Sunday, September 30, 2007
Condoms and Catholics, Condoms and Bush Administration
Do Catholics practice birth control? Yes, many of them do and I don't mean the rhythm method advocated by the Catholic Church, described by some as Russian Roulette. Even in Italy the Vatican's edicts about birth control are not heeded by many.
The numbers reported in the web site of Catholicsforchoice.org make it clear that on this issue there is a wide chasm between lay Catholics and the robed officials in the Vatican. Either the officials wilfully disregard the facts or they are completely out of touch. Their position is intractable to the degree that they do not condone use of condoms even as deterrents against the spread of HIV-AIDS.
Source: www.benettontalk.com
Source: www.benettontalk.comThe old men, who rule over what Catholics may or may not do in terms of the very private matter of sexual relations, remain impervious despite being rocked by numerous scandals involving priests who were exposed of involvement in both hetero and homosexual liaisons, including pedophilia.
Our president is a staunch advocate of abstention. His position is one of expediency to gain support of the so called conservative Christian groups.
LA Weekly News - June 24, 2004
LA Weekly News - June 24, 2004
- Published on June 16 in the Federal Register, the censorious new CDC guidelines will be mandatory for any organization that does HIV-prevention work and also receives federal funds — whether or not any federal money is directly spent on their programs designed to fight the spread of the epidemic. (The CDC is the principal federal funder of prevention education about HIV and AIDS, and its head a Bush appointee). It’s all couched in arcane bureaucratese, but this is the Bush administration’s Big Stick — do exactly as we say, or lose your federal funding. And nearly all of the some 3,800 AIDS service organizations (ASOs) that do the bulk of HIV-prevention education receive at least part of their budget from federal dollars. Without that money, they’d have to slash programs or even close their doors.
- These new regs require the censoring of any “content” — including “pamphlets, brochures, fliers, curricula,” “audiovisual materials” and “pictorials (for example, posters and similar educational materials using photographs, slides, drawings or paintings),” as well as “advertising” and Web-based info. They require all such “content” to eliminate anything even vaguely “sexually suggestive” or “obscene” — like teaching how to use a condom correctly by putting it on a dildo, or even a cucumber. And they demand that all such materials include information on the “lack of effectiveness of condom use” in preventing the spread of HIV and other STDs — in other words, the Bush administration wants AIDS fighters to tell people: Condoms don’t work. This demented exigency flies in the face of every competent medical body’s judgment that, in the absence of an HIV-preventing vaccine, the condom is the single most effective tool available to protect someone from getting or spreading the AIDS virus.
Washington Post - Sept.29, 2007
She's undaunted by questions touching on the politics of AIDS. She praises her father's overseas initiatives while noting that "the Clinton Foundation is doing amazing work in Africa and in Latin America" as well. "Ana's Story" features a UNICEF-compiled list of "Ten Myths About HIV/AIDS." No. 6 reads, "Condoms don't protect you from HIV." "A pretty obvious myth," Bush says. "Everybody knows that condoms prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS." She loses no opportunity to lavish praise on UNICEF and those who work there. But she deflects a question about the Bush administration's combative relationship with the United Nations as a whole. "I'm not my dad," she says. "I can tell you that UNICEF is doing incredible work." |
