This article makes me absolutely furious:

Waiting Too Long to Have Sex Linked to Sexual Dysfunction Later in Life, Study Says

It’s a short article, go on and read it.

It says “People who lose their virginity between the ages of 21 to 23 are more likely to suffer sexual dysfunction problems later in life” and then goes on to cite vague information regarding men only.

Oh, and the men? Apparently, men who lost their virginity in their 20’s were at a greater risk for sexual dysfunction…but, then it goes on to say that men who lost their virginity earlier were also at a greater risk for sexual dysfunction. Um, so basically, most men are at a great risk for sexual dysfunction?

And then, even worse is the contradictory article to which this article links. On the one hand, it says:

“Our results do not allow for causal interpretations.”

And on the other hand, it says the study:

“lends credence to research showing that abstinence-only education may actually increase health risks.”

Sounds to me like somebody has an agenda here.

“This study is interesting because it suggests that sexual experimentation is a normal developmental process, and when this process is inhibited or not guided, there can be poor sexual health outcomes.”

Are they seriously suggesting that an era of high STD rates, HIV/AIDS, and abortions is sexually healthy?

I can’t stomach Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, but that scene, the sex-education scene, comes to mind when I read that sexual experimentation needs to be guided.

And I’m supposed to raise decent human beings in this culture?

Congress to hold off on Iraq war money

And they wonder why service members and their dependants tend to vote Republican.

First, they fire civilian contractors. This means more work for soldiers who have to pick up the slack (because they can’t fire the soldiers). Then they start shuffling money from different accounts to pay for things like soldier’s pay and bullets and food.

So even though they’re in the middle of repaving that road down the street from me, they take the money away, and the road sits, unpaved, waiting for funds.

And then swimming classes for my kids get canceled because they have no money to pay the instructors.

And then it takes a week or more for my leaky hot water heater to be fixed because they had to fire half the maintenance staff.

And then I have to wait three hours to get a prescription filled because there are fewer workers there.

Then they cut back hours on the grocery store, the PX and the Class VI.

And if things get really bad, they won’t pay the soldiers. They won’t fire them, no, they’ll have to work on the promise of getting their money eventually. And they’ll have no choice because it’s illegal for them to not work. And they will get their money, eventually, but in the meantime, the grocery store, the PX and the Class VI won’t provide you with your essentials on the promise of future payment. And if you happen to live off post, your landlord or your mortgage lender won’t be too happy if you tell them that you’re waiting for Congress to pay you.

So Congress doesn’t end the war early, save anyone’s life, or even ruffle any feathers in the executive branch at all. They’ll say they support the troops and that they’re doing this for them.

I guess you hurt most the ones you love.

The 40 Days for Life campaign begins today across the nation. Eighty-nine cities and towns are planning daily vigils at abortion facilities or Planned Parenthood offices, including one that is about a half mile from the house I own in New Jersey. This one also happens to be right across the street from the church where my four older kids were baptized.

We have abandoned women in this country. When our best solution to an unintended pregnancy is to pressure an expectant mother to reject her maternal instincts which desire to protect and nurture the new life in her womb and to have that life eliminated, we force women to deny their own humanity, to deny the humanity of their children, and to deny a very fundamental concept that murder is wrong.

What choices do women have today? Virginity is mocked. Men want to test drive the model before committing to the purchase. Engaged couples are expected to move in together to be sure that they can get along. Marriage is pushed to an older age or put off altogether. The end result is that women must have sex in order to be considered normal; they must use contraception to avoid the consequences of an active sex life, regardless of the health consequences of those products; and if pregnancy occurs, they must get an abortion because parents, sisters, brothers, friends and coworkers will all tell them that their life will be all messed up if they have a child.

Instead of making them equal to men, the sexual revolution has further reduced the power of women. Where once society protected women from poor youthful choices, it now shoves them into an adult world, condoms in their junior-sized jeans, to try to find happiness through a decade of one-night stands or tenuous relationships.

Ending abortion is as much about protecting women as it is about protecting unborn children. For now, my young daughters turn to me and their father for love, affirmation and protection. There will likely come a day when we will no longer be enough. They will turn to peers and other adults for a second opinion: am I worthy of love? I do not want them to feel they must give away their bodies in order to win someone else’s approval.

As long as abortion is society’s preferred solution to an unintended pregnancy, women will be the biggest losers in this game. Nobody can help carry the guilt of being an accessory to the killing of your own child. Nobody can ease the grief of future miscarriages and infertility that may result from having had an abortion. Nobody can take way the physical pain of future medical problems that may occur.

