Sunday, February 27, 2005
100 things about snickers, part 3
i'm a little annoyed that no one commented and my last post was full of weird typos that i don't think i had typed but whatever.
80. snickers really needs a buddy.
79. snickers is really not allowed to be living here, which sucks, since she's chewed the walls, scratched up the carpet, and destroyed the linoleum in the kitchen. so yeah that's gonna be expensive.
78. snickers used to be allowed to hop up and down the hallway, but we don't know any of our neighbors now and don't want them to squeal, so i don't let her do that anymore.
77. snickers jumped about three feet in the air the other day. mike and i got freaked out, since we think snickers can sense ghosts.
76. snickers has to go to the vet twice a year. the visit takes about ten minutes and costs sixty bucks. i don't spend that much money on my own health.
75. snickers likes to binky.
74. snickers certainly hopes you are learning a lot about rabbits.
73. snickers needs a handful of romaine lettuce (she'll eat others, but romaine is her favorite), tons of carrots, lots of hay, water, and a papaya drop, and one other kind of vegetable, which changes depending on what's on sale.
72. snickers is the most spoiled rabbit ever.
71. snickers may be the most spoiled pet ever.
i'm a little annoyed that no one commented and my last post was full of weird typos that i don't think i had typed but whatever.
80. snickers really needs a buddy.
79. snickers is really not allowed to be living here, which sucks, since she's chewed the walls, scratched up the carpet, and destroyed the linoleum in the kitchen. so yeah that's gonna be expensive.
78. snickers used to be allowed to hop up and down the hallway, but we don't know any of our neighbors now and don't want them to squeal, so i don't let her do that anymore.
77. snickers jumped about three feet in the air the other day. mike and i got freaked out, since we think snickers can sense ghosts.
76. snickers has to go to the vet twice a year. the visit takes about ten minutes and costs sixty bucks. i don't spend that much money on my own health.
75. snickers likes to binky.
74. snickers certainly hopes you are learning a lot about rabbits.
73. snickers needs a handful of romaine lettuce (she'll eat others, but romaine is her favorite), tons of carrots, lots of hay, water, and a papaya drop, and one other kind of vegetable, which changes depending on what's on sale.
72. snickers is the most spoiled rabbit ever.
71. snickers may be the most spoiled pet ever.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
walkin around wearin rubber boots and a cape
yes, i seriously saw someone dressed like that today. anyway, here's more about snickers:
90. snickers is the cutest rabbit ever to live.
89. snickers can pull an entire bag of carrots out of the refrigerator, carry one away and eat it (yes, a fullsized carrot) in the amount of time it takes me to open the refrigerator door.
88. snickers eating a piece of fruit around snickers. you will not be able to without giving her/her taking at least half of it. the other day, mike refused to give her a piece of the banana he was eating and he said it was the "least relaxing fruit eating" he's ever had.
87. snickers eats little brown paper bags. you know, the kind a 40 oz. comes in. i think she has a problem.
86. snickers wants me to come home and pet her.
85. snickers wants you to look at this. she wants you to note that, although that rabbit's name is snickers and looks exactly like her, this is not about her. she wants you to note how weird that is. try googling "snickers bunny". you're gonna see a lot of bunnies named snickers.
84. snickers got hypnotized by the vet once. she did it quite easily because snickers was so freaked out. here is a photo of a hypnotized rabbit. i tried when we got home. she doesn't really go for it. but it is very relaxing for her.
83. snickers would like being outside, if i could just get the damned leash on her. she really is not into it.
82. snickers sometimes sleeps like this. but she's really not totally asleep unless she looks like the hypnotized rabbit above. she flips herself over onto her back or rolls over onto her side. that's how she really sleeps.
81. snickers this this is really cute. so do i.
yes, i seriously saw someone dressed like that today. anyway, here's more about snickers:
90. snickers is the cutest rabbit ever to live.
89. snickers can pull an entire bag of carrots out of the refrigerator, carry one away and eat it (yes, a fullsized carrot) in the amount of time it takes me to open the refrigerator door.
88. snickers eating a piece of fruit around snickers. you will not be able to without giving her/her taking at least half of it. the other day, mike refused to give her a piece of the banana he was eating and he said it was the "least relaxing fruit eating" he's ever had.
87. snickers eats little brown paper bags. you know, the kind a 40 oz. comes in. i think she has a problem.
86. snickers wants me to come home and pet her.
85. snickers wants you to look at this. she wants you to note that, although that rabbit's name is snickers and looks exactly like her, this is not about her. she wants you to note how weird that is. try googling "snickers bunny". you're gonna see a lot of bunnies named snickers.
84. snickers got hypnotized by the vet once. she did it quite easily because snickers was so freaked out. here is a photo of a hypnotized rabbit. i tried when we got home. she doesn't really go for it. but it is very relaxing for her.
