Negligible Knowledge Base

Give whatever name to it you want: “abstinence vows” or “viginity pledges” or “virginity contracts”, it just doesn’t matter. And you goddamned well know that the latest label, “purity rings”, makes no difference either.
Teen abstinence programs don’t work.
When it comes to pledges of abstinence “no pledge” is every bit as effective as “any pledge” or [...]

I get so fucking furious every time some freedom-bashing pinhead tries to make the argument that if the rest of us don’t abandon our freedoms and conform ourselves to the pinhead’s personal belief system, then we are trampling or endangering or disrespecting the pinhead’s “religious freedom”. This time it’s the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops:
BALTIMORE — [...]

Drudge Report headline: “Condoms Over Abstinence in Obama AIDS Policy…” I can’t imagine the Drudge Report or it’s usual readers view this as a positive development, but those of us committed to rationality certainly do.
The linked story resides at Bloomberg, Condoms Trump Abstinence in Obama Global AIDS Policy:
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) — President-elect Barack Obama will reverse [...]

Christopher Hitchens, writing at Slate, Sarah Palin’s War on Science: The GOP ticket’s appalling contempt for knowledge and learning.
In an election that has been fought on an astoundingly low cultural and intellectual level, with both candidates pretending that tax cuts can go like peaches and cream with the staggering new levels of federal deficit, and [...]

Sounds like no big deal, but it’s actually a more serious issue than sugar pills and the “placebo effect”.
Placebos as defined in the survey went beyond the typical sugar pill commonly used in medical studies. A placebo was any treatment that wouldn’t necessarily help the patient.

Good. The mere fact that it’s being considered, means that freedom has not yet been completely driven from this land that once valued it so highly our forebears were willing to risk their very lives to taste it.
You and I don’t have to like it, but unless you or I live there, it really isn’t [...]

TV spot by Women Against McCain Palin aimed at swing states (also on YouTube). Watch the video.
[via Daily Kos]

Well, everyone knows by now that the daughter of presumptive Republican VP nominee, Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, is pregnant. The Palins, Sarah and her husband Todd, made the announcement Monday morning.
Democtatic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama had this to say:
I’ve heard some of the news on this, and so let me be as clear [...]

Evolving in Kansas, linking to the Albuquerque Journal [link requires subscription]:
McCain Displaying Early Dementia
THERE IS is little public discussion about John McCain’s mental state. Although his legendary temper was briefly considered last spring, that topic seems to have fallen off the radar screen.
More important, in my view, is the possibility that McCain is suffering from [...]

Vito Rispo writing at RideLust.com:
In fact, six U.S. cities have been found guilty of shortening the yellow light cycles below what is allowed by law on intersections equipped with cameras meant to catch red-light runners. Those local governments have completely ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light [...]