The Broken Chair

Q: “You know what?    A: “What?”

Q: “The world is getting nuts.”  A: “Yeah … And you know what else?’

Q: “What?”  A: “ We be the nuts they getting!”

“B.C.” by Johnny Hart, May 26, 2001

Seven Years Later—The law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head!

H.I. V. and Aids Diagnoses Rise in Men Who Have Sex With Men

Diagnoses of H.I.V. and AIDS in men who have sex with men rose significantly from 2001 to 2006, while declining in other demographic groups, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. The increase in infection rates was especially high among males 13 to 24 with an annual increase of 12.4 percent, compared with 1.5 percent for men overall. The annual increase was higher still among young African-American men who have sex with men, nearly 15 percent. “It’s a grim report,” said Dr. Ronald Stall, an epidemiologist and professor of health at the University of Pittsburgh . “it means roughly speaking that about half of the American AIDS epidemic is occurring among a few percent of the adult population. And the terrible trends we’re seeing among white gay men are even amplified further among minority men.”

            By David Fuller, buried on page 14 of the New York Times, June 27, 2008

IT”S AN EPIDEMIC! BUT IT FEELS SO GOOD!

Q:  So? What do the “Nuts” of modern American media, politics and education say about the AIDS  epidemic?

A: “… in a taped interview Sunday morning on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger called a ballot measure set to go before the state’s voters in November to again ban gay marriage “a waste of time.”

The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2008; page A3

“ Celebrating Gay Pride And Its Albany Friend… The drag queen … introduced [ New York City ] Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn … she bellowed, “Let’s hear it for the governor of New York , David Patterson!”

Few governors have made advancing gay rights as central to their policy making as Mr. Patterson ... “

 The New York Times, June 30, 2008; page B3..

In other words, they say, let’s mainstream homosexual sex by promoting it in our government, in schools, in the military, at the work place, at the church, and by encouraging homosexual marriage so that  teenagers and pre-teens  will grow up thinking that society agrees that  anal sex  is just another normal happy (gay) lifestyle they should experiment with… . until they get infected …. for the rest of their shortened  lives.   Meanwhile, the super elite brains say, let’s spend $billions on making anal sex safe … that’s more important than curing  cancer or TB or MS or … Autism ... or …heart disease … or …

Q: Does the intelligentsia find it tragic that the worst hit are the teenagers and young adults (13 to 24) who have most recently gone through our educational institutions? Are they being taught – How do you know that you don’t like it until you try it? So they tried it?

A:  Yeah … But we’ll keep the grim facts off  of  the newspapesr  front pages.  We need to recruit fresh boys … We’ll give a whole new meaning to “Don’t ask, Don’t tell.” We’ll demonize the anti-anal-sex folks by calling them homophobes …. The press will love us!  As if opposition to disease is wrong.

Q: By the way … Do you think David Fuller will get to keep his job if his NYT boss finds out that he printed the truth?

Posted by Zorroaster at 11:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been said, by me, that all polls measure is how effective the media has been at propagandizing the public to its point of view.

For example, the media frequently reports that the public favors "gay" rights and a woman's "right-to-choose" and disfavors the war in Iraq.

Do you ever wonder what the polls would say if the questions were put to the public without resorting to euphemisms?

Such as:

Are you in favor of anal sex? Should schools teach your children to be tolerant of anal sex? Do you think there is a relationship between anal sex and AIDS?

Do you support a woman's right to kill her baby for any reason, or no reason, at all? Should taxpayers pay for killing babies?

Do you have a vision of what a terrorist victory will mean for your country? Do you expect that they will then become "nice guys" and tolerate you?

Posted by Zorroaster at 10:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's the latest RINO's--

DE-Rep. Michael N. Castle

FL-Rep. Ric Keller

IL-Reps. Timothy V. Johnson & Mark Kirk

MD-Rep. Wayne Gilchrest

ME-Sens. Susan M. Collins & Olympia J. Snow

MI-Sen. Norm Coleman & Rep. Fred Upton

MN-Rep. Jim Ramstad

NE-Sen. Chuck Hagel

NY-Rep. Jim Walsh

NC-Reps. Howard Coble & Walter B. Jones

OH-Rep. Steven C. LaTourette

OR-Sen. Gordon H. Smith

PA-Sen. Arlen Specter & Rep. Phil English

SC-Rep. Bob Inglis

TN-Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr.