The 40 Days for Life campaign is hoping to end abortion through prayer and fasting and the daily vigils. I can’t go to a vigil – not pregnant, and not with a slew of little kids. I can’t do a true fast, although I can give up sweets or some other indulgence. I can pray, especially for a closure of this facility in New Jersey, but most especially for women to have true freedom and support and encouragement to make good choices. Consider participating in some way in this campaign, too. At the least, offer up one prayer for an end to this insanity.

Interesting article on Mother Teresa’s Dark Night of the Soul.

“…believers don’t claim to “know” God. That’s why they are called “believers.” To be a believer means, “Even though I do not know, I have faith.” Nor do believers, however devout, experience God on a constant basis. There is a big chasm that [sic] between the terrestrial and the transcendental, and a terrible silence usually separates the two. A glimpse or foretaste of eternity, this is all that we get, if we’re lucky.”

I didn’t realize that Christopher Hitchens’ hate-filled book on Mother Teresa was called The Missionary Position. I hope I never understand this ideological loathing. The most despicable “religious” practice I can think of is that of human sacrifice, but I don’t hate a religion that espouses it, and I certainly couldn’t take one person and direct all of my animosity against human sacrifice to that one person. I don’t care that Christopher Hitchens is an atheist, and I certainly don’t hate him because of it. I don’t even pity him because he is an atheist (sadness, not pity, and still firm hope…always hope). But I do pity him for needing to sink to such depths to…what? justify? his beliefs. He cannot prove that God does not exist any more than I can prove that God does exist. Does slandering a saintly dead woman really win him converts?

Blessed Teresa, please pray for Christopher Hitchens, and I will too. It’s the meanest thing I think we can do to him.

We celebrated Labor Day by laboring. I did my best to ignore the phone and the doorbell and plowed through our usual Monday curriculum. Bill became the de facto doorman chasing away the neighborhood children who wanted to play. I am quite certain that my children, the neighborhood children, and all the adults in the area are convinced that either 1) homeschooling is an oppressive burden or 2) Fritz and Billy’s mom is the meanest person on earth. We were done by 1130 am; it wasn’t that bad.

I like a day off as much if not more than any school kid. Believe me. And since I’m not used to starting school in August, I would gladly have taken a four-day weekend like the kids here. But I’m banking my vacation days for October when I’ll really need them. My kids will love me then.

And besides, it was Labor Day, a day to honor America’s workers. I suppose, being the descendant of factory workers, that I should swell with pride at what blue collar workers have done for my country. I don’t know. I have a feeling that most laborers are just trying to put food on the table and a roof over their heads and aren’t particularly concerned about the “big picture” and how their little cog moves the great wheel of the US economy. Yes, they worked hard and deserve a pat on the back. But Labor Day isn’t like Memorial Day where we honor soldiers who died doing their jobs.

Timed nicely for the “holiday” was this report from the UN about American workers being the most productive in the world. It was a pretty interesting article, not so much for the statistics about industrialized nations but for the comparison to people from other countries. The next time someone talks about “poor people” in America, it might be worth a second of thought to think about what poor really means, on a global scale. An industrial worker in China produces, on average, over $12k worth of output compared to an industrial worker in the US who produces over $104k worth of output. A farmer in China produces $910 (that is nine hundred and ten dollars) worth of output compared to an American farmer who produces over 52 thousand dollars worth of output.

Last year, I spent more on groceries than ten Chinese farmers produced. That’s a lot of rice. And I’ll bet there’s no holiday to recognize their labor either.

…and demented.

Self-Proclaimed Pedophile Admits He’d Have Sex With Little Girls If It Were Legal

Appearing earlier on “The Morning Show With Mike & Juliet,” McClellan made this startling admission:

“I got to be honest with you — if it was legal and if it was a completely consensual thing, I could see myself taking it all the way to a sexual [level].”

He’s talking about girls between the ages of THREE and ELEVEN. Consensual? Excuse me, I have to go vomit now.

Barb has written a book review over at G.I. June (Cleaver) on a story set during WWII. The main character is unhappy about the sacrifices being forced upon her on behalf of the deployed soldiers – rationing, I assume, which was a very real part of life in the 40s. Back in September 2001, after the blood donor lines had petered out and the abandoned cars had been towed from the train stations, Americans wanted to know what they could do to help. Many stood around wringing their hands, wanting to take action, any action, but something. It’s like when people make meals for the family who lost a loved one tragically or donate household goods for the neighbor whose daughter-in-law burned down their house. We have a desire to reach out and help. We want to make a small sacrifice to meagerly ease a tiny bit of the pain felt by others.

