinence-only sex education.” Apparently students’ affection is a compelling reason to support something, so Cobb and the Family Foundation will soon also make announcements supporting downloading music for free off the Internet, wearing your baseball hat backwards, and the repeal of prohibitions against staying up too late, listening to “that” music “too loud” and hanging out in the mall even when you’re not buying anything.
This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
