It's good to be back...

...working again anyway. Yes, I was unemployed for two weeks or so. Why didn't I post whilst I clearly had nothing better to do? Well, it took a great deal of skill to avoid panic about being unemployed.

Anywho, today's issues: SCHIP (yes, again), and the FCC considers relaxing media ownership rules (yes, again).

On SCHIP: Read this.

Amanda Robb makes an excellent point. Instead of taxing the heck out of a diminishing population (smokers) and guaranteeing that eventually someone will have to propose taxing something less politically salable, like, I dunno...rich people, why not stop funding a program that's all-but been proven completely ineffective.

Get over it people. Teenagers have sex. I waited until 18 and I was one of the last of my friends to "go all the way" (how many fun euphemisms can I remember?).

And, given that there is basically nothing that you can do to stop your preppy/smartass/slacker/goth/type-A or whatever child from having sex, wouldn't you prefer that someone tell them how best to avoid getting pregnant? Think about it people, who's really gonna raise that grand baby? Think you're up to it?

Of course abstinence is the only 100% guaranteed way to avoid pregnancy and STDs. Thing being, when you're 17 all those intangible, far-off possibilities haven't got a chance against the very immediate and very tangible joy of sex.

Furthermore: all this abstinence only, what-some-call-God-inspired (I am not anti-religion, I'm just capable of keeping mine to myself, thank you very much) so-called "education" not only does NOT prevent teenagers from having sex, but it most certainly does enforce the mind set that sex is dirty, wrong or in some way degrading, unhealthy, etc...

Now, there are certain sexually charged situations that are all these things, and it is precisely because such situations exist that we need to be able to differentiate between the good and the bad touch.

Now, and I'm about to dive into a pet peeve of mine, I'm mostly thinking about the effect on young women. On the one hand you have the unquenchable adolescent desire for acceptance, and on the other hand you have an equally powerful authority structure that stands over them and wags their finger and says "Sex is baaaaad, mmkay?"

And then they have sex, because they want to, hopefully, or because they want to be loved, accepted, like everyone else.

You don't have to have a PhD in Adolescent Psychology to figure out that this might affect a girl's sense of self-worth.

Look, you want more teenagers to choose not to have sex? Your best shot (no promises) is to educate them completely and completely without bias. When teenagers feel that a decision is completely their own, that they are empowered and have absolute control over this aspect of their lives, they're more likely to take it seriously. When an adult simply says "don't do it" ... well, come on, that almost guarantees that some of them are going to go out of their way to "do it".

All right, enough discussion of teenagers.

On to mainstream media. Read.

Okay, look, all I've got to say about this is: Fox News. Clearly we cannot trust that people who purport to be journalists to have anything resembling journalistic integrity. And if mainstream media outlets become even more consolidated, we'll soon lose any chance of imposing integrity upon them by using the market.

I'm not guaranteeing that we'd be able to without this relaxation of rules, after all, a lot of people watch Fox News. I have no idea why, but, hey, I don't know why the country cares more about Brittany Spear's next impending breakdown either.

You see, this is all part of a long road that I hope well eventually work our way down: first, we re-establish a diverse news media with real journalistic integrity, then we battle with the electorate, and hopefully they realize that, yes, voting for your congressman is more important than voting for American Idol. Then, hopefully, voters will demand real answers and real issue commitment from our politicians. Good bye soundbytes.

My point is: we need to demand real answers from politicians. When we vote for someone we should know what they want to accomplish in office. We should be able to get definitive answers on where they stand. We should NOT be simply voting for the least offensive.