How The Tea Party Toasted Itself

Time after time we hear Tea Party representatives telling us that their extreme policies are what the majority of Americans want and the entire reason they were elected to office. While a majority of sane people have thought all along that such was not case, the most recent polls confirm it.

Delusions of the Tea Party...image credit the politcalticker.com

(No, Tea Party, you are not America. You're just delusional. An overwhelming majority of Americans -85 percent to be exact- don't think, feel or act like you. They don't hate gays. They don't want a state religion. They don't think women should be subservient to men. They aren't religious fanatics. They don't even hate taxes anymore. You represent an extremely small minority faction, one that would be described in most countries as an 'extremist minority faction'. But wait, what's that I hear? I think it's reality calling. Maybe you should get an Obamaphone, so you can hear what it has to say...)

The latest poll from CBS shows that support for the Tea Party continues to dwindle, now at it's lowest point since the group first made it's way onto the polls as a 'thing.' National support for the Tea Party stands at just 15 percent, with only a small number of republicans still identifying as members of the Tea Party.

Does this mean that the reality of the Tea Party's extremist positions has finally overcome the heavily funded libertarian propaganda of the Koch brothers, as it is broadcast daily on Fox News? The 'taxed enough already' party appeared out of nowhere. It was supposedly a grass roots movement, but somehow was in possession of a surprising number of shiny new tour buses. Hmmm.

Remember when they railed against the 'Obama tax increases' that never existed, and claimed that the Affordable Care Act contained death panels, because the president wanted to kill Sarah Palin's baby? There was the Norquist pledge and the disgusting birther movement, all spawns of the Koch brothers and their Tea Party lunatics.

The Tea Party managed to lure some of the more simple minded people into its web of deceit. But how long could they really hope to retain those people, when their entire platform was based on bull**it? Sooner or later people start to wonder, if Obama is coming for our guns, what's taking so damn long? When do hijabs become mandatory, we've been waiting six years now. I think the whole thing has to be getting boring by now.

For those who haven't figured it out yet, the Tea Party is the fossil fuel party. Texas tea isn't really as 'code' as they thought it was. The destruction of the EPA doesn't sound as appealing after your water's been poisoned by the fracking industry. Sarah Palin's 'Drill baby drill' just isn't as sexy today as it was a few years ago. It's part of the reality of America's short attention span and superficial nature, cult figures in this country go out even faster than they come in. In the case of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, Louie Gohmert and Ted Cruz, it couldn't happen fast enough.

Voters have now seen the extremist Tea Party in action. There are just way too many youtube videos depicting one or more of the wing nuts speaking of the House floor. There aren't enough people left in America who are shuttered in old folks homes. There aren't enough Fox viewers who are too scared of the liberal media to read or watch anything not generated by the right wing. There surely aren't enough 'patriots' holed up in bunkers listening to underground radio, waiting for the Muslim invasion or the second coming of Jesus.

In 2010 people didn't know what the Tea Party was. In 2014 they do, and they can't identify, as the newest polls show.

The Tea Party got to be a thing because they baited people with the promise of 'no new taxes.' That idea might have seemed appealing to even some rational people, just a few years ago. But now people across the country have begun to realize that without taxes nothing really works. Roads and bridges crumble. Police and firefighters get laid off. Schools close their doors. Businesses move away, in hopes of finding safer communities to operate in. They realize that taxes are a part of life, and they aren't dumb enough not to see through the Tea Party's endless fight against raising taxes on the rich, coupled with their willingness to throw the middle class and the poor under that not so shiny, not so new tour bus.

The no new taxes appeal is long gone. The majority of Americans favor raising taxes on those who now own the majority of the wealth in this country. People get that the folks who have most of the wealth SHOULD be responsible for paying most of the taxes. Trickle down theory was exposed as a lie a long time ago. The right keeps wrapping it in different packages and selling it back to their ever dwindling base of supporters.

With the original 'no new taxes' slogan decimated, they've been left to focus on wedge issues. As the name suggests, wedge issues are meant divide people; whites against blacks, second amendment fanatics against supporters of peace and non-violence, religious fanatics against everyone else...

What happens when you build an entire political party on wedge issues? Nothing good. You get 961 anti-women bills introduced in 2 years, but no meaningful legislation. You get 'when does life begin' definitions inserted in flood insurance legislation, but you don't get flood insurance. You get thousands of bills challenged in federal court, but you don't get many passed and you do get many overturned. You get spiritual lessons from self-appointed spiritual advisers called Congressmen and medical lessons from people with an 8th grade education at the state level, but you don't get a damn thing done.

