Alternate Reality

A senior Vatican spokesman, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, told a BBC Radio audience in October that condoms are useless in preventing the spread of HIV (because the virus seeps through the porous latex) and therefore should not be used, even in AIDS-wracked Africa, where as much as 20 percent of the population is reportedly infected. The World Health Organization denounced Trujillo's claim but said it had heard similar Catholic Church messages in Asia and Latin America. [The Guardian, 10-9-03]

In October, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration's inspector general released questions from the final exam for airport screeners, designed to measure the crucial, intensive training that the screeners had just completed. One question: "How do threats get on board an aircraft?" The supposedly challenging answers: "a. In carry-on bags; b. In checked-in bags; c. In another person's bag; d. All of the above." If that is too difficult, the inspector general also complained that 22 of the exam's 25 questions were repeats from previous exams and that some test-takers were briefed in advance. [New York Times, 10-9-03]


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More Things to Worry About
In September, customs officials in Amsterdam stopped a Nigerian man trying to enter the Netherlands with a suitcase containing 1,500 to 2,000 baboon noses (which some people use in traditional healing, but which were in an advanced state of putridness). And in Jupiter, Fla., in October, yet another part-time professional clown pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography; David Deyo, 43, a Presbyterian Sunday school teacher, appeared often in the community as "Noodles the Clown." [Reuters, 9-4-03] [WKMG-TV (Orlando), 10-9-03]



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Government in Action

According to a lawsuit by paraplegic Steve Winter, 41, of Mesa, Ariz. (reported in September by the Arizona Republic), the Veterans Administration reneged on a 1983 promise that if he agreed to let them test electrode therapy on him (to stimulate his neurological system), and the process failed, doctors would remove the implanted electrodes. While the therapy started well, the effects wore off after a few years, and Winter, exasperated, left the program. He claims the VA basically disavowed him for the next 15 years, refusing even to examine him to find the remainder of the 180 electrodes, which pose serious risks of infections, which already have necessitated 30 surgeries in the last 10 years. [Arizona Republic, 9-17-03] News of the Weird!

1,500 to 2,000 baboon noses? Very weird!

I can understand the Catholic position , they like little boys and condoms decrease the feeling!

She's started already...

Bwahahahahahahh! And it'll never stop!

I think that the people from the church who decided to release that statement about condoms are going to burn in hell for causing untold devastation in Africa and other 3 world countries.

The had good intentions but you know what they say about those.

The are only causing the spread of AIDS.