TX-Rep. Ron Paul

VA-Sen. John Warner & Rep. Tom Davis

WI-Rep. Thomas Petri

Posted by Zorroaster at 12:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"For more than two decades, Marjorie Hill has been touched by AIDS. As director of former Mayor David N. Dinkins Office for the Lesbian and Gay Community, Hill attended so may funerals - at least one a week at one point --- that she stopped going to them 'for my own mental health.' "

"Now, Hill, at 50 is settling into a new job as chief executive of Gay Men's Health Crisis as it prepares to mark its 25th anniversary next month…" ---from Dateline Brooklyn, This Week from the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Thursday, December 21, 2006.

What more can be added? Another 25 years of weekly funerals after getting rid of the stigma?

Perhaps you'll glance again at my "Homosexual Recruitment" post of October 8, 2006.

Posted by Zorroaster at 09:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"3,000 Deaths in Iraq, Countless Tears at Home … Another Grim Milestone for U.S." - Headlines, The New York Times, January 1, 2007,

Can there be any doubt that the reason we-will-rule-the-world terrorists publicize their ghastly deeds is to demoralize their resisters? -- To terrify them into submission? This is nothing new: Public flailing, stake-burnings, disembowelments, mass-killings and the like have often served as lessons to discourage resistance to the dictates of the powerful or the would-be powerful.

"We must get our message across to the masses of the nation and break the media siege imposed on the jihad movement. This is an independent battle that we must launch side by side with the military battle." - AYMAN AL-ZAWAHIRI-London, 2001

"Zawahiri advised Zarqawi to moderate his attacks on Iraqi Shiites and to stop beheading hostages. "We are in a battle," Zawahiri reminded him. "And more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media."-Annals of Terrorism: The Master Plan, by Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker Magazine, September 11, 2006.

"Al Qaeda Increasingly Reliant on Media ", Headline, The New York Times, September 30, 2006.

What is new is the astonishing eagerness of the media to ally themselves with the terrorists' strategy. Is it really possible that our highly-educated media elites at The New York Times (et al) don't know that their insatiable appetite for death reports creates an increasing supply of deaths for them to report? Or, can the editors explain how their reveling to a dirge of dispiriting front page stories helps dissuade publicity hungry killers from sending more bodies home?

Surely, there is nothing wrong with reporting a battleground death - once. To repeat the reports serves no purpose beyond giving their killer allies a double-bang-for-their-buck. Yet, the Times chose to greet the New Year by devoting half of its front page and six A-section pages to promoting terrorist propaganda.

How fitting!

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 01:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

"All the News That's Fit to Print-Vol CLVI…, No. 53,798"

What one dollar will buy-They say you can learn a lot from sports--

"ATTACKS IN IRAQ AT RECORD LEVEL, PENTAGON FINDS"-New York Times, page 1, lead article, Tuesday, December 18, 2006-

"Hey, don't go the basket right now. It wouldn't be a good idea. I'm just letting you know." NY Knicks coach Isiah Thomas to Denver Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony-New York Times, page D2, Tuesday, December 18, 2006-( The Nuggets were way ahead.)

"We had surrendered" Thomas says of the incident later, still smiling afterward, laughing one time-Brian Mahoney, Associated Press Basketball Writer, December 17, 2006-

Hasn't the U.S. sent many messages of surrender to Al Qeada? What did Isiah Thomas expect? The winners not to savor their victory? Not to want a big victory? As in, the biggest they can garner?

What do we expect Al Qeada to believe? Like, they're losing? Really?

Where did Americans get the idea that our surrender causes them who want Americans dead will spare you? And, your children?

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 09:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Killer Asteroid-IT'S COMING OUR WAY-FIVE PLANS TO HEAD IT OFF"; Cover Story, Popular Mechanics Magazine-December 2006

According to Popular Mechanics (PM): "Asteroids and comets collided with the Earth many times in the past, changing the world's climate and causing species to go extinct. Are we due for another big hit?"

Now, PM says that in 2029 the asteroid "99942 Apophis" (the Destroyer) might come very close and then return to really, really hit Earth in 2036. And, some think that NASA can do something to avert that disaster.

