http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticl...ewsNews-10
So there's a vaccine for certain forms of HIV out which is being put up as one of those required to attend school. Aside from the fact that we HAVE A VACCINE FOR CERTAIN FORMS OF HIV, this isn't all that unusual. Lots of schools require innoculations before kids can attend.
Here's the kicker. There are some people who have this odd religious belief that this would be BAD for the kids somehow. Apparently they believe teens would suddenly go on huge orgy sprees without the fear of a sexually transmitted disease (which is still there, this just mitigates it). Evidence that this would happen is notibly absent. They just believe it to be the result of this. Do guard rails on bridges cause drivers to weave back and forth off them like pinballs since they don't have to worry about falling to their deaths? Does the V-Chip suddenly cause kids to watch TV much more frivilously because they know they won't ever encounter violence or swearing?
Stupid stupid stupid... All this does is protect people from something horrid in the event they do decide to have intercourse. How immunity to something can be construed as "encouraging" behavior that exposes someone to it is beyond me... I may gain an immunity to antifreeze, but I'm not going to use that opportunity to take a drink of the stuff just for that sweet sweet taste.
The way I look at it: kids are going to have intercourse either way. Might as well not let them get a horrible disease from it, right?
Release that fucking vaccine now!
It's been "released" (it was locked up?), the debate is over the law. Some say that while the risk a vaccine poses is minor (there's a risk involved, but it's no biggy, but it is enough that there's a reason they stopped vaccinating for small pox), the risk is still greater than for the person who abstains. True enough (though some don't abstain by choice and some simply aren't interested), but the issue is simply that a large number do NOT and parents often don't know enough about the more outgoing teen's private lives to really know for sure if that's the case. The issue seems to be too many parents are willing to let this be "God's punishment for sinning" rather than give them a vaccine, which is a very unhealthy attitude to take.
As far as religion goes, I draw the line when it starts to pose a hazard to one's safety. This is such a case.
...There's a vaccine? No one has to get aids and die anymore? Why isn't everyone getting this vaccine right now? like, the entire continent of africa?
what the hell is going on
The vaccine is actually for HPV which causes cervical cancer and genital warts.
This reminds me of stuff I've been hearing on the radio recently. There was a study recently that said teens today are having more oral sex than in the past. Of course parents and the media are all over this ,pardon the pun, blowing it out of proportion. Sex ed mainly consisted of don't have intercourse, don't get pregnant, use a condomn. Now they act all surprised that teens would turn to oral to get their jollies.
As far as HIV goes there have been several success stories of people doing the treatments that are out there now and gettting it to go into remission, but no vaccine yet. Plus with those there's always the possiblity that it will come back.
HPV, wow did I ever misread that. Blasted emotions, I hate them so much! :D
Still, this is easily a good thing.
I read the article and then saw that it was a form of cancer, the fact that we now have the ability to wipe out the threat of a cancer is also amazing. But I posted before I read it, and even told my wife to turn on CNN because we found a vaccine for HIV :D but it will be here eventually.
Any so-called religion or group who thinks that by allowing people to become sick or die as 'punishment' for engaging in our sole purpose on earth are some sick puppies. i think what it comes down to is that these people want their children to be as afraid of sex as they are or were. I dont care what the age is as long as their responsible and wrap the winky and the girl's got some kind of birth control, if those criteria are met there's no issue. The emotional strain of being with a guy or gal for a dumb purpose or a fling will help that person grow, it's important to fall down every once in a while. especially to get that out of their system when they're young so that later in life they can experience full relationships and find that happy medium of having no innabitions and good judgement.
crusader/ I dont get it either, blowjobs are fun obviously and the dangers can be easily removed just by the guy wearing a condom. So if the parents did their jobs correctly their daughter can blow every guy in the state and live a long healthy life. She'd be branded the town slut though :D But like i said, it's either people afraid of sexuality and trying to keep their children 'innocent' which actually is meaningless and has no real existence or that it could go so far as the various sects trying use a common pleasure as a control device. Either way it needs to stop.
Purpose is a strong word lazy. Purpose is something people decide for themselves. It's more accurate to say it's the one thing we have in common with ALL our ancestors, the ability to reproduce in some fasion. Just making more of me isn't my idea of a sole guiding purpose, but then again I'm not about "net results" as a guide to giving one's life value. There's one other thing we have in common with all our ancestors, dying, but I'm not exactly going to call that my sole purpose.
Besides, calling that my sole purpose makes it sound like if I don't do that I've "failed" somehow. Things that reproduce, reproduce. Things that don't, don't. There's nothing inherently "bad" about a line of genes ending, it just isn't a good long term survival strategy for a species. It's just a matter of opinion. For example, it is a GREAT strategy for NOT reproducing :D.