83. snickers would like being outside, if i could just get the damned leash on her. she really is not into it.
82. snickers sometimes sleeps like this. but she's really not totally asleep unless she looks like the hypnotized rabbit above. she flips herself over onto her back or rolls over onto her side. that's how she really sleeps.
81. snickers this this is really cute. so do i.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
100 things about snickers, part 1
some people are putting "100 things about me" on their blogs. i don't think i have 100 things that could possibly be said about me, but i know someone who does: everyone's favorite bunny, snickers!
i'm working backwards.
100. snickers's real name is dr. snickers von floppenstein. she's a doctor of chewology. she can chew anything. in order to get her doctorate she had to eat someone's only copy of their dissertation, the night after they finished it.
99. snickers likes to eat carrots. i guess that's not really too revealing, considering that she's a rabbit.
98. snickers can scream.
97. snickers wants a puppie. real bad.
96. snickers's favorite television show is 'punky brewster'.
95. snickers doesn't like pebbles, my brother and sister's rabbit. upon meeting pebbles, snickers did the following two things:
a. pooped everywhere
b. tried to kill and eat pebbles
94. snickers can play 'fur elise' on a recorder.
93. snickers once beat up mike. i came home and she was all punching him in the face and stuff. it was hilarious.
92. snickers once ate a bicycle seat.
91. snickers only buys albums on vinyl.
now, you all can try to guess which of these is true.
vote in my comments section. good luck!
some people are putting "100 things about me" on their blogs. i don't think i have 100 things that could possibly be said about me, but i know someone who does: everyone's favorite bunny, snickers!
i'm working backwards.
100. snickers's real name is dr. snickers von floppenstein. she's a doctor of chewology. she can chew anything. in order to get her doctorate she had to eat someone's only copy of their dissertation, the night after they finished it.
99. snickers likes to eat carrots. i guess that's not really too revealing, considering that she's a rabbit.
98. snickers can scream.
97. snickers wants a puppie. real bad.
96. snickers's favorite television show is 'punky brewster'.
95. snickers doesn't like pebbles, my brother and sister's rabbit. upon meeting pebbles, snickers did the following two things:
a. pooped everywhere
b. tried to kill and eat pebbles
94. snickers can play 'fur elise' on a recorder.
93. snickers once beat up mike. i came home and she was all punching him in the face and stuff. it was hilarious.
92. snickers once ate a bicycle seat.
91. snickers only buys albums on vinyl.
now, you all can try to guess which of these is true.
vote in my comments section. good luck!
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
it's amazeable
you can get free songs off of itunes if you win one in the cap of your pepsi product. 1 in 3 wins. i just won. you get a free song, whatever you want. so if you drink pepsi product but you don't use itunes, please give me your codes. it will say something like "A8S88
JD928
FREE
SONG"
or something like that. so if you see that, email me and tell me the code. or use it to get yourself a song on itunes. i thought it was going to be real stupid like you have to get the songs of "featured performers" or something, which would mean some crappy band you hate. but it's not. it's whatever you want off of itunes. unless that's anything decent by the rolling stones or anything at all by AC/DC, in which case, don't check itunes. not that any of you would be looking for anything like that, right? hmmm....
gotta go.
you can get free songs off of itunes if you win one in the cap of your pepsi product. 1 in 3 wins. i just won. you get a free song, whatever you want. so if you drink pepsi product but you don't use itunes, please give me your codes. it will say something like "A8S88
JD928
FREE
SONG"
or something like that. so if you see that, email me and tell me the code. or use it to get yourself a song on itunes. i thought it was going to be real stupid like you have to get the songs of "featured performers" or something, which would mean some crappy band you hate. but it's not. it's whatever you want off of itunes. unless that's anything decent by the rolling stones or anything at all by AC/DC, in which case, don't check itunes. not that any of you would be looking for anything like that, right? hmmm....
gotta go.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
as some of you may or may not know, i'm the member of a club called "sex education activists". what we do is basically attempt to get into high schools and teach the kids there about the sorry sad state of sex education in the US today.
some of you might not know very much about the sorry sad state of sex education in the US today. so let me let you in on a little secret: sex education in the US today is in a sorry sad state.
