Can You Spot the Issue Here? June 9, 2006 zuzu Headline in the LA Times: Less Sex and Alcohol for Today’s Teens. Headline in Yahoo News/AP: Hispanic Kids More Prone to Suicide. Same study.
when i was still in school back before the earth cooled, i found myself doing quite well in statistics. it was the only branch of mathematics in which i seemed to excel – all others it seemed i failed miserably. i was facinated with statistics because i could suggest two completely opposing arguments using the same data set, simply by rearranging the interpretations. what a concept…
Also, there was no decline in the percentage of students who said they’d had sexual intercourse, which held steady at 47 percent, or in the percentage of sexually active students who said they’d used a condom, which was 63 percent. However, it’s the first time in 14 years that condom use among sexually active high school students has not risen, noted Martha Kempner, spokeswoman for the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, a New York-based nonprofit group. “It calls into question the federal government’s investment in abstinence-only-until-marriage programs, many of which openly discourage condom use,” she said.
They make it sound like condom usage is a problem. I will go ahead and be honest here: I wouldn’t care if teen sex tripled, as long as condom usage was 100%
Well, I was kind of thinking that the LA Times might have, you know, given the demographics of the area, played up the suicide-among-Hispanic-teens angle a bit more than the “Kids: 10% less slutty!” angle that they chose.
But… But…… But……… Aren’t those Mex-I-Cans getting all the good jobs and living the phat life on illegal welfare and laughing at all the good honest working gringos? Seriously, guys, I thought life in (as gross tendency) poor (as gross tendency) immigrant populations was totally awesome and completely free of problems.