Arkansas Blog

Is this any surprise?

We're approaching global warming the same way. In Arkansas, when it comes to a conflict between science and the Republican party platform, we'll go Republican 100% of the time. Those scientists are too smart for their own good.

I expect a column from David Sanders on how this is a liberal conspiracy. There's absolutely no scientific consensus that babies are bad for unmarried 15 year olds. Reducing teenage pregnancy is only a Democratic plot to hurt the country economically - who's going to work those farms if we don't have a steady flow of poor people?

10 to 1 that the teen pregnancy rate and the church going rate are in direct correlation.

I'll go further and say poverty and teen pregnancy and everything considered 'bad' for a society are in direct correlation to everything that conservatives stand for - church going, homophobia, low taxes, anti-union.

Conservatism is a cancer on society.

I have a son that is a middle-school teacher in Arkansas. You should see the rules they hand out to them to deal with pregnanate teens in the class-room

I have a son that is a middle-school teacher in Arkansas. You should see the rules they hand out to them to deal with pregnanate teens in the class-room

We're number 4! We're number 4!

Mississippi, Texas, New Mexico, AND THEN US!

Arky

I know the times in my life when I felt the most desperate, when it looked like I was behind the 8 ball with no chance of a future that would amount to a hill of beans....during those troubled times, I was so horny I thought I was gonna die. Like people having sex when they know the airliner is going to crash, nothing takes your mind off a dark future of a life cut short by poverty and war like slipping off yer clothes and crawling in bed with someone! I remember how strange it was when I found I had to have sex in the basement a couple of hours after my father's funeral......very strange, indeed.

So....if our teens are FK'ing more, it's probably thanks to Cheney-Bush and the sense of hopelessness and misery they've covered us all with the last 8 nasty-ass years. Since eclipses occur more often at my house than sex any more, now when I feel down and out and the future looks horrible to me...instead of sex, I think about slitting a vein or 2 or running that hose from my car exhaust.....just getting the hell off this dirty planet.

I think maybe that's the difference between 15 and 53 and I'm real glad our teens are FK'ing and not taking their own lives. So maybe we should lighten up on ourselves and our FK'ing kids and hope Obama Nation is a peaceful happy place where hope runs like water over all of us. Hats off to Mississippi once again for saving us from the absolute bottom of the barrel! We're 46th in teen FK'ing....YAY!

Don't worry, Arky. My understanding is that the state will soon launch an initiative to get us back up to Number 1! In fact, if we just use the abstinence-only method with up-and-coming Duggars, that ought to be enough to put us back on top.

Church makes little girls put out??

Anybody considered that low expectations and government assistance programs have made unwed mothering of children a viable career choice? Getting married would only disqualify them from benefits like Section 8 housing assistance, etc.

If sex and no kids where what they really wanted they would seek out birth control even if they had to go to their local bootlegger/loan shark-payday lender/drug dealer to get it illegally.

Condem education has been receiving TWELVE dollars to every ONE dollar that abstinence education was receiving.
Until just a few months ago when almost ALL abstinence fudning was cut.

80% of schools receive condem education only (what some of you may call comprehensive, but since they don't touch on abstinence it can't really be called comprehensive).

Abstinence education does discuss using birth control, it also starts at an early age in which 5th and 6th graders learn about peer pressure, bullies, self esteem, respecting yourself and others.

So, with comdem education being taught in so many more schools than abstinence, I can't seem to figure out how the increase in teen pregnancies could possibly have anything to do with the decrease in abstinence education.

When abstinence education was introduced to Henderson their teen pregnancy rate dropped TREMENDOUSLY...that was about 6 years ago. Abstinence is no longer being taught there because of the funding being cut. It will be interesting to see what their rates look like in the next few years.

"So....if our teens are FK'ing more, it's probably thanks to Cheney-Bush and the sense of hopelessness"

By far the most ignorant comment I have ever read on here. Thanks for the laugh Deathbyinches!

"Anybody considered that low expectations and government assistance programs have made unwed mothering of children a viable career choice"

This is my vote for most ignorant comment here. Teenagers have babies because it is a viable career choice. If you have daughters, recommend it to them.

"Church makes little girls put out??" No bug, church doesn't make little girls put out (though that preacher's daughter from my misspent youth might put the lie to that notion). Church tells little girls and boys that the only way to get to heaven is to never have carnal sex and when the hormones in their body (that are stronger than any of ya'll's gawds) start to shout out, the ignorant little creatures have no knowledge about how to prevent pregnancy. So they have babies.

And MAK, would you care to cite the source of your claims to abstinence funding cuts and pregnancy rate decreases at Henderson?

Click on name for Ellen Goodman article which skewers abstinence-only programs, the hypocirsy of the Bush government, and explains why states cut funding for such a misconceived and ineffective program.
The latest research shows that students taught in abstinence only programs were just as likely to participate in sexual relations and way more likely to do it without using protection. Seems like those Virginity Pledges were like New Years Resolutions -- good only for show and chest-beating, quickly abandoned when temptation passionately springs into bloom.

BTW has anyone compared the map of these states with higher teen pregnancy rates with the map of red states won in the 2008 presidential election? Eerie similarity (and it doesn't help that the teen pregnancy map also uses red for the more "endangered" states).

"Republicans," as Ricky would say, "you have sum 'splainin' to do!"

