Today, December 1, is my Birthday.

It also happens to be World AIDS Day. World AIDS day is, according to the official website:

World AIDS Day, 1 December is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS. This year, it’s up to you, me and us to stop the spread of HIV and end prejudice.

This sounds noble enough, but on occasions where the AIDSs drums are taken out and pounded, I feel it always good to have some perspective. AIDS, while a killer, is not what the media would want us to believe. There are still far, far worse killers which do not get a tenth of the airtime and media attention which is given to AIDS.

First, in the US, it is important to be aware that AIDS is not even on the top 10 list of the most deadly diseases in the USA. In 2003 (see note at the end), AIDS accounted for 15,798 deaths. During that same year, Heart Disease accounted for 685,089 deaths. That is less that 3%. Even the last place on the top 10 list had over two times the deaths as those by aids. With the increase in AIDS drug quality and availability, that gape is widening.

(top 10 source, AIDS source)

Add to this the fact that, by the last CDC/NIH funding data I could find, AIDS receives over 20 times the funding of the number one killer, Heart Disease.

But lets be fair, it is World AIDS day after all. AID is a global problem, so shoudl be viewed also from that perspective. The picture is not quite so stark there, but is is still unbalanced.

(source)

Note the above that AIDS dose round out the top 5 causes of death globally. However, note that the number one cause of death still occurs almost 3 times more often. The number two cause of death globally is still more than twice as likely to occur.

Lastly, no conservative blog would be complete without a few comments on AIDS transition. The number one cause of AIDS transmission is still male to male sexual contact, and second is inter-venous drug use. The stats I have are from mostly development countries and I have no data to confirm or deny that this trend continues in some of the worst hit areas, such as Africa. I will leave the conclusions and commentary on these facts to you.

Is AIDS a terrible and devastating disease? Most certainly, but lets not forget that AIDS is not our biggest problems nationally or globally. It is not the only treatable and preventable disease, and it should never be permitted to eclipse our view of the real killers in the world.

Note: For the ease of comparison, the numbers I sited in the charts above are all from 2003. While I had plenty of US data for 2004 and even some for 2005 I could not find comparative data for the world at large. So, to avoid confusion I went with the most recent year in which I had a complete, global, set of data.

The following is an interesting lesson for the Westboro Hat Cult.

Hat Tip: Stop the ACLU

When Mark Twain said “Truth is stranger than fiction” I wonder if he had something like this in mind:

A grandmother found with a trunkful of marijuana was convicted of drug running in what prosecutors said was an attempt to earn cash for a bingo habit.

State troopers found 10 bundles of pot totaling 214 pounds hidden in Leticia Villareal Garcia’s car trunk last year when they stopped her outside Bisbee, in far southeastern Arizona.

Villareal, 61, told jurors before they convicted her Thursday that her only regular income was a $275 monthly welfare check, but she frequently played bingo and occasionally won thousands of dollars.

Prosecutor Doyle Johnstun said the game was Villareal’s undoing.

“People who play bingo almost every night of the week end up losing in the long run,” Johnstun told jurors. “The underlying issue is that she’s got a bingo problem, which explains why an otherwise nice person might get sucked into something like this.”

No comment.

H/T to Cox and Forkum

Ok, its official, we live in a crazy country populated with those who have only the most tenuous contact with relatity. We just need to decide who is the more crazy: the wacko’s who bring suits like this, or the cities who bows to them.

This from The Conservative Voice:

Warwick, New York has made the decision to ban Santa Claus from its annual “Breakfast with Santa” scheduled for Saturday at one of the city’s elementary schools. Instead, it is now calling the gathering a “Winter Wonderland Breakfast”.

One parent, who refused to be named, complained that Santa Claus is a “religious figure”. When confronted as to how the students would take this news, School Superintendent Dr. Frank Greenhall said: “If you make it an issue, the kids will make it an issue.”

