iwearyourshirt.com: The Dumbest Idea Since Unsliced Bread

More and more lately we here at People Liking People keep hearing about some new and exciting website called iwearyourshirt.com. This "buzz" is obviously contrived and the result of some sort of viral marketing campaign by the guys running it because there's no way this thing is ever going to get off the ground. I guess we'll give them a little credit for trying, but they'd be better off trying something more worthwhile.

iwearyourshirt.com has a handful of employees and it's their job to wear the shirts. They're hoping that small businesses trying to get their name out will be willing to fork over cash for their t-shirt wearers to wear their logo for a day, or however many days the company pays for. The way they price their t-shirt wearing service is pretty screwy: starting on January 1st of the year it cost $5, January 2nd it's $10, January 3rd it's $15, and the cost keeps going up in increments of $5 every day all the way to December 31 where it's $1,825. Apparently these folks don't just wear the shirt of your choice, they'll be posting youtube clips, blogging about their sponsors and various attention whoring activities.

Here's why the business model is full of fail:

It won't work financially for the employees. The amount of money earned by one of these shirt wearing guys is without a doubt going to end up being less $$ a year than your average McDonalds employee. Why don't you just get a job and make a real living?

There's nothing special about some random guy wearing your t-shirt. How about I just wear my own shirt for free?

A small handful of people wearing your logo on their shirt for a couple days out of a year, in a sea of 300+ million people will have absolutely no effect on anyone's bottom line or exposure and the return on investment will be pretty close to zero. You'd get much more mileage out of it if you just went around handing your business logo t-shirts out to random people. At least then there's a good chance they'll continue to wear that shirt for months to come. Whereas with these pricks, they wear it for that day you paid for and then throw it away afterward.

Their pricing scheme doesn't take into account any type of supply & demand. They set the price in stone for the whole year, sit back and hope people are willing to pay those rates. In the earlier months of the year they'll be selling themselves short at prices under $100, even if people are willing to pay much more. And in the last couple months they may have a hard time finding anyone willing to pay over $1,000.

Lastly, the #1 reason this will fail:



This is the guy that'll be wearing the shirts. I could see a company actually paying him NOT to wear their logo around, fearing consumers would associate this clown with their company and products.

Bottom line: stop whoring yourselves out and get a real job. This one isn't going to work out anyway.

I personally like this line here in their how-it-works section:

2011 days are sold at +$5 per day.Just like 2009 and 2010, the price will start small and increase daily. January 1 is $5, January 2 is $10, January 3 is $15 and the price continues to increase by $5 each day until December 31, 2011.

No, really guys! This is serious, see? We did the same thing in 2009 and 2010. This isn't just like some make believe thing we just came up with out of our ass!

Dustin M. Dominiak (douchebag alert)

We kept getting requests left and right in our e-mail inbox for information on some douchebag named Dustin Dominiak. Apparently this guy had a chance to bang U.S. Senate candidate in Delaware Christine O'Donnell a couple years ago but supposedly he pussed out after catching a case of teh gay and spent the whole night just laying there sobbing and never got any. Now he's trying to make money off the story, and since Christine O'Donnell's candidacy puts her in high profile status, it's likely that he will get some sort of payout from it. Unfortunately no amount of money could make up for the public embarrassment this guy is about to endure once his friends and family members realize what a douche nozzle he is.

There's a lot of rumors going on, not just ones involving O'Donnell but ones that get pretty sick and twisted. We hope that these are simply rumors and until we can confirm them we won't be posting them.

• Dustin Dominiak: 28 years old
  
• Used to live at 5550 Ridge Ave.
  Philadelphia, PA 19128
• We're told he now lives in Albion, Michigan.
  
• Has also lived in Dowagiac, Michigan; Bensalem, Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Screen names he has used online: the_buckle_man400001 , ddominiak
• Family members: Dennis Mark Dominiak, Donna Kay Dominiak (parents?)
  
• Attended Albion College
• Financial analyst
• Sports Better, Gambler (maybe someone should contact the IRS)
  
• Facebook Link (he's since pussed out and taken it down)
• Twitter Link
• Peekyou.com Profile (the most complete profile of him out there)
  

Quotes from Dustin himself:

"Growing up my dad was a Michigan fan and Grandma was a Notre Dame fan so they always bet the game for fun, like $20, so I wasn't sheltered from gambling." "After college, I just wanted to make money and thought I saw some opportunity."

