Related to yesterday's post, Amanda Marcotte has a post about the ineffectiveness of the current round of abstinence-only education. Check out the graphs.

Correlation does not imply causation...

...but it's fun to speculate.

My father sent me this graph the other day (probably from some project he's working on):

The blue line represents the percent of all births to unmarried women, tallied by the vertical axis on the left. It's interesting, but disregard it for the moment and look at the pink line and the vertical axis on the right. The pink line represents the birth rate among 15 to 17 year olds - that is, the percent of all 15- to 17-year old girls who gave birth in a given year. From 1960 to the early 80s, the line is a bit jerky (much like some of the lads these ladies might have been canoodling with, I'm sure), but has a downward-sloping trend overall. Starting in the mid-1980s, though, there is a very clear spike in the teen pregnancy rate, followed by an equally clear and steady decline starting after 1992.

Why did the teen pregnancy rate go up under Reagan and Bush Sr. and decline under Clinton? Well, it's tempting to say it's because federally-administered abstinence-only sex education made its debut under Reagan, and because Reagan and his disciples worked tirelessly to restrict access to abortion. And the nonstop downturn during the Clinton years could be a coincidence. But I've yet to come up with a better explanation, especially since the rate's steady decline starts slowing down the year that our current president was elected and looks ready to flatline.

Scratch that - there is one (relatively) nonpartisan explanation: heterosexual teenagers finally got wise to the AIDS crisis and started using condoms more regularly. Condoms: a two-for-one deal! Still, there does seem to be at least a correlational relationship between teen pregnancy and partisanship, according to this table I found via Daily Kos (in this case measuring births per 1000 girls ages 15-19):

Striking. But again, it's just a correlation.

Pet Peeve Vis-a-Vis Voting

Rebecca Traister writes on Broadsheet:

Yup, it's that time of the election cycle again, when candidates and pollsters remember that if chicks actually cast the ballots they've had the right to cast for 86 years, we'd have a whole different political landscape.

I know it's small, but I wish that sentence had read "...chicks actually cast the ballots they've been allowed to cast for 86 years." It is common to say that women have had the right to vote since 1919 in this country. Well, I say that's not true. We've always had the right to vote. We were just prevented from exercising that right until 1919. It's a small distinction, yes, but I think it's an important one.

Casual Friday VI

I may have left DC, but I can't seem to get away from DC blogs:

Taxi-Blog Confessionals: My mom sent me this hilarious blog out of Arlington, VA called The Blank Top Chronicles. An anonymous cab dispatcher transcribes his calls with various crazies out there requesting cab service. Relatedly, Customer Service Hell gives a view into the surreal world of Microsoft customer service.

Buy Back Your Missing Panties: The DC One Night Stand Yard Sale already happened, I gather, and I've heard no reports about how it went. But what an awesome idea!

And in international news:

Count No Evil: Hooray! There was a dramatic decrease in the number of murders in Baghdad last month, according to the military. But only because they decided not to count "people killed by bombs, mortars, rockets or other mass attacks" in that number this month. Uhhh....

Changes in the Admissions Game

A press release worth checking out:

Beginning next year Harvard College will eliminate its early admission program and move to a single application deadline of January 1, the University announced today (September 12). The change in policy, which builds on Harvard's efforts over the past several years to expand financial aid and increase openness in admissions, will take effect for students applying in the fall of 2007 for the freshman class entering in September 2008.
"The college admissions process has become too pressured, too complex, and too vulnerable to public cynicism," said Harvard interim President Derek Bok. "We hope that doing away with early admission will improve the process and make it simpler and fairer.
"Early admission programs tend to advantage the advantaged," Bok continued. "Students from more sophisticated backgrounds and affluent high schools often apply early to increase their chances of admission, while minority students and students from rural areas, other countries, and high schools with fewer resources miss out. Students needing financial aid are disadvantaged by binding early decision programs that prevent them from comparing aid packages. Others who apply early and gain admission to the college of their choice have less reason to work hard at their studies during their final year of high school."

