All of the following quotes are indisputable PROOF of the on-going grief and anxiety that is part and parcel of living with HIV.

"I am a 52 year old woman and have lipo really, really bad. Can you suggest a lower dose medication that I can ask my doctor to prescibe. I have begged him to just give me AZT but he is so sure it isnt enough"
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/FacialWasting/Current/Q203355.html

"I had bioalcamid filling in my wrinkles between mouth and nose. The esthetic outcome is terrible, too much material has been injected, and unfortunately I can't stand the feeling that a stranger body, those nodules are in my face. Unfortunately my mimicry and smile have been also destroyed."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/FacialWasting/Current/Q203160.html

"I have gained a huge amount of weight /fat whilst on Sustiva, 3TC and Ziagen. I changed the Ziagen for AZT recently and found that the fat gain (everywhere but my face and legs has remained the same)."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/FacialWasting/Current/Q203118.html

"I had experienced lipoatrophy in my face (had it corrected with a filler) legs, butt, a bit in the arms, on the sides of abdomen, (I was on D4t back then and Combivir for a few years. I have then switched to Isentress and Truvada, but strangely I am starting to notice losing fat in my hands and feet. My feet and getting more bonier, ankles and skinnier etc. and my hands more veiny."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/FacialWasting/Current/Q203072.html

"it is common for resistant HIV to be transmitted. In this era in the United States, about 10% of people acquire a strain of HIV that carries one or more drug resistance mutations."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Resistance/Current/Q203187.html

"I have been poz since 1982, hereunder the drugs i have been taking for 12 years Atripla (efavirenz + tenofovir + emtricitabine) Combivir (zidovudine + lamivudine, AZT + 3TC) Videx (didanosine, ddI) Crixivan (indinavir, IDV) Invirase (saquinavir, SQV) Norvir (ritonavir, RTV) Viracept (nelfinavir, NFV) Last CD4:180 copies Viralload: 9500 Nucleoside and Nucleotide RT Inhibitors zidovudine (AZT): Possible Resistance didanosine (ddl): Resistance lamivudine (3TC)/ emtricitabine (FTC): Resistance stavudine (d4T): Possible Resistance abacavir (ABC): Resistance tenofovir (TDF): Resistance Non Nucleoside RT Inhibitors nevirapine (NVP): Resistance efavirenz (EFV): Resistance etravirine (ETR): Possible Resistance Protease Inhibitors saquinavir + ritonavir (SQV/r): Resistance indinavir (IDV): Resistance IDV/r**: Possible Resistance nelfinavir (NFV): Resistance amprenavir (APV)/ fosamprenavir (FPV): Resistance APV/r or FPV/r**: Resistance lopinavir + ritonavir (LPV/r): No Evidence of Resistance atazanavir (ATV): Resistance atazanavir + ritonavir (ATV/r)**: Possible Resistance tipranavir +ritonavir (TPV/r): No Evidence of Resistance darunavir + ritonavir (DRV/r): No Evidence of Resistance"
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Resistance/Current/Q203189.html

"My statement of >98% effectiveness is generous by many standards; other reputable sources put condom effectiveness at 96% or below. The average breakage rate for condoms is 2% (per CDC), i.e. 2 for every 100 condoms."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Resistance/Current/Q203188.html

"My friend has take Kaletra and other HIV anti-drug. His CD4 is 246. He gets diarrhea two times per day almost everyday even [though] he tried to eat safe food."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203364.html

"it appears that HIV infection (including untreated HIV infection) increases the risk for heart disease due to narrowing of the coronary arteries."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203365.html

"Gaining weight also contributes to diabetes risk and is common in both the general population and perhaps more so in persons taking effective HIV drugs. Your current HIV meds have not been clearly linked to an increased risk for diabetes but data on that is still limited particularly for etravirine and raltegravir."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203360.html

"I'm still having some issues with balance, concentration, headaches, heart palpitations, sleep issues ( I literally feel like I'm dropping in a rollercoster when I try to sleep) fuzzy vision, confusion - these symptoms are mild and intermittent but regular."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203359.html

"How long can a person live at cd4 of only 50, despite total ART adherence, and undetectable viral load, my cd4 count has remained a flat 50 for the past 3 yrs"
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203278.html

