MUST READ! Foreign Grad Students and the Silver Ring Thing (HHS supported)

[underpants]

In accordance with the Bush administration's American Families Protection
Act (AFPA) of 2002, all registered foreign graduate students are required
to attend a one time mandatory seminar sponsored by the
United States Department of Health and Human Services. The AFPA aims to
promote American family values, curb out of wedlock pregnancies and foster
awareness of reproductive health issues.

Graduate students will be assigned to one of three simultaneous sessions
provisionally scheduled for Friday, February 27, 2004. In preparation for
these seminars, all students are required to draft a brief statement
outlining their personal insights concerning the importance of abstinence,
and discussing their experiences in dealing with the challenge of
maintaining pre-marital chastity.

The student statements will be collected and compiled into a small souvenir
booklet, which will be made generally available at minimal cost. To
encourage active student involvement, the Department of Health and Human
Services is offering three free passes for the Silver Ring Thing event in
NYC in April to the authors of the most inspired contributions (see
http://www.silverringthing.com/).

Please be informed that failure to comply with any of the aforementioned
requirements will be registered in your INS immigration record.

Further detailed announcements will follow within a few weeks.

http://www.silverringthing.com/index.html

What is the Silver Ring Thing?
Real life questions and answers about sex. Silver Ring Thing uses sketch comedy and music videos to make the abstinence point. Don't worry. We'll help you get our point! Our program features high-tech club-style lighting, videos and, of course, a sweet sound system. YOU'VE GOT TO BE HERE!


The 8 stages to the Silver Ring Thing
http://www.silverringthing.com/stages.html

[hlthe2b]

Is this a joke?

[underpants]

9. No $700K grant from the Federal govt.

My wife sent me this see the source below. Sorry it took so long to reply, AOhelL.

[MisterP]

13. the $700K was February, they got $400K in December

--edit out misplaced phrase--

[underpants]

15. So it's $1.1 Million total?

Yikes.

[DBoon]

1. Graduate students? I feel sick...

What a way to leave an impression on the future leaders of the world.

[displacedtexan]

2. The religious police?

I turned down a job in Kuwait (the university) because I would be tempted to smoke and drink while wearing a sleeveless shirt in public.
The religious police beat you for that.

[bobbieinok]

3. 'required' - 'mandatory' ???????THIS IS INSANE

...

[Elidor]

4. The stupidity meter is off the scale

I'm just speechless. It's as though they dug up Cotton Mather and put him in charge of the government. What a bunch of FUCKHEADS.

[Sparky McGruff]

5. What university is this?

What univerisity is this letter from? I've been obligated to attend dozens and dozens of meetings -- safety, ethics, etc. But this is bizzare.

If this is truly a HHS event-- why does the web site for the organization talk about "youth ministry"?

[underpants]

10. Law student at major university his school sent him this

My wife made me swear not to give away too much but yes this is for real.

[DrWeird]

6. Really. Family values.

The newborn son of a foreign graduate student in my lab is has been forced to "return" to China because his visa was not approved.

There's your compassionate conservatism for you.

[foreigncorrespondent]

7. Oh that's nice

I sure want Australian kids to learn homophobic values when these people teach American family values, Bush* style. </sarcasm>

[bobbieinok]

8. they HAVE to write their ideas and experiences

This is what really gets me.

Does this include students from Europe? the Bahamas?

Will students wanting to study here be told of this DEMAND before they commit time and money?

What happens to grad schools around the country who suddenly don't have any foreign applicants? Some science and engineering grad schools might have to close.


"In preparation for these seminars, all students are required to draft a brief statement outlining their personal insights concerning the importance of abstinence, and discussing their experiences in dealing with the challenge of maintaining pre-marital chastity."


MIND CONTROL When will citizens be required to do this to get driver's license or...?

[underpants]

17. Anybody see anything interesting in this banner?(top of the homepage)

[Sparky McGruff]

18. Besides the eerie glow?

1. the two on the left holding bibles?

2. The third from the left (with the insincere smile) has her ring on a different finger than the others?

3. The two on the left (the black kids) are smaller (zoomed out) and separated from the rest, whose heads almost all touch each other.

