Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Sex, Drinking, and Common Sense.

Jim Geraghty reports on this Huffington Post where they just can't believe Huckabee compares "safe sex" to domestic violence:

Huckabee:

"If we really are serious about stopping a problem, whether it's drunk drinking...we don't say "Don't drive 'as drunk'?" ...This is an illogical thing that we apply to that one area that we don't apply to any other area. And I'm open-minded to all the arguments, if someone can convince me a little reckless behavior is OK. Maybe that's the message. But it would seem to me that if we're consistent in saying reckless behavior is undesirable we should ask people to move their behavior to the standard and not move the standard to the behavior...We don't say that a little domestic violence is OK, just cut it down a little, just don't hit quite as hard. We say it's wrong."

There is absolutely nothing wrong with what he is saying and everything right about it. Look, promiscuous sex leads to AIDS, HIV and about 50 other sexually transmitted diseases. To pretend that using condoms prevents these things is foolish at best. Nothing is 100%. Even against pregnancy. So, when you look at consequences of a behavior, like domestic violence or drunk driving OR spreading STD's, we all agree these are wrong and should be stopped as much as we are able to do so. We should encourage actions that prevent these consequences, right? Huckabee is right on the money.

Most people like to drink, right? But if you drink and drive you put others at risk. Grave risk. These are behaviors that we draw the line at. We say "NO" to drinking and driving. Why can't we do the same to promiscuous sex? Both are personal decisions one makes and both put others at risk. Grave risk. Yet we make laws against drunk driving, while we throw condoms at promiscuous sex. It's like throwing coffee at drunk drivers or a Yanni CD at a wife abuser.

MADD did a tremendous job at making the public aware of the dangers of drunk driving. When I was young, everyone drove while drinking. No one thought twice about it. We need a MADD organization against promiscuous sex. We need to teach our children how dangerous this is.

In practical terms, we cannot impose laws on unsafe sexual activity, but we can sure as heck not promote it with condoms, which encourage this behavior instead of stopping it. The behavior is WRONG. That is the message we need to be sending.