Teenagers Abstain from Sex? You've Got to Be Joking. I mean, come on. Say no to sex until you're married? Abstinence is the only truly moral path? Where are we, 1756?

Here is the most astounding fact of all, the thing that makes you want to scream in the faces of these legislators and religious nutballs and pour a gallon of honey over them and then toss them onto a giant mound of gay fire ants.

Sex is just ridiculously good for you. Sex is good for the heart. It's good for the blood. It's good for the mood and it's good for depression and it's good for self-esteem and it's good for making you feel more human and alive and present in your skin.

The sort of raw, real sex education human children deserve will never happen in your lifetime, not on any large scale, not with the whiny self-righteous Christian Fundamentalists screaming into their underwear and trembling at the sight of their own genitalia.   more »

What Iraqis fear most is not "ghost" al-Quds forces (bundled up in the magma known as "the Iranians") or even al-Qaeda in the Land of the Two Rivers' suicide bombers (widely referred to as "the Wahhabis").

Ultimate fear means a convoy of gleaming SUVs with tinted windows, lights frantically flashing, sirens wailing, masked, beefed up guys in khaki clothing with their high-tech weapons scanning the sidewalks. They are referred to by a universally comprehensible term, even in Arabic: "mafia".

Some Iraqis even miss those days when they just had to contend with Saddam's goons. At least it was an Iraqi-Iraqi affair.

Now the name of the game is no-holds-barred, globalized commercialization of death.

Mercenaries conducting dirty wars against the barbarians; that's exactly how the Roman Empire started to collapse.   more »

Though she may lack the fire of John Edwards

or the inspirational message of Barack Obama,

everything in Clinton Land seems

to come off smoothly, without a hitch

"She's boring as can be, but she's competent,"

explains a voter in New Hampshire

To many she comes across as sincere

The more cynical find her patronizing

She's known in media circles as Condescension Clinton

   more »

Keywords: insincere, patronizng, condescension, 2008, clinton, president, hillary

Perhaps the greatest political riddle of the US is why so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests?

If it were otherwise, then surely John Edwards, the telegenic Democratic candidate for President would lead the polls since he has dedicated his campaign to lifting tens of millions out of poverty.

Instead it is Hillary Clinton, whose economic policies might as well have been drafted by the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, who looks a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination.

So what's the matter with America?

The answer may be contained in the writings of the Russian emigrée and radical libertarian philosopher Ayn Rand.   more »

When Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, conservatives reacted with apoplexy. Talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh, conservative bloggers and other Republican faithful denounced the prize as a fraud.

You might wonder why they care so much -- Gore, after all, is obviously not going to run for president, and even some conservatives now concede that global warming is real.

The answer is that Gore's triumph is a measure of George W. Bush's disrepute.

Indeed, in the political culture, Gore's role is as a negative indicator of the president's standing.

For all the talk of a "new Al Gore," there's nothing new about the man. His public reputation is almost entirely a function of Bush's.   more »