Santa is a religious figure? And just which religion would that be? I sure can find no mention of him in my Bible, and I am sure I would have heard if he was in the Koran or Torah. Unless we decide the Capitalism is a religion (Hmmm - a sequel for Ann Coulters Godless?) then I think it is fair to say this parent, who was to ashamed to be named, has had too much eggnog.

This is an interesting lesson in the direction of political correctness in this country. If we can honestly ban Santa from a “Santa’s Breakfast” then there is little hope for us. That the Warwick school board has decided to, without even token resistance, take this action just because a parent was offended is a sad testimony for those that people Warwick is entrusting with the education of their children.

Wake up people, we do not have a constitutional right to not be offended. If anything, we have a right to offend others. Foolishness like this continues only because there are people like the ACLU and clueless judicial appointees who seem bent on perpetuating it. This is the politics of preposterous!

Bring back Santa. And while we are at it, lets bring back the Nativity, the Baby Jesus, the Salvation Army, and our right to eat ourselves to death on candy canes.

The following bit of news comes from the Washington post:

t was a solemn pledge, repeated by Democratic leaders and candidates over and over: If elected to the majority in Congress, Democrats would implement all of the recommendations of the bipartisan commission that examined the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

But with control of Congress now secured, Democratic leaders have decided for now against implementing the one measure that would affect them most directly: a wholesale reorganization of Congress to improve oversight and funding of the nation’s intelligence agencies. Instead, Democratic leaders may create a panel to look at the issue and produce recommendations, according to congressional aides and lawmakers.

[…]

It may seem like a minor matter, but members of the commission say Congress’s failure to change itself is anything but inconsequential. In 2004, the commission urged Congress to grant the House and Senate intelligence committees the power not only to oversee the nation’s intelligence agencies but also to fund them and shape intelligence policy. The intelligence committees’ gains would come at the expense of the armed services committees and the appropriations panels’ defense subcommittees. Powerful lawmakers on those panels would have to give up prized legislative turf.

But the commission was unequivocal about the need.

“Of all our recommendations, strengthening congressional oversight may be among the most difficult and important,” the panel wrote. “So long as oversight is governed by current congressional rules and resolutions, we believe the American people will not get the security they want and need.”

I must be getting cynical in my old age, but I saw this one coming. In fact, it was so glaring I am surprised the Democrats didn’t take carve out here during the elections. I would have also thought, after the “drain the pond” comment, that they would have passed on the controversy surrounding Aclee hastings and John Murtha, but they plowed ahead anyway.

I guess it goes to show you that there is no promise so ridged, no commitment so firm that Democrats will not set it aside for political expediency.

Cartoon by Chip Bok (H/T to Discerning Texan)

Also Reporting:
Captains Quarters

It seems that the US now has smoking gun (literally) evidence that Iran is supporting the insurgency in Iraq.

[sarcasm]I was so shocked![/sarcasm]

ABC News Reports:

U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006.

This suggests, say the sources, that the material is going directly from Iranian factories to Shia militias, rather than taking a roundabout path through the black market. “There is no way this could be done without (Iranian) government approval,” says a senior official.

It casts the letter from Ahmadinejad in a new light now, dosn’t it? It also makes the calls from the Iraq PM, the pending Iraq Commission Report, and the Democrats who called for us to approach Iran to help in Iraq look pretty foolish.

If this is a surprise to anyone who is not career politician then I highly recommend a career in politics.

Iran is, and always will be, an enemy of the United States and Israel. They only way to change that is to wipe them off the map, which would likely have the added bonus of inducing a heart attack in the lefties. Ahmadinejad is evil, knows nothing of moderation, loyalty, or honor.

Also Reporting:
Hot Air
Captains Quarters
Bill’s Bites
Wake Up America
Go Pundit Go

When reading the following release from the Alliance Defence Fund, the old proverb “There is no Honor among Thieves” comes to mind. Apparently Honor, as in honoring a contract, is a wholly religions concept- which both these Atheists and the City of Detroit are woefully lacking.