BUT! you say, i'm from the us, i was educated in public schools and my sex education was superb! well i say fine for you. but just so you know, the disease is a degenerative one (those of you who voted for bush can pat yourselves on the back for this one!).
in bush's proposed budget, abstinence-only sex education programs are set to receive $206 million dollars a year. let me repeat that $206. million. dollars. a. year. a. year. yes, a year.
in FY2005, the federal government will definitely spend about $170 million dollars on these "abstinence-only" programs. i'm reading something real interesting, referred to as "the waxman report" right now, so let me let you in on some of the information in this report (which was prepared for rep. henry waxman by "the united states house of representatives commitee on government reform-minority staff special investigations division"...sounds official, eh?)
be prepared to be pissed.
abstinence-only "education" (and i use that term loosely and with regret) promotes "abstinence from sexual activity without teaching basic facts about contraception".
now, i'm all about teenagers abstaining. i did. and i totally survived those years. but i also knew about condoms and alternative sexualities and abortion and pregnancy and venereal diseases and trusted myself to make the right decisions. and i did. *gasp* but the point is that teenagers don't abstain. most teenagers in the US will have sex by the time they graduate from high school. and an even greater number will have sex sometime in their lives. so they need this information. they need to know about sex.
"Other developed countries focus much more on contraception. The upshot is that while teenagers in the U.S. have about as much sexual activity as teenagers in Canada or Europe, Americans girls are four times as likely as German girls to become pregnant, almost five times as likely as French girls to have a baby, and more than seven times as likely as Dutch girls to have an abortion. Young Americans are five times as likely to have H.I.V. as young Germans, and teenagers' gonorrhea rate is 70 times higher in the U.S. than in the Netherlands or France." from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/16/opinion/16kristof.html?ex=1109307600&en=29f54ad0bc265467&ei=5070
everyone should go, read that now, and then come back and read this next:
here are some other problems:
"Over 80% of the abstinence-only curricula, used by over two-thirds of [federal government] grantees in 2003 contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health." (waxman report, p. i)
here are some examples. this is being funded by *your* government, ladies and gentlemen, and is going to be getting even *more* money:
one curriculum says that "in heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately 31% of the time". oh really? that's news to me. yeah because it's a lie.
so the result?
(from the NY times link above)
"...there's some evidence that abstinence-only programs lead to increases in unprotected sex.
Perhaps the most careful study of the issue involved 12,000 young people. It found that those taking virginity pledges had sex 18 months later, on average, than those who had not taken the pledge. But even 88 percent of the pledgers had sex before marriage.
More troubling, the pledgers were much less likely to use contraception when they did have sex - only 40 percent of the males used condoms, compared with 59 percent of those who did not take the pledge. "
NICE!
i really love the idea of 60 % of teenagers having sex NOT using condoms!!! but why should they, if they all have giant holes in them?
here's some more false information:
"one curriculum states that 5% to 10% of women who have legal abortions will become sterile" this is simply NOT TRUE!!! there is NO increased risk of sterility following abortion. please, someone show me a scientific study that has this as its result. or, even more, produce for me one single woman who got an abortion and became sterile as a result. what? you can't? oh that's because it's NOT TRUE!!!
"another curriculum calls a 43-day old fetus a 'thinking person'."
i'm not touching this one. but you can have your own ideas about it. it's definitely not the sort of "fact" children should be learning through our federal tax money though.
"Abstinence-only curricula treat stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact: {one} instructs: 'Women gauge their happiness and judge their success on their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments.'"
this, once again, is FUNDED and FUNDED OUT THE ASS by your government. in other words, I paid for this sort of bullshit to reach children's eyes. so did you. way to go!
"Abstinence-only curricula contain scientific errors: [one] states that 'twenty-four chromosomes from the mother and twenty-four chromosomes from the father join to create this new individual'; the correct number is 23."
yes, if you have forty-eight chromosomes, you are going to be one messed up individual. or dead. i don't know the exact repercussions. but i don't think they're good.
now, abstinence-only "education"...does it work? i mean, yeah, if kids don't have sex until they're adults or 'old enough' (whatever that is...), then, hmmm, that'd be great. and it would justify (maybe) the administration pouring millions and millions more dollars into these programs....so do they work? do they? huh? huh?
"in the most comprehensive analysis of teen pregnancy prevention programs, researchers found that 'the few rigorous studies of abstinence-only curricula that have been completed to date do now show any overall effect on sexual behavior or contraceptive use'."
in other words....NO! they don't work....
"in contrast, comprehensive sex education that both encourages abstinence and teaches about effective contraceptive use has been shown in many studies to delay sex, reduce the frequency of sex, and increase the use of condoms and other contraceptives."
wait a minute......this works? huh? but we're not financing that sort of education...i don't get it......*scratching head* oh that's right!!! we're not supposed to talk about sex with children!!!! ohhhhhhh!!!!! i get it. because if we dont' talk about it, act like it doesn't exist, and ooohhh, even better, tell them *not to do it*, they wont!!! that's why there is no teen pregnancy and why young people are not the fastest growing group of people with sexually transmitted infections.....oh!!! hehe i get it now.
okay i wanna give you some more examples of lies and incorrect information in some abstinence-only programs (which, once again, you're totally paying for! and paying OUT THE ASS, once again!)
