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“Condoms: the New Diploma”

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“Condoms: the New Diploma”
“Condoms: The New Diploma”
In the after math of the AIDs scare of the late 80’s, school board officials sought to create a health class curriculum that would cover sex education. This was a hot topic in the 90’s and it brought about the questions of sex education and whether it is the schools responsibility or the parents to educate their children. In Rush Limbaugh’s “Condoms: The New Diploma”, from his 1992 book titled The Way Things Ought to Be, Limbaugh claims that condom distribution promotes sexual activities in teens. Though Limbaugh provides readers with compelling arguments, readers can easily refute him and discredit his evidence.
In Limbaugh’s exert, he attempts to refute the opposition argument that young people will inevitably have sex and need condoms. Limbaugh then provides readers with a rhetorical example with a boy who tries to sleep with a girl using a condom he got from the school. This is intended to demonstrate his belief that schools distribution of condoms will promote teenagers to have sex. He then provides his definition of gender sex roles. He explains that men are aggressors, while females are defenseless and need protection. Limbaugh then makes the claim that sex has negative consequences, using Magic Johnson to support his claim. He also goes on to say that the fact that risky sex can lead to AIDs or other harmful diseases; it is these consequences that need to be taught to teens. Limbaugh continues his argument by claiming that people who oppose teaching abstinence are dishonest. As examples he uses two cases one from NYC and Jacksonville, Fl. Limbaugh goes on to express that there is a culture war and those who oppose him are dishonest and selfish in their pursuits of the culture war. He then starts the beginning of his closing statements by claiming condoms are not effective. He attempts to show his opposition as being ridiculous as his opposer’s response to correlation between changing sex ed. and teen pregnancy.
Readers will

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