Bill Cassidy is a state Senator from Louisiana and a fierce crusader for "abstinence-only" sex education in schools…which I have long felt is about the biggest crock of self-deception out there. Teaching horny kids to refrain from sexual activity as a means of avoiding pregnancy, disease and other consequences has never worked very well, it will never work very well, and there will always be parents who are so personally disturbed by this reality that they won't give up on it.
Thanks to folks like Cassidy, Louisiana is very big on teaching abstinence, which surely has a lot to do with the fact that Louisiana is one of the few states where teen pregnancy has not declined and has probably increased. And you can probably guess where this is headed: Cassidy has just announced that his teenage, unwed daughter is pregnant.
This of course reminds us of Sarah Palin having a teenage, unwed daughter. I always thought that if it had been Barack Obama who had one instead of Ms. Palin, the 2008 election would have been about one thing: Republicans insisting that a man who'd let his daughter get that way was an abominable parent and "If he can't run his own family, we cannot trust him to run our country." It probably would have been nastier than that and Palin's would have been the loudest voice saying such things.
Personally, I think not teaching your kids about Safe Sex while pretending that "just say no" is a viable strategy is an indicator of bad parenting. Even worse is what some parents seem to do these days which is to screw their kids' sex lives up forever by convincing them it's evil and terrible and you'll be consigned to Hell for all eternity after your genitalia falls off. That's real bad parenting. Just as Abstinence Education is a real bad way to deal with teenagers and what their hormones are telling them.