Welcome to My World Mr. President

President Obama spoke at the White House yesterday to deal with the conspiracy theory regarding his birthplace. His frustration was all too familiar to anyone who follows AIDS Denialism.  Here is a sample...

"As many of you have been briefed, we provided additional information today about the site of my birth. Now, this issue has been going on for two, two and a half years now.  I think it started during the campaign.  And I have to say that over the last two and a half years I have watched with bemusement, I've been puzzled at the degree to which this thing just kept on going.  We've had every official in Hawaii, Democrat and Republican, every news outlet that has investigated this, confirm that, yes, in fact, I was born in Hawaii, August 4, 1961, in Kapiolani Hospital.

We've posted the certification that is given by the state of Hawaii on the Internet for everybody to see.  People have provided affidavits that they, in fact, have seen this birth certificate.  And yet this thing just keeps on going. 

We’re not going to be able to do it if we just make stuff up and pretend that facts are not facts.  We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers.

I know that there’s going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. "

It has been a couple years since the rumor started that our President is not an American.  

The so called Birthers first demanded that his birth certificate be released. It was.

Then they demanded that independent proof and witnesses be found. And they were.

And then came demands for the long form birth certificate. And now we have that too.

Anyone who expects the Birthers to go away does not understand the mindset of conspiracy theorists and denialists.

They will not go away.  

If you do not know much about the Birthers, just watch Stephen Colbert for a quick rundown. 


So what is the President to do? Ignore them? As he said, he tried that...

"Now, normally I would not comment on something like this, because obviously there’s a lot of stuff swirling in the press on at any given day and I've got other things to do."

Ignoring them did not work, so he addressed them head on, again.

Once a conspiracy theory becomes rooted online and enters the mainstream it is very hard to reverse. 

Watching all of this Birther stuff is mind boggling.  

The Birthers do make me grateful that AIDS denialism has not yet attracted a high profile 'carnival barker'. Let's just hope it stays that way.

Read More

Goodbye and good riddance, Karri Stokely, you AIDS denialist bitch.

Karri Stokely, prominent AIDS Denialist, is dying. Below is an excerpt from the blog of Karri Stokely's cousin. I was aware that she had a relative who was outraged by her AIDS Denialism, but I had not seen his blog before today. I heard that he was concerned about her and tried to talk her back to reality. She obviously did not listen. His frustration is apparent. 

Perhaps he should direct his anger at those who facilitated her Denialism, rather than the victim herself. But Karri, like Christine Maggiore before her, is a victim with blood on her hands.

If you are not familiar with Karri Stokely, look back over some of my older posts. You can also visit numerous AIDS Denialism websites, where she is a common feature. Rethinking AIDS shamelessly exploited this woman and her family.  Our goal should be to make it impossible for them to replace her with a new poster-person.

UPDATE: Karri Stokely passed away yesterday. Her health deteriorated and she developed opportunistic infections. Reader comments regarding her death are posted near the end of this thread.  

Goodbye and good riddance, Karri Stokely, you AIDS denialist bitch.

By Todd (guyn2gear), Karri Stokely's Cousin

I received news this morning that Karri is in hospice care with a bad pneumonia infection. As any rational person would deduce from the above, it is an opportunistic infection, known as part of ARC (AIDS-related complex). Most people can fight off most forms of pneumonia with antibiotic and antiviral drugs — and we can thank AIDS research for invention of the antivirals. Karri is not able to fight this one off, not because it's a strange or particularly strong infection, but because her immune system is too compromised to do anything about it anymore.

The person who told me asked me not to say anything about it, to keep it quiet. I'm sorry, Karri, but your shameful actions drove me to shout this to the world:

Karri Stokely, you are getting what you deserve.

Yes, that's a horrific thing to say. I've never before said that about any dying person. Karri, however, has done something much more horrific herself: She has played the pied piper to audiences who are confused and looking for answers, and her unscientific, already debunked answers will get some of those people killed, likely in slow, tortuous ways. Her public denial of the HIV/AIDS connection is itself a virus of the mind, and she has been spreading that virus to the world, consequences be damned.

I'm sorry to Karri's husband, and to her children, who will soon be without a mother, though I'm happy that Karri was able to have time with them without the drug side effects. I'm sorry to Karri's mother, who will now outlive her own child. No one, Karri included, deserves HIV. On the flip side, no one deserves to be harangued by deadly false hope.

To my friends who are HIV+ and taking care of yourselves, I applaud you for keeping it together. I can't begin to imagine how it has reshaped your life.

To those who are HIV-, do what I do. Get tested regularly. Be vigilant about your health. Learn about HIV and other STIs, and talk to your doctor about them.

Regardless of your status, keep yourself protected. The most caring thing you can do for your sexual partner is to cover it up. (Most of the people I know enjoy rubber, right? ...Oh, here's the lyrics for that as well.)

This posting may mean that family members, who didn't know much about my personal life, will discover that I have a very "alternative" view of sexuality. As my inaugural post on this too-infrequent blog said, I'm not hiding myself anymore, so I had no qualms about calling out people, myself included, by name. The topic of AIDS disinformation makes it ever more important for me to stand out and be seen... consequences be damned.

To read the entire post, click here

Read More