"Atripla was a pretty easy drug on me at first. Then came the cinematic, vivid and often just completely indescribable dream scenes where it at times was difficult to discern reality vs. just being asleep and on my Atripla-trip."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203208.html

"I have started wasting 2006 , I stopped the treatment then , my doctor put me in truvada in 2007 it did help my butt was getting smaller byday, I started my personal diet trying to gain wait but still I could'nt put the weight in right places like my butt and legs , and 2 months ago I started Nandrolene deca with protein suplements and herbs, for the 1st time in 3yrs wasting battle my butt is gaining some muscle and fat I am on better shape now. "
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203210.html

"Hi, I've been on treatment since 97 and d4T did its bit on my face, bum, legs and arms. My face has been 'fixed' with New Fill. This has been done in the NHS(I live in the UK). My HIV doctor has prescribed me Steroids which has marginally helped on my arms and legs. However, my bum has gone forever!. What can I do?"
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203212.html

"I recently had a 24hr creatinine collection taken. My results should creatinine at 1.4 and GFR at 63. I am 40 years old 6ft 180lbs. and have been on reyataz, truvada, and norvir for 1 year. (1st regimen) I am shocked. Am I going to be on dialysis soon? Can I bring those numbers up or change anything about my normal routine, eating/drinking pattern? My doctor recommended I take another urine collection in 3 months and then if the numbers are still around 60 he wants to change the truvada for something else. He stated that number is too low for someone my age. I am worried. What should I do?"
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203207.html

"Effective HIV therapy often results in 5-15 pounds of weight gain on a variety of regimens."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/SideEffects/Current/Q203166.html

"You will want to discuss starting HIV medications as soon as you can. If you tolerate your medications for HCV, I would start your other HIV medications within about 4 to 6 weeks. Avoid zidovudine, which increases the risk of anemia while on ribavirin; also do NOT take didanosine (ddI), which can be hazardous due to a drug interaction with ribavirin."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Hepatitis/Current/Q203180.html

"Having HIV is anything but "normal!" Being diagnosed HIV positive is always a shock and a period of adjustment is to be expected. The more you learn about HIV the less frightening it becomes and the easier it is to live with. I would suggest you begin by reviewing the information on The Body's homepage: "HIV Basics." There you will find chapters, such as "Just Diagnosed" and "HIV Medications.""
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Fatigue/Current/Q203109.html

"I change my medication after 6 months I started it-before I taked Kaletra and Truvada and after Truvada and Viramun… after couple months-I start feel pain in my back-kidney arria,and everyday my face and my eyes quietly swelling -heavy.. I check witch my doctor urine and kidney-he told me results normal-kidney seems work ok. but I still no understand what can be reason for pain and swimmed eyes?? I dont drunk,dont smoke-my food quietly clean..feels like if someone got really drunk-and next day you see this person-and say-oh mu god. shut I change Truvada for something else?and what can be alternative?? I no want sustiva-its cause migrane depression-and I quite sensitive to it."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Fatigue/Current/Q203106.html

"I'm outside my home country! and I just realized I miscalculated the amount of medication I needed while on this trip abroad. I'm on boosted telzir and truvada. The bottom line is, I will run out of Telzir 2 days before the end of my trip!!"
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Fatigue/Current/Q203193.html

"Some readers have written in and complained of profound ongoing fatigue in spite of normal blood panels. There are two possible concerns that are often not mentioned in the replies to these people. The first is sleep apnea. I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea after my docs exhausted (sic!) every other test. Second, many HIV poz people are coinfected with hepatitis C(HCV) and hep B(HBV) , but many coinfected people do not realize that they have HCV. All people with HIV should be checked for both HBV and HCV, two potentially curable infections that can lead to increasingly profound chronic fatigue and ultimately, in many cases, to death if untreated."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Fatigue/Current/Q203219.html

"I was diagnosed as HIV+ in 1991 and have been fairly healthy. Currently, I'm on Viramune and Combivir. My t-cells for the past several years, have slowly been decreasing, and now are in the low 200's. My doctor is contemplating changing my medication, however since my viral load is so low, it may be impossible to detect the particular strain of the virus, I have."
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Fatigue/Current/Q203217.html

