The Unspeakable... Reverend Wright

More than 20 years after the AIDS epidemic arrived in the United States, a significant proportion of African Americans embrace the theory that government scientists created the disease to control or wipe out their communities, according to a study released today by Rand Corp. and Oregon State University. That belief markedly hurts efforts to prevent the spread of the disease among black Americans, the study's authors and activists said. African Americans represent 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to Census Bureau figures, yet they account for 50 percent of new HIV infections in the nation, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly half of the 500 African Americans surveyed said that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is man-made. The study, which was supported by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, appears in the Feb. 1 edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. More than one-quarter said they believed that AIDS was produced in a government laboratory, and 12 percent believed it was created and spread by the CIA. A slight majority said they believe that a cure for AIDS is being withheld from the poor. Forty-four percent said people who take the new medicines for HIV are government guinea pigs, and 15 percent said AIDS is a form of genocide against black people. Washington Post

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When decrying Obama's pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, most of his attackers linger on his support for the theory that the US government created the AIDS virus in a laboratory in order to kill black people. This is cited as proof positive that Reverend Wright is out of his mind.

It should be noted that these theories are given wide credence by people, both black and white all over the world. That in itself is something that should not be blithely dismissed.

Life has made me a devotee of William Ockham and his "razor". As old Bill put it;

"Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate"

Which could be summed up as, "the explanation that depends on fewer variables is probably the correct one". For this reason, I don't favor most conspiracy theories... They usually require too many people keeping a secret, for too long. For this and for no other reason, I don't think it is probable that AIDS was created in a laboratory by the government.

However, I have no doubt whatsoever that there are people in our government who are perfectly capable of doing it and would have loved to have done it and may have dreamed of doing and may even have talked about doing it.

In a previous post I remarked that,

"The 1960s (was) a paradise similar to the one Al Qaeda sells to its recruits. I count myself blessed to have been young at the best time in the history of humanity to be young, when, in the words of Pedro Almodovar, "all love could give you was a broken heart."

And as H. L. Mencken wrote,

"Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."

And the United States of America is probably the most puritan country in the world. Certainly so much good, free, unpaid, sex without consequences must have weighed heavily on the puritan spirit of many of the tight lipped and tighter assed Scotch-Irish of Langley Virginia... but judging by their known work, I have trouble believing them able to pull it off. But certainly not because of any ethical concerns they might have. All these people have enjoyed the suffering of the AIDS victims as it confirmed the sanctity of their own parched righteousness.

So, in my opinion, the Reverend Wright is doing an immense service to his country by dropping this turd in the punchbowl of the farce we call the American political process. It was not wise of Obama to trifle with such a born communicator as Jeremiah Wright. It is also not wise of Obama to dismiss out of hand a theory that is held by such a large percentage of the community, whose votes he counts on.

Reverend Wright is certainly the groom's crazy uncle that the bride's family should meet before giving the girl away. DS