"None of the curricula prodvides information on how to select a birth control method and use it effectively (in fact, by law, they are not allowed to,rp). However, several curricula exaggerate condom failure rates in preventing pregnancy. Failure rates for contraception are calculated as the probability of a couple experiencing pregnancy when relying primarily on the contraceptive method over the course of a year. 'Typical use' failure rates are often higher than 'perfect use' rates largely because the former include people who use the method incorrectly OR ONLY SOMETIMES. Condoms have a typical use contraceptive failure rate of approximately 15% and a perfect use failure rate of 2 to 3% (WHO). According to the World Health Organization, the difference between typical and perfect use 'is due primarily to inconsistent and incorrect use, not to condom failure. Condom failure-the device breaking or slipping off during intercourse-is uncommon.'"
Okay, now that we all know about condoms, here's what three of the curricula most commonly used say:
"When used by real people in real-life situations, research confirms that 14% of the women who use condoms scrupulously for birth control become pregnant within a year."
okay, using condoms 'scrupulously' means that you use them 'carefully' and 'every time you have sex'. in which case, the 'perfect use' failure rate of 2 to 3% would apply. not 14%. omg.
"Couples who use condoms to avoid a pregnancy have a failure rate of 15%."
"The typical failure rate for the male condom is 14% in preventing pregnancy."
as a scientist, and as a person who cares about what young people are taught, this really really really really really really really really angers me. a lot.
here's something else:
"Another curriculum presents misleading information about the risk of pregnancy from sexual activity other than intercourse. The curriculum erroneously states that touching another person's genitals 'CAN RESULT IN PREGNANCY'." in what world? seriously? this is not even physically possible.
oh my.
here comes some more:
'abstinence-only curricula contain false and misleading information about the risks of abortion.'
I'll just paraphrase. some of these say that the following bad outcomes 'follow' or 'are caused by' voluntary, legal abortion:
sterility
premature birth of later, wanted pregnancies
tubal and cervical pregnancies
anxiety
grief
guilt
depression
suicide
In reality, none of this has ever ever EVER proven to be the case. I'm surprised they didn't pull up that whole "abortion causes breast cancer" bullshit.
okay. in the part of the report about how these programs blur science and religion into one and offer them up to children as undeniable and scientifically proven truth and fact, here is an example of that:
"After contraception, the TINY BABY moves down the fallopian tube toward the mother's uterus. About the sixth to tenth day after conception, when THE BABY is no bigger than this dot (.), BABY SNUGGLES into the soft nest in the lining of the mother's uterus."
I personally do not consider a blastocyte, which is basically a ball of cells, to be the same thing as a TINY BABY and i'm quite sure it is incapable of the physical act of SNUGGLING. quite sure.
The same curriculum tells students: "Ten to twelve weeks after conception: he/she can hear and see." The curriculum cites a source that actually states, "Can the fetus see inside the uterus? We do not know." The source also states that fetuses begin to react to sound between the fourth and fifth months, not at 10 to 12 weeks."
whoa. everyone has his or her own idea about when "life" begins or what "life" even means. i don't personally believe that a ten week old fetus can hear and see. i just don't. they don't even have fully formed ears or eyes. i'm sure that having a wanted pregnancy is a really magical event that hopefully i will one day experience. i don't dislike babies. or fetuses. i like them. i think anyone who knows me will know i'm not a baby hater. by any means. but ten week old fetuses CANNOT see or hear. they just aren't that developed. this is a scientific inaccuracy which is really upsetting.
now, here's the portion where stereotypes about men and women are presented as fact and taught to our children. here's an example:
"Just as a woman needs to feel a man's devotion to her, a man has a primary need to feel a woman's admiration. To admire a man is to regard him with wonder, delight, and approval. A man feels admired when his unique characteristics and talents happily amaze her."
this paints a picture of women staring doe-eyed at their husbands happily clapping and slobbering all over themselves at his ability to do anything, while all he has to do is not cheat on her. i cannot begin to explain how pissed off this makes me. i think people in relationships *both* want to feel devotion and admiration, wonder, delight, and approval. why is this restricted only to men? is this 2005 or 1905? seriously.
here's something else:
"The father gives the bride to the groom because he is the one man who has had the responsibility of protecting her throughout her life. He is now giving his daughter to the only other man who will take over this protective role."
cute! i'm sorry. really. i love my father. i do. but if i ever get married i don't think i can do the whole 'giving away' thing. because a) my father doesn't own me; b) my possible future husband will definitely NOT own me; and c) you can only 'give' something you own to someone else. oh maybe it's just a sweet cute tradition but i can't really buy that. and a lot of women have fathers and husbands who do anything *but* protect them. in fact, they hurt them. so yeah.
haha, okay i actually laughed out loud at the absurdity of this one:
"While a man needs little or no preparation for sex, a woman often needs hours of emotional and mental preparation."
