Sex, Disease, and Tax Cuts

The following excerpt appeared from Faye Flam’s “Carnal Knowledge” feature in the Philadelphia Inquirer today (as she took a break from new types of stimulation and searching for the “G” spot to write a good column on the problems of abstinence-only education).

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed two scientists from a panel at a conference on sexually transmitted diseases. One, a student at Pennsylvania State University, was going to present findings suggesting abstinence education didn't prevent STDs.

She and another panelist were replaced by others friendlier to teaching abstinence until marriage. The replacement was made at the request of Rep. Mark E. Souder (R., Ind.) and was immediately denounced by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D., Calif.).

By the way, to tell Representative Souder what you think of him for doing this, click here.

This might be a good time to reevaluate the truthfulness of sex-education courses in public schools. The honesty of the course material would trump any studies designed to determine whether these courses "work" either to prevent teen sex or disease.

Even if we could trust such studies, what if they showed that lying to students proved more "effective" in preventing chlamydia? Is disease prevention sufficient reason to substitute propaganda for education?

"That's a good question," said Karen Lightfoot, a spokeswoman for Henry Waxman. "You should only be evaluating programs that provide information, not misinformation."

In search of more information on who is running the CDC (Dr. Julie Gerberding), I came across this from Dr. Howard Brody, who teaches at Michigan State University, in which Dr. Brody discusses CDC funding cuts that turned into more brainless tax giveaways for the rich. Putting aside the fact that cutting CDC funding in the face of a possible bird flu pandemic is dangerously misguided and irresponsible (as noted here), these last two paragraphs should appear on every government building in this country.

Let me tell the rich folks something. If Bush lets the public schools go to pot, you can send your kids to expensive private academies. If Bush lets more and more people go without adequate health insurance, you can still pay your own way to the Mayo Clinic. If Bush sells off the national parks to the developers to put up condos, you can still afford to take a safari to Africa to see wilderness and wild animals.

But if Bush lets the U.S. public health system fall apart, you could still be dead. And your tax cuts won’t save you.

Now if Bushco and Congress could only “abstain” from tax cuts...