If comprehensive sex education worked we wouldn't have pregnancy either. The evidence supporting comprehensive sex education is thin, that doesn't mean it should be abandoned, there is marginal evidence it has a positive effect and should be part of the picture. Regular church attendance is vastly more statistically significant, however, and the value of a strong emphasis on abstinence cannot be discounted.

Broad blanket statements without a basis in fact have little value. The debate would be improved substantially if people looked at the issue scientifically, rather than through the lens of their personal biases on both sides of the issue.

Greta Van Susteren returned from grocery shopping with bags full of decomposed elements, artistic debris, and esthetico-technical hybrids.

Religious participation that includes an avocation of abstinence absolutely does reduce rates of pregnancy. Interesting observations aside, many comments seem uninformed.

I don't believe that the feminist position stands in opposition to abstinence or religion. It stands in opposition to a lack of options available to those women who fail to prevent pregnancy using whatever method they were using.

My take is that the abortion issue has destroyed feminism. Other than abortion there are no more feminist ideals only partisan Democratic ones. That does not mean that you cannot be a feminist and a Democrat, it means that being a good Democrat should not be all that you are. Hillary seemed to get the most sexist treatment at Salon.com. Most of those guilty for that treatment seem to feel that as long as they have the 'correct' stance on abortion anything else goes.

Read Dr. Violet Socks aka Reclusive Leftist for more information at http://www.reclusiveleftist.com/2009/06/13/stop-the-lies/

As a Constitutionalist she does not believe abortion should be illegal; she believes abortion should be legal in the states who choose it (like gay marriage) and the made-up "privacy" idea in Roe vs. Wade was a faulty premise and an excuse for an invasion of the Federal government over the constitutional rights of states and their residents.

If we REALLY want to get somewhere in this world we need overthrow the organized crime machine on both sides of the aisle which will say ANYTHING to stop women who can rouse the public to disrupt their rackets--albeit it Hillary, Sarah or, bless her, Benezir Bhutto.

Despite the stereotype of her stupidity, Palin is smarter than many people understand. She was able to make an impression on people who do not support sexual jokes about children. Most importantly, Christians who do not hate gays or support torture. She provided liberals in the media an opportunity to look very bad by how they reacted to the story, and many of them did.

Between Hillary and Palin the Women's movement has taken a hit. NOW responded to Letterman late and qualified their support with very dated Limbaugh references. Palin made NOW seem like NODWO .. The National Organization for Democrat Women Only.

You are not supporting a person in their entirety when you support a person in a specific situation. Too many women's groups got bogged down in their efforts to support Palin while still making it clear that she stinks. The more important thing to do is to support Palin's opinion of a specific situation. What you think of her as a whole is not relevant.

Some people do view Bristol Palin as a hypocrite, however, and I think those arguments are valid. But when the jokes turn into this---Bristol Palin knocked up by hockey team! Bristol Palin knocked up by John Edwards! Bristol Palin knocked up by A Rod!---we're poking fun at more than Bristol's ability to miraculously become pregnant while advocating abstinence. At some point, we're also poking fun at her stupidly and irresponsibly fucking anything in sight, and just refreshing the joke by placing a new famous dude in her vagina.

Please stop lying.

However, Bristol (and Sara) continue to maintain that abstinence only education will somehow reduce teen pregnancies. Bristol is a spokeswoman for an organization lobbying for this cause. She made the choice to put her pregnancy, and the choices that led to it, into the public discourse. When comedians make jokes about Bristol getting knocked up, they're not solely about her being a "slut". I'm sure some morons are chuckling "hur hur that girl used her vagina" but that's not why I'm laughing. And I don't think that the possibility of a joke being misinterpreted or laughed at by morons is enough reason to censor oneself.

At the same time, however, we don't always have the tools at hand to explain WHY this is inappropriate, or what remedy we seek after a joke like this is told. So we turn to identifying marks about the joke---who told it? who was it told about?---to explain why we don't like it.

I fell into this very trap last night while watching an episode of Arrested Development. Tobias showed a business card identifying himself as a duo analyst / therapist, or as he called it, an "analrapist." I thought this joke was hilarious. The episode then proceeded to include several more jokes about rape, which I found less funny---but mostly, I'm pretty sure, because I had just written a post that day arguing against excusing the Letterman joke.

It took me a while to figure out why I thought those jokes were funny---they weren't about an actual people, and in particular, an actual minor. They didn't make a rape victim the butt of the joke. But really, if I'm being honest with myself, I have to admit that I also just find Arrested Development's form of humor funnier than Letterman's.

Do I find those jokes funnier because they're less offensive? Or do I find them less offensive because they're funnier? Do conservatives find Letterman's joke offensive only because it's about Sarah Palin? Do liberals only find it funny because it's about Sarah Palin?

As the long lists of past inappropriate Palin jokes that have emerged since the Letterman incident prove, a larger discussion is necessary here.

I sit here in awe of your latest column. Even though I couldn't see the videos (YouTube is blocked here at work) your writing and thesis were so clear and concise that it didn't matter.

What I appreciate the most was your willingness to re-examine your own attitudes and actions and hold yourself to a higher standard. You don't use others hypocrisy to excuse your own and you showed a rare intellectual honesty and empathy when you outlined the myriad reasons that Bristol Palin may have had for not using birth control 100% of the time.

Bravo!

Sincerely,

Ken