HOURS! hours! and hours! good luck, boys!
and finally, as a psychologist i found this really interesting:
did you know the following:
isolation
jealousy
poverty
heartbreak
substance abuse
unstable long-term commitments
sexual violence
embarrassment
depression
personal disappointment
feelings of being used
loss of honesty
loneliness
suicide
"can be eliminated by being abstinent until marriage".
oh, wow.
eliminated.
here's the conclusion of the report:
"Under the Bush Administration, federal support for abstinence-only education has risen dramatically. This report finds that over two-thirds of abstinence-only education programs funded by the largest federal abstinence initiative are using curricula with multiple scientific and medical inaccuracies. These curricula contain misinformation about condoms, abortion, and basic scientific facts. They also blur religion and science and present gender stereotypes as fact."
this is a really interesting report and you should all get online and read it.
i'm exhausted.
some of you might not know very much about the sorry sad state of sex education in the US today. so let me let you in on a little secret: sex education in the US today is in a sorry sad state.
BUT! you say, i'm from the us, i was educated in public schools and my sex education was superb! well i say fine for you. but just so you know, the disease is a degenerative one (those of you who voted for bush can pat yourselves on the back for this one!).
in bush's proposed budget, abstinence-only sex education programs are set to receive $206 million dollars a year. let me repeat that $206. million. dollars. a. year. a. year. yes, a year.
in FY2005, the federal government will definitely spend about $170 million dollars on these "abstinence-only" programs. i'm reading something real interesting, referred to as "the waxman report" right now, so let me let you in on some of the information in this report (which was prepared for rep. henry waxman by "the united states house of representatives commitee on government reform-minority staff special investigations division"...sounds official, eh?)
be prepared to be pissed.
abstinence-only "education" (and i use that term loosely and with regret) promotes "abstinence from sexual activity without teaching basic facts about contraception".
now, i'm all about teenagers abstaining. i did. and i totally survived those years. but i also knew about condoms and alternative sexualities and abortion and pregnancy and venereal diseases and trusted myself to make the right decisions. and i did. *gasp* but the point is that teenagers don't abstain. most teenagers in the US will have sex by the time they graduate from high school. and an even greater number will have sex sometime in their lives. so they need this information. they need to know about sex.
"Other developed countries focus much more on contraception. The upshot is that while teenagers in the U.S. have about as much sexual activity as teenagers in Canada or Europe, Americans girls are four times as likely as German girls to become pregnant, almost five times as likely as French girls to have a baby, and more than seven times as likely as Dutch girls to have an abortion. Young Americans are five times as likely to have H.I.V. as young Germans, and teenagers' gonorrhea rate is 70 times higher in the U.S. than in the Netherlands or France." from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/16/opinion/16kristof.html?ex=1109307600&en=29f54ad0bc265467&ei=5070
everyone should go, read that now, and then come back and read this next:
here are some other problems:
"Over 80% of the abstinence-only curricula, used by over two-thirds of [federal government] grantees in 2003 contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health." (waxman report, p. i)
here are some examples. this is being funded by *your* government, ladies and gentlemen, and is going to be getting even *more* money:
one curriculum says that "in heterosexual sex, condoms fail to prevent HIV approximately 31% of the time". oh really? that's news to me. yeah because it's a lie.
so the result?
(from the NY times link above)
"...there's some evidence that abstinence-only programs lead to increases in unprotected sex.
Perhaps the most careful study of the issue involved 12,000 young people. It found that those taking virginity pledges had sex 18 months later, on average, than those who had not taken the pledge. But even 88 percent of the pledgers had sex before marriage.
More troubling, the pledgers were much less likely to use contraception when they did have sex - only 40 percent of the males used condoms, compared with 59 percent of those who did not take the pledge. "
NICE!
i really love the idea of 60 % of teenagers having sex NOT using condoms!!! but why should they, if they all have giant holes in them?
here's some more false information:
"one curriculum states that 5% to 10% of women who have legal abortions will become sterile" this is simply NOT TRUE!!! there is NO increased risk of sterility following abortion. please, someone show me a scientific study that has this as its result. or, even more, produce for me one single woman who got an abortion and became sterile as a result. what? you can't? oh that's because it's NOT TRUE!!!
"another curriculum calls a 43-day old fetus a 'thinking person'."
i'm not touching this one. but you can have your own ideas about it. it's definitely not the sort of "fact" children should be learning through our federal tax money though.