And the best advice our President could offer? Act as though nothing had happened. Spend money, stimulate the economy, carry on, don’t let the terrorists get you down. Perhaps he was right, in an economic sense, about what our country needed. But it was lousy advice from a heart and soul perspective. And six years later, I think the act-as-though-nothing-had-happened mentality, which comes naturally to us anyway the farther in distance and time from we get from any event, is fueling the inclination among many people in this country to just turn and walk away from the mess we’re in overseas.

It is so easy to turn away from someone else’s problem. Those strangers we read about in the paper, whoever they are, we can’t take every story to heart. We can’t make a meal for the family three states away. We can’t donate used clothing for every family whose house burns down. We can’t give money to every worthy charity. And we can’t even cry for every tragic story – it would kill us. So we pick and choose which stories we read, which ones we take to heart, and which ones we try to do something about. The more involved we get, the more involved we stay, and the more we desire “success,” however that may be defined. If you donate money to the little girl who needs a heart transplant, you naturally desire her health a tiny bit more than any other little girl who needs a heart transplant (much in the same way that you desire your own child’s health and well-being naturally more than another child’s – not that you wish ill-health on another child, but you hold your own child’s health more precious). If you donate that old couch in your basement to a neighbor, you hope that it speeds that nice family’s return to normal. If they end up in financial ruin, divorce or suicide as a direct or indirect result of that tragedy, you would feel worse than if you had never been involved.

So most of the nation went back to life as usual after our initial desire to help out. We made no sacrifice and had nothing at stake in this effort. Two years later, for right or for wrong, we got involved in Iraq, and sent care packages and prayed for the troops, but, really, most of us had nothing to lose in this venture.

Most of us.

But step into my world – the military world. Here, almost exclusively, is where the sacrifices are being made. And here you will find just as active a debate about “what to do” in Iraq and Monday morning quarterbacking about whether or not we should have gone in and whether or not it is a just war or not. But here you will find very few people who want to get out right now. Despite the risks, the costs, the hardships, very few people think quitting is a good idea.

This war has been compared from the beginning to Vietnam. And we’ve done everything we could to turn it into one. We look at the number of soldiers killed in Iraq in four years (over 3500), and we know we can’t cry enough tears for all of them, so we just want to walk away. It’s so much easier.

But in the military world, you can’t walk away. No, I didn’t know any of those 3500 personally (my husband did). But the cost of this war goes way beyond those killed in Iraq. It goes beyond the wounded (at least 25,000 soldiers). It goes beyond the obvious mental or emotional problems exhibited by any soldier who has seen the horrors of war.

I can not describe the sacrifices made on a daily basis by soldiers and their families whether they are deployed or stateside. I can not describe the emotional toll it takes on one soldier to shake the hands of hundreds of fellow soldiers flying off to war and knowing that somebody whose hand she just shaked won’t be coming home. I can not describe the weariness that comes from “holding down the fort” as a single parent without complaint so your husband can go off and do his job without even more stress and anxiety. I can not describe the latent fear deep within a military spouse’s heart that something awful will happen and all their family’s dreams will be shattered in an instant. I can not describe the disappointment felt by a child whose dad can’t be the soccer coach or come to the school play or even give him a birthday hug because he’s working. I can not describe the wistful hopes that next year will be better or the utter delight in the right now because next year won’t be.

Military families are in it deep. When I hear about running away from Iraq, I don’t think, gosh, that’ll make it all better; that’ll take away my fears; that’ll keep my husband home safe and sound. All I think about is that all this sacrifice will be for nothing. I will have donated gray hairs and facial wrinkles, tears and time and money and love, and all I will have to show for it is a broken country (or two) embroiled in civil war and hating America for walking away and leaving them a mess. And what happens in ten or twenty years? They turn that anger towards us and either thousands of civilians die in one day or thousands of soldiers die over the years – and once again, I’m making these same sacrifices either as an Army wife or as a military mom while the rest of the country complains that it’s our own fault for not doing it right the first time and then goes blithely back to their forty-hour work weeks and family dinners and beds warmed by two bodies.