Meanwhile, back on today's Planet Earth, in 2006 (but nearly 2007)-another "A" named AHMADINEJAD-Iran's president, seems to want the APOCALYPSE before 2029. Some say he's Allah-driven, working hard to make it happen.

Are there five plans to head him off?

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 07:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Without repeating all of the valid/invalid arguments, I'll say that I think you can get a reasonable majority of Americans to agree that sometimes an abortion is justifiable. Sad, but justifiable. In fact, it was the "justifications" arguments that persuaded many state legislatures to enact today's permissive abortion laws. You know them by heart: rape, health of the mother, incest, deformity-stuff like that.

Where folks part company is when it is stipulated that no justification should be required at all; that personal convenience is all that matters. And, that all taxpayers should pay the price. Really? Now that Convenience has become our Society's life or death standard, where are the limits to what can be done under its banner?

Anyway, the fervent "abortion-for-convenience" crowd can't abide the "abortion-with-justification" crowd. The "no-abortion-ever' crowd was beaten a long time ago.

What's up here?

-Zorroaster

**UPDATE**

Saw this headline on Drudge: More women have abortions as it loses stigma

Also Karol at Alarming News talks about this today: Abortion is bad

-Ed Z

Posted by Ed Z at 09:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

"Media Companies to Come Out Winners As 2006 Political Spending Heads for Record Books"-Press Release by PQ Media, November 2, 2006.

It is estimated that $3.14 billion was spent on political advertising and marketing communications in 2006. Isn't it interesting that with all of the hullabaloo attached to Campaign Finance Reform and limiting political fund-raising, so little attention is paid to who gets all those $ billions?

Extrapolating from 2004 breakdowns, more than 65% went to broadcast media companies (primarily television and radio). In any given American locality a few of these companies possess the exclusive and virtually perpetual right to broadcast over (and charge for) a tightly restricted number of assigned airwave frequencies. In other words, there is no "ease of entry" for new competitors to spring up. In contrast, anyone with the resources can start a newspaper or magazine anywhere in America-but, you can't start broadcasting over the airwaves!

Do you see a certain irony that, in a country of 300 million that cherishes freedom of speech, a few thousand government-protected broadcasters control the airwaves and the revenues created by elections? Is there a valid reason why, in exchange for being granted monopoly power, these guys shouldn't be required to broadcast campaign materials as a public service? If 65% of campaign costs were eliminated, would there be any need for McCain-Feingold's restrictions on donations?

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 09:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Teach Your Children Well…"-Crosby, Stills & Nash

Do you think our kids watched, listened and learned these songs from the November 2006 elections?

"Diff'rent Strokes By Diff'rent Folks"--Sly and the Family Stone: Qualifications for education, school sports, jobs and justice should be based on race, sex and quotas; not abilities. Equality of outcomes is more important than equality of opportunities. Multilingualism is preferable to a common language for public discourse. Racial profiling for Islamic terrorists is impermissible; profiling little old ladies is okay.

"If It Feels Good, Do It"--Sloan: Any sexual relationship can be sanctified as marriage. Abortion is a valid form of birth control. There is nothing immoral about an abortion. Condoms and condom demonstrations belong in teenagers' classrooms. Timothy Leary had it right, "Whatever turns you on!". Banning the Boy Scouts is an affirmation of the tolerance of different life-styles.

"You Can't Hide Your Lying Eyes?"--The Eagles: Well, yes you can--Good GDP growth, low unemployment and stock market highs equal a bad economy…America and Americans are not generous enough in sharing their wealth with the world's and their own poor.

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"-Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore: Saddam Hussein was actually a nice guy; it was wrong to depose him. ROTC doesn't belong at American colleges. Israel and terrorists are morally equivalent. American culture and morality is inferior to the United Nations.

"The Ballad of the Easy Life"-Kurt Weill: Corrupt politicians should be re-elected. Soak the rich is the way to go! (But, don't ask who's considered rich.) High tax rates are good.

"Faith of Our Fathers, Living Still"-Frederic Faber : Forget this one--Atheism, which in itself, is a belief system, is the only religion American's should tolerate-EXCEPT FOR ISLAM which is entitled to a place of honor and deference.