"Abstinence-only curricula treat stereotypes about girls and boys as scientific fact: {one} instructs: 'Women gauge their happiness and judge their success on their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments.'"
this, once again, is FUNDED and FUNDED OUT THE ASS by your government. in other words, I paid for this sort of bullshit to reach children's eyes. so did you. way to go!
"Abstinence-only curricula contain scientific errors: [one] states that 'twenty-four chromosomes from the mother and twenty-four chromosomes from the father join to create this new individual'; the correct number is 23."
yes, if you have forty-eight chromosomes, you are going to be one messed up individual. or dead. i don't know the exact repercussions. but i don't think they're good.
now, abstinence-only "education"...does it work? i mean, yeah, if kids don't have sex until they're adults or 'old enough' (whatever that is...), then, hmmm, that'd be great. and it would justify (maybe) the administration pouring millions and millions more dollars into these programs....so do they work? do they? huh? huh?
"in the most comprehensive analysis of teen pregnancy prevention programs, researchers found that 'the few rigorous studies of abstinence-only curricula that have been completed to date do now show any overall effect on sexual behavior or contraceptive use'."
in other words....NO! they don't work....
"in contrast, comprehensive sex education that both encourages abstinence and teaches about effective contraceptive use has been shown in many studies to delay sex, reduce the frequency of sex, and increase the use of condoms and other contraceptives."
wait a minute......this works? huh? but we're not financing that sort of education...i don't get it......*scratching head* oh that's right!!! we're not supposed to talk about sex with children!!!! ohhhhhhh!!!!! i get it. because if we dont' talk about it, act like it doesn't exist, and ooohhh, even better, tell them *not to do it*, they wont!!! that's why there is no teen pregnancy and why young people are not the fastest growing group of people with sexually transmitted infections.....oh!!! hehe i get it now.
okay i wanna give you some more examples of lies and incorrect information in some abstinence-only programs (which, once again, you're totally paying for! and paying OUT THE ASS, once again!)
"None of the curricula prodvides information on how to select a birth control method and use it effectively (in fact, by law, they are not allowed to,rp). However, several curricula exaggerate condom failure rates in preventing pregnancy. Failure rates for contraception are calculated as the probability of a couple experiencing pregnancy when relying primarily on the contraceptive method over the course of a year. 'Typical use' failure rates are often higher than 'perfect use' rates largely because the former include people who use the method incorrectly OR ONLY SOMETIMES. Condoms have a typical use contraceptive failure rate of approximately 15% and a perfect use failure rate of 2 to 3% (WHO). According to the World Health Organization, the difference between typical and perfect use 'is due primarily to inconsistent and incorrect use, not to condom failure. Condom failure-the device breaking or slipping off during intercourse-is uncommon.'"
Okay, now that we all know about condoms, here's what three of the curricula most commonly used say:
"When used by real people in real-life situations, research confirms that 14% of the women who use condoms scrupulously for birth control become pregnant within a year."
okay, using condoms 'scrupulously' means that you use them 'carefully' and 'every time you have sex'. in which case, the 'perfect use' failure rate of 2 to 3% would apply. not 14%. omg.
"Couples who use condoms to avoid a pregnancy have a failure rate of 15%."
"The typical failure rate for the male condom is 14% in preventing pregnancy."
as a scientist, and as a person who cares about what young people are taught, this really really really really really really really really angers me. a lot.
here's something else:
"Another curriculum presents misleading information about the risk of pregnancy from sexual activity other than intercourse. The curriculum erroneously states that touching another person's genitals 'CAN RESULT IN PREGNANCY'." in what world? seriously? this is not even physically possible.
oh my.
here comes some more:
'abstinence-only curricula contain false and misleading information about the risks of abortion.'
I'll just paraphrase. some of these say that the following bad outcomes 'follow' or 'are caused by' voluntary, legal abortion:
sterility
premature birth of later, wanted pregnancies
tubal and cervical pregnancies
anxiety
grief
guilt
depression
suicide
In reality, none of this has ever ever EVER proven to be the case. I'm surprised they didn't pull up that whole "abortion causes breast cancer" bullshit.
okay. in the part of the report about how these programs blur science and religion into one and offer them up to children as undeniable and scientifically proven truth and fact, here is an example of that:
"After contraception, the TINY BABY moves down the fallopian tube toward the mother's uterus. About the sixth to tenth day after conception, when THE BABY is no bigger than this dot (.), BABY SNUGGLES into the soft nest in the lining of the mother's uterus."
I personally do not consider a blastocyte, which is basically a ball of cells, to be the same thing as a TINY BABY and i'm quite sure it is incapable of the physical act of SNUGGLING. quite sure.
