Coulter to Bloomberg: Sodas? What about bathhouses?
Ann Coulter raised an excellent issue on Geraldo at Large when, in a debate with a liberal supporter of New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s self-declared war on personal bad health habits, she asked in so many words, “Why doesn’t he close down the gay bathhouses?”
For those of you out here in flyover country who may be unfamiliar with bi-coastal sexual practices, gay bathhouses are gathering places for men who are seeking anonymous, promiscuous, and frequently public sex with like-minded men. Such facilities first became more widely known to unsophisticated provincials back in the eighties with the rise of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. As it turned out, these bathhouses were the primary incubators for HIV. Following that discovery, many of them closed down when fearful gays quit patronizing them and government health departments increased their oversight. Within the gay community there was even a term for the relationship between bathhouses and AIDS: the Bathhouse Phenomenon.
Apparently, as treatment regimens for HIV infection became more efficacious, and a diagnosis of being HIV-positive was no longer a sentence of certain death, gay men began reverting to old habits, and the bathhouses returned in even greater numbers. A quick Google search shows fourteen operating in New York City, and that’s only the ones willing to be advertised on that particular gay website.
So, to get back to Ann’s question, just why is Mayor Bloomberg so hell-bent on protecting his constituents from their bad sugar consumption habits and potential obesity and diabetes, while apparently allowing these bathhouses to operate openly? Why, indeed, when they are known to be incubators of the deadly HIV and many of their patrons to be carriers of not just that virus, but also many other sexually transmitted diseases that are of significant public concern? Just this past week, the NYC Health Department issued a warning about a potential meningitis epidemic where gay men and promiscuous sexual activities appear to be the vectors.
So Ann’s question is legitimate to ask of Bloomberg. It is neither anti-gay nor unfair. It is recognition of a simple truth: liberalism tends to target disfavored practices while ignoring others possibly more injurious, even though those ignored may result in grievous illness and even death for their favored liberal adherents. Mayor Bloomberg is a glaring example of such biased selection even at a critical time when the rate of infection of the dreaded HIV virus appears to be on the rise among gay men. Where is Nanny Bloomberg’s stern admonition to those gay men whose behaviors spread deadly disease? Where’s the ban on the bathhouses where such behaviors take place? Where’s his concern for the costs of their very expensive, possibly lifelong treatments to the rest of us?
An epidemic to concern us all is the growing rate of delusional hypocrisy among liberals.
Crossposted at American Thinker
Category: Liberals suck
The problem stems from asking that question of one of the Protected Classes.
If Nanny Bloomberg did that, he would lose many of his supporters. He doesn’t see a concern with real health issues.
If an effective quarantine had been established in the first few years of the HIV epidemic, millions of people would probably still be alive who would have escaped infection. When the possibility was discussed, it devolved into a “civil rights” issue, and disappeared. NOT the civil rights of the masses of people at risk, mind you; the civil rights of those already infected. The disease carriers’ rights were put before the healthy, and millions have died as a result.
Care to guess who was waving the largest banner in the argument? The ACLU.
I have long since rejected the argument that any politician gives a damn about anyone except himself and whoever he thinks is “valuable.” The rest of us can rot.
Cigarettes Bad; Pot Good
Christianity Bad; Muslim Good
Large-Sodas Bad; Large Coffees Good
Legal Gun Ownership Bad; Being a Victim Good
Do as I say; not as I do.
F’n hypocrites.
Probably should have made that:
Legal Gun Ownership Bad; Armed Security Details for the Rich Good
Do as I say; not as I do.
F’n hypocrites.
You just now figuring that out about the left, Gravel? (smile)
@6 Hondo
Not really.
Gravel: didn’t really think you were just now figuring that out, amigo – just making a joke. (smile)
Poetrooper-
You know WAAAYYYYY more about gay social mores than I’m comfortable with…
Who you been talkin’ to?
Mr. Wolf, I lived in California for over a decade. Believe me, you learn things you really wish you were still ignorant about.
NR-
I imagine it would be way more than I’d like to know, even if all I did was pass by one of those parades in San Fran…
@9 Wolf-I knew some turkey would bring that up and I guess you’re the turkey. It’s called RESEARCH and it can be done by anyone with a modicum of intelligence and a computer. Why do you think all the hyperlinks are in the article? Duh?
By the way, one link that I forgot to include and can’t find now is that 43% of gay men with AIDS end up on Medicaid because the treatment is so expensive.
So we’re all, as taxpayers, even those ignorant of gay social mores like you, Wolf, paying for the results of those gay social mores, or rather, lack thereof. If Bloomberg wants to tackle behavioral issues that cost society unnecessarily, it’s this one.
I do not live in New York.
Thank God for small favors.
Poetrooper, I think he was just pulling your chain,
Here’s some numbers–and even a link!
Cost of HIV drugs per month? $300 – $3000
http://aids.about.com/od/hivmedicationfactsheets/a/drugcost.htm
We need to evolve to a responsibility based system. Stop worrying about limiting people’s action….and stop paying for their results from the tax payer coffers.
Want to get obese and lazy? Want to play fast and loose in the world of STDs? Knock yourself out…..and pay for the consequences from your own wallet.
@16 was me.
@14 Twist-I know and I’m just pulling his. Better to be called a Turkey than insinuated a closet fag though, wouldn’t you agree?
Especially on this forum.
@16 CI-Precisely but that is the problem. People don’t want to accept the consequences of their behaviors nor do most have the ability to pay for the medical consequences. The poor have the worst consumption habits and yet there is no way they can pay for their health care. That is why as taxpayers we function as a huge insurance company, pooling our funds and spreading the costs.
