Er, this is a total side issue, but read it anyway

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: I know it's beside the point, but you do know it's virtually impossible to catch HIV that way? Your chances of dying from choking on a hamburger are much, much higher. : Unless the virus gets into your bloodstream, you are 100% safe. You could actually drink a cup of the blood of a person with full-blown AIDS and your chances of catching the disease from it are, I think, a million to one. The virus is not very strong, the heat, enzymes and acids in your saliva and stomach will zap the virus long before it enters the blood. : I don't have any Aids fact sheets with me, but as far as I know, the same goes for swallowing semen, though you can catch other non-fatal sex diseases that way. : Really, the only ways to catch AIDS are through infected needles and sexual fluids. Incidentally, a man is 250 times less likely to catch HIV from vaginal sex with a woman than a woman is at risk of catching it from an infected man. : Gay men are prone because the chafing of anal sex often causes small wounds which come in contact with semen and allow the semen-carried virus to enter the bloodstream. : Anyway, it's safe to approach a bleeding Hiv carrier, unless you're wounded too, or you intend to inject yourself with his blood. : I don't trust my facts, so do check this out. There should be plenty of websites and message boards on the topic. : : So, in the past, you used to be compassionate? Then, through several personal experiences where all being compassionate did for you was get you hurt, you consciously decided against compassion? : : If no one cared about people that were in pain and hurting, or animals in need of shelter and food, then how would anyone who NEEDED any type of help get it? There are SOME people who just can't do it themselves, who need that "pity", as you call it, to survive. : : Now, I don't see anything wrong with living a selfish life. That's all anyone does anyway. Our lives revolve around ourselves, and that's naturally selfish. : : But, I think it shows tremendous...something...when people take the chance of getting bitten by that scared little starving puppy in order to save its life and teach it not to be afraid. Haven't you ever been in a position where you really needed help? Help emotionally, or physically, or whatever else? : : Say you, Joe, got shot in the streets one rainy night. You were bleeding uncontrollably, and had no way of helping yourself. There was no hospital around, no phone, no people, you couldn't walk, couldn't talk...the bullet took too much out of you...you couldn't do anything. A person walks by, sees you lying there in the street, bleeding all over yourself, and has to decide to help you, or not to help you. That person's brother died because he, too, tried to help a bleeding victim lying in the street. The victim had HIV, and the virus was passed onto him and he died within a year. : : Should this person thinking about helping you go through with it? Should he hold onto his selfishness and leave you there to die, because at least, for awhile, he'd be guarenteed to live? Or, should he take a risk and save your life because he holds in himself basic human compassion? : : Selfishly, he should leave. Compassionately, he should help. Is one better than the other? Well, the selfish decision is more logical. The compassionate decision is illogical. But which one is MORE human? Think about that. : : If everyone decided to be "logical", in the VERY technical sense of the word, if there were no compassion, if even one person gives up on helping others and making this god-awful planet a better place, it will eventually catch on and the "norm" will be to live totally selfish lives. : : I mean, to give up FEELING for others just so you don't get a fucking scratch from someone who needs your help, because they've lost the ability to help themselves... : : Sad. : : -Emily : :

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