What's most important about the GOP focus on wedge issues is that the division they create has finally served to divide them. Contrary to what the Tea Party seems to believe, the extremist positions of their elected representatives do not sit well with most Americans. The average voter does not think that abortion is the most important issue facing the country. The average voter does not want the separation of church and state dismantled, maybe because even Christians need 13,000 different denominations, because they don't all believe the same thing and they don't all favor the government dictating what they can and can't believe.

Mostly the Tea Party is on its way out because the reality of it has set in. For example, in Michigan tea party legislators voted to take away the right of local cities and towns to govern themselves. Considering the party is supposed to be 'inspired' by the Boston Tea Party, when colonists declared "no taxation without representation" the tea party's move to decimate the right of voters in the state to select their own representation is just too much for most people who are paying attention.

David Pakman has a great segment on the decline of the Tea Party this week. He makes a lot of great points on how the GOP's focus on wedge issues has splintered their own party, hopefully for good. Here's the video from his show on youtube.

Marco Rubio Can't Cite A Single Source He Relies On For Policy Decisions

Rubio can't cite one source for his opinions. Image credit From the Left

Marco Rubio (R - FL) was recently asked to cite examples of some of the "information, reports, studies or otherwise" that he relies on to 'inform' and reach the conclusion that 'human activity is not to blame for climate change.'

His response to the question? Nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. In fact, instead of answering the question that was presented to him, he decided to pretend that he was asked a completely different question. Worse, he went on to further pretend that the other question that he wasn't asked, wasn't the question that he, as a lawmaker, had to answer.

No, seriously. Call it political double talk, avoidance, skirting the issue, call it whatever you want, but the way that Rubio responded to this particular question gives a whole new level of credence to the theory that republicans are out of touch with the real world.

Not only does Rubio not state a single source that he relies on to make his decisions, he appears to make up a whole series of other questions, in order to avoid coming out and saying that he doesn't make decisions based on research or study of the issues.


First Rubio says that he doesn't deny that climate change is happening, but he thinks it's always changing. He goes on to say that whether the climate is changing due to human activity is not the question that is put before him as a policy maker. (Also not the question put before him in the interview.)

Next Rubio says that the question put before him as a policy maker is:

"If we ban all the coal in the US and if we ban all the carbon emissions in the United States, will it change these dramatic changes in climate and these dramatic weather impacts that we're now reading about, and anyone who says that we will is not being truthful."

What's scary is that Rubio has a lot of opinions, but he has no explanations for how he arrived at them. Not a single source is cited. He doesn't even have a quote from one of the climate change denying Scientists (four percent of scientists disregard climate change, 96 percent do not). He doesn't seem able to provide a reference to a study or research paper of any kind. At worst you'd think he'd respond with a link to some Koch funded, online right wing blog or maybe a propaganda flier produced by the oil and gas industry. No, Rubio just knows these things.

Sadly, Tea Party voters are all too happy to accept the idea that Rubio just knows stuff that 96 percent of Scientists don't know.

Now if you're thinking that Rubio's response to the question couldn't have been worse, you'd be seriously mistaken. In a follow up interview on Fox he told Sean Hannity that he gets a kick out of of all these people who wag their fingers at him, claiming that the science on climate change is settled. He gets a kick out of them because, are you ready? There is a 'consensus of scientists who agree that human life begins at conception.' Yes, he really said that. No, he didn't actually have a source for that totally false statement either.

Are conservatives really this ignorant? Are they really content to send the dumbest, least informed, least read and least educated on the issues off to Washington to decide on the issues?

I have a hard time believing that most people, even Tea Party people, make monumental decisions without doing any research first. I am not talking about voting, unfortunately. I am talking about deciding on things like where you want to live, work or go to school, for example. There are a lot of people out there who don't even do their grocery shopping without first reading the sales fliers. People who want to make informed decisions, because making informed decisions now, generally means people have fewer regrets later.

If you want to know how to get from point A to point B, you need look at a map. If you don't look at a map, you end up stuck in a cow field or running out of gas in front of the all night strip club at 2:00 am. When it comes to the future of our country, Rubio and other Tea Party are holding the wheel, but they have no clue where they're taking us.

