A few faith-related notes

More from Mother Jones on the McCain-Hagee-Parsley connections.

A priest-cosmologist won the Templeton Prize. Although it's "faith-based", at least they distance themselves from ID.

Finally, the absurd policies of the Religious Right bear more rotten fruit: 1 in 4 teenage girls who are sexually active have at least one STD. There's also a sad race gap: more than one half of black girls have one, compared to only 20% of whites and Latinos. The teenagers themselves aren't in the least surprised. See an older piece of mine for more stats related to "abstinence only" education and abortions.

UPDATE: See this excellent item on the RR's policies of "marriage promotion" as well.

You probably won't hear this from them

A new study shows that sexual dysfunction is directly correlated to abstaining from sex until later in life. You probably won't hear about this from the "abstinence-only" crowd:

While past research has linked early sexual activity to health problems, a new study suggests that waiting too long to start having sex carries risks of its own.

Those who lose their virginity at a later age -- around 21 to 23 years of age -- tend to be more likely to experience sexual dysfunction problems later, say researchers at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute's HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies.

The study will appear in the January 2008 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Men who lose their virginity in their 20s, in particular, seemed to be more likely to experience sexual problems that include difficulty becoming sexually aroused and reaching orgasm.

Who wants to bet that this study will be conveniently ignored by the RR? Keep in mind that this is the same crew who buried the government report showing the failure of their "wait until marriage" programs. As I said a few months ago, it isn't about the facts, but about religious control of people's sexual freedom:

Anti-choicers would do well to read up on the facts, and a new WHO study shows that abortion rates are highest in countries where it is illegal, and lowest in countries which have comprehensive sex ed programs and abundant contraception choices. Contrary to all the spin and stupidity, although the US is much more religious than European countries, we have higher rates of teen pregnancy, STDs and abortions than them. Why? Because the religiosity of our country blinds people to the reality that curtailing these things is only accomplished through sex ed for teens and widely-available contraceptive choices. In other words, if they really care about "saving" fetuses, they should be pushing contraception. Instead, they push failed "abstinence-only" policies that lead to more teen pregnancies and STDs. These people don't care about other people, just about controlling them.

In addition to that:

Faith-based programs are nothing but a sham to buy the votes of religious-right knuckle-draggers. These programs have no evidence to demonstrate their veracity, and in some cases, evidence to the contrary (i.e., "abstinence-only education" -- "According to a study released in March at the National STD Prevention Conference, 88 percent of 12,000 teenagers who took an abstinence pledge reported having sexual intercourse before they married. Although they delayed intercourse for up to 18 months, when they became sexually active, those who signed pledges were less likely to use condoms and less likely to seek medical help for STD infections than their peers.").

On the same topic -- 237 reasons why we "do it".

October's "Girls of the SEC"

I mentioned back in April that UF was hailed as "talented" by the photographers with Playboy, who boasted that UF puts out (pun intended) 3-4 times as many girls in the "Girls of the SEC" special than any other school in the conference:

Photographer George Georgiou and project coordinator Cynthia Kaye, a four-time Playboy cover girl, met nearly 20 University of Florida students Monday and expect 40 more women to show up for auditions today.

"There's absolutely a lot of talent here," said Georgiou, who has been shooting for Playboy for 18 years. "We always have at least one girl from each school featured in the pictorial. But usually we take three or four from UF."

Today, I was reading the Alligator after a friend of mine published an LTE there this morning about Joey Johnsen and his recently-announced departure from UF (yeah, I shed a tear), and I noticed this article highlighting the seven girls chosen for the Playboy "Girls of the SEC" feature (only five are pictured in the article).

Two seconds ago, after Googling Playboy + UF, I stumbled across this interview with one of those Playboy-hopefuls from UF speaking about her experience trying out for their "Girls of the SEC" edition. The interviewee, Brandy Jones, was unsure if she got in or not at the time.

NSFW: Judge for yourselves if you think these lovely ladies were worthy.

Being in Columbia now, I decided to check out the local reaction to this -- does it surprise you that this fucknut is speaking out against it on behalf of USC's community? Just look at him for God's sake...

[we have] "a growing sense of confidence in our new attorney general."

Guess who said that? And guess why?

Before I tell you, I want to tell you that at the time this was said, the Iraq war was about 2.5 years old, and the first signs of Bush's plummeting popularity were beginning to show. Given that, an apropos offhand remark that also comes from the WaPo article in which the title quote is spoken sheds light on the priorities of this administration, and to whom they've pandered away all competence and credibility:

"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

Among friends and trusted colleagues, an experienced national security analyst said, "it's a running joke for us."

Why did the FBI agent say this? Because the AG was diverting resources away from fighting terrorism in order...wait for it...

...to fight...

...porn.

Not child porn. Consenting adults, legal porn.

And the FRC -- the Religious Right's most powerful Washington lobbying arm -- was ecstatic, and they were the ones with the "growing sense of confidence" in Alberto Gonzalez. My how the times change.

This was enough of a priority of the Bush administration to pull good agents off of cases involving threats of death and destruction to our country in order to search out people who make erotica involving urination and bondage. This is your president, America. God bless that motherfucker.
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Technorati tags: God, Religion, Politics

The Evolution of Gay Animals (Including Humans)

There is a quite interesting article in SEED magazine about sexual selection and homosexual behavior in animals. The interview with Joan Roughgarden, an evolutionary biologist, examines the role of evolution in animal homosexual behavior. As usual, PZ Myers' trenchant analysis shines light on the relationship between sexual selection, homosexual behavior in animals, and evolutionary biology.

The major points/possibilities where these converge, which PZ analyzes:

1) Homosexuality is selectively neutral (in PZ's hilarious words, "Many heterosexual couples elect not to have children, and many homosexuals elect to have them. This shouldn't be a surprise; all it takes to start a baby is a few pokes and a spurt, and it really doesn't take much effort to overcome an inclination for such a brief event. We are sex-obsessed animals, so redirecting an ejaculation to a particular orifice isn't that astonishing.")
2) Homosexuality promotes community bonding (conflict avoidance = more survival)
3) Homosexuality is coupled to other advantageous traits (coupling)
4) Homosexuality is a product of weak genetic specification (e.g. "brains are plastic")
5) Homosexuality is a byproduct (e.g. developmental/environmental, not genetic)

Obviously, one or more of these has to be right. Hopefully, the more genetics becomes understood in its relationship to evo-devo, we can begin to attach hard data to these hypotheses.

The well-known gay behaviors in animals (read the SEED article for details) are often used to "justify" homosexual behavior. Without going into detail, I do think it is funny how people will fall into Moore's naturalistic fallacy in concluding moral behavior from observations in nature: "It happens in nature, therefore it's natural, therefore it's moral!" Of course, the problems with these arguments go far and wide, but the most obvious and gut-wrenching refutations hinge on the exploitation of this same illogic in genocides, Übermensch, and in Hitler-esque "survival of the fittest" mentalities.
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Technorati tags: Homosexual, Evolution, Biology