"Anybody considered that low expectations and government assistance programs have made unwed mothering of children a viable career choice"

This is my vote for most ignorant comment here. Teenagers have babies because it is a viable career choice. If you have daughters, recommend it to them."

Pull your head out and take a look around and then tell me us what you see. Be sure to look past your computer monitor at actual people milling around at the mall or Wal-mart or even on your local college campus. The revenue office (DMV in other states) is an excellent place to meet a cross section of other people who inhabit your world.

It is a fact that for economic reasons young women chose to birth babies at very young ages. I know a few of these folks and even have a number or two on my cell if you would like me to ask any questions for you.

Thankfully my daughter seems to have higher expections of herself and hopefully a realistic view of the world around her.

If you aren't lying, and you do have cell numbers of teenagers who have babies for money, then the state needs to remove your daughter from your home. Pervert. Sick, sick, sick.

Joke for MAK...
A.K.A. Mary Anne

Yeah 'cause I'm working late!

SEX CONTRACT
I, _______________________, hereby surrender all possibilities of friendship, commitment, marriage, guilt-trips and near-pregnancies in exchange for one (1) night of USDA approved fondling and fornication. I will not return to the scene of said activities, nor call, write or otherwise contact/harass or vex said co-signer of contract for a time of no less than thirty (30) days and nights after said activities have been fulfilled. I also surrender all rights to propagate rumors, misnomers and dirty looks in the cafeteria from myself and friends, and will treat said co-signer with all the respect due a stranger. I will say "hi" if we pass within ten (10) meters in a friendly, if not neutral, tone. I will also upon completion of heretofore listed activities not leave underwear, earrings or other insignificant yet oh-so-valuable knick-knacks lying about or hidden somewhere in the co-signer's abode for the sole purpose of returning to said abode and breaking the no-contact agreement of this document. I furthermore state that I am of sound mind and desirable body, and will not call said co-signer by any other name than is his or her own, nor reminisce on some former slime-ball/great lover who wore the same cologne, roll-on, boxer shorts or robe. I will also pay one-half of all laundry fees as needed after prescribed activity.

Signed,

_____________________________________
Fornicator At Large

I'm going to hold MAK's hand and say we need more personal awareness education in public schools.

My partner, RN, was pleased to instruct at least 4 young women who had no mothers and one who had a religio-nut for a step-mother. She taught them about how to SAFELY use a condom and it's limitations. She also taught them about their entire monthly cycle as a matter of science they needed to know. She used her medical book with graphic pics of beginning and fully developed photos of VD. These four young women were good students, some outstanding. All but one of the girls worked after school. Three of them went on to college on scholarships. Partner was careful to instill in each of them the need for folic acid, the most missing and necessary vitamin in a woman's diet.

Personal sexual knowledge should be as much of a right as food and housing.

Additionally, age-appropriate sex education is needed so that an 8 or 9 year old kid can realize when s/he is being abused.

If parents will not or cannot help their children with math or geography then why expect them to teach children about their bodies?

We know it must be done. Ignorance is such an expensive thing.

.

Jesus...how much does abstinence education cost? Hey kids, don't FK! Or Hey Kids, bag it before you shag it! How much do ya think I spent typing that a you all? We need specially trained teachers to say DON'T FK? If they quit funding abstinence education, will the same teachers turn around and encourage teen sex? Maybe show them nasty pictures and rub against something while they talk about how yummy orgasms are?

We have successfully made everything be about MONEY. Every teacher teaching should also be giving kids the message that getting pregnant cuts out all your fun (teen fun) forever. If we're going to make everything be about MONEY, why not start giving How to Be a Prostitute classes in high school, let the boys make money keeping sperm banks stocked up and let there be wholesale harvesting of young unwanted human eggs. Oh look what voting for Bush has brought upon all our heads.......

We have more sex education today than in any other time in our history. We had next to no sex education in the schools during the 50s. Take a guess at what the teen pregnancy rate was during the 50s as compared to today. I'm sure that the left wingers have their typical convoluted explanation for this.

actually you've given no explanation for your conclusions that the time period alone accounts for a difference. as the story indicates, there are several factors other than white type of sex education is being taught which have a larger impact upon teen pregnancy rates.

you surely cannot ignore the sexual revolution and the overwhelming increase in exposure to blatant sexual messages that teenagers now receive through various media. "the times, they are a-changin'...." is certainly quite true of that period of time.

you get a D on that effort.

Click on name for an article that throws your premise out on its ears. The 1950s had the highest teen birthrate ever (about 91 per 1000 births). So, in light of all the sexual revolution and sexual invasion of the media, it seems that sev education may have not only helped reduce the rates but do so against such overwhelming circumstances.

now, your grade gets changed to an F (for false and failing).

Personally, I think that it has been the plan all along from the right wingers. THEY know that teens will have sex, and their plan is to rope the girls into becoming mothers and wives to service the men. They way to do this is to start them early having children, before they get subversive ideas like having careers into their heads.

To that end, they pushed for no sex education except abstinence, knowing full well that abstinence ISN'T GOING TO HAPPEN, and that the uneducated girls won't know about birth control so WILL get pregnant. Then, you restrict abortions, and tell them that the "right thing to do" is to get married. Mission accomplished: You have a big batch of women putting out babies that will be good Christian followers, servicing the men, with no other recourse because they don't know any better.

Yep, that's the plan, and it's working quite well, wouldn't you say?