Back in January of this year he got in a wreck in Edwardsburg Michigan. From Nixle.com:

Ontwa Twp - Edwardsburg police are releasing information about a recent Crash activity near US-12 and Adamsville Road.

A crash occured as US-12 and Adamsville on Saturday morning where one person was taken to the South Bend Memorial Hospital by the Edwardsburg Ambulance Serivce. The Edwarddsburg Fire Department assisted at the scene with extrication of the injured party. Police advise that a Misty Calhoun 27yrs of Elkhart was making a left turn onto Adamsville Road from US-12 when her vehicle was struck by a vehicle driven by a Dustin Dominiak also 27 years of age from Dowagiac. Misty Calhoun was injured and intoxicants were not a factor in the crash in which both party's were wearing seat belts.

If you have information to report that could help lead to an arrest in this crime/crime activity, please contact police.

Looks like his he's got about as much driving ability as he does performance in the sack. If anyone has additional information you'd like to add, feel free to make a comment or send an e-mail to peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com.

-
Additional info from majorwager.com, this was written back in January 2010:

Dustin is a 27-year-old financial analyst in Philadelphia who has a head for numbers. "I always had an easy time remembering them in calculations," he says. "Mining data and data manipulation is my strong suit." And I don't think a single person tried to beat him up when he told me that, either.

Dustin has also spent time as an auditor and working for the Fed in Philly. But, since he graduated from Albion College in Michigan, not too far from where he grew up in Dowagiac in the southwest part of the state, he's been playing with point spreads.

Update: This isn't 100% confirmed yet but it appears that his mother Donna Dominiak works at the Cass County Sheriff's Office in Michigan.

Donna Dominiak (52)
321 M-62 North
Cassopolis, MI 49031
Phone: 269-445-1201

Her e-mail address is donnado@cassco.org, feel free to send her some fan mail.

We believe this is his dad, he runs a hog farm in Dowagiac named "DD Hog Farm":

Dennis Dominiak (53)
61686 Anderson Rd.
Dowagiac, MI 49047
Phone: 616-684-3812

People Liking People Can No Longer Support Jack Conway

Folks, we've recently learned of some information that has us angry, disappointed, confused and humiliated all at the same time. Have you ever had someone pull a quick prank on you by pulling your pants down at work but it was the one day you forgot to wear underwear? That's kind of how we feel right now. Now, let me begin by saying that we weren't really the biggest Jack Conway fans to begin with, our long time readers know this. We were pretty much just pulling for him because it was better than having a republican elected to the KY U.S. Senate seat.

Our readers will remember that the one thing that made us feel a little resistant to Jack Conway is that his big claim to fame was that he was tough on drugs. It's like dude, you're a democrat, you're supposed to be liberal about drug use and be pushing for the legalization of marijuana. What in the hell are you doing trying to lead the charge clamping down on drug use? Everyone knows the war on drugs has been a complete failure. Everyone except for Jack Conway... at least we thought.

It turns out that all this time Jack's brother Matthew Conway has been trafficking drugs for years in Kentucky and has gotten away with it several times due to him and Jack's influence and power in the state. Keep in mind that Matthew Conway is a prosecuting attorney and Jack Conway is the Attorney General of KY.

From Salem-News.com:

Jack Conway's brother, Matthew Conway, a prosecuting attorney for Jefferson County has been under investigation twice for possible drug use or drug trafficking. And that Louisville, KY narcotics detectives -- Ronald Russ and Scott Wilson -- tipped off Matt Conway both times that he was under investigation -- and the investigation had been compromised. Matt Conway and the two detectives who tipped him off have all given misleading and/or false statements — Matt Conway doing so under oath.

Detective Wilson told Louisville attorney Scott Roby about the allegations and Roby notified Matt Conway. Wilson, who is a longtime acquaintance of Conway, also let the attorney read the complaint against him and warned him that he wanted to search his home. When he did search -- two days later, nothing incriminating was found.

