Wikileaks and the wet spot.

The Guy Who Kicked Hornets' Nests Meets His Bareback Waterloo?

In a so-called newsgathering environment where the sexual shenanigans of Tiger Woods dominated several info-tainment cycles for several weeks, it's no surprise this story is emerging as the latest frisson du jour.

Many progressives are obsessed with this event, some even declaring that the fingerprints of the Pentagon, the CIA and perhaps M16 are all over this foiled attempt to smear Julian Assange and thus discredit Wikileaks.

Others are dissecting the institutionalized environment of sexual politics and gender-stalinism that apparently monitors all carnal interactions in Sweden.

Far from seeing in this imbroglio Andrea Dworkin's posthumous reach, I suspect that sexuality, like pretty much everything else in Sweden, has been codified in the most minute detail by the hygienic IKEA mindset.

The (possibly) bare facts of the event:

There's a tumescent cyber-mob of Assange groupies who use any and every web-based instrument to follow him and drool over his every move.

Assange stopped in Stockholm pour y mouiller l'ancre and in time-honoured tradition availed himself of the bounty of female pulchritude flinging itself at his feet, his head or some anatomical target in between.

There were sexual interludes in multitudes. Assange left town, still very much The Lone Ranger.

There was disappointment, and perhaps even a desire for revenge. Given that one of the complainants once blogged a manifesto for scorned lovers - her blueprint on how to wreak revenge - the result was predictable.

The method of inquiring about a possible sexual assault, the timing and the unofficial release of information regarding charges of Assange's alleged criminal behaviour are malodorous.

The contention at the crux of the alleged "sexual molestation" would be Assange eschewed the use of a condom.

Two things: If the conspiracy theorists are correct, and "They" are out to neutralize Assange, it would seem that his Achilles' ... ah, ... heel is now common knowledge.

And notwithstanding the immeasurable and heroic contributions Assange has made by developing Wikileaks and facilitating the dissemination of critical documents, he appears to be a common garden variety cad - et profiteur - when it comes to the nature of his interactions with women.

This contemporary Peter Pan fits the profile of a risk-chasing adrenaline junkie. With regard to his sexual practices, he would not be a role model to emulate. Sexually communicated diseases are on the rise and some variants on the original diseases have become resistant to antibiotic therapy.

For many die-hard admirers of Assange, his (rumoured*) cavalier attitude towards responsible, safe-sex choices only serves to heighten his allure and his charm.

This reasoned observation by arborman posted at Bread'n'Roses says it best:

"Whatever the truth of the case, none of it takes away from the importance of Wikileaks and what it is doing. And sadly, every single time anyone ever mentions anything that has been released by Wikileaks, the crazies will immediately mention the rape in Sweden that didn't happen. And the first sentence of my post will be endlessly repeated, to no avail.

Of course I hope he didn't do anything untoward. I find it unlikely that he would make such a colossal mistake, now of all times, without having done so in the past. But I also find it worrisome how quickly people are eviscerating the accusers."

Update: Assange and his supporters respond to the media event, as does the media.

* This is still speculative.

Pope Maledict Calls The Kettle Black.

Faithful as ever to the paternalizing approach he has perfected when speaking about the African continent, Pope Maledict condescends to telling its people what is wrong with them.

Benedict praised Africa's rich cultural and spiritual treasures, saying they were the "spiritual lung" for a world increasingly in a crisis of faith and hope. But he said Africa had also been afflicted by materialism – the "toxic spiritual garbage" exported by developed countries.

"In this sense, colonialism – while finished in the political sphere – hasn't really ended," he said, adding that as a result Africa was also at risk of another "virus": religious fundamentalism. Groups claiming to be from religious backgrounds are spreading across the continent.

"They are doing so in the name of God, but with a logic that is opposed to divine logic: teaching and working not with love and respect for freedom, but with intolerance and violence," he said. ...

The church is growing enormously in Africa; between 1978 and 2007, the number of Catholics nearly trebled, from 55 million to 146 million. Vatican statistics show that more than 17% of Africa's population is Catholic.

But at the same time, the region's poverty, conflicts and Aids have posed challenges. Among the thorny issues bishops may raise at the synod is the Vatican's ban on condom use. Many say condoms could help prevent the spread of Aids.

Let me repeat what Pope Maledict said about the groups who also trading in the business of religion and competing with the Vatican Taliban, as they try to indoctrinate and convert MASSIVE numbers of people to their own brand of doctrine in Africa.

"They are doing so in the name of God, but with a logic that is opposed to divine logic: teaching and working not with love and respect for freedom, but with intolerance and violence."

That reminds me of something .... and oh yes, this.

