Free In Idaho!

Back in the old corporate days, I remember a few “sensitivity training” and “sexual harassment” training sessions.  None like THIS one though. 

Hat tip Random Nuclear Strikes

Government run amuck?  The Democrats want government “out of our bedrooms”, but I wonder how many of them would get behind this great idea from Russia?

..In his state of the nation address last year, President Vladimir Putin called the demographic crisis the most acute problem facing Russia and announced a broad effort to boost Russia’s birthrate, including cash incentives to families to have more than one child.

So far, not so bad.  After all, Russia has a declining population

..Russia, with one-seventh of the Earth’s land surface, has just 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely settled countries in the world. With a low birthrate and very high death rate, the population has been shrinking since the early 1990s.

It is falling by almost half a percent each year. Demographic analysts expect the decline to accelerate and estimate that Russia’s population could fall below 100 million by 2050.

So, the answer?  How about “National Hump Day”?  One region in Russia has jumped on the idea,

..a novel way to fight the nation’s birthrate crisis: It has declared Sept. 12 the Day of Conception and for the third year running is giving couples time off from work to procreate.

..Ulyanovsk, a region on the Volga River about 550 miles east of Moscow, has held similar contests since 2005. Since then, the number of competitors, and the number of babies born to them, has been on the rise.

OK then, take a day off from work to make a baby.  Raise the flag outside your house, then grab the little woman and head back to bed.  It’s your patriotic duty.  You’d expect an idea like this to come from France.  So, how’s it working?  Well, after three years, we’ve gotta be honest, they have a long way to go.  141 million minus 1/2% a year means we’ve got 700,000 babies to make.

..When he held the first competition in 2005, a total of 311 women signed up to take part — and qualify for a half-day off from work. In June 2006, a total of 46 more babies were born in Ulyanovsk’s 25 hospitals than in June of the previous year, including 28 born on June 12, officials in the governor’s office said.

More than 500 women signed up for the second contest on Sept. 12, 2006. Exactly nine months later, 78 babies, triple the region’s daily average, were born. They were welcomed into the world as Russia’s national anthem was played, the officials said.

Maybe all those !@#* viagra spammers oughta redirect their efforts, ya think?  Actually, this is a Western lib’s worst nightmare, combining patriotism, live babies, and population increase into one evil package.  And the grand prize?  Glad you asked

..The 2007 grand prize went to Irina and Andrei Kartuzov, who received a UAZ-Patriot, a sport utility vehicle made in Ulyanovsk.

You can’t make this stuff up!