Saddam Hussein has been executed. The former Iraqi dictator, whose reign of terror reportedly resulted in the deaths of over 1,000,000 people, was hanged at approximately 10:00 PM EST on December 29th.

This is an important day in world history. Although the brutal tyrant was tried and executed by the Iraqi legal system, it was the United States that made it possible for Saddam to be brought to justice. Saddam's decades-long reign ended in April 2003, after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. U.S. soldiers captured Saddam in December of that year. Saddam was held in U.S. custody until shortly before his execution, when he was turned over to Iraqi authorities.

Saddam's death will hopefully give some relief to the surviving victims of his regime. Unfortunately, the results of Saddam's reign are far from undone in Iraq. His regime instilled an entitlement attitude in the Sunni Arabs whom he favored, and fostered hostility among the Shiites and Kurds whom he terrorized. These bitter divisions gave rise to insurgent groups who have been wreaking merciless havoc on the country that ought to be celebrating their liberation from Saddam's tyrannical dictatorship. Instead, the violence and hatred Saddam inflicted on Iraq continue to have deadly consequences, for the Iraqi people as well as for the U.S.-led coalition forces who continue to fight for freedom and stability in the troubled country.

Saddam is now being judged by the Almighty. Here on Earth, people must heed the lessons the world has learned from Saddam's reign of terror, and work to repair the damage he has done to Iraq and the rest of the world.

New study claims Americans weren't more chaste in the past. The study alleges that more than nine out of ten Americans have had premarital sex, even in past generations. Here is the AP article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16287113/

The article's title says "Even grandma had premarital sex". Excuse me? Whose grandma are they referring to? In the first paragraph, they clarify this statement by saying that "high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past." Well, my grandmother was born long before the 1940s. And so were many other people who have lived "in the past". People who were born in the '40's are generally considered to be part of the baby-boom generation. And, of course, the baby-boomers were responsible for the sexual revolution of the '60's and '70's, right? So, the conclusion of this study is that baby-boomers were no more chaste than Generation X and Y? Even if I believed the results of this study, I wouldn't consider that to be shocking.

Of course, I don't believe the results of this study. Lawrence Finer, the study's author, is a research director at a liberal think tank called the Guttmacher Institute, which opposes education programs that promote abstinence. Any "study" conducted by this organization will be designed to produce results which can be used to advance their agenda. An earlier study by Guttmacher concluded that success of abstinence in cutting teen pregnancies is a myth. How can that be? How can teenagers who abstain from sex get pregnant? Are they being artificially inseminated? It makes no sense. That's how much credibility Guttmacher has in my book.

In truth, there was a time when Americans were more chaste. There have always been fornicators, of course. But up until the 1950's, before baby-boomers came of age, sexual mores were vastly different than they are today. Sex outside of marriage was frowned upon in mainstream American society. In those pre-Great Society, pre-Roe v. Wade times, there wasn't nearly as much illegitimacy, as much spreading of venereal diseases, or as many abortions as there are today.

As most of us are aware, the '60's counterculture rebelled against old-fashioned sexual morality, and the consequences have been devastating to American society. We now live in an age in which young people are constantly bombarded with sexual imagery. Today's media insinuates that there is something abnormal about not engaging in premarital sex.

Even with the times being the way they are, I do not believe that more than 90% of the population fornicates. There are more virtuous people in our society than the media or public schools would have you believe. Liberals feel a need to portray everyone as being no more morally upright than they are, which is why this particular article tries to put the thought in your head that your grandparents were fornicators. This is also the reason that liberals defended Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal; they liked the idea of having a President who shared their immorality.

And the reason that liberals are so opposed to abstinence-only education is because they do not want illegitimacy rates to fall. Why? The more children are born out of wedlock, the more people will be dependent on the government. Liberals rely on government dependency to keep them in power.

My advice to young unmarried people is to avoid sex outside of marriage. It will make your life much easier, regardless of what your peers, your teachers, and the media may be telling you to the contrary.