"I was diagnosed with HIV 10yrs ago as of November of this year. I was pregnant with my daughter at the time. I have just turned 30yrs old in July and recently moved to another state just to get my head together. I have always been on and off medications sometimes Dr. recommendations then sometimes not. I have really never faced the reality of being positive however it has been very hard to get proper treatment when all it seems the Dr. would do is throw me on a pill and leave it at that. I have a hard time feeling as if that is all it takes for someone with HIV to live a longer, healthier life. I don't have money so I don't know how to seek more help when I am limited on the type of care is available to me. It seems that everyone in my experience has always passed the buck and all I have is just alot of prescriptions under my bed. I know that I am responsible for my own health but mentally I have not a clue how to begin taking control. I know I have a daughter to live for but I am barely living for myself. I don't leave my house at this point, I smoke, and I am just plain depressed. I feel like I am tired of trying and picking myself up again and again. I have no support, no family , its just me and my daughter. I feel like I isolated myself because I wanted to just die in peace without all the whispers of those who instead of supporting me used me as there daily gossip when I trusted them with something so sensitive to me. I have no one to turn to. I have a doctor but he acted as if he didn't even know how to read my Labs. I need help fast or I fear that I will not make it long. I know there is a good life for me to live I just need an angel to guide me to it. Please I need someone. I am tired and I can't live like this anymore. I am admitting today that I am scared and don't want to live like I am dead any longer. Thank You in advance for your advice"
Source: thebody.com/Forums/AIDS/Fatigue/Current/Q203251.html

"An editorial in my local paper bemoaned that the writer was saddened that his friend died of AIDS in 1994 just before the advent of drugs that would have allowed him to lead a long and healthy life. The editorial advocated that the readers should take advantage of free HIV screening so they could begin treatment early.
I wrote in a letter to the editor that while the new meds allow people with HIV/AIDS to live longer, that life is by no means healthy and that avoiding HIV infection was the best course. That editorial is indicative of what I see as a glossing over of the serious nature of having HIV and taking anti-HIV meds for long periods of time that is practiced by the medical profession.
I am 54, have been HIV positive for 25 years, and have taken anti-HIV meds for 15 years. During my time with HIV, I have been hospitalized three times, once with PCP, another time with an allergic reaction to Bactrim, and once with Viread related pancreatitis. I have taken AZT, epivir, zerit, DDC, DDI, sustiva, videx, viread, truvada, norvir, atazanavir, prezista, and issentress. Many of those meds had very unpleasant side effects – AZT made me nauseous and caused me to feel as if I was full of ants and sustiva gave me horrible nightmares and daytime delusions. All of the meds made me seriously nauseous and led to chronic acid reflux disorder.
I read over the years that doctors were concerned that the HIV meds would lead to disorders of the pancreatic mitochondria causing early onset diabetes and dementia. I watched as my blood tests reported that I was anemic and had liver dysfunction; due I was told by my doctor as a result of the HIV meds.
I am angry that my doctors never impressed upon me that an undetectable viral load does not mean that you do not have significant levels of HIV in you system, particularly in non-blood sources such as lymphatic and spinal fluid. The result of this low level infection is that year on year your brain and nervous system are exposed to the toxic effects of HIV. This low level infection in my case led over 25 years to debilitating cognitive and behavior disorders such that I cannot work. I am unable to follow conversations, multi-task, drive a car, control my anger and I am chronically depressed.
HIV has also caused painful neuropathy in my hands, feet and legs which has caused me to need a wheelchair to get around. I also have early onset osteoarthritis and osteoporosis. I take pain relievers for the osteoarthritis which further exacerbates my nausea.
As I told the writer of the editorial, HIV is not for sissies."
Source: thebody.com/cgi-bin/bbs/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=living&Number=246518&page=1&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

Good grief, Eddy,

You make me feel like I've got my kidneys where my brain should be.

My brain? When God was passing out brains, I thought he/she said 'trains', and I said:

"I don't want any!"

(Atlanta) Circumcision, which has helped prevent AIDS among heterosexual men in Africa, doesn’t help protect gay men from the virus, according to the largest U.S. study to look at the question.

Circumcision “is not considered beneficial” in stopping the spread of HIV through gay sex, said Dr. Peter Kilmarx, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, the CDC is still considering recommending it for other groups, including baby boys and high-risk heterosexual men.

UNAIDS and other international health organizations promote circumcision, the cutting away of the foreskin, as an important strategy for reducing the spread of the AIDS virus. There hasn’t been the same kind of push for circumcision in the United States.

