"Do you really want to go there, Senator?"

The McCain campaign has released a new ad making misleading claims about Senator Obama's sex-ed record. Putting aside the misleading nature of the ad, is this even a topic McCain wants to get into? His running mate supports abstinence only sex-ed (is this McCain's position as well? Does he have a position) in defiance of all common sense and an example in her own family of the uselessness of such a curriculum.

Look, I've got nothing against abstinence as a concept, and certainly it should be included in a sex-ed curriculum, but the idea of it being the only inclusion is ridiculous. It's like trying to teach the alphabet by only discussing the vowels, it's woefully incomplete. If human history has taught us nothing else, it's taught us that people, especially hormonal teenagers, will have sex. Better to arm them with the knowledge of how to protect themselves from pregnancy and disease than leave them to fumble around in ignorance.

It's always baffled me that so many pro-life advocates are against effective sex-ed. If you can reduce unwanted pregnancies through education it won't matter whether it's legal or illegal.

Bah. It's really frustrating when peoples puritanical hang-ups get in the way of sound public policy.