A recent survey that found some Florida teens believe drinking a cap of bleach will prevent HIV and a shot of Mountain Dew will stop pregnancy has prompted lawmakers to push for an overhaul of sex education in the state.
State lawmakers said the myths are spreading because of Florida's abstinence-only sex education, Local 6 reported.
The usual suspects who oppose this almost certainly oppose Plan B and abortions as well. Christianism uber alles!Let's go to press!
The Alton Weekly Inquirer! News from around the nation, around the world, and up your alley! ("Up my alley?"Up YOURS!)
I've heard some ideas for resolving the Florida delegate mess, but this takes the cake: The Naked Politics blog reported that DNC chairman Howard Dean had called in Katherine Harris--yes, that one--to help resolve the stalemate. According to the story, representatives from the campaigns were locked in a meeting room with the Princess and six Starbucks' triple vente lattes, based on the premise that working with an overcaffienated Princess would compel a solution. (Yes, they made this whole thing up for April Fools' Day--but I still fervently hope for a McCain/Harris ticket this fall. A guy can dream.)
Katherine Harris greets the negotiators, holding a cup of the good stuff!
More April Fool' Day foolery, from the Pensito Review: These bits made me laugh:
Karen Thurman, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, announced today that the party was changing its name to #@&%$ Florida Democrats!, which is how the organization has been referred to since last fall by Democrats in other parts of the nation.
Sen. Hillary Clinton says she’s quitting her campaign and will join Sen. Joe Lieberman as an "Independent Democrat." The new party so far has two members, but plans spin-off chapters, including one headed by Ralph Nader, the "Independent Green Party," and one led by Ron Paul, the "Independent Libertarian Party."
If this bill passes the Lege and gets signed into law, can we name it "Rush Limbaugh's Law?": Dr. Rafael Miguel, a Tampa Bay area anesthesiologist, has been championing a bill currently before the Florida Legislature that would create a statewide database of people trying to dupe doctors into writing prescriptions for drugs. Dr. Miguel pointed out that over 2,000 had died in Florida from prescription drug overdoses. The Lege, unfortunately, doesn't seem too interested in getting the bill through this session. (via Florida Politics)
A heartfelt thumbs up. Way up: Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, who has been dealing with complications from cancer of the jaw for a number of months, posted a letter on the occasion of his 41st anniversary at the newspaper, stating that he would soon return to writing film reviews after a long layoff. He will also be in attendance at his film festival later this month in Champaign, Illinois. We saw him last year at the film festival, silent (he could not speak) but otherwise enjoying the spectacle. The man has fight in him, that's for sure.
Adopt a highway, sure. Adopt a humpback whale, absolutely. But adopt a.....what? You don't see a spokesmodel (borderline NSFW) like this every day! She is actually standing up for a good cause: a foundation that aims to help the victims of female circumcision regain, through reconstructive surgery, the ability to experience sexual pleasure. The project was started at the behest of the decidedly eccentric Raelian Movement, which, among other beliefs, opposes the suppression of female sexual pleasure.
It's one thing to read the Doughy Pantload's book; it's quite another to internalize it: The Building Industry Association of Washington (State; BIAW) published this screed, in all seriousness, in their newsletter, as reported by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:
In the group’s March newsletter (no April Fool’s prank; area blogs started picking it up last week), there’s a full-page piece headlined: "Hitler’s Nazi party: They were eco extremists." The writer makes a concession mid-ramble that Nazis were insanely racist but hurries to say that global environmentalism is "an amalgam of Nazism and communism." Sure.
Elsewhere, BIAW President Brad Spears tries to draw a supposedly natural tie between mainstream environmentalists and eco-terrorism, especially home burning. "The older folks in the mainstream enviro groups," he writes, "silently applaud this new and novel approach: If you build it, we will burn it." Wow.
Nazis brushed their teeth. Environmentalists brush their teeth. Therefore, environmentalists are Nazis. That seems to be the BIAW's reasoning level, which might even be beneath that of the minimeister of wingnut welfare. (via Horse's Ass)
Say it ain't so, Zell: Sam Zell, the current owner of Wrigley Field in Chicago, has some renovations in mind for the venerable ballpark, to the point where a nonprofit historical preservation group, Landmarks Illinois, has placed it on this year's list of the most endangered historic places in the state. The big worry is that Zell may do for to Wrigley Field what was done to Soldier Field, the Chicago Bears' stadium, which would completely ruin the character of the place.
Globalization (or maybe the international language of music) rears its odd-music-covers head: This is the Finnish group The Leningrad Cowboys with the Red Army Chorus (yes, that one) performing......wait for it......
"Sweet Home Alabama." No, really. The best part is, somewhere, somehow, old-line Reagan Democrats' heads are exploding. (via BoingBoing)
This week's Floyd R. Turbo Award: This writer to--where else?--the Belleville News-Republican Democrat even wrote his own punchline!
The Obama passport trifle is typical behavior from the federal career employees festering deep in the bowels of the State Department and who actually run the place. That's the good news. The bad news is they serve for life. They have defacto tenure and are protected by a wealthy, prosperous and powerful union that even Russian communist dictator Putin envies.[...]
That's how it looks to this simple Illinois farmer. But, as always, I reserve the right to be wrong.
Louis E. Klaus
Glen Carbon
Considering that the people involved in the passport mess were not government employees but contractors, I'd say "reserving the right to be wrong" was a good move on his part.
