Is it possible that there are truly some people who would prefer that teens and other unmarried women who dare to have sex with a man deserve what they get? Is that their version of Christianity? Funny, but I don’t recall Jesus ever being so malicious.

A column by Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe has highlighted this new and grotesque vision of the “Taliban” right. The Taliban, if you recall, saw women as barely above the level of cockroaches. They had no right to education, were not permitted to hold a job even if they were the sole support of their family, could not leave the house without a male escort and without be covered from head to toe, and were stoned to death if they had sex beyond the confines of holy matrimony.

Believe it or not, there are some holy rollers (a suitable word for a person whose brain isn’t anchored to common sense in any way, shape or form) who believe that vaccinating girls against the human papilloma virus, which is responsible for causing the vast number of cases of cervical cancer, is evil. Never mind that the new vaccine was found to be 100% effective in preventing HPV. Cervical cancer is the second-leading cancer killer of women in the world. But never mind that—there are some who believe that this vaccine is going to somehow “undermine” abstinence only sex ed programs.

This was the response of Leslie Unruh of the National Abstinence Clearinghouse: ”I personally object to vaccinating children against a disease that is 100 percent preventable with proper sexual behavior.”

Read that quote and gasp. Leslie would prefer to see teens and women with cervical cancer than receive a vaccine. Perhaps in Leslie’s world, where all unmarried women are encased with chastity belts, there would be no need for the vaccine. Ditto for having all men keeping their dicks encased in a zip locked bag when away from their wives.

First, it is impossible to “undermine” the abstinence programs because they are such a joke anyway. It is impossible to undermine something that is already grossly ineffective. To say nothing of the incredible inaccurate information that is also being conveyed in some of these programs, like a man has “female and male sperm.”

Second, their attitude is the same as saying that anyone who doesn’t’ remain pure and chaste until her wedding night deserves to be ravaged with cancer. Are these people totally evil or just mentally ill?

The honchos at the Family Research Council said tepidly that they ”welcome medical advances,” but with a very frayed welcome mat. FRC’s Tony Perkins said he would not inoculate his own daughter: ”It sends the wrong message. Our concern is that this vaccine will be marketed to a segment of the population that should be getting a message about abstinence.”

Meanwhile, Gene Rudd of the Christian Medical and Dental Associations acknowledges the worries of fellow travelers: ”I’ve talked to some who have said, ‘This is going to sabotage our abstinence message.”‘

I’m certain that most teens who have sex haven’t a clue about HPV, nor do they care. The lowly and potentially lethal HPV has no impact on their decision to have sex. Sorry guys, but the cornucopia of sexually transmitted diseases that are currently making the rounds have little impact on the decision of most teens to screw around. The vaccine is not going to make a difference in the choice that a teen will made.

Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma cites HPV in the campaign to get the FDA to pin new labels on condoms to emphasize why and when they don’t work. Abstinence-only teachers use HPV in manuals that say students must be told that choosing sex may be choosing cancer.

This vaccine would have to be given to preteens before they are sexually active. If that gives them the ”wrong message” — that we expect they’ll have premarital sex — what exactly is the ”right message”? That we care more about their virginity than their life? And if you believe a vaccine promotes sex, is fear the only reliable promoter of abstinence?

Fear-mongering as a public health tactic is very popular these days. There is the endless disinformation campaign that links abortion to breast cancer. There are the burgeoning abstinence-or-else classes riddled with misinformation.

US Representative Henry Waxman found that two-thirds of the abstinence-only education programs are teaching the ”right message” with the wrong science. Your tax dollars are at work — to the tune of a billion dollars — teaching students that touching another person’s genitals ”can result in pregnancy,” that ”there’s no such thing as ’safe’ or ’safer’ sex” and that loneliness, embarrassment, substance abuse, and personal disappointment ”can be eliminated by being abstinent until marriage.

