Wow them around the punch bowl with a little talk of Iran, teenage pregnancy rates and the Boy Scouts. All month we’ll be lobbing conversation zingers your way to get you through any holiday party.

 

They do, they don’t… they could? A breakdown of the he said, she said Iran debacle

For the last two years, and lately with intensity, we’ve been hearing about Iran’s uranium enrichment program, a sign that this Iraqi neighbor is building nuclear weapons. No, said Iran, this program is meant for civilian power purposes.

 

Even so, we’ve heard calls for tougher sanctions   on Iran by the entire international community, and veiled threats of war by some politicians. All this based largely on a 2005 report—the National Intelligence Estimate—which claimed Iran was advancing its nuclear weapons program.

 

But now, new intelligence from an updated version of the SAME report says Iran halted its program back in 2003. President Bush says wait—the report shows they could do it again. So his team is still fighting for sanctions. What’s to blame? They say this time around, they had better sourcing.

 

More teenagers got pregnant last year

Last year the teenage birth rate in the United States rose 3%, the first rise since 1991. A new report from the Centers for Disease Control estimates there were 4.2 million births by teens age 15 and 19 years old. The reason why, exactly, sparked a lively debate about the merits of abstinence programs, which have received about $1 billion in funding over the last 10 years. Opponents of the programs want more focus on contraception, while some say complacency after years of a declining birth rate may have led to the increase.

 

Boy Scouts lose a home in Philadelphia

The city of Philadelphia ousted the Boy Scouts from one of its government buildings for not accepting gays in its charter. The Boy Scouts had resided in the building since 1928, largely at the expense of the government and the taxpayer. But the city had been after the group to change its discriminatory policies or lose its lease. A spokesperson for the Boy Scouts told the New York Times, “open homosexuality would be inconsistent with the values that we want to communicate with our leaders.” The cost to rent? About $200,000 a year.

 

Now go forth and be merry…and be smart!