)OCCOM BILL wrote:I lend little weight to the polls between Obama/Clinton Vs. McCain at this moment in time. Currently; huge percentages of their respective followers are saying they will vote for McCain if their primary choice doesn't get the nod. I don't believe for one moment these percentages are accurate. After a cooling off period; these disgruntled souls will have to face the reality that Obama/Clinton's politics are largely the same when compared to McCain exclusively. ....
I don't entirely follow your argument here. The poll results showing similar and close results in a McCain vs Obama race and a McCail vs Clinton race are suspect for many reasons - the basic uncertainty attending poll sampling; the six months remaining before the election; and other factors. I don't deny that the elimination of one Democrat from the field might alter the results of a similar poll for the November result, but I can find no basis for predicting what that change might be -- up? or down?
Where'd I lose you George? There are lots of hard-core Hillary fans like BPB that are polling as if it's a three 3 way race, my candidate or bust mentality. But, for every one as illogical as the Bear is promising to be; I'd guess there are 3 or 4 that recognize the simple fact that Obama's and Hillary's platforms are 95% similar (they are both Democrats, after all). Surely you'd agree that at least some percentage of the "I'll vote for McCain out of spite" crowd will come to their senses, yes? On the flip side of the coin; no Obama backer is currently claiming he'll back McCain if Obama wins (there is no other side to this particular coin).teenyboone wrote:Here's one link to the theory that aids was created in a laboratory:
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Urgent_Action/AIDS_Contract.html
and this one, for starters!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS_conspiracy_theories
There are others, but this is but 2 of many. I don't make this stuff up!
I investigated this years ago, after hearing a lecture during a Black History Month lecture, given by Dick Gregory, in the late 80's. I had never heard of this theory, until HE mentioned it in his talk on how Blacks should empower and safeguard themselves against government intrusion.
It had long been thought that Blacks were being used for illegal experiments, for different diseases, but when the cover was blown off the Iexperiment at Tuskegee Institute, in the labs at Aberdeen, Md., where most clandestine experiments are funded by the US government, on germ warfare and other ways, like the gas, Sarrin, (don't know if this is the correct spelling), was used in the subways of NY, unbeknownst to the users of the subway system. Now, I can only write on what I've heard and investigated through this internet.
I don't work for, are is interested in, clandestine operations of the US government, but much has been chronicled over the decades on similar operations. The stories haven't varied much over the decades, but new information on whether it was a lone Frenchmen, who had sex in Africa, heaven forbid, somehow got transferred to african monkeys, go figure, and wound up in the US! Sounded farfetched to me, like a crazed person wrote this crap. With me, anything's possible, as far as I know.
If a man can go to the moon, the sky's the limit, so I don't discount anything. A lot of undercover experimentations are done with our tax dollars and we are lulled into a sense of security by catch phrases! I an still a sucker for American jingoisms, because I want to believe that this is basically a good country, with good people in it; that everyone, given a decent chance, can make it here! That we are inherently free, whatever free, is. I was taught to love and honor this country! A country that has treated my people to a history of enslavement! Freedom for everyone, but US! So, if I hear theories of this type, why should I sit on my hands?
Okay, here's 2 links. Don't know if they are true or fiction. Believe what you want, all you "doubting Thomases", out there!
I note your links (actually read most of the ramblings in the first one), with their now rather thoroughly discredited suggestions that the HIV virus was created by the U.S. and, probably deliberately, released to wipe out Africans, homosexuals and drug users, and your ultimate protestations that, as a "sucker for American jingoisms", you "still want to believe this is basically a good country".
Mostly I am curious to know why you posted it, and, in particular why you posted it here on a thread related to Barak Obama's candidacy for president. This canard is, of course one of several that the Rev. Wright asserted or merely suggested (depending on which of his repeated statements you use) perhaps in support of his Black interpretation of Christianity. It is also something that Barak Obama specifically rejected. Its repetition was apparently one of the reasons Obama later disassociated himself from Rev Wright, saying that he (Wright) was no longer acting as the the person he had previously known.
I can partly understand and perhaps even sympathize with your doubts and fears on a subject like this, but can't figure out what might be your purpose in posting it. Are you suggesting that Obama was wrong (or even being deceptive) in his rejection of this slander and others Wright has made? Alternatively, are you suggesting that Wright may be right ( :wink: ) and Obama wrong? In either case this would not appear to influence a reader to further support Obama.
Parenthetically, your second link pointed to a much more clearly verifiable government misdeed that really did lead to the needless death and infection of hundreds of thousands of African people - that is the denial, indifference and inaction (including even rejection of generally accepted and proven low cost public health measures) of the ANC Government of South Africa in dealing with the early HIV epidemic there. Neighboring and distant African countries like Botswana and Uganda sharply reduced their infection rates using the recommended measures, while the South African government did nothing, and even belittled the motives of the international; groups recommending them and the effectiveness of the measures themselves. The result of course is one of the worlds highest HIV infection rates and the continuing early deaths of a fairly substantial fraction of the population.