Our tax dollars are going to bizarre programs that do nothing to curb premarital sex, and fill the heads of teens with misinformation. That just warms the cockles of my heart to no end. I will post more on the idiocy and inaccuracy of these abstinence programs at another time—some even give the wrong number of chromosomes that each parent donates to the embryo. I don’t know how substance abuse can be eliminated by being abstinent until marriage, but I would love to hear that particular lecture. Ditto for how “embarrassment” can be eliminated by remaining pure and pristine. Can you imagine how the kids who are forced to sit through this dribble are laughing behind the teacher’s backs, or even right in their face. I guess these classes are also a good excuse to catch a few winks.

So for the holier-than-thou-rollers, I wonder what they would have said if polio was transmitted by sex. Should we not have given the vaccine? Would it be better to have young women paralyzed from polio, than to have “undermined” the abstinence programs?

Researchers are also developing vaccines for other STDs, including gonorrhea and chlamydia. Best to make it illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to get that shot. Maybe make it illegal for anyone unmarried to get it as well, especially if you’re female. And if we ever come up with a vaccine for AIDS, well, the choice is also easy. Best to die of AIDS than be tempted to renege on your abstinence pledge.

I truly think that the far far far right wing has totally lost it. This has to be the most perverse logic that I’ve seen in a long time.

I always thought it was a bit much to talk about a ”Taliban wing” of the Republican Party. After all, the real Taliban stoned women to death if they had sex out of wedlock. What sentence would our Taliban choose? Cancer?

This would go over really well in hospitals, where nurses are legendary for whining, complaining, backstabbing (and of course, taking little action to remedy the situation). But apparently, a German IT company has banned complaining at work, even requiring employees to sign a binding contract that declares whining, grumbling and bellyaching strictly verboten in a move that comes amid a broader backlash against gloom in Europe’s largest economy.

“If one person is grumpy it makes everybody else feel bad and ruins what could be a good day.”

Workers at Leipzig-based Nutzwerk are contractually obliged to put on a happy face by the policy, which was inspired by a particularly cantankerous co-worker, said manager Thomas Kuwatsch.

“We made the ban on moaning and grumpiness at work official after one female employee refused to subscribe to the company’s philosophy of always smiling,” Kuwatsch explained.

“Mood is an important factor in productivity,” he added. “Everyone here works hard and is happy.”

Kathleen Sochor, who has been with the company for four years, agreed, saying: “I think it’s great that whining is not allowed. If one person is grumpy it makes everybody else feel bad and ruins what could be a good day.”

While lawyers disagree about the legality Nutzwerk’s “no whining” policy, the crackdown on complainers seems in tune with Germany’s prevailing Zeitgeist.

Recently, 25 leading media and publishing firms launched an unprecedented advertising campaign designed to lift spirits in the country.

The $36-million campaign, called “Du Bist Deutschland” (You Are Germany), targets Germans who prefer to see the glass as half-empty — rather than celebrate the fact that their country is one of the world’s wealthiest nations, with good schools, well engineered products and high standards of living.

The campaign’s upbeat message is being conveyed through posters, newspaper advertisements and a television commercial set to the tune of the same bittersweet but inspirational piano melody that featured prominently in the 1994 hit “Forest Gump.”

A recent poll by insurance company R+V Versicherung suggested that Germans are more worried today than at any time since reunification.

All that angst is more than just unpleasant — it may also be damaging Germany’s economic prospects, say experts who point to anaemic consumer spending and depressed housing prices.

I am surprised that hospitals and other healthcare facilities haven’t come up with this “miraculous” solution to the nursing shortage. Let’s see, if we ban the right to complain, then nurse will put on that happy face and stay on the job. Hospitals often pay consultants millions to come up with all sorts of idiotic campaigns to keep the staff happy (rather than use that same money to increase salaries and benefits), so I wouldn’t be surprised if some dweeb comes across this tidbit of news and decides that it would be gosh-darn honky dory to implement at a healthcare facility.

Read the full story at the German Information.org