A few days ago, Kathryn Judson linked to this opinion piece by Nouri Al-Maliki, the prime minister of Iraq. He has some scathing criticism of America’s attitude toward Iraq:

Today when I hear the continuous American debate about the struggle raging in Iraq, I can only recall with great sorrow the silence which attended the former dictator’s wars.

We can’t fight every fight, free every slave. We can’t even help out every neighbor who has a house fire. But, for right or wrong, we got involved in Iraq. We were silent, and now we’re not.

The recent deaths in Iraq of Father Ragheed Ganni and three deacons has highlighted the plight of Christians in that country who are now persecuted where once they freely worshipped under Saddam’s regime. It is implied that life was better for Father Ragheed when he lived under the oppression of a dictator. Yes, I suppose that Christians were left alone – as long as they didn’t cross strict political boundaries. As long as they kept their religion to themselves. But being Catholic doesn’t generally involve going to mass on Sundays, receiving the Eucharist, and then heading off to your government job as a mass grave digger. You can’t live under an oppressive regime and not fear for your own life.

Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace–but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Too many in this country are willing to purchase peace at whatever price. They hope, I think, that the price can be paid for on credit and the bill will come due later on to be paid by someone else. Too few are like Patrick Henry (quoted above) and are willing to take death or liberty, but never oppression.

Once again, I quote the Prime Minister of Iraq:

War being what it is, the images of Iraq that come America’s way are of car bombs and daily explosions. Missing from the coverage are the great, subtle changes our country is undergoing, the birth of new national ideas and values which will in the end impose themselves despite the death and destruction that the terrorists have been hell-bent on inflicting on us. Those who endured the brutality of the former regime, those who saw the outside world avert its gaze from their troubles, know the magnitude of the change that has come to Iraq. A fundamental struggle is being fought on Iraqi soil between those who believe that Iraqis, after a long nightmare, can retrieve their dignity and freedom, and others who think that oppression is the order of things and that Iraqis are doomed to a political culture of terror, prisons and mass graves.

It is pure bigotry to think that democracy can only be managed by some people. Our country would never have won Independence without the assistance of foreign countries. I will not second guess our motives for going into Iraq or debate just war theory on a decision made four years ago. It is a moot point, and I don’t have the energy for such philosophical debates right now. Right now, the issue is continuing on or running away. And I think, if we run away, we’ll only get shot in the back.

And now, I’ll leave you with The Clash:

Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble…
And if I stay it will be double…

This song will be in my head all day.

I wholly applaud this man’s forgiveness of the drunken driver who killed half his family.

I also wholly applaud the humble and contrite way in which the driver seems to be dealing with the mess he made: pleading guilty, apologizing, recognizing that his words are hollow, expressing gratitude to the man who forgives him.

And I wholly applaud the judge who sentenced the man to 10 years despite the victim’s apparent belief that the man should go free.

The prosecutor’s argument for sentencing:

“In this situation the state must look beyond the feelings only of the individuals who are most directly impacted by this event,” Fisher told the judge. “Society has an interest in what is done beyond the feelings of the victims.”

Forgiveness should not mean walking away from justice. This is not one man’s crime against another man. This is one man’s crime against society by breaking its laws. He owes society a debt that must be repaid, and we have chosen prison time as an acceptable punishment (which I prefer to hanging, or flogging). I would hope that I could be as forgiving as the victim in this case. But I would also expect and desire justice, which is a concept greater than one individual is capable of meting in this situation.

I just don’t get it. All those suicide bombers in Israel? Muslim. Terrorist attacks in Spain, London? Done by Muslims. Terrorists attacks on U.S. property abroad and at home over the last 20 – 30 years? Generally done by Muslims (notable exceptions to include Eric Rudolph, Ted Kaczynski, Tim McVeigh and others). The recently foiled plan to infiltrate Fort Dix, New Jersey and cause death and destruction? Muslims.

But so what? Why on earth would intelligent, rational human beings throughout the world feel that followers of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) needed to be watched a bit more closely than, say, the Amish? Islamophobia – it’s kind of like fearing rat poison. It’s pretty harmless in a sealed container on a high shelf behind a locked door. But it’s not something you keep lying around on kitchen countertops.

I’ll start fearing Catholics when they start promising eternal rewards to those who kill innocent civilians. I’ll fear the Jews when synagogues start preaching hate. And I’ll start fearing evangelicals, JWs and Mormons when they stop trying to convert me and instead try to annihilate me.