This was a great question, one that I think a lot of people would have liked Rubio to answer. If his ideas and beliefs are informed and accurate, then one would think he would think he would want to use the opportunity to let the public know where they came from. But his ideas are neither sound nor informed. Rubio repeats the same old propaganda, none of which is based in fact.

Here's more on Rubio's interview from the Young Turks:

The Day Democracy Died

This week the PGA comes back to the city of Benton Harbor. There's a protest going on, although I doubt you'll hear about it from any mainstream media outlet. There's a history here in the city of Benton Harbor, it's bubbling beneath the surface, on the daylight side of the media blackout.

I never thought these things could happen in America. But the video below was not shot in some far away banana republic. The man parading himself in the streets is not some egomaniacal, power hungry foreign dictator. This video comes from the state of Michigan. The man you see is right wing governor Rick Snyder.



WATCH: Rick Snyder Walks In Benton Harbor:

I repeat, I never thought these things could happen in the United States; that legally elected officials could be replaced with puppets of a totalitarian right wing regime, that public property could be quietly seized by fascist officials, that the will of the voters could be dismissed as inconsequential in both local and statewide elections, that citizens could be locked out of the state capital building, that all of these things and many others, could be done with little to no media fanfare.

Since coming into power in the state of Michigan, Rick Snyder has made himself sole dictator. He's granted himself the right to remove any elected official he does not want in power. He's taken away the right of every citizen to have a voice in government, by making his puppet government accountable only to himself. He's cut off open meetings and quashed participation in the democratic process, especially for those who are likely to express a point of view he does not want heard. He's trampled on the rights of the voters time and time again. He has pepper sprayed protesters and locked them out of their own capital building. He has appointed official 'spokespersons' as approved media representatives, while at the same time banning the right of local leaders to speak on behalf of the cities, towns and school systems they were elected by the voters of this state to represent. Given all of this, it may not come as a surprise to learn that he's also made drastic changes to long standing legislation, now making it nearly impossible for the citizens of Michigan to recall their Governor.

Last week about 500 tea partiers gathered in Washington DC to 'overthrow the 'Obama regime.' The same tea party fanatics that think the President is an out of control dictator, voted for Snyder and are apparently as blind to reality as they are ignorant of facts. Every time I see a tea party, infowars, Fox News, don't believe the liberal media bumper sticker I cringe for the future of our country. I can't comprehend how the same people who claim that Obama is a dictator who is taking away their rights (which ones?!?) are complacent as Snyder strangles democracy and creates a dictatorship right in front of their faces. I don't understand how they willfully and blindly excuse - even support - Snyder, even as he slowly takes away every right any citizen in this state ever had. They don't seem to understand what a dictatorship is...

And all the while the media fails to cover protest after protest, where thousands have gathered to fight against the right wing's illegal and unconstitutional seizure of power, here in Michigan and elsewhere around the country, in Wisconsin, in North Carolina, everywhere the right wing has set out to destroy the system of government that has been in place in this country since the days of our great grandparents and in many cases, before.


Protesting Governor Snyder at the Michigan State Capital:


Even as the right wing continues it's oppressive regime across Michigan and across the country, the tea party seems to remain under the delusion that they are the oppressed, rather than the oppressor. Their leaders are pepper spraying their neighbors and trampling on the rights of their brothers, sisters, friends and family members. Yet they are oblivious. Even in those rare moments when the media does report on what is happening in the state of Michigan, the picture is distorted, the reality of the situation is most often lost in the 'unbiased' equal weight to both sides, coverage.



Who was pepper sprayed during the recent fiasco better known as 'Operation America Spring'? Who was beaten, who was arrested, who was denied access to public property? The right wing agenda rolls on unrestrained, while across America peaceful protesters are arrested by the hundreds, if not the thousands, for opposing the right wing agenda of environmental destruction, oppression, sexism, racism and human rights abuses that range from denying healthcare coverage to the poor to denying food to children at school.

To me, Benton Harbor and Jean Klock Park are the symbols of the America we lost, the democracy they stole, the freedoms they squashed. The truth behind Michigan Emergency Manager law, a land grab, a money grab, a seizure of public dollars whether it's the seizure of a park, a city, a utility, a pension fund or a an art collection, billionaires want what they want, and with the help of the fascists they propelled to power, they get what they want.


The funeral for democracy was held in Benton Harbor, long before the Fascists arrived in Flint or
Pontiac, before they came to public schools across the state, before they seized the long awaited prize, the city of Detroit.


