A bridge to sell

Abstinence alone doesn't work. Why should it? Puberty now often starts at age 10 for girls, and the raging hormones of teenagers are a compelling biological reality. It's very hard under the circumstances of reality to get most kids to wait for something they want and that we want them eventually to have, particularly if we don't give them a wider perspective of sex.

Yet the God-squad-fearing Congress and Duhbya can agree to waste more money on abstinence-only education after it has been proven not to work. Faith means never having to try anything else.

Look, no one is arguing for school-sponsored teen orgies. The liberal position is that abstinence should be included in sex education and that teenagers should be discouraged from early or promiscuous sex. That sounds pretty moderate to me.