A Red-Ribboned Clockwork.

For decades, yes decades now, the progressive, the non-bigoted, the non-fundamentally religious and the compassionate have been advocating for services and support for people living with HIV/AIDS as well as educational campaigns that present truthful information.

The regressive/conservative, bigoted, fundamentally religious and patronizing view is that the disease is a scourge sent from heaven and that it’s gawd’s punishment for enjoying unmarried and/or non-breeding sex.

Thus it’s probably not difficult to guess on which side of the divide might be found the minds who created this particular advertisement for a public campaign.

"In the highly-sexualised clip … a couple undress and begin to make love in a dimly-lit bedroom.

But what appears to be a typical, if steamy, advert for perfume or underwear takes a macabre twist when the camera pans to man's face at the moment of climax - revealing him to be Adolf Hitler.

The commercial has been released to coincide with 2009 World Aids Day, but established HIV/Aids charities have distanced themselves from its message, saying that it could make life more difficult for sufferers."

It’s unfortunate that the group decided to produce an erotically-charged advertisement, which could have effectively communicated a sex-positive and responsible message for condom use, in such a repulsive way.

Such an approach, known to those familiar with B.F.Skinner’s research on psychological imprinting and the dubious results obtained from using negative reinforcement aka punishment, reminds me of the last act in the film A Clockwork Orange.

Sometimes you find allies in the darndest places.

Allies are individuals or organizations that may not share the same vision or raison d'être yet choose to join forces to further a cause or to advocate for specific rights.

The humorous graphic above is from a clickable link I found on a Blogging Tory's site. I suspect that I wouldn't agree with many of Ranting Owl's opinions, but I was delighted to see the above.

From a March 18 2009 media release at Catholics4life:

Pope Not Infallible on Condoms

The Vatican has yet again been forced to revise statements made by Pope Benedict XVI as he embarked on a foreign trip. En route to Cameroon on March 17, the pope claimed that condom use would "aggravate the problem" of HIV. A transcript of the pope's comments on the Vatican's Web site altered the comment to suggest that condoms "risked" aggravating the problem.

Jon O'Brien, president of Catholics for Choice, welcomed the change as a sign that the pope is not infallible on this issue and is willing to acknowledge his mistakes. "The pope has admitted that he is unsure whether condoms can help alleviate the spread of HIV. Where there is doubt there is freedom and Catholics can make up their own minds whether they use condoms or not. Indeed, the vast majority of Catholics has already made this call and use condoms to protect themselves and their partners against STIs, including HIV.

"We call on the pope to revisit the teaching on condoms with a view to lifting the ban at the earliest possible moment. In his review, he should include experts who are unequivocal that condoms can help prevent the spread of HIV, like UNAIDS, the World Health Organization and HIV/AIDS advocacy organizations around the world."

"It took the church hierarchy 359 years to stop continuing the line taken by their predecessors on Galileo. We hope that this error does not take so long to change."

Yes. Still relevant today as it was last March.

Oh, and .... SHRIEEEK!!!

His Poopiness Will Hate This

It's still early days but this looks very promising for women's health -- combined contraception and protection against HIV, controlled by women.

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College have published results showing that a new contraceptive device may also effectively block the transmission of the HIV virus. Findings show that the device prevents infection by the HIV virus in laboratory testing. The promising results are published in the most recent issue of the journal AIDS.

The new device is a vaginal ring that releases multiple types of non-hormonal agents and microbicides, which would prevent conception as well as sexually transmitted HIV infection.

What a boon this would be for sex workers and women in high-HIV areas in Asia and Africa. I hope it will be cheap too.

And I wonder how long it will take before His Poopiness declares that this too, like condoms, helps spread AIDS.

Religion never at fault; women's deaths are collateral damage.

Two young women were crushed to death in a crowded frenzy to enter Coqueiros Stadium in Luanda where the Pope was about to have a meeting with Angolan youths as Benedict XVI pontificated about the evils of systemic corruption, witchcraft and discrimination against women.

There's something about that in the Gospels, is there not?

... And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ... Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye, Matthew 7:1-5.

Absent a sense of irony, it seems the Pope floats in a bubble of sublime abstractions and religious ideology, isolated and protected from the harsh realities that Catholic Church followers confront every day.

... at a meeting with female Catholic groups ... He further emphasised “think about those lands where poverty abounds, zones devastated by war, in many tragic situations resulting or not from forced immigration, almost always women keep human dignity intact, they defend the family and uphold the cultural and religious values”.

Thus the top Catholic Church patriarch can patronize and deign to recognize women's contribution ... but upholds the ecclesiastical opinion that only male power reigns supreme in the clergy.