Bad health habits that are grounded in ignorance or poverty don’t give me near the heartburn that those growing out of totally unnecessary, willful, reckless, serial sodomy do.
CI: It’s not that easy. It would be nice if it were. Situation: Local ER. A heavily obese man is brought in with shortness of breath, possible heart attack. He’s barely conscious, he’s turning blue, and he’s having severe chest pain. Nobody in that ER is going to start asking questions about whether he has insurance or not, and they damn sure aren’t going to point a finger at him and say, “Look at you, you cow! You brought this on yourself. Get out!” What do they do? They try to save his life. Of course. And when they find out that he doesn’t have insurance, or he’s on Medicaid, and they have to write most of it off?
That’s the way the game is played. And that’s why we get to foot the bill.
Poetrooper – I would caveat your statement by saying that in today’s society, ignorance is no longer an excuse for poor health habits. Information is easily accessible.
CI: if there’s no longer an excuse for ignorance, then please explain DU. (smile)
I’m going to put this in here.
“If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a conservative at forty you have no brain.” Sir Winston Churchill
‘Nuff said.
A reader of this same article over at American Thinker just suggested that AT readers Google the term, “Bugchasing.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugchasing
I just did and if you didn’t think this bathhouse behavior was sick and reckless before, you will see that some of these people are intentionally seeking infection.
And yet, want to bet that they won’t still seek medical treatment at society’s expense? Remember, it’s this kind of aberrant behavior that liberals and the Democrat party defend.
Actually, PT’s post is very timely.
GO 1C is about to be let. It will make Bloomie blush…
@22 – I’ve undergone the Churchill cycle, but unfortunately he failed to cover Libertarianism. I know, the term wasn’t really coined then….but he also might not have foreseen the utter corruption and statism of the two major American political parties.
Times have changed, CI, and things are changing very quickly now. I think all this public dialog is the best thing that could possibly happen.
When someone says the truly dumbass things that Bloomerbutt says, and does the asinine things that he does, if you think that people DON’T pay attention you’re making a mistake.
When has there ever been a period in history that such “stupid is as stupid does/says” stuff went around so quickly and couldn’t be taken back, until now?
When Bloomerbatshitcrazy says ‘millions of Americans’, he has no statistics to back up what he says, and anyone of us can come up with statistics to rebut his statements. You can only classify what he says/does as brain-dead stupidity.
Maybe we’re in the tear-down and redo stage, or maybe we’re coming to it. Whichever it is, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but I think something good will come out of this.
I don’t disagree, but the fact remain that ‘change’ can be either good or bad, depending on the mind of the beholder.
When an elected representative states that it’s “sometimes necessary to infringe on the freedom of citizens”, it’s most certainly in diametric opposition to the change that maintains liberty.
@27, agreed, CI. And it’s diametrically opposed to what the Constitution says. Doomberg knows what’s best. Just ask him, he’ll tell you.
Put a soda fountain in the Gay Bath houses. Bloomberg would close them down quicker than a cat can lick it’s own ass.
New York Subway Sign: PLEASE PRACTICE SAFE SODA
@27 – If the only thing you can focus on is what that jackass said, and pay no attention to the reaction you yourselves and other people are having to it, then you’re missing the point.
Even David Gregory seemed somewhat taken aback by it, and he’s the one who interviewed Bloomberg on Meet the Press. Bloomberg was so anxious to promote his own agenda that he kept interrupting Gregory. That should tell you something all by itself. I’d bet money that if Gregory had told him he was wrong or way out of line, Bloomberg would have exploded at him.
The point is that Bloomberg represents exactly the kind of government that nobody wants except the moochers, and they ARE in the minority, no matter how loud they yell.
#21 Hondo,
I’m glad my mouth was empty.
No need to close down bath houses because women don’t feed their babies formula there.
OF COURSE Nanny Bloomberg isn’t gonna say one thing about the foo-foo bathhouses, that would PO a voting bloc that he and his fellow libs are dedicated to kissing up to!
Well it’s okay to single out fatties for abuse in our “tolerant” society, but you better not dare suggest anything that offends a gay citizen because that’s “hate” speech….
Just like it’s okay to insult Christians, but Muslims get a free pass and everyone defends their idiotic reactions to a criticism of their little man in the sky….you can assassinate the character of every Catholic because some priests raped kids…but if you attempt to make a similar analogy to the folks who killed a cartoonist over a cartoon you are a monster….
F#ck these liberal j3rkoffs, I am sick and tired of all of their PC bullsh1t while they do more to destroy life and liberty than any conservative ever did.
Don’t you dare point out that liberal policy has resulted in a virtual genocide of black babies over the last 40 years, that a population group that is about 14% of the US population is responsible for fully one third of abortions thanks to liberal policy initiatives, or that we have aborted over 40 years close to 50 million Americans of all races…no heaven forbid you point that out because you are limiting what again? Oh right a woman’s choice….so liberals would have you not deny a woman her right to choose to end a life prior to birth but some fat 4ss can’t buy a 24 oz. soda?
Give me a f#cking break, liberals can kiss my 4ss since at bath houses they apparently already kiss each others…
So . . .when are you going to tell us how you really feel, VOV? (smile)
@36 err, sorry…probably should not have had that second energy drink only 90 minutes after the first at my age and all…
(chuckling) No apology needed, VOV. I agree with you completely. You’re just not quite usually that blunt. (smile)
Whoa, whoa! No need to go crazy there! Sometimes a bathhouse is just a bathhouse. Don’t mess with my Korean spa baths.