http://www.slate.com/id/2154249
On Monday, the federal office that oversees the nation’s family-planning program got a new boss who doesn’t believe in birth control. Eric Keroack is a Massachusetts obstetrician-gynecologist who argues that abstinence until marriage is the only healthy choice for women. Until recently, he served as medical director of a pregnancy-counseling organization that runs down contraception and gives out scientifically false health information%u2014for instance, that condoms “offer virtually no protection” against herpes or HPV. Keroack also promotes a wacky piece of pseudoscience: the claim that premarital sex disrupts brain chemistry so as to create a physiological barrier to happy marriage.
One of Bush’s biggest legacies will be the roster of people who were entirely wrong for the positions to which they were appointed. Everyone remember what went wrong with FEMA? And no doubt the suggestions for Surgeon General will be idiots who believe in “the humours”, or – better yet – Soybean Guy. It speaks volumes about an administration headed by the dunce who has trampled civil liberties, further endangered the environment, obliterated the wall between church and state, begun a needless and costly war, etc., etc., etc. 2008 can’t come fast enough, as far as I’m concerned.