Sex-Education in Schools

I was reading the paper the other day when I cam across a story about a middle school in Portland, Maine that will let middle school kids (ages 11 to 14) pick up birth control pills if the have a waiver that is signed by the parents. Once the waiver is signed by the parents they are not notified if birth control pills are used. Now to me it was a little disturbing, that birth control pills would be handed out to middle school kids and not tells their parents about it. I later found out that the reason for putting this measure in place was there were about 3 to 4 cases of kids getting pregnant at this school.
So I can sort of see why the middle school is doing this, even if it makes me uncomfortable, but the thing I don't get is why the parents are not informed, call me old fashioned but if there is need for a 11-14 year old to use birth control I think the parents have a right to know. Until a kid turns 18 they effectively belong to their parents unless they are emancipated. They can't be sued, they can't vote, so why can they take birth control pills without their parents knowing.
The bigger issue here thought is one of sex-education. Let me give you a little personal background. I was raised from a very early age that one should not have sex until marriage, I was also taught not to disparage someone who held a different view on sex. Now it didn't matter if my school taught me abstinence-only sex ed or safe sex use sex-ed I wasn't going to change my views. I think more parents need to stop relying so much on the school to teach sex-ed but instead teach their kids at an early age (not to early) about sex and all the responsibilities that come with it. I'm not saying get rid of sex ed in school altogether but it should not be the primary source of where these kids learn it. Parents need to be more responsible for their kids.

Indians-Americans and You!

So I thought it would be fun to post a diary informing people about Indian-Americans and their contributions to American society. Now to avoid misunderstandings I have had in the past this is not an ethnicity is better than your ethnicity diary it’s information about my ethnicity diary. I hope you all find it informative. I was thinking I could also do this Dwight Schrute style. Hopefully I won’t get sued by NBC =)
Fact: Hinduism subscribes to monotheism So I know not all Indian-Americans are Hindu but this is a misconception that has been bugging me. In Hinduism there is one god and many forms. I believe at the last count it was around 330 million or so.
Fact: Indian-Americans are a largely employed in the professional and managerial field. About 57.7% of Indian-Americans work in this field, contrary to the popular stereotype that all Indians are taxi cab drivers and convenient store owners. According to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, there are close to 41,000 Indian American doctors. Also 64% of Indians have their Bachelor’s degree and 40% of them have a Master’s or other professional degree. There are nearly 200,000 Indian-American millionaires and they have the highest median income among any minority group.
Fact: Indian-Americans are mostly socially conservative and politically liberal. I’m not saying this is true for all Indian-Americans but the ones I know usually are the same on issues: you drink very little if at all, you don’t smoke, you don’t have sex till you married, among other issues but all are Democrats. In fact polls prior the 2004 election showed Indian-Americans favoring Kerry to Bush by nearly a 4-1 margin.
Finally here are some notable Indian-Americans Piyush "Bobby" Jindal: First Indian-American governor of the US. Kumar Barve: Majority leader in the Maryland Hose of Delegates. Aasif Mandvi: Daily Show Correspondent Kal Penn: Actor
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Fact: Hinduism subscribes to monotheism
So I know not all Indian-Americans are Hindu but this is a misconception that has been bugging me. In Hinduism there is one god and many forms. I believe at the last count it was around 330 million or so.
Fact: Indian-Americans are a largely employed in the professional and managerial field.
About 57.7% of Indian-Americans work in this field, contrary to the popular stereotype that all Indians are taxi cab drivers and convenient store owners. According to the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, there are close to 41,000 Indian American doctors. Also 64% of Indians have their Bachelor’s degree and 40% of them have a Master’s or other professional degree. There are nearly 200,000 Indian-American millionaires and they have the highest median income among any minority group.
Fact: Indian-Americans are mostly socially conservative and politically liberal.
I’m not saying this is true for all Indian-Americans but the ones I know usually are the same on issues: you drink very little if at all, you don’t smoke, you don’t have sex till you married, among other issues but all are Democrats. In fact polls prior the 2004 election showed Indian-Americans favoring Kerry to Bush by nearly a 4-1 margin.
Finally here are some notable Indian-Americans
Piyush “Bobby” Jindal: First Indian-American governor of the US.
Kumar Barve: Majority leader in the Maryland Hose of Delegates.
Aasif Mandvi: Daily Show Correspondent
Kal Penn: Actor

WA Election Results 2007

I thought I would inform my fellow users about the election results in Washington and which ones I think are good and which ones I think are bad. I'll also update the diary as more results come in but it doesn’t look like much will change. Feel free to disagree with me; unlike the Bush Administration I can take criticism.
I'll start with the bad news first:
The bad:I-960: 2/3 legislative approvals for tax increases or voter approvalPassed 52%-47%I had hope last night this would fail but with all of King County Counted it doesn't look good. Tim Eyman needs to move far, far away.HJR 4024: Simple Majority for school tax leviesFailed 48%-51%So the anti tax people got their way, I 960 could be very bad for the state I only hope the State Supreme Court finds it unconstitutional as I have been hearing.King County Prosecuting Attorney: Dan Satterburg defeated Bill Sherman 53%-46%Man how does a GOP partisan hack win in King County?
The Good:R-67: Basically Insurance companies have to pay out their policies and can't weasel out of themPassed 56%-43%Good news considering that the insurance companies outspent the proponents 5-1.SJR 8026: Creating a rainy day find for the statePassed 68%-31%Always been a fan of having a rainy day fund, glad the WA voters feel the same way
So unlike 2006, not that great of an election

No Mr. President Your're the Worst President in 20 Years!

I've never been one to get to angry with the Bush Administration, sure I can count the number of his policies I support on one hand, but I don't hate the guy. One thing that has always gotten my upset though is his arrogance. Here we have another example of it, of him talking about the current Congress and calling them the worst congress in 20 years for not getting work done. I also agree with that point but for different reasons.
Here was President Bush's statements on the current Congress.

"Congress is not getting its work done," Bush said, flanked by members of the Republican House leadership. "The House of Representatives has wasted valuable time on a constant stream of investigations, and the Senate has wasted valuable time on an endless series of failed votes to pull our troops out of Iraq."Bush criticized Congress for not being able to send "a single appropriations bill" to him."They haven't seen a bill they could not solve without shoving a tax hike into it," he said.

Of course we are having investigations Mr. President you’re quite the unethical President do you need us to show you your lists of mistakes, it might take all night. As for the Iraq War it is and always will be a mistake. You are no Harry Truman no matter how many times you say it. I did appreciate the Democrats leadership response

Democrats quickly fired back. Jim Manley, senior aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, said, "Taking advice from President Bush about fiscal responsibility and getting things done for the American people is like taking hunting lessons from Dick Cheney. Neither is a very good idea."

The reason for the low ranking of Congress is that they won't stand up to you on Iraq not that the country agrees with you there. We're not hurting the troops you are by leaving them there. so please stop being so arrogant and learn to accept that you the worst President in the past 20 years, hell one of the worst ever just be glad you got the pre Civil War Presidents, the Pre-Depression Presidents and Nixon to stop you from, being the worst.