The funeral service was conducted by Rev. Pinkney, who, like so many other civil rights leaders in the history of the United States, has since been arrested on bogus charges, a transparent effort to intimidate and silence. The state of Michigan is now a frightening place to stand for freedom or democracy, or to speak for the poor, or to fight for the rights of workers, or to speak for women, or to have a set of religious beliefs that differs from the one promoted by the right wing government.

I wonder how long it will be before the fascists are finished with their test run in Michigan... They're perfecting their policies, learning from their mistakes, preparing to duplicate their successes in other states, before the final coup, which will take place in Washington, maybe within a decade. If it doesn't get shut down here in Michigan, then where and when?

Fascism is like a cancer, if it's not contained, it will spread through the system. We didn't stop it in Benton Harbor, so it spread through the state and the school system and it continues to spread, advancing further every day. We still have a voice, we still have a vote at the state level and the federal level. It's clear that the republican/tea party of today is not the party of the past. After years of propaganda and brainwashing, it's now the arm of the fascist movement, although I believe that most of the supporters of that movement have no idea what that they are supporting the overthrow of our system of democracy.

Is it too late to restore democracy in Benton Harbor, or in Flint, Pontiac, Detroit and all the other cities that have been taken over? Is it too late to stop the invasion through the next city, or the next state? It depends. In November Michigan voters will make their voices heard. The 2014 election will reveal a lot about who we are as a people, how much we value freedom and democracy and how willing we are to allow those things to be taken from ourselves and our fellow citizens, if the excuses are pretty enough and the propaganda is potent enough.

Bryan Fischer Rewrites The Biblical Definition Of Love (Again)

photo credit rawstory

On Tuesday, May 13, 2014, radio Bryan Fischer and guest David Benham discussed their love for gay people on Fischer's right wing talk radio program, Focal Point. Aside from the fact that Benham and Fischer have clearly rewritten the Bible in order to define 'love' in the way they want to define it, (rather than in the way that the Bible already defined it), Fischer totally contradicts himself during the broadcast.

In one breathe Fischer says that he doesn't care what gay people in the privacy of their own homes. Out of the other side of his mouth he says that he 'loves them enough to warn them and tell them the truth," which of course, is that they're going to go to hell (in his version of the truth anyways).

So clearly the question is, which is it? Does he not care about what homosexuals do, even though he claims to believe they are going to go to hell. or does he 'love them enough to warn them and tell them truth' as he claims that he's called to do? You can't not care and love someone at the same time. Love doesn't work like that.

But let's get to the heart of the matter. Fischer and Benham don't love anyone, especially not gays. You don't get to call for public execution of a group of people, then later pretend it was all 'out of love.'

Anyone can claim they are a Christian, and sadly many people do, who really aren't. The Bible says you'll know them by their fruits (Mathew 7:16). The Bible says "fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." (Galatians 5:22 and 23). If you think you hear these things when you listen to right wing radio, I guess I would advise you to checking your hearing aid, because that's not what the phony Christian right is selling. 

If you plant a seed it grows into something. If you plant a message, it too grows into something. If you sow love and peace and kindness and gentleness, what grows is more love and peace and kindness and gentleness. If you plant a seed of hate and violence, what grows is more hate, violence, something that causes harm and suffering to others. 

Fischer's program is a product of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which is owned by the American Family Association. This is an association that has gone to court to prevent gays from being protected under the hate crimes statute. It's an organization that defends the rights of supposed Christians to persecute, harm or even kill someone based on their sexual orientation. They stood against peace and love and defended hate and violence. The kinds of messages that Bryan Fischer sends out into the world are the kind that create division, hate and hurt. Those are not the fruits of love.

Since we're on the topic, what is the Biblical definition of love, and why doesn't it sound anything like the right wing definition of love? 

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

If you look at the characteristics of love, one  by one, it's easy to see that they don't match the definition that Fischer and other right wing 'Christians' tell us it is. Love does not dishonor others? It is not self seeking? It's not easily angered? It keeps no record of wrongs? It always protects? That's interesting, especially since Fischer and his organization have absolutely no desire to protect those they falsely claim to love.

The Bible says that God is love. That's interesting also. That means that God is patient, God is kind, He is not proud, He is not self seeking, He is not easily angered, He keeps no records of wrongs, He does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres.

