From: mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fred j mccall 575-3539)
Subject: Re: AIDS and those damn democrats
Organization: Texas Instruments, Inc
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 14:42:14 GMT

In article <1992Jul30.233819.18277@wdl.loral.com> bard@cutter.ssd.loral.com writes:
>Apologies to those overly sensitive denizens of talk.bizarre who are
>too lazy to put /*AIDS/:j in their killfiles, but still get miffed
>when folks argue politics in the wrong group.
>
>But I REFUSE to subscribe to a.p.bush or a.p.clinton just to flame Mr.
>Fusco here into next week.
>
>So. Killfile me now.

So, why flame him at all, then?

>
>-----
>
>In article <1992Jul30.171235.20252@ucsu.Colorado.EDU>, fusco@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Andrew Fusco) writes:
># bard@cutter.ssd.loral.com (James Woodyatt) writes:
># 
># >In article <1992Jul29.165111.11674@ucsu.Colorado.EDU>, fusco@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Andrew Fusco) writes:
># ># If AIDS can be compared to the bubonic plague, as you suggest, then perhaps
># ># we should quarantine all AIDS sufferers. With the rising numbers of AIDS
># ># patients suffering from an incurable strain of TB, which could be quite
># ># contagious, maybe this is the way to go.
># 
># >Congratulations, you FUCKHEAD! You just pressed *my* favorite joy
># >button!
># 
># My, my. I suppose certain ideas just can't even be discussed! I don't know
># about the success rates of other quarantines, but I'm sure we can agree that
># a successful quarantine of AIDS sufferers would certainly slow down the
># spread of the disease tremendously.
>
>Are you going to start whinging about ``political correctness'' now?
>You're a moron. A buffoon. If you had even two neurons to rub
>together, you'd immediately commit seppuku in shame and horror for the
>idiotic things you've posted on a world-wide network.

While I think the idea of a quarantine for people with AIDS is pretty
stupid, I also have to say that the idea of flaming anyone who even
mentions discussing it isn't a whole lot brighter.  Don't you think it
would be just a BIT more constructive to mention a few facts instead
of simply flaming from the lip?

You don't convince people that an idea is stupid by acting stupid
(unless you're dealing with some REAL bozos); you convince them an
idea is stupid by showing them where it's stupid.  For example:

The idea that somehow quarantining people with AIDS would slow or halt
the spread of the disease assumes a number of things that we know
simply aren't true in general:

1) That people who know or are known to have AIDS are still highly
active sexually, so that they continue to spread the disease.  This is
generally untrue.

2) That we know who is capable of spreading the disease.  We could
spend the whole national budget on testing everyone and we STILL
wouldn't know everyone who had the potential for spreading the
disease.  How do you quarantine them if you can't identify them until
it's too late?

3) The apparent belief that AIDS can be somehow spread by simply
'being around' people who are infected.  This is known to be false.
AIDS is not a contagious disease in that regard, so quarantine simply
doesn't accomplish anything useful.  I can even speak from personal
experience, since I've had Thanksgiving dinner for a number of years
now with a gay friend of the family who has AIDS.  Since the military
tests me every year, I would know if I had somehow gotten it via
'contact' from sharing a meal with him.  It simply doesn't work like
that.

Conclusion:  Given those three simple facts, disregarding all the
others that could probably be raised, it is quite obvious that a
quarantine would be totally ineffective, as well as being incredibly
expensive.  [And you *really* have to flame, you do it at this point]
Therefore, the idea that an attempt to quarantine AIDS sufferers would
do anything other than spend large amounts of money for no good reason
is so incredibly stupid that only a bozo with his head so far up his
ass that he can see his tonsils would even suggest it.

There, now you see how much better that is?  People who perhaps might
not know any better actually get some information on why the idea is
stupid, and people who are too stupid to absorb the information get
scorched.  Your way, people who might be reasonable human beings but
not know any better get alienated from your viewpoint because you act
like an ass with content-free remarks.

Now, wasn't that fun?


-- 
"Insisting on perfect safety is for people who don't have the balls to live
 in the real world."   -- Mary Shafer, NASA Ames Dryden
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Fred.McCall@dseg.ti.com - I don't speak for others and they don't speak for me.
Newsgroups: talk.bizarre,alt.smouldering.dog.zone