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a motion Monday in federal court to intervene on behalf of an inner-city Detroit church hung out to dry due to the actions of the American Atheists.

The city had asked the church and other downtown establishments to alter the appearance of their properties to improve the city’s image for the upcoming Super Bowl in exchange for being reimbursed for half the expense. But because the atheist group has now sued the city, the city has been forced to withhold reimbursement from the church, even though the church has already secured a loan for and completed the requested improvements.

What a sad, sad state of affairs. I am more disapointed in Detroit that I am in the Atheists, however. We can expect Atheist to do what they have always complained that we Christions do - push there religious views on others. The city of Detroit however, has no excuse. This is not about establishment, it is about landscaping. The church took specific steps to beautify its exterior as requested by the city, and now the city has been scared into not living up to its end of the deal. The activites of the city of Detroit are deplorable, dishonest, and callous. The Atheists are just being atheists.

In January, St. John’s Episcopal Church entered into a contract with the City of Detroit Development Authority to “enhance the visual appearance of street facing building facades and parking lot edges, prevent blight, attract businesses, and complement infrastructure.” The contract provided that the DDA would reimburse the church for 50 percent of the expenditures–up to $180,000–for the improvements.

After the church borrowed $180,000 to complete the improvements, they submitted the documents required for payment to the DDA, which, under the terms of the contract, was to reimburse the church within 30 days. American Atheists filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging that the city violated the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution by entering into the contract with the church.

This is the part that I cannot fathom. What dose “enhancing the visual appearance” have to do with the Establishment clause? The City of Detroit is taking steps to beautify its city and nothing more. If my last trip to Detroit is a far reference, the city needs some enhancing of its visual appearance. This is a frivolous lawsuit, and shame on Detroit for not seeing that. Further shame on Detroit for not standing by its commitments. Any fall-out of this lawsuit should for the city alone, and dose not change the city’s contract and commitment to local business.

The case over the Mt. Soledad Cross has waged on for 17 years now. The core case being a push by the ACLU to remove the Mt. Soledad Cross under the establishment clause of the US constitution. Well today the ACLU and supporters of the Crosses removal took a blow from a California appeals court.

The case in front of the appeals court was more of an indirect attack. Last year California voters voted, by an overwhelmingly majority of over 75%, to transfer the war memorial to the Federal Government division of Parks and Wildlife where it was protected from establishment clause attacks.

This case reversed a lower court decision, and reversed a previous award of almost $300,000 in attorney fees.

From a UPI article:

A California appeals court ruled Thursday that a referendum transferring the land beneath a memorial cross to federal ownership is constitutional.

The legal battle over the cross, which began in 1989, is likely to move to federal court, the San Diego Union Tribune reported. The fight has outlasted the plaintiff, Philip Paulson, a combat veteran and avowed atheist who died last month.

The cross, a memorial to veterans, was erected on publicly owned land on Mount Soledad in San Diego. In 2005, a referendum transferring the land from the city to the U.S. government passed by a wide margin.

The appeals court reversed a lower court ruling that the referendum violated the California constitution’s ban on government involvement in religion.

“Given the language of Proposition A and the official ballot argument in favor of the proposition, we cannot conclude the individuals who voted for the proposition acted in order to establish the Christian religion or favor that religion,” Associate Justice Patricia Benke wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel.

It remains disappointing that this case ever reached this far. This case is a testament to misapplication of the establishment clause, an unfortunate slight to the soldiers to whom the memorial is intended to honor.

I find it Ironic that the case outlived the plaintiff in the case - I wonder what he thinks now?

It is safe to assume that this is not over, and I do see the case proceeding to a Federal level. Hopefully it will reach the Supreme Court before the Democrats are able to weaken the conservative slant of the high court.

Also Reporting:
Stop The ACLU
Go Pundit Go