For one thing, nearly 80 percent of American men are already circumcised - a much higher proportion than most other countries. Worldwide, the male circumcision rate is estimated at about 30 percent.

Also, while HIV spreads primarily through heterosexual sex in Africa and some other parts of the world, in the United States it has mainly infected gay men. Only about 4 percent of U.S. men are gay, according to preliminary CDC estimates released at the conference this week. But they account for more than half of the new HIV infections each year.

Previous research has suggested circumcision doesn’t make a difference when anal sex is involved. The latest study, by CDC researchers, looked at nearly 4,900 men who had anal sex with an HIV-infected partner and found the infection rate, about 3.5 percent, was approximately the same whether the men were circumcised or not.

Government recommendations on circumcision are still being written and may not be final until next year, following public comment. CDC doctors and many experts believe there is a good argument for recommending that baby boys and heterosexual men at a higher risk for HIV be circumcised.

The definition of “high risk” is still being discussed, said Kilmarx, chief of the epidemiology branch in the CDC’s HIV division.

Circumcision is a sensitive issue laden with cultural and religious meaning, particularly when babies are involved, Kilmarx acknowledged.

“It’s seen by many as more than just as medical procedure,” he said. It’s possible the government won’t make recommendations but instead will promote an education campaign for parents about the procedure’s potential benefits and risks, he added.

The prospect of the government promoting circumcision of infants has already drawn fire from an advocacy group called Intact America. The organization, based in Tarrytown, N.Y., parked a motorized billboard this week outside the hotel hosting the HIV conference, displaying the message: “Tell the CDC that circumcising babies doesn’t prevent HIV.”

“It’s removing healthy, functioning, sexual and protective tissue from a person who cannot consent. You’re mutilating a child,” said Georgeanne Chapin, the group’s executive director.

From Oxford Mail:

Burka robbers raid jewellery shop

SUMMER CHEESSECAKE.
Serves 6.    Suitable for vegetarians.
Preperation time 30 minutes.


Ingredients:
200g Milk Chocolate digestive biscuits.
100g Butter.
400g soft cheese.
250g fresh strawberries.

Method:
1. Line the base of a 20cm round loose-bottom cake tin withwith greaseproof paper. Crush the biscuits into fine crumbs. Melt the butter and stir in the biscuits . Press into the base of the tin. Chill while preparing the filling.
2. Break 175g   of the chocolate into squares and put in a bowl over a pan of simmering water (don't allow the boal to touch the water). Cool slightly , then add the soft cheese and the and the lime juice. Beat together.
3. fold in half the strawberries, spread over the base and chill for two hours. remove from the tinand topwith strawberries and shavings from the remaining chocolate.

Eat drink and be cool with this CHEESE CAKE....from Burty!

Today in History - Sept. 26, 2009

1888 - T.S. ELIOT, poet, dramatist and literary critic, born in St. Louis MO (d: 1965) He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. He wrote the poems "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock", The Waste Land, "The Hollow Men", "Ash Wednesday", and Four Quartets; the plays Murder in the Cathedral and The Cocktail Party; and the essay "Tradition and the Individual Talent". Eliot was born an American, moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 (at the age of 25), and became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39. When he was living in Paris before WWI, he met a French medical student named Jean Verdenal in the Luxembourg Gardens. Werdenal was waving a branch of lilac at the time. Verdenal died in the Dardanelles in 1915. Eliot dedicated Prufrock to him, adding a epigraph from Dante's Purgatory: "Now can you understand the quantity of love that warms me to you, so that I forget out vanity, and treat the shadows like the real thing."

This is all we know about his friendship with the young medical student, and all we are likely to know. Other considerations: Eliot had a horror of the female body, he feared it, and thought it "smelled." He had an abhorrence of sex in general, though as a boy, he masturbated guiltily and wrote a magnificently sensuous poem about it…an excerpt here:

Then he knew that he had been a fish
With slippery white belly held tight in his own fingers
Writhing in his own clutch, his ancient beauty
Caught fast in the pink rips of his new beauty.

Eliot obsessed with the thought that every man wanted to kill a woman, and without irony, extended his fantasy to all men. His first marriage was miserable in that his wife laughed in his face at the very idea of sleeping with him. These are the general facts, and various interpretations are offered by various biographers. Thus far, interpretations have run in two obvious directions. Of course he was completely asexual. Of course he was a latent homosexual. Either seems unfair in some way; he was simply T.S. Eliot. Perhaps the first queer?

1. Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism after he left Downing Street was driven by his wife, Cherie, he said during a visit to Italy.

By Nick Squires in Rimini
Published: 5:50PM BST 28 Aug 2009

Tony Blair's conversion to Catholicism after he left Downing Street was driven by his wife, Cherie, he said during a visit to Italy. Photo: PAUL GROVER

Converting from the Anglican Church to Catholicism two years ago was like "coming home", he said.

"Frankly, this all began with my wife. I began to go to Mass and we went together. We could have gone to the Anglican or Catholic church - guess who won?

"Ever since I began preparations to become a Catholic, I felt I was coming home; and this is now where my heart is, where I know I belong," Mr Blair told the Communion and Liberation meeting in the Adriatic resort of Rimini.

The former prime minister, who now runs the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, switched to Catholicism soon after leaving office two years ago. His wife and children were already Catholic.

Last December, in an interview with the BBC, he said he had delayed his conversion until after he had resigned because to have converted while in power would have made him Britain's first Catholic prime minister and would have caused a "palaver".

He said he feared that discussing his religious beliefs while still in Downing Street would have led to him being branded a "nutter".

Mr Blair received a standing ovation for his speech in Rimini, during which he said he was "humbled" to address such an eminent gathering because he was a "very new entrant" to the Catholic Church.

In a speech which touched on issues ranging from faith and globalisation to the rise of China, Mr Blair also talked ruefully about his time as prime minister.

"I began hoping to please all of the people all of the time, and ended wondering if I was pleasing any of the people any of the time. But that's another story."

He alluded to how his life had changed since no longer being prime minister, describing how he had been asked to talk at the end of a Mass he had attended in Tokyo recently.

"For the first time in a long while I was able to stand up and tell a crowd of Japanese, 'I'm Tony and I'm from London'." He told the meeting that coming to Italy was always a pleasure.

"It is here in this country that I have spent many happy times; and where 30 years ago, almost to the day, I proposed to my wife and three decades and four children later, I at least am still pleased to recall the memory," he said.

Cherie Blair has denied being the driving force behind her husband's conversion to Roman Catholicism just days after he said she had been the reason for his faith swap.

By Nick Pisa in Rome
Published: 6:45AM BST 07 Sep 2009

Cherie Blair: 'I am very happy to not have been in Downing Street when Carla Bruni visited' Photo: GETTY

The former Prime Minister switched from Church of England to Catholicism two years ago when his time as Prime Minister ended because he felt he could not convert while in office.

Last week speaking at a religious convention he had described the move as "coming home" and said "this is now where my heart is".

He told the Communion and Liberation meeting in the Italian seaside resort of Rimini: "Frankly this all began with my wife. I began to go to Mass and we went together. We could have gone to an Anglican or Catholic church – guess who won?" But in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica when asked about his comments Mrs Blair said: "He did it of his own free will – I did not force him but obviously I was delighted.

"Certainly it was an important part of my life – I have always been a fervent Catholic."

In her wide ranging interview Mrs Blair also touched on her time in Downing Street and said she was delighted to no longer be there – she said: "Believe me I am very happy to not have been in Downing Street when Carla Bruni came on an official visit.

"At least they couldn't compare our bottoms – I could never have competed with a former model."

Speaking of her husband's relationship with his successor Gordon Brown, Mrs Blair said: "Tony and Gordon entered Parliament at the same time and from here was born a healthy rivalry between the two but also a close friendship.

"Gordon with his analytical mentality taught my husband how to write a press statement, while probably absorbing Tony's charisma and rhetoric. Both have a fine sense of humour."

Mrs Blair added that he main memories of life in Downing Street were her two visits to the Vatican where she met first Pope John Paul II and later Pope Benedict XVI.

She said:"Walking through the corridors of the Vatican dressed in black and admiring the works of art was a memorable experience. During our first visit Leo, who was two, sat on the Pope's chair much to the amusement of Pope John Paul.

"Then there was the Clinton visit during which Stevie Wonder sang 'My Cherie Amour' to me." When asked about her worst experience Mrs Blair said:"My miscarriage. Two years after Leo was born at 47 I was newly pregnant and I lost the baby.

"We were about to go on holiday and Alistair Campbell called and asked us for a statement to explain why the holiday had been cancelled.