Waking Up on 9/11

Today was my first day of classes at the Kennedy School, but the anniversary of 9/11 reminded me that five years ago was the day before I started classes as a Harvard freshman. That day, I woke up around 11am (long after the towers had fallen) and while I was still half-asleep I opened up CNN.com. At that point in the morning CNN.com was overwhelmed with hits and had been reduced to a shell site, proclaiming simply that America was under attack. If you click here, they have screen captures of the information that was available at different points throughout the day. No further information, just a photo of lower Manhattan enveloped in smoke. What a surreal way to start life as an adult.

Quotes to Orient Yourself By

Today was the first day of orientation at the Kennedy School. I can't believe the breadth of backgrounds people have. It's really humbling. There was a fair amount of irreverence, though:

"To quote the great Harvard chaplain Peter Gomes, 'At Harvard, it's not who you know, but whom you know.'" - Dean McCarthy

"...And if you see a long line, get in it. There's probably food at the end." - Our Class Advisors

Back to School

I'm back in Cambridge, and I've already started to wear out my voice schmoozing with my new Kennedy School classmates. Orientation starts on Tuesday officially, but pre-Orientation activities abound. I think I'm going to learn as much from my fellow students as from my professors.

On the other hand, there are some great professors at the KSG as well. The website's front page links to articles and reports from KSG professors, and a couple recent ones caught my eye. Monica Duffy Toft addresses the global rise of religiosity in a broad, informative, and insightful article in the Baltimore Sun. And Jessica Stern writes in the Boston Globe about the appeal of Jihad. A piquant paragraph:

There is an appeal to an identity of victimhood: If I am a victim of someone else's bad actions, I have an excuse for not meeting expectations -- my own or others'. There is an appeal to righteous indignation. There is an appeal to avenging wrongs visited on the weak by the strong. The narrative will be more seductive if moral questions seem to have easy answers, if good and evil can be easily distinguished, if perpetrators and victims stand out in stark relief, and if they never trade places, as they often do in the real world.

I've generally had a domestic focus in my government studies, but I'm looking forward to learning more about the international political climate. I only get one elective per semester this first year, but this course on insurgency in the Middle East is on the short list.

Casual Friday V

I'm in the wild, beautiful Pacific Northwest until next Friday. It's good to be home. Anyway, some assorted items from the week:

EC/BC: If you’re a feminist worth your salt, you already know that the FDA has now fully approved Plan B for over-the-counter use – at least, for adult women. Younger women will still have to get a doctor’s permission, not because FDA scientists thought 18 was the appropriate cutoff, but because that was the compromise that could be reached politically. Sigh. It’s still generally a victory. Less fortunate is the recent stratospheric price hike of regular birth control pills available to clinics serving low-income women. Read about this underpublicized development on Slate.

Advice Columnists Gone Wild: I read Salon’s advice columnist Cary Tennis religiously, even though I often find his responses infuriatingly New Agey. Turns out he’s not afraid of a little dirty talk. Thursday’s letter writer complained about her partner’s vanilla attitude toward sex, which elicited quite a randy response from Cary. Hilarious.

Out on DVD: Veronica Mars Season 2! Eee!

A World Away

On Tuesday night I had a totally wonderful send-off at Equinox with my posse of girlfriends. I'm going to miss them so much, though it hasn't totally sunk in yet that I won't be able to pop on down to hang out with them. Those friendships were the highlight of my year in DC.

I'm now in Provincetown, MA, having spent a couple days on Cape Cod with the Spinster, Mr. Simone Says, and a rowdy band of Montrealers. When I take the ferry back this afternoon, I will resume setting up my room in my new apartment and becoming a decorating diva with my new roommate. As mentioned previously, the apartment is not the most attractive space you've ever seen, but we'll make it pretty through creative use of Craigslist and the Crate & Barrel catalog.