The United States Of Abstinence
December, 2010
HOW SAYING NO BECAME A DISTINCTLY AMERICAN PRACTICEn no place other than America has the idea of abstinence—whether from food, drink, drugs or sex— taken root so deeply. Your federal tax dollars are currently being used to tell kids to put off sex until they enter into a "biblical marriage relationship." The 1980s gave us Nancy Reagan and her antidrug mantra "Just say no." A century earlier, Anthony Comstock crusaded to outlaw smut, penny dreadfuls and contraceptives, while...