That doesn't sound like the same God that Fischer and those on the right talk about, I know. It makes me wonder if they know God at all. I feel sorry for them in a way, because their existence seems to revolve around the idea of vengeful, hateful God that wants to destroy everyone based on their sins. That's contrary to the teachings of the God I know, who laid down his own life, to save sinners like me. That's contrary to the message of the New Testament, that says "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever shall believe in him, should not perish but have everlasting life."

Fischer and those like Him are actually teaching a false doctrine of works. The Bible clearly tells us that it is by faith we are saved and not works. Anyone who is trying to get to heaven by living a life free of sin (earning their way there) is teaching a false message, one that the apostles vehemently warned against. Salvation is not earned, it's a free gift from God. A free gift, means there are no strings attached. It also means that God can give it to whoever he wants, murderers, adulterers, liars (see the patriarchs, Abraham, Moses, David, for examples.) God also can give it to gay people or to greedy people or to people whose hearts are filled with arrogance, pride, self righteousness and hate (see the Christian right.)

Fischer claims that he is compelled to tell the gays the truth. I wonder why he keeps lying about what the Bible says then? Sodom was not destroyed because the people were gay.

"'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy." (Ezekiel 16:49)

Where is Fischer's great love for the 1 percent, the arrogant, the overfed and the unconcerned? Where is his great love for Paul Ryan and Mitt Romney and the Koch brothers and all the rest of the right wingers who refuse to help the poor and needy?

The Bible says that charging usury is an abomination to God and whoever charges usury of the poor will surely die. Where's Fischer's love for the bankers? Where are the dire warnings about hell and damnation for the gamblers on Wall Street, the traders and raiders, who for a penny steal a widow's house?

The only place in the New Testament that talks about homosexuality is Roman's Chapter 1, which covers the entire gambit of sins, from lust to greed to adultery to speaking ill of your neighbor. The passage is followed by this:

 "You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things."

The final thing I have to address is the 'gay agenda.' According to Fischer, the gay agenda is to 'normalize homosexual behavior.'

Merriam Webster's defines the word normalize as "to bring (someone or something) back to a usual or expected state or condition."

The gay agenda is the agenda of allowing gays to exist in our society without being threatened, maligned, intimidated, discriminated against, or physically harmed. What is so scary about that? Gayness is not contagious, you can't catch it. Your kids can't catch it.

I think the people who really fear 'the gay agenda' must be very unsure of their own sexuality, since they appear to believe people can 'turn gay.' The majority of people in the world don't choose to be gay or straight, they are born that way. The anti-gay fanatics I wonder about though. They seem to believe that people do choose. I can't help but think most of them are probably closet gays, who chose to live a lie, rather than allow themselves to be who they were born to be. That explains why they are so angry and uncomfortable around others who didn't chose to pretend to not be gay. Jealousy?

Fischer doesn't want gay people to be able to live normal lives. He doesn't want them to have the same rights as the rest of the world. He doesn't want them to be accepted or treated with dignity and respect. That's not love. He prefers they be excluded, rejected, despised, treated differently than himself. Love does not do that to others.

Here's the video of Fischer talking about his 'love' for gay people.











If right wing 'Christians' represent love, what does hate look like?

West Virginia Coal Mine, With More 250 Safety Violations In 2013, Kills Two (VIDEO)

Two workers at the Brody coal mine, located in West Virginia's Boone County, were killed after a structural collapse. The mine was cited by the US Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) more than 250 times, in 2013 alone.

A letter sent to by MSHA to the mine's safety manager, Justin Ray,  in October of 2013 states that MSHA had determined there was a pattern of violations (POV). The POV citation includes:

• 18 citations for ventilation and/or methane hazards
• 20 citations for emergency preparedness and/or escapeway hazards
• 9 citations for roof and/or rib hazards 
• 7 citations for inadequate examinations (inspections)

The letter goes on to state:

"These groups of violations, taken alone or together, constitute a pattern of
violations of mandatory health and safety standards in the coal or other mine
which are of such nature as could have significantly and substantially
contributed to the cause and effect of coal or other mine health or safety
hazards."

The Brody mine is operated by Patriot Coal, which in turn is owned by Peabody Energy,a company that maintains close ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Peabody Energy lobbyist, Wendy Lowe, was named ALEC 'State Chair of the Year' in 2012. In addition, the company's top lobbyist, Kelly Madar, sits on the ALEC advisory council. 

