Stretching!

For years I have been saying that there exists no studies to support static stretching, and in fact there have been numerous studies that have demonstrated negative benefits. To date, this is still true. I have found no consistent literature to demonstrate positive benefits of static stretching. I still welcome any and all input on this subject, as long as we are talking about quality research and not anecdotal information. To that end - I have found a study that, at first glance, would appear to show a positive benefit to static stretching.
In the October 2007 issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (an ACSM peer-reviewed journal) Kokkonen et al. found that 19 people who participated in a 40min 3 day/wk bout of static stretching of the lower extremeties had significant increase in performance of various exercise activities, WHEN COMPARED TO A CONTROL GROUP OF 19 PEOPLE "WHO DID NOT PARTICIPATE IN ANY KIND OF REGULAR EXERCISE ROUTINE" (Kokonnen et al., 2007).
So, static stretching is indeed better than laying around like a slug. Does the ridiculous-ness of this need to be expanded upon?!?!
That is akin to saying that playing chess as a form of exercise is better than laying around like a slug. Essentially comparing apples and oranges. Some complicating factors that jumped out at me where the psychological and neuro-muscular aspects. The attention paid to the static stretching group must contribute a great deal of psychological enhancement. Simply through the process of some sort of activity. In other words, we know that ANY activity is better than none. Even the worst activity there is, will have a positive effect when compared to NO activity. Beyond that, the neuro-muscular effect of activating muscles and tendon receptors will undoubtedly have some sort of positive effect when compared to a group with no activation of these same receptors.
The more important question is not static stretching vs. inactivity, but rather static stretching vs. different forms of activity (which has been studied previously) as well as static stretching and it's relationship to health, fitness, and injury rate in active people.
So, I would further (and still) support that a walking program, for example, is always better than a static stretching program for inactive people. Functional relevance aside, the walking program would be a more productive program in relation to real-life activities and social integration.

1. KOKKONEN, J., A. G. NELSON, C. ELDREDGE, and J. B. WINCHESTER. Chronic Static Stretching Improves Exercise
Performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 39, No. 10, pp. 1825–1831, 2007.