Abstinence Education

Tuesday's editorial on the Star Bulletin describes the phony abstinence ed so well

http://starbulletin.com/2004/12/28/editorial/commentary.html

Imagine a driver's education course where teachers show students grisly photos of traffic accidents but never teach them how to actually drive, stop at red lights, use turn signals, buckle their seat belts -- but then put them behind the wheel.

Now you have a pretty good idea of what abstinence-only sexuality education is like. Abstinence-only programs try to scare and shame the sex out of teens and adults, teaching only the negative consequences of sexuality without ever telling young people what they can do to stay safe and healthy.

Researchers at Columbia University found that while virginity "pledge" programs did help some participants delay sex for six months, 88 percent still had premarital sex. The rates of sexually transmitted infections among those who pledged abstinence showed no difference from non-pledgers. However, those who pledged virginity were less likely to use contraception when they did have sex, and were less likely to seek testing and treatment when they had an STI.

My comments - just look at Britney Spears comment when she first started to become popular. She said that one should wait until marriage to have sex. Of course, later on, she admitted that she did the opposite.

Conservatives want you to think Britney Spears is the only person on Earth who pledged virginity but later had pre-marital sex. In reality, THOUSANDS of girls did just that - pledged to remain abstinent before marriage, then later have pre-marital sex after making the pledge.

Why does this happen? It's easy to repeat what your parents and your ministers say when you are 14 years old. At that point in life, you still didn't have much life experience. But as one gets older, one will likely have a boyfriend/girlfriend, do the kissing & hugging, be in a room alone. Then once that happens, NATURE takes over. All virginity pledges of the past is ignored or forgotten. Sex happens.

The only difference between Britney and all those other girls who break their pledge is the papparazzis follow every move Britney makes.

And girls who grew up with conservative thoughts are just as likely to get horny with a boyfriend when in a room alone. NATURE takes over. Any conservative thought NATURALLY goes out the window when NATURE takes over. However, the conservative girl isn't mentally prepared for it all to happen because all the lectures of "sex being bad". So she isn't likely thinking of contraception when things get hot, because she hasn't mentally prepared for that moment. Meanwhile, the more liberal girl probably thought through the whole thing many times before the moment even happens. So that girl is mentally prepared to bring up contraception when the moment gets hot.

So the best way to get kids prepared for THAT MOMENT is to (gasp) talk about the (gasp) existence of contraceptions. Just like we give shoulder pads and helmets to kids playing tackle football, we give contraceptions to the even greater number of kids who sooner or later, will have that moment where nature takes over and sex begin. It will happen regardless of how much conservative correctness the kids have heard throughout their lives.

Blank Slates?

An email from a friend

I wish more parents understood what you do, particularly about children having their own personalities that must be respected. Too many parents assume that their kids are soulless blank slates that just move around a lot, which should be molded and manipulated into something that not only do they not want to be, but would not even benefit from being.

AMEN!

Just as one of my older brother's two daughters just demonstrated by their behavior. One was born in 2003, the other in 2004. Yet the younger one cries a lot more often, the older one being a lot more playful. Yet both are the same gender, have the same exact parents, and are only a year apart.

People are born with personalities. Some are born to be more active, some are born to be more reserved.

And seemingly, in the case of a former friend from high school, some are born to be excessive complainers!

Yes, the social environment does play a role. But it's not the end-all, be-all of everything. As my nieces grow and grow, they'll most likely live with the same parents and in the same neighborhood, and likely go to the same schools. Yet, they'll probably have different interests, different friends, and end up working in different occupations.

As in my case, my father and my brother (my nieces' father) are both working in occupations that involve a lot of mechanical work. My dad works construction, my brother works as an auto mechanic. Though I spent my pre-adult years living with them, I NEVER want to work as a mechanic or a construction worker. Those jobs have NEVER interested me. I never took a mechanics class, nor was I ever interested in taking them.

