MERE HEALING

My Story.

I was born in 1950 with several medical problems including neurological complications and a cleft lip and palate, which required immediate treatment and isolation from my mother – literally from the moment of birth.  My sudden and violent separation from her resulted in two emotional (read: psychological) conditions universally recognized and validated by Christian and secular psychotherapeutic professions: separation anxiety and defensive detachment.

Funny... in a sad sort of way.

By Steve Kelley.

Used with permission.

Thanks, Steve!

Who says YouTube doesn't have an agenda?

Banned by YouTube: "We Con the World"

Heh. Sad but true.

John Deering

Creators Syndicate

"I'm quitting Korn and I'm gonna raise my kid."

SF Department of Health: Gay HIV Remains Endemic

"When I see statistics still pointing toward an endemic, I am honestly relieved we are not in an epidemic anymore." – HIV Prevention Planning Council (HPPC) member Tom Kennedy

At last week’s monthly HPPC meeting, SF DPH officials presented estimated HIV stats and survey results related to serosorting practices – where men have sex only with men of the same status.

I’m tucked away in my small town in Indiana, so I’m unaware of the tone and timbre in which the following data was laid out by the DPH. Bay Area Reporter Matt Bajko was there, however, and has a pretty candid follow-up piece in today’s paper about the new info and the HPPC's reaction to the stats:

San Francisco health officials set for themselves a fairly high mark five years ago in their fight against HIV: reduce new infections among gay and bi men by 50 percent by 2008.

Based on the latest estimates for new HIV infection rates in San Francisco, the city failed to reach its goal. It did achieve a roughly 10 percent reduction in HIV rates and has downgraded classifying its HIV epidemic to now being endemic, meaning rates are remaining flat from year to year.

. . .

AIDS activist Michael Petrelis said the city would not achieve its 50 percent target until health officials directly address gay men and promote such safe sex strategies as serosorting – only having sex with a person of the same HIV status – and sero-adaptation, determining what sort of sexual behavior to engage in based on the HIV status of one's sexual partner.

"If they want that 50 percent reduction, they have to do more than hold weekday meetings downtown instead of the Castro," he said. "I would like the sexually active gay male community to receive positive (no pun intended) reinforcement for our smart, safe sex practices."

Here are three slides from the DPH’s presentation that I find to be the most significant:

The first shows that the number of new infections for all populations remain stable.

The second slide shows how many HIV-positive men have a sero-adaption strategy for not spreading HIV.

 

The final slide presents data on how many gays plan to use the strategy in their sex lives.

Extrapolate from this what you will and interpret them however you wish. I wish the numbers were better if the HPPC and DPH are thinking sero-adaptation will continue to lower the number of HIV cases in SF.

H/T: InstaPundit

Christmas 1915

Celtic Thunder singing Christmas 1915.

1915 on Christmas Day
On western front the guns all died away
And lying in the mud on bags of sand
We heard the German sing from no man's land
He had a tenor voice so pure and true
The words were strange but every note we knew
Soaring ore the living dead and dammed
The German sang of peace from no man's land

They left their trenches and we left ours
Beneath tin hats the smiles bloomed like wild flowers
With photos cigarettes and bottles of wine
We built a soldier's truce on the front line
Their singer was a lad of 21
We begged another song before the dawn
And sitting in the mud and blood and fear
He sang again the song all longed to hear

Silent night, no cannons roar
A king is born of peace for evermore
All's calm, all's bright
All brothers hand in hand
In 19 and 15 in no man's land

And in the morning all the guns boomed in the rain
And we killed them and they killed us again
At night they charged we fought them hand in hand
And I killed the boy that sang in no man's land

Silent night no cannons roar
A king is born of peace for evermore
All's calm, all's bright
All brothers hand in hand
And that young soldier sings
And the song of peace still rings
Though the captains and all the kings
Built no man's land

Sleeping in heavenly peace

1974 Detroit is back again... with a vengance!

It’s in the way you dress.

The way you boogie down.

The way you sign your unemployment check.

 

So why not drive the car that supports that image?

 

Now you can!

The 2012 Pelosi GTxi SS/RT Sport Edition

So advanced it took $100 billion and an entire Congress to design.

At your dealer in 2012.

 

Courtesy of iowahawk, of course.

40 inspirational speeches in 2 minutes.

Yes, I know the economy sucks air. Obama’s coming into office next month. The Democrats are on a roll. The banks are crumbling. Jobs are being destroyed by the thousands daily. Detroit is on its knees. And God forbid, it even looks as though Tennessee will go to the Super Bowl.

 

What will save us from this gloom and despair?

 

Well… watch this and see if it doesn’t provide a little pick-me-up.

 

H/T: Overthinking It

Irony is not dead.

It's only wounded.

To wit: This little item concerning the recently released University of Toronto (UT) study which determined that gay men who don't feel attractive are more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviors, which might explain -- wait for it -- why gay and bisexual men in Massachusetts continue to be hard hit by AIDS.

Massachusetts Department of Public Health released figures last Sunday revealing that the state has had less than stellar success battling AIDS among gay and bisexual men than it has in combating the disease among drug users and heterosexual men and women. In other words, the burden of HIV/AIDS remains squarely on the shoulders of gay/bisexual men and other men who have sex with men. Still. Just as it always has.

According to the report's math, although gay and bisexual men only make up less than 10 percent of the population in MA, they accounted for half of the new HIV infections between 2004 and 2006.

The UT study was among the first such study (they claim) to examine the link between sex and mental health. To my great surprise, it found that gay men who are physically less attractive are stigmatized, avoided and often rejected, which then can lead to depression, anxiety and alcohol abuse. [Editor's note: Jeez, I could have told them that 40 years ago.]

Adam Isaiah Green, assistant professor of sociology at UT, interviewed dozens (!!) of gay men in Toronto to find out 1) what qualities made some men more sexually desirable than others and 2) what the mental and physical health consequences of being undesirable might be.

Said Green in a statement to the fawning media, "I found that young, white, middle-class men are considered much more sexually desirable than men who are racial minorities, over 40 and poor. I also learned that for gay men, being considered sexually undesirable can have serious health consequences ranging from psychological issues to risky sexual behavior."

Okay, a show of hands please. How many of us are hearing that shocking bit of federally funded insight for the very first time? Uh-huh. That's what I thought.

Green found that undesirable gay men often fail to engage in a safe-sex discussion and, in some cases, fail to use a condom when having sex with a more attractive partner.

MDPH officials recommended supplying free condoms to gay and bisexual men, including those in high school, to combat HIV and AIDS. [emphasis added]