From: eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK)
Newsgroups: alt.activism.d
Subject: Re: Pro-government media bias (was Re: Media bias)
Date: 22 Jul 92 22:23:51 GMT
Organization: Duke University; Durham, N.C.

jrm@gnv.ifas.ufl.edu writes:
:eyc@acpub.duke.edu (EMIL CHUCK) writes:
:> 	I have a bone against the statement by Clinton's campaign
:> manager who is HIV+. He said that he was angry that the Bush
:> administration won't even say the word "condom." This is my "proof" that
:> the aforerepeated message is a "broken-record" truth. (The problem I
:> have is that NO ONE -- barring Bill Bennett and Rush Limbaugh -- has the
:> courage to say "abstinence." Abstinence from sex, drugs, and (at least a
:> reduction of) those risks that make one susceptible to HIV exposure is
:> currently the best way of preventing one from getting AIDS.
:And not driving a car will reduce auto accidents, not swimming
:will reduce drowning deaths and not going to work will reduce
:the spread of nasty flu viruses. 
	Well, I thought if you didn't know how to swim, you'd be at
greater risk of drowning. Hmm.... I gotta think about that one. As of
not going to work or going to school, sometimes that happens anyway when
a major flu epidemic occurs. I remember in high school getting at least
three days off unscheduled because of the susceptibility of getting the
flu. (Three days off each year on average, that is.)

:Why does a SEXUAL act rate abstinence while lots of other
:acts which also promote death and disease do not ? Do I
:smell a BIAS here ? 
	You do smell a bias, but you don't get the point. Most
diseases have a relatively short incubation period before symptoms are
shown. It takes maybe 2-3 days from exposure of a flu virus to feeling
the full effects of infection. HIV is not like that at all. HIV has a
varying incubation period and on the time not of days but months or
years. People can remain asymptomatic of HIV exposure for as high as 5
to 10 YEARS. This is not an ordinary disease. There is yet no cure. Once
you are exposed and contract HIV, that's it; you are going to die.
Having a one-night stand or two can kill you. This disease/syndrome
attacks your immune system until it can no longer function. The reason
why people who recover from the measles seldom ever get it again is
because the immune system has adapted to circumvent future infection by
the measles virus; HIV destroys the immune system, and the only way a
patient recovers (at the moment) is when he/she is dead.
	Is any sexual orgy worth your life?	

:Face it, sex is too fun to not do. Better the risk of death
:then to give-up the best parts of living. I am going to
:have sex, teenagers are going to have sex - so do your
:danmdest to make it as survivable as possible. This means
:condoms in the short term and vaccines in the long term. 
	You want me to argue whether sex is fun? :)
	The line of thought you have typed is similar to the line of
thought that a friend of mine has. She is the ultimate hedonist, having
written down all the boys/men she has had sex with on a menu for the past ...
7+ years, trying every legal and illegal drug on the planet. Why?
Because she thinks that because life is short, she should be sure
she can enjoy and indulge in everything she can. I wish I could tell you
if she's alive or dead now, but I don't talk to her anymore.
	If all teenagers are going to experiment with drugs, why don't
we give away free needles? Why don't we legalize all the drugs in the
world? They'll do it anyway. They're young, they should enjoy life.
Sorry, I can't subscribe to this point of view. Drugs in high enough
concentrations can kill, and self-indulgence may wind up killing someone
innocent from the situation. I was told recently that one of my best
friends died this past semester in a car accident in which someone hit
his car and killed him. If you're going to risk your life to enjoy it by
doing drugs and having sex, that's your choice. But every action, no
matter how insignificant to you, affects you and other people. If your
condom broke, or if given the knowledge that hepatitis B is small enough
to pass through a condom, what would you do if you found out your
girlfriend or you (if female) were pregnant? In a recent study 15% of
women who used condoms for a whole year (new ones each time, you know)
got pregnant. Perfect numbers yield around 2-5% (no breaking or
misuse). If you had children, would you approve of your children not
telling you if they were sexually active, or if your daughter were
pregnant, or your son's girlfriend was pregnant and he was the father?
And if your child got HIV because of sex?

If you decide to be so irresponsible as to say I'm going to have sex
with every single member of the human race and a layer of latex will
protect me, it is your life to lose.

-- 
Emil Thomas Chuck		DUKE BLUE DEVILS: 1992 ACC CHAMPIONS!
Biomedical Engineer 1993	1992 EAST REGIONAL CHAMPIONS!!
Duke University, Durham, NC	AND 1992 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!
Xref: sparky alt.activism.d:2414 alt.rush-limbaugh:2931 talk.politics.misc:35105