"We had to tell the truth because otherwise there would have been speculation that we were divorcing."

Mrs Blair also revealed how her children had been taunted at school over the Iraq war and said:"They had some really difficult moments at school, when after troops were sent to Iraq everybody called their father a liar."

Mrs Blair also spoke of her husband's possible leadership of the European Union and said: "The post doesn't properly exist yet, so I can only answer that when it has been created.

"For the moment I see Tony very little, he spends at least ten days a month in the Middle East in his position as mediator."

She also spoke of the moment in 2004 when Gordon Brown tried to take over from her husband and said: "In effect 2004 was a little premature for Tony to leave Downing Street – there were a lot of questions pending, such as Iraq and it was down to him to resolve them."

When asked if she thought Labour could win next year's General Election, Mrs Blair told La Repubblica:"Certainly – I'm an optimist. I will personally get involved in the electoral campaign."

Speaking of domestic life Mrs Blair said: "Tony is a lawyer as well but he doesn't really have any desire to hear about my cases, which are above all complicated.

"Both my children and I gave him our opinions on matters of State but obviously it was always him who took the political decisions."

Jihad Watch Fitzgerald:

Why is Turkey in NATO?

Quaere: Why is Turkey in NATO?

Is Turkish membership of any value, or is it a danger to the effectiveness of NATO as that organization must necessarily turn its attention away from Russia to the threat from Islam worldwide, and especially to the threat, foreign and domestic, that Muslims who take Islam seriously pose to the West and to the West's most important military alliance, NATO?

Of what conceivable good, of what possible benefit, is Turkish membership in NATO to the other members of NATO? And why should Turkey be a member, and not instead a country that is of far greater value militarily and morally to that very West that NATO was originally established to protect -- that is, Israel?
Some still choose to describe Turkey, quite backdatedly (it's not the 1950s or the 1960s anymore) as "our NATO ally Turkey." Turkey is indeed a member of NATO. But the main reason for NATO's existence in the past was the military threat posed by the Soviet Union, and Turkey, which was happy to collaborate in efforts to contain its ancient enemy Russia, was a good ally. The Soviet Union was for the Turks their hereditary enemy, Russia, under a slightly different guise, and Turkey could and did offer troops (for the Korean War), and listening posts and airbases.

But who could imagine Recep Tayyip Erdogan offering bases today, or any kind of military aid, that would be part of an Infidel coalition against what would be understood to be representatives of Islam? Turkey today is in the control of a regime that is intent on undoing Kemalism and determined to make Turkey firmly part of the Muslim world -- even if, at the same time, the regime of Erdogan is outraged by any attempts by Europeans to keep Turkey out of the E.U.

How good an ally can Turkey be, with Islam in the ascendant and Kemalism under constant siege, if the main purpose of NATO is now or soon will be to protect Western Europe and preserve the Western alliance from those who, within Europe, are either Muslims or collaborators with Muslims? It makes no sense for the members of NATO to commit themselves to treating an attack on Turkey as an attack on themselves, when the Cold War is over, and a re-islamizing Turkey makes friends with Iran and Syria. Do the other members of NATO think that the Turkish military would come to their aid if any Infidel nation-state in NATO were attacked, from within or without, by Muslim forces? But NATO members are already under attack by the Muslims in their midst, who now constitute a grave national security risk, one at least as great as that posed by domestic sympathizers with the Soviet Union during the Cold War. And they are under attack by Muslim forces, too, in Afghanistan.

Turkey is part of the very Camp of Islam that is the most dangerous threat to the West today, and to what is the Western military alliance, NATO. It makes no sense to keep this Turkey in NATO. It is no longer the Turkey that once was a fit member of NATO under different circumstances, with a different enemy.

It is especially maddening that Turkey, but not Israel, is a member of NATO. Israel is not merely an unshakable part of the West, but the Western world is, as all educated people used to know, not conceivable without the inheritance from Israel as from Greece and Rome. And now that Israel was re-established, after nearly 2000 years, in the ancient Jewish homeland, its disappearance would whet Arab and Muslim appetites, and would a deal a great blow -- understood by so few -- to the morale and to the continued existence of the advanced West, which is the world's best hope for a semi-decent model of existence.

