this HIV story got me thinking ......
 

i remember when AIDS first hit, Ryan White, Ali Gertz, dude from Starsky and Hutch's wife, Magic Johnson - these people became national celebrities, their lives followed by the media throughout their illness until death. 20 years later and people get HIV and AIDS and you don't hear anything. There are no more movies made about people with AIDS.

the most bizarre thing I ever heard during the AIDS hysteria of the 80's was on Howard Sterns radio show, Tiny Tim the oddball entertainer came on the show around Christmas and sang his new song, a Christmas song. Even Howard was pretty shocked, at that point in the AIDS epidemic not even shock jocks like Howard were making fun of AIDS. Tiny Tim was known to be a very nice weird man, nothing mean spirited about him - so this song seemed bizarre.

it's one of the oddest songs ever - every Christmas I think about it, Santa's Got the AIDS This Year'.

wow that is ODD! never heard of that before

it was even odder 20 years ago - dude was a very strange guy.

I think we don't hear much about it because not many people in the U.S. (statistically speaking) ever develop full blown AIDS and die from it. They may contract HIV but that's about it. Then it's just a matter of taking medication daily and living a normal life. Just like a person with high blood pressure does, or a diabetic....though the HIV person will probably live longer than those people if they are in good physical shape. Sure will be nice when and if they ever find a cure and/or vaccination for this shit so we can all start having sex without being scared shitless again.

or people who have Herpes (another LIFETIME STD) take Valtrex on a regular basis......

The STD word is what freaks people out (me too, I can't help it) when in reality it's not that big a deal in comparison with other afflictions.

And people with herpes don't necessarily have to take Valtrex all their lives. The herpes outbreaks only occur with frequency in the beginning. After a year or so they rarely happen if at all. It just becomes another dormant virus in a person's system and not even contagious at that point.

Sexually transmitted diseases just scare the living shit out of most of us. I don't know why. It's just a primeval instinct I guess. Maybe even something ingrained in to us biologically since catching the clap was a death sentence until we came up with antibiotics. So maybe it's some kind of survival instinct that kicks in subconsciously in our heads and makes anything STD related put on "defcon 5" when it really doesn't belong there. Especially when compared with REALLY bad shit that can happen to you.

I hear ya....


now on a lighter note Hugh Hefner was on Loveline not so long ago....and he referred to STD's as Social Disease's......They were crackin on him......big time......poor hef so out of it......

stds are preventable which is why ppl would rather lower their risk

Life expectancy for hiv positive people is close to normal now... They will more likely get stroke or cancer than develop aids

I remember when HIV first hit as well...

Hence me liking poo...

Much safer !

I never understood you until that post. Now it all makes sense.

I think people are more scare of STD's because of the stigma attached to it.

I love that song, I've only ever heard it on Stern as well

HIV/AIDS is very taboo, especially in USA which is also why so many peeps are freakin out.
I remember Eddi Murphy's stand up.. forget the name of it but he goes something like:
that aids is scary shit and soon yeah man, you stick you dick in and go kaboom..

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

I remember when AIDS was the subject of grim jokes like "AIDS stands for Anally Inserted Death Sentence" and "The toughest part about having AIDS is trying to convince your parents that you're Haitian."

Ha ha.

I also remember -- far better than I'd like -- watching too many friends waste away from AIDS in the early '80s, when it was only preventable, not treatable. Take a look at the pictures of Freddie Mercury wasting away near the end of his life, or watch "Philadelphia" and see it happen to Tom Hanks.

Then imagine watching it happening to a friend while you -- and he -- watched helplessly.

Thankfully, those days are over.

--t