"Inspirational" quotes

One of the reasons why I hate facebook is because crap like this always ends up in my newsfeed:

Really? We're taking life coach advice from the likes of Henry Ford now? I have little patience for industrialists, let alone Nazi sympathizers, no matter how many pithy quotes that look good superimposed over an out-of-focus sunset they puked up over the course of their life.

Also... this very well may have originally a Mark Twain quote. A quick Googling brings up both Ford and Twain as the author. Twain I can respect, even if this is something that belongs on a Hallmark birthday card. Ford, not so much.

It could be worse. A few months ago, a friend posted "Nothing is so healing as the human touch", quoted from Bobby Fischer. Yes, that Bobby Fischer-- chess grandmaster and Holocaust denier. She took it down after a couple of us pointed out that Fischer was an terrible person.

The moral of this story: Do your research, people. I don't want to see motivational quotes from known bigots every morning.

Think Progress, you lazy bastards

Since this Think Progress graphic keeps popping up in my facebook timeline, I might as well share it with you all, too.

It’s likely no coincidence that many of those same states lack the comprehensive sexual education requirements that would help educate their residents about HIV transmission from an early age. Health classes in Texas, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana aren’t required to provide any kind of medically accurate information about HIV. And in two of those states — Texas and Florida — public schools don’t have to offer any type of sexual health education whatsoever.

The article completely ignores the HIV/AIDS diagnosis rates in Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, which are in the same range as most of the Southern states. (Before anyone says that it's an "urban" problem, remind me again which is the second largest city in the US and what state it's in.)

I guess I'm all pissy about the article because it's just so fucking lazy. It only took me a couple of minutes to look up the sex education policy of New York State:

New York has no law that mandates sex education or regulates its content if taught – it has not taken the necessary action to guarantee complete, comprehensive sex ed for its students. However, New York does require that students be taught about HIV as part of health classes. Sex education policy is governed by New York Commissioner’s Regulations 135.3 and Learning Standards for Health, Physical Education, and Family and Consumer Sciences.

 (Advocates for Youth)

And what do you know? Illinois and Massachusetts are in the same boat: no mandate for sex ed, but information about HIV/AIDS must be taught in high school. New Jersey, though, is a bit of an oddball:

New Jersey has among the most comprehensive sex education policies of any state. Its students must receive age-appropriate information on a variety of topics, including gender stereotypes, sexual orientation, the benefits of abstinence, and condoms and contraception.

So, yeah. Claiming that abstinence only sex ed is the cause of high rates of HIV/AIDs oversimplifies the problem. I have no doubt that it contributes to high rates of STIs and teen pregnancy, but simply blaming red states for their lack of proper sex education isn't going to reduce rates of HIV/AIDS.