The NY Times printed a letter today which talked about activists complaining that the cure for AIDS is too expensive, or being promoted too heavily. Did we find a cure and no one told me?

AIDS Is Not a Glamorous Disease (5 Letters)

To the Editor:

In the mid-1980’s, the complaint was that a cure for AIDS was not being developed quickly enough. In the mid-90’s, the complaint was that the cure was too expensive. Now Harvey Fierstein (Op-Ed, July 31) argues that the cure is promoted too aggressively. What are pharmaceutical companies to do? The wonder is that they have invested any money at all in trying to find a cure for an infection so “completely avoidable.”

I am grateful that these companies have taken the financial risk and discovered treatments, however imperfect. Let them advertise any way they choose. The only people who believe that advertising can cause people to engage in risky behavior are the ad men themselves.

TED S. LEVY
Weston, Conn., July 31, 2003

Letter to the editor may be to letters@nytimes.com.

Pandagon follows the <a title="Weblog Entry – 08/04/2003: “Gay Marriage And Kids”" href=“http://www.pandagon.net/archives/00001430.htm”>Gay Marriage And Kids</a> debate to its logical conclusions.

Check out Free Williamsburg’s article on the Chunkathalon.

I’ve deleted a few weblogs from my links page. I realized that some people I know actually link to A Small Victory, which is one of the more popular right-wing blogs it seems, despite her racism towards anyone who isn’t Christian or Jewish. She’s the kind of person who says racism or anti-semitism offends her, and then gladly keeps comments which talk about how Arabs are the scum of the earth and how the world would be better off if the Palestinians were all killed — example.

Anyone linking to sites such as that one is now gone from the list.

I think I’ll be staying inside, catching up with my Netflix queue. This is the current forecast on Yahoo! Weather:

Ayleen from the Portland Crew has posted some images from Chunkathalon 2003, including one you will not want to miss of Zach…

The Bush Administration’s Top 40 Lies About War and Terrorism

Adam Felber asks us for help to save his marriage, which is threatened by the thought of it being a club that gay people might be allowed to join.

• See Phantom Arch show at White Columns — today (August 2 until 6pm) is the last day
• See the Summer of HTML Tour concert at TEAM Gallery — Sunday, August 3rd; 7:30pm-10pm

I posted a version of this in the comments on a friend’s web log:

I think the thing people need to realize is that the people that end up at Harvey Milk are, as the administrators put it, ones “with a history.” These are generally kids that have reached the point of being physically hurt, kicked out of their homes, etc. These aren’t kids with a lot of options. In a perfect world we wouldn’t need such schools, but to say that it is the duty of these vulnerable kids to change the world while those of us who are more privileged wait for a more pure solution is offensive. I am reminded of the idea that it is not the job of the oppressed to educate their oppressors.

Go read James‘s post on the subject. I think it’s one of the best things he has ever written for his weblog.

For some statistics on gay youth and education, check out this PFLAG page.

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Updated: Also see Steve Gilliard’s post at Daily Kos.