Building a Bridge To the Fourteenth Century

A study by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) finds that so-called "abstinence" programs are full of disinformation and outright untruths. Hey, no surprise there. But I'll bet you didn't know that dowries are "an honor to the bride" and that

"Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man's confidence or even turn him away from his princess."

Your tax dollars at work.

Newsday columnist Marie Cocco sums it up better than I could:

The basic bargain is that women are to provide unquestioning (if not adoring) domestic support in exchange for financial security.... In the name of teaching girls the benefit of waiting to have sex, we're telling them their self-worth relies on a dependent relationship with a man. It's just the kind of Dark Age thinking that can lead a girl directly to self-destructive sex.

All the statistics I've seen indicate that abstinence programs don't work. But abstinence isn't the point. The point is control. Women are to be sexually available (at any age) and docile (at every age).