Wednesday's episode

I missed this week's episode and can't wait for the rerun this weekend. What was it about? Someone mentioned AIDS and how it was the most offensive episode ever.

"Diablo" wrote in message news:E4gi8.176$[email]...

The Scott Tenorman ep was probably a lot more offensive.

"Diablo" wrote in message news:E4gi8.176$[email]...

It wasn't the most offensive episode ever, but some people took issue with Trey and Matt poking fun at AIDS, since it's such a serious disease.

Don't ever say you can't wait, 'cause we'll MAKE you wait. :D

"Stan" wrote in message news:[email]...

...no it hasn't. It's been less than 21 years. First case was announced in June 1981.

"Willie Westwood" wrote in message ...

I'll have to do some research. I do believe that AIDS cases started appearing before that, they just weren't recognized as a unique new disease. In retrospect it turns out that Africans were dropping dead of AIDS throughout the 1970s, but no one ever recognized the diverse opportunistic infections as symptoms of a new disease.

The media never reports this, but almost every single case of AIDS in North America can be traced back to a single gay male flight attendant named Gaetan Dugas, of French-Canadian descent. When doctors finally identified him as Patient Zero, he had had sex with THOUSANDS of men across the country. That is why AIDS cases started appearing simultaneously on the East and West coasts. Gay activists assumed the simultaneous appearance was the result of a government conspiracy, that the CIA had unleashed the virus to wipe out gay people. By the way, Gaetan Dugas acted like an asshole after the doctors informed him of his condition. He said, "It's YOUR problem, you find a cure!" Then he proceeded to engage in the same unsafe sex practices with thousands more gay males across the continent. Once, after ugly purple AIDS blotches decorated his neck and body, he had sex with a man then told him that he had the "gay cancer" and that he had just infected him! The story is extremely embarrasing for the gay activists, therefore the media refuses to report this vital piece of history.

Goddam, we had one of those here at CSU Fullerton. Guy named Gourdine. Worked in the Library's Media Services. He'd spit at people, throw a bloody tooth at someone after pulling it out, engaged in homo sex in his (infamous) stuffed chair (the "sex chair" -- which had all kinds of *stains* on it), did everything to infect as many people as he could, started showing up to work undressd or naked as his dementia got worse -- and the gay boys in the Administration not only covered up for him, they went after anyone who complained! It ended up being a huge court action. (It was almost like he was going to revenge himself on the world and take as many with him as he could.)

Hoo boy, this court paper is pretty gross reading! If anyone wants the gory details, I'll copy some of it out for ya all!

The Dugas case was covered extensively in Randy Shilts' bestselling book AND THE BAND PLAYED ON -- doesn't that count as "media"?

PZB

"Poppy Z. Brite" wrote in message

AND

Plus in the HBO movie based on that book.

-Jay

Perhaps the reason you don't see it in the media these days is because it's stale news, very stale.

"Liam Devlin" wrote in message ...

Was it stale 20 years ago? All I remember growing up in the '80s is the activists blaming Ronald Reagan and the CIA for the epidemic. Not once did anyone blame promiscuous homosexuals for spread of the disease. I guess it's not fair to blame homosexuals who got it in the beginning, but my brother caught it ~1991, a full 10 years afterwards! 10 years of non-stop propaganda warning people how it was spread and urging them to take precautions. He was over 21 and fully responsible for his actions. All I remember is the steady stream of one-night-stands he dragged home from the gay bar I guess he just picked up the wrong piece of trash one night.

Anyway, my point about Gaetan Dugas is that while he was THE Patient Zero, there are millions more just like him today. It takes several years from the time of infection to the time when the first symptoms appear. Even assuming that they cared, in that time they could infect literally THOUSANDS of others. And I've seen no evidence that they change their sexual activity even after testing HIV+. Already there are drug-resistant strains being discovered in new infections. The ONLY way this could happen is that HIV+ people who KNOW they have it (because they're taking the AIDS medications) are out there giving it to others!!!

Sorry about the rant, I get very emotional about this subject as you can well imagine.

Certainly not. I've believed from the start that AIDS was a very political issue, Reagan didn't even mention it for years and it was very difficult to get funding to study it. IIRC, with 2,500 young gay men dead the federal government persisted in doing nothing about it. Contrast this to how the federal government reacted when a few people who attended American Legion banquet died from a mysterious disease, which came to be known as Legionnaire's Disease.

That's simply not true, we had condom ads shoved down our throats starting in the early 80's, with advice to avoid anal & oral sex (remember "avoid exchanging bodily fluids?).