This imperious personal and Catholic Church position has deadly consequences for women in Africa.

The United Nations magazine, Africa Renewal, quotes an expert who participated in a UN survey of AIDS' impact on young African women. She described the conditions under which most young African women contract AIDS as follows:

"[They] are not in a position to abstain. They are not in a position to demand faithfulness of their partners. In many cases they are in fact faithful, but are being infected by unfaithful partners...A woman who is a victim of violence or the fear of violence is not going to negotiate anything, let alone fidelity or condom use ... Her main objective is to get through the day without being beaten up."

The Pope is correct in saying that AIDS cannot be eradicated by condom use alone. Clearly, when young women are raped or otherwise forced into sex against their will, the men abusing them will not commit to use condoms. But instead of offering these women useless verbiage, the Pope could have offered the vast resources of the Church to distribute anti-viral foam to young married women in AIDS-infested areas. Foam is the only form of AIDS prevention that young wives completely control and can use without their husbands' permission.

From here.

The photo-montage is from this blog.

This is how the Pope's declarations harm women and children.

This needs to be said: the Pope's declarations harm women and children. An African mother who is a practicing Catholic faces the following dilemna: If she requests that her husband use a condom when having conjugal relations, she is going against the Pope's edict, even if she is trying to protect herself and any potential child that she might carry to term from HIV infection. If her husband is a devout Catholic, he may refuse to use a condom.

If this woman decides to not allow sexual intercourse, her husband may beat her, sexually assault her or abandon her and their children. Her priest, if he obeys the Pope's edict, will consider that she sinned.

But if she becomes infected with HIV because she submitted to sex without protection, who will care and take responsibility for her children when she dies of AIDS? The Catholic Church?

Some countries were quick to take action, in response to the Pope's medieval ideology.

Spain said Wednesday it will send one million condoms to Africa to fight the spread of AIDS, one day after Pope Benedict XVI's controversial remarks that they aggravated efforts to battle the disease. "The objective is to advance the prevention of this epidemic, which affects 33 million people all over the world, two-thirds of them in Africa," the health ministry said in a statement. "Condoms have been demonstrated to be a necessary element in prevention policies and an efficient barrier against the virus, according to laboratory studies," it added.

Good for Spain, I hope that other Catholic countries follow its lead in demonstrating compassion for Africans as well as support for medical science.

'Insensitive, Incomprehensible and Lacking in Mercy'

From women's rights flowing from washing machines, to excommunicating doctors who saved the life of a raped nine-year-old, to undermining decades of AIDS work in Africa, the Catholic Church is on a heckuva roll.

A mess of world leaders, scientists, and AIDS activists are all just seething with anti-Catholic bigotry.

Even the New York Times saw fit to slap His Poopiness:

Pope Benedict XVI has every right to express his opposition to the use of condoms on moral grounds, in accordance with the official stance of the Roman Catholic Church. But he deserves no credence when he distorts scientific findings about the value of condoms in slowing the spread of the AIDS virus.

But this has really got to smart:

There were also some signs of dissent within the Church.

"Anyone who has AIDS and is sexually active, anyone who seeks multiple partners, must protect others and themselves," said Hans-Jochen Jaschke, Roman Catholic auxiliary bishop of Hamburg in the pope's native Germany.

To my mind, Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said it best (on the excommunication fiasco):

"Unfortunately the credibility of our teaching took a blow as it appeared, in the eyes of many, to be insensitive, incomprehensible and lacking mercy."

Spreading dogma and ignorance.

It's what the Catholic Church does best. And its chief propagandist strikes again.

The Pope today reignited the controversy over the Catholic church's stance on condom use as he made his first trip to Africa.

How did health agencies respond? Graciously, considering the continued harm such attitudes and values promote.

About 22 million people in sub-Saharan Africa are infected with HIV, according to UNAIDS. In 2007, three-quarters of all AIDS deaths worldwide were there, as well as two-thirds of all people living with HIV.

Rebecca Hodes with the Treatment Action Campaign in South Africa said if the pope is serious about preventing new HIV infections, he will focus on promoting wide access to condoms and spreading information on how best to use them. “Instead, his opposition to condoms conveys that religious dogma is more important to him than the lives of Africans,” said Ms. Hodes, director of policy, communication and research for the action campaign.

While she said the pope is correct that condoms are not the sole solution to Africa's AIDS epidemic, she said they are one of the very few HIV prevention mechanisms proven to work. Even some priests and nuns working with those living with HIV/AIDS question the church's opposition to condoms amid the pandemic ravaging Africa.

Is it any surprise that the word 'pontificate' has come to mean 'to express opinions or judgments in a pompous way'?