The reason abstinence only education doesn't work is because we are not teaching our children the meaning of sex, we look at it from a purely scientific view. We are also sending out mixed messages with todays media so strung out on sex. This whole world is obsessed with this garbage view of how sex should be, it is not held as something special anymore. Todays society views sex as a mere tool for self pleasure, and this is the leading cause of single parenthood, abortion, poverty, rape, STDs, and more. Religious education has done a terrible job in teaching exactly what sex really is and what is should mean, and I urge all of you to check out the link below for more information about it. Because condoms and birth control are like adding gasoline to the fire. There is a larger problem at stake here, our humanity is being ripped out of our hands, we no longer value life and other human beings.

I am appalled that Democrats have allowed the abstinence-only programs to continue despite all the evidence of their failure. I know from 10 years of experience fighting these programs in South Carolina that they fund more than these biased, sexist, medically inaccurate curricula. The abstinence-only workers hired in these programs also do grass-roots organizing for the religious right and are highly involved in local take-overs of GOP precincts. So in effect, by continuing to fund these programs, the Democrats are funding their opposition. The fact that funding is continued in order to buy GOP votes for the budget is also shameful, and is buying votes on the lives of our kids.

“These programs are required by law to teach students that 'a mutually faithful monogamous relationship in the context of marriage is the expected standard of sexual activity.' What are gay and lesbian students supposed to do, then -- abstain from sex for life or convert to heterosexuality?”

Ah, you've caught on to we libruls nefarious plan. Note there are no specifications on who needs to be mutually monogamous with whom. Can't you see this is a recipe to promote gay marriage?

Rereading the post, I realized that this $10 billion dollar debate is related to the "Labor-H" bill. I assume that this bill doesn't address the missile defense system. Still, I'm sure that there are plenty of places to cut spending.

p.s. I wish Salon made it easier to read the article even as I'm writing a comment about that article.

So the spending bill is $10 billion over budget? Then cut it down to size--don't waste more of our money on promoting big-government conservatism.

I'm sure that there's plenty of money that could be cut from the budget, but here's some suggestions to start:

1) 9 Billion dollars on a missle defense system that will do nothing to protect us from terrorists and that Russia views as a threat.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0605/p02s01-usmi.html

2) I bet there's a lot to be achieved by limiting earmarks also: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0615/p03s01-uspo.html