I'm sorry to hear about your brother. I knew a couple of guys who died from AIDS back in the 80's, it must have been hell to see your own brother behaving recklessly and dying from it. AIDS is one of nature's ways to instruct us not to be so promiscuous. Have you read Laurie Garrett's book, "The Coming Plague"? It has a lot of info about how viruses are "amplified" and something like AIDS gets spread the way it has. For most people, i.e., gay men & IV drug users, their normal behavior was an invitation for such diseases. It was never very healthy to be the bottom man, who frequently ran multiple infections before we'd ever heard of AIDS.

There are many variables regarding who gets sick, who dies, who only gets the sniffles, as well as how soon symptoms appear & how quickly the disease affects the patient.

I'm always skeptical about conclusions that some way is the "only way" something could occur. I agree that some people with AIDS, or other STD's for that matter, deliberately infecting others. I lived in Greenwich Village from 1981-95, where the Gay Men's Health Crisis was formed (I believe), and there was a notable reduction in unsafe sex for the next several years. That began to change after several years after the drug therapy had improved & people with AIDS were not all dying. Younger men had become sexually active with their raging hormones and they hadn't experienced what AIDS had done to the gay community.

Not a problem, we all have our hot buttons. This is certainly understandable in your case.

LiamD

"Liam Devlin" wrote in message ...

Reagan took office in January 1981, he gave the AIDS speech in October 1981. Are you suggesting that the CDC deliberately ignored AIDS? Perhaps there was inequity concerning Legionnaire's Disease, but that was a classic example of thorough research by the CDC, they quickly found the cause of it. AIDS was very different. All they had to go on was a collection of diverse ailments, the only connection being homosexual sex. CDC quickly identified it as a new disease, but it still took 2 years to identify the virus.

Yes. The CDC was already studying hepatitis among homosexual men. Politically correct or not, anal sex is NOT natural and is a perfect mechanism for transmitting all sorts of bacteria and virii. Of course there is a heterosexual AIDS epidemic in Africa. HIV is such a horrible virus! I almost think that it is intelligent somehow.

The federal government did nothing about AIDS except ignore it for years.

Not surprising, considering their leftist bias and the way they practically made a saint of Matthew Sheppard while ignoring the case of the kid in Arkansas who was killed by a gay couple.

On Sun, 10 Mar 2002 07:10:53 GMT, "Willie Westwood" wrote:

No, I think the 22.3 years is correct. I remember an Esquire article from 1980 that referred to AID (Acquired Immune Deficiency). I came across the article doing research on an unrelated topic. Of course nothing freaked me out like the tissue samples examined in St. Louis in 1989 from a drug abusing gay prositute who died in 1969 to full blown AIDS. Even after 22.3 years, and even after all the advances, it's still a scary disease. (BTW, Magic Johnson has tested HIV negative for several years according to friends in the medical profession, so it's not 100% uncurable.)

Jeremiah

Jeremiah Kristal wrote in news:[email]:

Where does the 22.3 figure come from? Is that really a figure some study came up with, or did they just count back from the first mention of AIDS and use that number because they felt like doing a show about AIDS?

"Sagittaria" wrote in message

You mean a study on how long it takes for something tragic to become funny? No, no study like that has been made, and if it did, I doubt it'd come up with sucha concrete answer. The correct answer is that they wanted AIDS to be funny, so they invented the time-limit rule.

-Jay

"Jeremiah Kristal" wrote in message...

That's news to me! Last I heard, Magic Johnson was taking the same multi-drug cocktails as everyone else. What you probably read is that his viral load was too low to detect. My brother also went into this phase for awhile. Rather, viral load is undetectable using the most common tests. But I believe it can still be detected using the most sensitive PCR test for viral DNA.

All research suggests that it will always be impossible to fully rid the body of the HIV virus. The immune system contains "memory cells" whose job it is to store a copy of a pathogen's genetic sequence so it can be recognized in future infections. HIV manages to splice its DNA code into the memory cell's, forming what is known as a "provirus." The actual virus does not really exist, but all the instructions for creating it do exist. At any time in the future the provirus can be "expressed" and brand new HIV virii will be produced. There is no known way to defeat these provirus-infected memory cells.

Oddly, I've noticed this group has been pretty quiet on Wednesday's episode. Very little traffic, very little discussion beyond the Kenny/Butters transition. Odd.. where did everybody go?

Rob

"Diablo" wrote in message news:E4gi8.176$[email]...

"Stan" wrote in message ...

I just saw and recorded it. I thought it was hilarious, even though my brother has AIDS. It was so funny when the guy said he wanted to give everyone AIDES and shocked everyone.

"Diablo" wrote in message news:...

I agree - it was funny - but they didn't really make fun of AIDS as a disease. They just made fun of the word "AIDS". besides the weight loss issue not much else resembling AIDS was really touched upon...

well... they were going to give AIDS to inner city children, and minorities...

The last thing Cartman says at the very end while watching the drama at Butters' house put it all together, tying the japanese girls eating puke comment into a complete structure of perversion.