Peabody Energy is a $50,000 a year 'Conference Level Sponsor.' The money is spent wining and dining lawmakers, paying for elaborate trips to 'ALEC' conferences, where lobbyist like Lowe spend their time influencing policy with pay outs to corrupt government officials.

In 2012 Patriot Coal, owned by Peabody, filed for bankruptcy. Company representatives later announced their intention in restructuring debt obligations was to eliminate employee benefits. Peabody spun off this part of their West Virginia operations in order to avoid paying 'legacy liabilities,' benefits owed to employees who put their lives on the line to work in the company's coal mines. 

Peabody Energy was named the 'worst of the worst' by Newsweek Magazine. The company was listed as the number one worst polluter on the planet. Newsweek cited the company's massive impact on the environment in conjunction with it's nearly non-existent environmental policies, as reasons for the rating.

Thanks to ALEC and lawmakers who put lining their own pockets ahead of the good of the citizens they are supposed to represent, companies like this are allowed to continue to operate in the United States, at the expense of the people who work for and live near them. 

Here's more on Monday evening's mine collapse, from the Associated Press. 

photo credit The Raw Story

Here's To Mom Power!

Mom Power

"The hand that rocks the cradle"

They say that man is mighty,

He governs land and sea,

He wields a mighty sceptre,

O'er lesser powers that be,

But a mightier power and stronger,

Man from his throne has hurled,

For the hand that rocks the cradle,

Is the hand that rules the world."

 by William Ross Wallace

No-one has the power to change the world like a mother does. Strong women raise strong sons and daughters, empowered to go out into the world and change it for the better. 

Here's to the moms not afraid to stand up to bad guys with guns.

Here's to the moms who march off to battle against dinosaurs.

Here's to the healers and the medicine makers.

Here's to the moms who won't be labelled...

and to the moms who won't allow their kids to be labelled.

The anatomy teachers...

and the civics instructors.

Here's to the peacemakers...

the decision makers...

and the equality seekers.

and here's to the grandmas.

With women like these shaping our future generations, maybe there's hope for us after all. 

Mom Power!

US Teen Pregnancy Rate Drops To Historical Low; Remains High In Red States

A new report released by Guttenmacher Institute at the beginning of May shows that the rate of teen pregnancy has declined to an all time low in the US. That's great news. Even better is the news that both the abortion rate and the rate of births in the US have also declined to historic lows.

Researchers point to the availability of contraception as a reason for the decline in all three categories. Fewer pregnancies means fewer births and fewer abortions. Along with increased access to contraception, educational programs, especially those directed at teens, also played a part in reducing the number of teen pregnancies, as well as the number of births and abortions. Access to contraception is only helpful when teens know how and when to use it.

Traditionally conservative states, like those in the west and south, had the highest rates of teen pregnancy, while traditionally liberal states, like those on the East Coast, had the lowest.

It's not hard to understand why certain areas of the country continue to experience high rates of teen pregnancy, while others have rates that are much lower. Attitudes toward contraceptive use, sex education and sex in general, play a very powerful role when it comes to influencing young people's decisions. Some conservatives view any form of birth control as equal to abortion. In teaching this totally false idea to teenagers, they encourage them to be irresponsible, rather to practice safe sex.

Abstinence programs have been shown to be ineffective when it comes to lowering the rate of teen pregnancy. Still, conservative states continue to peddle these programs, often mandating that the only sex education young people can receive must be abstinence based.

Only 13 states in the US currently require that sex education be medically accurate. Also of note, only 13 states require that potentially negative outcomes as a result of teen sexual behavior be covered in sex ed. Only 19 states require that teens be taught about contraception in sex education class. (source

The state of New Mexico requires mandatory sex education in school. The state does not require medical accuracy nor does it require that instruction include the use of contraception. It's one of 35 states that allows parents to 'opt out' of sexual education for their children.

New Mexico currently has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the United States (80 per 1,000). Other states that had the highest rates of teen pregnancy included Mississippi (76 per 1,000) Texas and Arkansas (73 per 1,000). These states continue to reject comprehensive sex education.

The state with the lowest rate of teen pregnancy was New Hampshire (28 out of 1,000). Neighboring states of Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine ranked at the bottom of the list, having some of the lowest rates of teen pregnancy in the country. These states mandate comprehensive sexual education.

Nationally, the rate of teen pregnancy is 6% (57 per 1,000). Although this rate has dropped to its lowest point in history, it still remains far above that of other developed nations.

photo credit Salon.com