As long as Erdogan and his associates, and those who effectively support them -- including Fethulen Gulen, spreading Islam through his "educational" efforts around the globe from the safety of suburban Virginia -- are intent on removing the constraints on Islam that Ataturk (intent on saving Turkey from Islam and the effects of Islam) so carefully and systematically placed on it, there is no point in thinking of Turkey as more than part, a non-Arab part, a partly-secularised part, but still a part, of the Camp of Islam. It should be treated most warily.

Why do we hate? Academics seek answer in new field
By The Associated Press
11.19.2009 3:03pm EST
(Spokane, Washington)

Why did the Nazis hate the Jews? Why did the Hutus hate the Tutsis?

Hate is everywhere, but the fundamental question of why one person can hate another has never been adequately studied, contends Jim Mohr of Gonzaga University, who is developing a new academic field of hate studies.

The goal is to explain a condition that has plagued humanity since one caveman looked askance at another.

“What makes hate tick?” Mohr, director of Gonzaga’s Institute for Action Against Hate, wondered. “How can we stop it?”

Gonzaga founded the institute a decade ago after some black law students received threatening letters. It has since started a Journal of Hate Studies, hosted a conference and offered its first class on hatred last spring.

The hope is that other universities will follow suit, said Ken Stern of the American Jewish Committee in New York, who has been involved in the effort. “We wanted to approach hate more intelligently,” he said.

Stern, who has spent 20 years battling anti-Semitism, said the need for hate studies became obvious when people started fighting groups like the Aryan Nations, which once flourished in this area. Opponents galvanized against the Aryans, but didn’t really know how best to fight them, Stern said.

“We were flying by the seat of our pants,” he said. “There was no testable theory.”

There is not even a good definition of hate, Stern contends.

Philosophers have offered numerous definitions: Rene Descartes said hate was the urge to withdraw from something that is thought bad. Aristotle saw hate as the incurable desire to annihilate an object.

In psychology, Sigmund Freud defined hate as an ego state that wishes to destroy the source of its unhappiness.

Gonzaga, a Jesuit university best known for its basketball team, offered a class on the subject taught by five professors from different disciplines.

Student Kayla De Los Reyes was in that class, and said the information both horrified her and gave her hope.

“Hate is something that is part of the human emotional makeup,” she said. “Everyone feels it at one point or another. You have to learn to control it.”

The goal is to create an academic home where a variety of disciplines, including history, psychology, religious studies, anthropology and political science, can be brought together to focus on hate. It’s the same sort of effort that led to the creation of disciplines like black studies or women’s studies, Mohr said.

Such academic efforts are not without controversy. Some skeptics fear they are little more than attacks on the dominant power structure.

“This stuff tends to be one dimensional and presumes the guilt of an archetypal white male,” said Glenn Ricketts, spokesman for the National Association of Scholars.

Indeed, De Los Reyes said one of the more interesting topics in the class involved white privilege. The most recent Journal of Hate Studies contained articles about oppression of gays, Nazi experiments on Jews, the local battle against Aryan Nations, and Muslim support for suicide bombings.

Heather Veeder, a graduate assistant for the institute, said the organization has an important mission.

“Hate thrives in areas not illuminated by education,” she said.

But Stern said it is too easy to blame ignorance for hate. People can have plenty of knowledge about something and still hate it, he said. The problem is when one person or group can separate another person or group from their humanity, thinking of them as an “other,” Stern said.

“We dehumanize them and justify violence against them,” Stern said.

There is no simple answer to why people hate, Mohr said. Hate can be sparked by greed, or fear, or a tribe bonding together in opposition to another. People looking to belong will hate others to fit into a group, he said.

With all the political conflict in the United States, it can seem that hate is on the rise. Some people seem to hate President Obama. Some hate Muslims. Some hate homosexuals.

But Mohr said he wouldn’t pursue a field of hate studies if he didn’t think something positive could be achieved.

“We can change,” Mohr said. “There has to be hope

Although the campaign is coming to an end, our work to end violence against women continues in our work to promote women’s rights as human rights throughout all areas of our human rights campaigning. In particular, Amnesty International will highlight the gender specific experiences of poverty, and the relationship between gender, poverty and violence through the Demand Dignity Campaign.

Thank you to everyone who participated in the SVAW campaign, and took action in solidarity with women human rights defenders around the world to call for justice and an end to discrimination and violence. Your work has made a difference, and we will continue to build on that experience as we move forward in our human rights work.

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