“ABC” should stand for “Another Bush Calamity”

A recent report released by the GAO, is critical of the Bush administration’s insistence that the majority of the funds for their global AIDS program be used on “Abstinence only” and “Fidelity” programs. The GAO concluded that efforts to adhere to the program’s “ABC” strategy, “abstinence until marriage, being faithful thereafter, and using condoms in high-risk sexual encounters” was diverting money from other vital AIDS relief efforts. Of the 15 countries reviewed in the report, 9 of them reduced the amount of money for programs aimed at preventing mother to child transmission of HIV in their ‘06 budgets, so as to meet the spending target for abstinence promotion. “In perhaps the largest adjustment, one country cut from $8 million to $4 million its spending on prevention services for couples in which one person has HIV infection and the other doesn't -- an extremely high-risk group -- as well as on sexually active youths and sex workers.” – from today’s S.F. Chronicle.

Here’s a clue numbskull… You can't legislate morality, and you can't force your morality on other cultures. You can't criminalize "sin", you can only criminalize crime. And you can't deny basic human nature. Period.

"Abstinence only" programs WILL NEVER WORK. Period. They DON'T work in this country, so what makes us think we can shove them down the throat of another culture?

If Bushco doesn't care about, and doesn't want to provide funding for AIDS programs, fine. Then be honest about it and say as much. But how can these right-wing-nutjobs force people in the third world to adhere to their extremely narrow, puritanical, prudish beliefs on sex??

Next thing you know, they'll be telling the people of New Orleans "We'll provide you with hurricane relief, but first you must accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior." It may sound like an exaggeration, but morally speaking, the analogy is identical. They're immorally placing a "morality" condition on doing the right thing. Yeah, that's a real "Christian" approach.