Oral sex might prevent pregnancy, but it can still spread disease, assuming you swallow. And lazy is right, the human species is supposed to reproduce. If having sex is bad, why do guys get erections? Why would God punish us with diseases? If there's a vaccine, release it. Don't play God by not releasing it. If God wanted us to be sick, the vaccine wouldn't even exist, now would it?
Now that's not what I was saying. I'm merely saying "supposed to" is a very strong word. Purpose is something humans concern themselves with. The universe doesn't care about "purpose", it just does what it does. That's all I'm saying.
Perpetuation is the purpose of all living things, a side from that, human beings more so than any other animal are built for sex play with a lean towards the self-indulgent and emotionally extroverted and co-dependent. As for the universe it also has the perpetuation of its existence in mind in the same way that ocean currents do; it continues to exist so as a base all things within must conform to aid its existence (whether ths happens on any sentient level is up for grabs but if you were a trillion of a trillion trillion years old and virtually infinite I bet you'd get some sense of smarts). I dont think DJ was saying that sex is wrong, he's just saying he's gotten more booty than all of us combined.
I wouldn't anthropomorphisize anything beyond what's needed to explain it. So that in mind, continuation of a species is in the best interest of anything that wishes to keep going, and so if anyone has it in their minds, aside from what genetics is programmed with, that their purpose is to make another life form, then so be it. Nothing wrong with that. I'm merely saying that purpose seems a strong word to apply to it. It's just physics, and purpose is just something people with the mental strength (or weakness if you see it that way) to come up with it deal with it. The majority of animals I've seen are content just to live. It's us that get all depressed and obsessed with "purpose" in life. Not that I don't think of that myself, I'm hardly above it, I'm just trying to point out that "purpose" is a process of the mind. But then again, if you define purpose as whatever something happens to do, like a river flowing, then sure, reproduction is almost every life form's purpose (excepting those that don't and just go extinct). That's just not the webster's definition of the word. I gues it comes down to the inaccuracy of saying "a cow's purpose is to be eaten". Sure, a lot of then are hearded and we have assigned that fate to them, but it is a bit much to say "that is it's purpose" without adding "that we have given it".
It is the goal of all creatures to survive and to reproduce. If a disease is killing those who try to reproduce and a vaccine is available, then naturally, we should release the vaccine to prevent this. I do not approve of whores or anything like that, but a person could just as easily contract HIV from his or her spouse, who could've possibly been the only person they've ever performed sexual intercourse with. Do they deserve this "punishment" from God? The idea that STDs are a punishment from God is a huge assumption anyway, and last I checked, church and state were separate. This is the survival of human beings we're toying with here.
DJ/ I see what you mean, but you're straying from logic, a cow's purpose is to reproduce; indirectly becase of that base the predators in the area use the cow a a food source, causing the cow to evolve in to herd mentality, causing vast areas of grass to be eaten at once, causing mass migration, causing predators to follow and spread which influences thousands of other animals and so on. Indirectly, the cow's purpose is to eat the grass, poop out the high nutrient feces, which causes the grass to grow back stronger next season which will cause the cows to make rounds across miles and miles of terrain eventually returning to the same area before. Dependiing on influence (people, heavy predator population) its rounds may lose ground, forcing the migrations in to a tighter area not giving enough time for the grass to cycle, causing vast plains to die out, causing the cows to die out, wwho in turn will risk predators and man in order to find the grass as a last ditch effort. But when food is scarce, almost all animals including man will mate less until food is found.
So when you're applying a purpose to something all you have to do is look at it logically, there are indirect purposes (unknown to the animal) and conscious efforts such as perpetuation. Saying a cow's purpose is to be eaten is actually correct, the entire reason cow's exist (they survived in even greater numbers before farming was created) is because they're such an easy food source for predators, so the cow's desire to survive gave them longer mating cycles, quick births, herd mentalities, massive weight etc, which is why they exist today even though they seem to be such an easy target, they basically evolved to be eaten by predators while still growing stronger and keeping their numbers so their entire existence is self perpetuating; the more they're attacked and eaten, the better survivors they become.
But all of this comes from the single purpose of will to perpetuate. If you deny any animal the ability to mate, they become angry, depressed, suffer mood swings, become bitter, etc. Of course it's hard to recognize such behaviors in cats and dogs, but it's incredibly obvious in human beings for us to recognize. To mate in order to perpetuate the species is litteraly the only reason human beings exist as with any other animal, even asexual organisms. This isn't a 'placed' purpose, it's a fact of existence.