The same curriculum tells students: "Ten to twelve weeks after conception: he/she can hear and see." The curriculum cites a source that actually states, "Can the fetus see inside the uterus? We do not know." The source also states that fetuses begin to react to sound between the fourth and fifth months, not at 10 to 12 weeks."
whoa. everyone has his or her own idea about when "life" begins or what "life" even means. i don't personally believe that a ten week old fetus can hear and see. i just don't. they don't even have fully formed ears or eyes. i'm sure that having a wanted pregnancy is a really magical event that hopefully i will one day experience. i don't dislike babies. or fetuses. i like them. i think anyone who knows me will know i'm not a baby hater. by any means. but ten week old fetuses CANNOT see or hear. they just aren't that developed. this is a scientific inaccuracy which is really upsetting.
now, here's the portion where stereotypes about men and women are presented as fact and taught to our children. here's an example:
"Just as a woman needs to feel a man's devotion to her, a man has a primary need to feel a woman's admiration. To admire a man is to regard him with wonder, delight, and approval. A man feels admired when his unique characteristics and talents happily amaze her."
this paints a picture of women staring doe-eyed at their husbands happily clapping and slobbering all over themselves at his ability to do anything, while all he has to do is not cheat on her. i cannot begin to explain how pissed off this makes me. i think people in relationships *both* want to feel devotion and admiration, wonder, delight, and approval. why is this restricted only to men? is this 2005 or 1905? seriously.
here's something else:
"The father gives the bride to the groom because he is the one man who has had the responsibility of protecting her throughout her life. He is now giving his daughter to the only other man who will take over this protective role."
cute! i'm sorry. really. i love my father. i do. but if i ever get married i don't think i can do the whole 'giving away' thing. because a) my father doesn't own me; b) my possible future husband will definitely NOT own me; and c) you can only 'give' something you own to someone else. oh maybe it's just a sweet cute tradition but i can't really buy that. and a lot of women have fathers and husbands who do anything *but* protect them. in fact, they hurt them. so yeah.
haha, okay i actually laughed out loud at the absurdity of this one:
"While a man needs little or no preparation for sex, a woman often needs hours of emotional and mental preparation."
HOURS! hours! and hours! good luck, boys!
and finally, as a psychologist i found this really interesting:
did you know the following:
isolation
jealousy
poverty
heartbreak
substance abuse
unstable long-term commitments
sexual violence
embarrassment
depression
personal disappointment
feelings of being used
loss of honesty
loneliness
suicide
"can be eliminated by being abstinent until marriage".
oh, wow.
eliminated.
here's the conclusion of the report:
"Under the Bush Administration, federal support for abstinence-only education has risen dramatically. This report finds that over two-thirds of abstinence-only education programs funded by the largest federal abstinence initiative are using curricula with multiple scientific and medical inaccuracies. These curricula contain misinformation about condoms, abortion, and basic scientific facts. They also blur religion and science and present gender stereotypes as fact."
this is a really interesting report and you should all get online and read it.
i'm exhausted.
Saturday, February 12, 2005
my sister introduced me to this:
I adopted a cute lil' easter bunny fetus
from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!
isn't it nice?
it's actually more like an embryo, if you're curious.
I adopted a cute lil' easter bunny fetus
from Fetusmart! Hooray fetus!
isn't it nice?
it's actually more like an embryo, if you're curious.
Friday, February 04, 2005
Some time ago a local radio station had a contest where you could win free tickets to New York City to see David Letterman, and Mike and i entered. for some reason, which i totally do not understand, we didn't win. maybe it was a bit too risque? i dunno...reproduced here for your enjoyment:
10. Want to promote my screenplay “Mother Jugs and Even More Speed”.
9. Need to warn America about the threat of weapons of mass destruction—in my pants.
8. Need data for my experiment regarding whether Paul Schaffer or David Letterman would look better in tights.
7. So I can get mugged, drugged, and hairplugged.
6. Haven’t seen Dave since we were on the cheerleading squad together back in high school.
5. My name is Linda, and, dammit, I want something from the meatcase!
4. Need advice from Dave about my new company, International Slacks.
3. Tired of getting New York City postcards from others; now I can send them to myself.
2. Not really sure who this Dave guy is, but enjoy spending time in old drafty theatres.
1. Because, hey, I ain’t got nothin’ better to do.
10. Want to promote my screenplay “Mother Jugs and Even More Speed”.
9. Need to warn America about the threat of weapons of mass destruction—in my pants.
8. Need data for my experiment regarding whether Paul Schaffer or David Letterman would look better in tights.
7. So I can get mugged, drugged, and hairplugged.
6. Haven’t seen Dave since we were on the cheerleading squad together back in high school.
5. My name is Linda, and, dammit, I want something from the meatcase!
4. Need advice from Dave about my new company, International Slacks.
3. Tired of getting New York City postcards from others; now I can send them to myself.
2. Not really sure who this Dave guy is, but enjoy spending time in old drafty theatres.
1. Because, hey, I ain’t got nothin’ better to do.
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
wow this laundry is really dirty
hello there kiddies.
this weekend my beloved mike and i went to indiana. because i don't like composing paragraphs, or, honestly, even sentences:
-mike and i do not travel well together. like as in we argue. about everything. the argument always ends with me cursing loudly and him saying something to the effect of "i'm not a retarded monkey". although i have never ever ever (to his face) called him a "retarded monkey".
