h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm thinking about putting those in a book or two around here...

Oh, and just for laughs, this is actually in a book I own that was pulled from the shelves of Liberty Baptist College. The title of the book? A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, by Henry Charles Lea. It was originally published in 1898, it's very much an anti-catholic book, believe me.

Anyway, this is what the sticker says:

"To the reader:

This volume represents the wealth of knowledge that is present in the world today, and Liberty Baptist College accepts this knowledge in order to standardize the work and validate the credits of the college.

However, use of this volume as a text for reference in Liberty Baptist College is not an endorsement of its contents from the standpoint of morals, philosophy, theology or scientific hypotheses. It is necessary to use books whose content the college cannot wholly endores. The position of Liberty Baptist College on the fundamentals of the faith and the separated Christian life is well known."

I kid you not.

I'd follow the links to the anti-evolution websites, but frankly I value my blood pressure too much.

That's why it advocated taking them with a stiff drink.

classic onion headline:

Report: Aspirin Taken Daily With Bottle Of Bourbon Reduces Awareness Of Heart Attacks

You gotta love the Onion.

Right now, anything that makes us laugh is a good thing.

Agreed

Shoot, I've been following that medical advice for years.

Go to Madison, WI, home of the Onion, where the Onion is distributed free in Starbucks and you can buy Onion t-shirts in drug stores. Great town, Madison.

Loved the stickers And I should have known about the Onion goodies in Madison. I was just recently in Milwaukee - practically next door... Oh, well.

->

There's hope - at least in the long(er) term:
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/11/25/new_silent_majority

GRRRRRR

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=514&e=8&u=/ap/20041126/ap_on_go_pr_wh/second_term_abstinence

Abstinence education is "...something that parents and children want"???

What I don't understand is that even St. Paul said if you can't be celibate, do it safely! (It's better to marry than to burn). He advocated the socially acceptable form of birth control --marriage-- so why can't Shrub?

I mean, okay, abstinence is best right? Even I can get with that, since sex can now kill you, but there are ways to make it safer...condoms, for instance. Why can't that cabal see these things? Do you really think Shrub was a virgin?!

I remember my teenage years all too well, all I wanted was to get a piece with or without any kind of protection. That, for the most part, is the teenage male mindset. Teaching abstinence will not stop teens from having sex, we must teach them other precautionary measures.

That's what I'm saying. Teaching them abstinence only works if you teach it as part of a larger picure. And the whole argument that teaching kids about birth control makes them more likely to have sex...I don't buy it. Teens will have sex if they want to have sex, and as you said, with or without protection. At least arm them with the knowledge of protection, so if their hormones carry them away, at least they're safe!

I agree with MR and GDZ. In my ninth grade class I know some kids who are already seriously involved with each other and I wouldn't be surprised if they ended up having sex. The administrations that be can't just turn a blind eye to this. Teaching abstinence only is pretending that sex doesn't happen and that hormones don't exist. Obviously that's untrue, and so we need to teach to the hormones. We have this knowledge and we have ways to utilise it. My cousin works for a sort of advice hotline and she gets calls from girls who think they can get pregnant if they kiss someone - or, on the flip side of the coin, that they can't get pregnant until they're married. We need to eradicate ignorance and the only way to do that is to teach the kids in schools.

Another thing that doesn't get nearly enough air time in schools is homosexuality. This is something that I think should be discussed openly in health class or sex ed. So many kids, even in high school, have the most crazy misperceptions about homosexual, bisexual and transgender people and these, I think, are often the root of some of the horribly prejudiced things that get said and done by some teenagers.

Knowledge is power and the best way to give teenagers control over their situations is to give them the information they need to live their lives.

Very well said EMR!

When it comes down to it, it really is the parents' responsibility to teach this information. Having some back up never hurt though. I have friends whose fathers went out and bought protection for them saying "If your going to do it, at least be prepared." Other friends plan on going out and buying pornography for their teens, not sure how effective that will be. Me, I'm not sure what approach I will take with my son, fortunately I have a couple of more years to come up with something.

In other news, the Washington Post reports that "...Speaker J. Dennis Hastert last week enunciated a policy in which Congress will pass bills only if most House Republicans back them, regardless of how many Democrats favor them.

Hastert's position, which is drawing fire from Democrats and some outside groups, is the latest step in a decade-long process of limiting Democrats' influence and running the House virtually as a one-party institution. Republicans earlier barred House Democrats from helping to draft major bills such as the 2003 Medicare revision and this year's intelligence package. Hastert (R-Ill.) now says such bills will reach the House floor, after negotiations with the Senate, only if "the majority of the majority" supports them.

Senators from both parties, leaders of the Sept. 11 commission and others have sharply criticized the policy. The long-debated intelligence bill would now be law, they say, if Hastert and his lieutenants had been humble enough to let a high-profile measure pass with most votes coming from the minority party.
"

I wonder if Tom DeLay was really the "brains" behind that policy?