So it's safe to say, that it is an inborn trait in me to not like mechanical work. It's not my personality.

It's probably not hereditary, it's probably more a chance of luck. Chances are, if my parents did the wild thing a month later in both cases, it'll be my older brother being the non-mechanic and me being the mechanic. Maybe.

Or maybe it's God putting my brother on earth for mechanical purposes, me for other purposes.

My letters on naivete

In a recent edition of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, there has been some mega-naive letters written.

Here's a sample

http://starbulletin.com/2004/12/26/editorial/indexletters.html

And here's my response to those lame letters

Two letters in the 12/23/04 edition of Star Bulletin expressed wishful thinking at it's worst.

The first letter, by Paul M. Gundlach, said that high-rise buildings should be banned because people have died falling off the lanais of those buildings. Nevermind that those in single family homes are more vulnerable to flood damage (and flood drowning) than those living on the 20th floor of a high rise. And let's not forget that high-rises are there because we dont have enough room to give everyone single family houses, nor can everyone afford it.

The second letter by Wilbert W.W. Wong, said that a one-world government will bring world peace. In reality, a one-nation government can't even stop gang warfare, so how is a world government going to stop tribal warfare? And Wilbert Wong says that a world government can by led by "highly principled leaders possessing high intelligence, common sense and humility." More likely, a world government would be lead by a corrupt person possessing excessive arrogance. If you thought Hitler or Stalin were scary ruling one nation, just imagine someone like them ruling the world!

The Star Bulletin only printed my response to the 2nd letter, which is reprinted at

http://starbulletin.com/2004/12/26/editorial/letters.html

Movie & Music Review

Finally, an article that tells the truth about film critics

http://home.frontiernet.net/newsdetail.asp?cat=1&id=2168

and some excerpts

Critics of critics say professional reviewers have snooty tastes, applying the same criteria to an Eddie Murphy comedy or Vin Diesel bust-'em-up as they would to a Kurosawa or Fellini film.

AND

"You can't take a movie which is designed to be an action-adventure film and have it critically reviewed by somebody who's interested in independent, intense, dark, in-depth character portrayals like `Taxi Driver,'" said Nicolas Cage, whose adventure film "National Treasure" opens just before Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, the same phenomenon occurs amongst music critics. All those alternative indie-rock loving critics are given full power to comment on genres like teen pop. Who the fuck are those indie-rock lovers to even comment on teen pop or other music genres?

The magazines, newspapers, etc should just have the alternative indie-rock lovers to review alternative indie-rock, reggae lovers to review reggae records and (sarcastic gasp) teen pop music lovers to cover teen pop.


Let's also remember that most film/music critics are hippies from Berkeley, Greenwich Village NY, Madison, and other hippie-town and they don't relate to the average American. Magazines need to start recruiting late teens/young adults who are into the non-hippie trends to respectfully review the pop scene. There has got to be some in that crowd that can write.

My Christmas

My Christmas vacation started off good with the Hawaii Bowl on Christmas Eve, with Hawaii defeating Alabama-Birmingham 59-40. If you're not into football, try learn about it and watch some games. The game is more complicated than soccer or basketball, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes fun.

Then on Christmas, I visited some relatives. One of the visiting relatives was my cousin Don from Waianae, who was fighting in Iraq. Earlier this year, his arm was shot. Now, he has to wear a brace for his elbow.I was talking to Don about his experiences in the military, boot camp, his travels to Atlanta & New Orleans, the time he was in South Korea and his time fighting in Iraq. I now consider Don Wegesend one of my heroes.

I was also talking to Don's father, "Uncle Puddy" who was once in the military and is now a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ & Latter Day Saints (aka Mormon Church). I also got some "dont give up advice" from my uncle Warren, which was great since that motivates me to work on my goal in the music industry.

As for presents, I got some gift cards from my parents and my brother & his wife. I'll go on a shopping spree, mostly to buy clothes. I now need to buy some professional-looking clothing now that I'm out of college.