"And Know They Love You"?--Crosby, Stills and Nash

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 10:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

September 29, 2006, Media Matters For America Headline: "ABC, CBS, CNN aired Bush's "cut and run" attack on Democrats, ignored Democratic response"

Media Matters went on to report that the gist of the "response", by Harry Reid, was: "If George Bush is so confident that his national security policies are working, he should release the entire National Intelligence Estimate on terrorism and let the American people decide for themselves. The fact that he won't speaks volumes about how the failure of his policies has made the American people less safe. George Bush has no credibility left on national security. No matter how many stump speeches he gives on the campaign trail, the American people can see the damage his tough talk has done to America's safety. It's time to be tough and smart so we can change course and give Americans the real security they deserve."

Most sane Americans wish there were no "War on Terror" and want nothing more than a sensible plan to end it and let Peace and the Happy Bosom Family reign. They will support a "cut and run" solution if a plan is presented that clearly outlines its benefits and risks.

For example, a short-term benefit of a quick exit from Iraq would likely be to save many American soldiers lives, (perhaps at the cost of a bloodbath for Iraqis). But, what of the longer term? How will defeating America cause the jihadists to become peace-loving live-and-let-live world citizens? Have there been any such signals from any Islamist? Would they no longer hate Jews, Christians or any non-Muslims? Will they limit their aggression to their own countries?

Since everybody loves a winner, could America's defeat inspire even more recruits to Al Qaeda? With our forces gone, they'd certainly be in less danger.

A "tough and smart" answer to these questions would have been a stirring response to the President's message. It "fairly boggles the mind" that Mr. Reid wasn't prepared to disclose his new course.

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 01:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

October 7, 2006 New York Times Headline: Spitzer Vows to Push for Gay Marriage

Whatever the merits of the "homosexual rights" arguments, one thing is certain-the media, politicians and educator's mainstreaming of homosexuality makes it much easier for its adherents to recruit among kids. Since it is taught as a "normal", socially acceptable life style, who can resist the entreaty, "How can you know you don't like it until you try it?" --Especially when you're young, experimental and inexperienced. And, even if kids turn out not to like it, they still will have had the homosexual experience and possibly exposed to its more dangerous aspects. While it may be true that AIDS is not an exclusively gay disease, it is surely true that the proportion of AIDS victims is much higher in the homosexual community than for heterosexuals. So, why have we decided to make gay "try it, you'll like it" recruitment easier?

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (1)

USA Today carried a story on September 19, it was actually suggesting the recent decline in gas price may spur inflation.  

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/fed/rates/2006-09-18-gas-fed_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA

There's a reason that Economics has been called "The Dismal Science". "Dismal" has a meaning beyond gloomy. It is: "characterized by ineptitude, dullness or lack of merit". If inflation is a rise in the overall (average) price level, including fuel costs, then other prices would have to rise by more than the fuel cost decline in order for the overall (average) price level to rise. If other prices don't rise as much, or not at all, then falling fuel prices are disinflationary. One had to pay attention in 7th grade arithmetic to figure that out.

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (1)

The first thing to remember is that Evolution and Common Descent are not the same thing. Any semi-educated person should have no trouble grasping the evolutionary notions that "natural selection" and "survival of the fittest" can, over time, lead to changes in the forms of beings. There is no reason for people believing in a creator to deny such occurrences. That all beings evolved from one common ancestor is another matter. Although many people believe it to be so, Common Descent is by no means proven. Nor, is the corollary belief that the common ancestor was not created, but arose from spontaneous generation (abiogenesis). However, there is a reason so many believe in its validity in the absence of proof. It is that, if there is no higher creative power, then, they'll never have to answer for their life's deeds or decisions. Similarly, God(s)-believers take comfort in the belief that a higher power cares about them.

The second thing to remember is that man's failure to "prove" either Common Descent or Creation does not mean that neither is true, or, for that matter, many other alternative origin-of-the-universe explanations are not true. For, example, the possibility that every religion may have the creation story wrong, does not prove there is no Creator.

The third thing to remember is that Creationists don't know whether their creator is benevolent, malevolent, or neutral. A "leap in the dark" is a leap in the dark.

The truth is nobody really knows these things for sure. There is very little reason to support the vehemence of either side in the arguments.

-Zorroaster

Posted by Ed Z at 09:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'd like to introduce a new author to The Broken Chair, Zorroaster.  He has agreed to post from time to time on an array of topics.  His features will be titled Random Thoughts on Current Controversies.  I hope you enjoy the added content.

Posted by Ed Z at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)