Did I win a cookie?

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

21. What is some student writes...

"No, I don't think abstinence is important, and I don't plan to maintain pre-marital chastity. I am smart enough to know I have to use contraceptives and condom to keep away unwanted pregnancies and STDs. This program is seriously misguided."

[depakid]

11. You've got to be kidding me-

If there was ever an excessive government entanglement with religion, this would have to be it, but I guess that foreign students wouldn't have standing to challenge it. Where's the ACLU on this? I know they sued Louisiana over a religious abstenence program-

[MisterP]

12. what's this release from?

ah, I see your post now

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

14. BBC documentary on the "Silver Ring Thing"

aired on Sunday. Was pretty frightening from a UK perspective, though y'all probably are more familiar with this than we are.

The web site has a couple of stories:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_world/3412783.stm

& a transcript:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/programmes/correspondent/transcripts/american_virgins_250104.txt

but sadly no video, so you can't see the bizarre sequence where the founder gets perverse pleasure from hitting geese with golf balls.

[underpants]

16. The Pittsburgh references reak of Scaife-frightening anyway

The transcript you provided is rife with FEAR and PUNISHMENT for not doing as you have been told.

Thanks for the link.

[T Bone]

19. Should make an interesting creative writing assignment

I mean really, don't you think most of these grad students will just fake it and do a little creative writing ? The get-togethers would be a good place to meet people who think it is lot of bullshit. Write the story, buy the compilation, stand up make a speech and then go somewhere and fuck their brains out, laughing all the time.

[underpants]

20. "like rabbits"

My wife tells me that the student in question is going to include that in his "essay".

:bounce:

[Habibi]

22. Sorry, I'm missing something here--

Do you have a reference to the "American Families Protection Act"? Don't see anything after a cursory glance-n-search of the HHS website, and google only turns up a few references to in fundy forums.

[sallydallas124]

24. So creepy

Dr Meg Meeker
So when I grew up in the nineteen seventies, as part of
the, with my colleagues starting the sexual revolution we
didn’t think about sexual health. We, our generation,
were focused on making sure that sexual freedom could
be had by all. Nineteen sixty we had two sexually
transmitted diseases, syphilis and gonorrhoea. Now, at
the turn of the century, there were thirty and counting.
But here’s the biggest problem; they are concentrated on
our youth. Eight thousand kids every day in the United
States get a new sexually transmitted disease.

10.01.54
Voice on radio
But do you know what’s scary? This is an example of
what would happen if terrorists tried to spread a really
virulent and deadly disease.

-comparing STDs to terrorism? What the hell?

And this is an especially unsettling part:

Denny Pattyn
We’re very concerned about the world in general, I’m
concerned about terrorism and how there is no real easy
way to fight that. And that all plays into my faith because
I believe that the end of the world is approaching very
quickly and I believe Christ will come back.

10.31.33
Denny Pattyn
I think about that, I think about the fact that I might be
living in the last days, I’m not freaked out, I’m not, you
know, shutting down things to about that but I actually
believe that we are approaching the return of Christ which
is a, a huge event.

10.31.51
Interviewer
If the end of the world is so close, is abstinence where
you should be putting your energy?

10.31.57
Denny Pattyn
We’re not really putting our energy into abstinence as
much as we’re putting it into faith. Abstinence is the tool
that we’re using to reach children.

10.32.08
Deny Pattyn
My children; I’m not sure they’re going to get a chance to
do some of the things in their future but I also intend to be
prepared spiritually should they die tonight, would they be
heading to heaven, would they know what it takes to face
God one day and he asks them why should I let you into
my kingdom, they have to have the right answer to that.

-there you have it: "abstinence is the tool that we're using to reach children."

[nostamj]

23. aren't "GRADUATE" students usually in their 20s?

and, ya know, considered to be adults?

celibacy is a new requirement for *foreign* students?

the sex police will not be far behind. M/F only, once every 9-10 months, strictly missionary position.

the bushies are utterly insane. (but that's hardly a newsflash)