-bloomington was fun. it was quite great to see melissa and ronnie and other people again. i felt like i hadn't been there in a long time. lots of stuff has changed. did you know the target is now on the completely other side of the mall?
i just squirted orange all over myself.
-i love la charreada. it is the most delicious restaurant ever in existence. ever.
-my brother is going to go to IU and the IU tourguides are like way way way way way way way *breath* way way wayyyyyy too chipper and ready to share TMI with you. eek
-the monster truck show was pretty interesting. for some reason, though, they insisted on blaring kid rock, limp bizkit, and other monster-truck worthy music. because uh, giant trucks driving around really quickly and loudly and jumping over/smashing shit isn't exciting enough. we need really. really. loud. music. or people might get bored. (well, my mom did fall asleep during it last year).
-baby puppies that have to be bottle fed and can barely walk are pretty much the cutest thing ever. ever. EVER. ahhhhh! i want one! they were so oooooooo cute. they ate out of their little bottles and then they curled up on me and fell asleep. they're so little too. i gotta put up some photos. because they are so cute.
-my sister is an awesome guitarist.
-mike and i would fight over anything. seriously. on the way home, we had an airing of grievances, festivus style. some of my favorites:
mike puts his dirty t-shirts up hanging near/touching my bath towel sometimes when he gets in the shower. i said that bothered me and he said something like "please, that bath towel gets around more than madonna in the early 80's. everywhere i look, there's that damned bathtowel. in the bed, on the floor, on the couch, on the chair. my t-shirts are doing that towel a favor by touching it."
oops i gotta go to class, here are two of mike's grievances about me:
the mound of dirty kleenex on my side of the bed. i have a sinus problem, jeez.
the fact that i put my dirty clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor (our bathroom is roughly 4 square feet) when i get in the shower and then leave them. forever. "our bathroom is like a museum of pajama pants," he said.
the airing of grievances was highly helpful, as i've gathered up all of the dirty kleenexes into a trash bag.
gotta go.
hello there kiddies.
this weekend my beloved mike and i went to indiana. because i don't like composing paragraphs, or, honestly, even sentences:
-mike and i do not travel well together. like as in we argue. about everything. the argument always ends with me cursing loudly and him saying something to the effect of "i'm not a retarded monkey". although i have never ever ever (to his face) called him a "retarded monkey".
-bloomington was fun. it was quite great to see melissa and ronnie and other people again. i felt like i hadn't been there in a long time. lots of stuff has changed. did you know the target is now on the completely other side of the mall?
i just squirted orange all over myself.
-i love la charreada. it is the most delicious restaurant ever in existence. ever.
-my brother is going to go to IU and the IU tourguides are like way way way way way way way *breath* way way wayyyyyy too chipper and ready to share TMI with you. eek
-the monster truck show was pretty interesting. for some reason, though, they insisted on blaring kid rock, limp bizkit, and other monster-truck worthy music. because uh, giant trucks driving around really quickly and loudly and jumping over/smashing shit isn't exciting enough. we need really. really. loud. music. or people might get bored. (well, my mom did fall asleep during it last year).
-baby puppies that have to be bottle fed and can barely walk are pretty much the cutest thing ever. ever. EVER. ahhhhh! i want one! they were so oooooooo cute. they ate out of their little bottles and then they curled up on me and fell asleep. they're so little too. i gotta put up some photos. because they are so cute.
-my sister is an awesome guitarist.
-mike and i would fight over anything. seriously. on the way home, we had an airing of grievances, festivus style. some of my favorites:
mike puts his dirty t-shirts up hanging near/touching my bath towel sometimes when he gets in the shower. i said that bothered me and he said something like "please, that bath towel gets around more than madonna in the early 80's. everywhere i look, there's that damned bathtowel. in the bed, on the floor, on the couch, on the chair. my t-shirts are doing that towel a favor by touching it."
oops i gotta go to class, here are two of mike's grievances about me:
the mound of dirty kleenex on my side of the bed. i have a sinus problem, jeez.
the fact that i put my dirty clothes in a pile on the bathroom floor (our bathroom is roughly 4 square feet) when i get in the shower and then leave them. forever. "our bathroom is like a museum of pajama pants," he said.
the airing of grievances was highly helpful, as i've gathered up all of the dirty kleenexes into a trash bag.
gotta go.