Now, we're all for trafficking and doing drugs here at People Liking People. But to partake in that and then prosecute everyone else that's doing it too? That's just wrong. They're basically killing off all the competition so the Conways can have a drug cartel monopoly. And monopolies go against everything America is supposed to stand for. Conway's been pro-drug all this time and has simply used his position to as Attorney General to make sure no other drug dealers got a share of him and his brother Matt's profits. We're pro-business here but this is beyond shady and back in the old days these Conway brothers would have been shot and killed by now. Of course we'd never advocate violence here and these are different times we're living in now, but the fact remains that Jack Conway and his brother got where they are today in politics only so they could be the drug king pins of their state. There's absolutely no way we could ever vote for someone like Rand Paul so we'll probably be sitting this one out. In the future we'll try to be a little bit more careful about the candidates we support.

Person of the Day: Lauren Valle

We're very pleased to announce today's person of the day: Moveon.org activist Lauren Valle. She's taking a lot of flack lately for staging an altercation with Rand Paul supporters outside right before Jack Conway and Paul's debate Monday night. But we here at People Liking People find it nothing short of genius.

Who supports Rand Paul for U.S. Senate? The teabaggers. And if there's one thing we can all say with certainty about the teabaggers, it's that they're all paranoid conspiracy theorists. They feel they're up against the machine and all forces are working against them. There's constant talk and worry of agent provocateurs, false flag operations, and party infiltration among them. So what better way to troll the hell out of them? Have someone show up disguised with a wig, claim to be from a republican organization that's obviously made up, start behaving erratically and begin charging towards their candidate to "give them an award". And that's exactly what Lauren Valle did and it the teabaggers took her bait hook line and sinker. With the story making the rounds all across the country with video of the incident and everyone thinking that Rand Paul supporters are batshit insane, I'm not sure we could have pulled it off this well if we tried. Everything just aligned perfectly.

From TPM.com:

According to the Louisville Courier Journal, "Lauren Valle of MoveOn.org approached Paul and tried to give him an "employee of the month award" from Republicorp...a fake business MoveOn created to symbolize what it says is the merger of the GOP and business interests controlling political speech."

Folks this is exactly what it means to be a real American Patriot (not the fake teabagger kind). You do whatever you have to do in politics, if that means disguising yourself and baiting the opposition, then you do it. Even if it means doing something illegal, it doesn't matter. You do what has to be done and you move on to the next task. A small crime today is nothing compared to the historic political implications of your heroic actions, and we encourage everyone out there to continue thinking up ideas like this to keep us moving forward. This stunt had the creative genius behind it but what made it work was Lauren Valle's flawless execution. We hope to continue seeing more work like this from Lauren and are looking forward to others finding inspiration from her and doing their part as well in their own ways.

If you've got any creative ideas for political stunts and would like to share them, feel free to make a comment or e-mail us at peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com. If we were all just a little bit more like Lauren Valle the world would be a much better place.

Jack Conway for US Senate: What were they thinking?

We've been following the Senate races here at People Liking People and there's one in particular that has us scratching our heads. Kentucky has presented us with a great opportunity to gain a democratic seat in the Senate, as the Republican incumbent Jim Bunning decided not to run for re-election due to his unfavorable chances to win. It's pretty typical that unless someone is retiring due to old age or moving on to another position, the incumbent runs for re-election. In most cases it's an easy win, you've already earned the trust of the voters before and you're able to pull in a lot of support from all the relationships you've built while in office. So when someone decides not to run again because they're afraid of losing, it's a strong sign that they royally screwed up and the other party should have a really good chance to use this to their advantage.

Unfortunately this probably won't be the case for the election in KY because for some reason unbeknownst to us, the state democratic party propped up this absolute clown by the name of Jack Conway. This should be the easiest win in the history of Senatorial campaigns because the Republican candidate is Rand Paul, a guy who's never held a political position in his life and has only got as far has he has riding on his dad's name. Jack Conway is currently the attorney general of Kentucky and we're not quite sure how much pole he had to suck to get where he is today but unfortunately that's just not going to cut it when you're running for Senate in KY. This isn't San Fransisco we're talking about here.

The issues of the day are unemployment, the economy, health care, and our war activity in Iraq and Afghanistan. What Jack Conway's big issue? Combatting drug use. I swear every time we turn on a debate with Jack Conway and Rand Paul or see him being interviewed, he constantly brings up how we need to crack down on drug use. What is this, the mid 1980s? Right now we're at a time where support for the legalization of marijuana is higher than it's ever been before and everyone has realized that the drug war has been a complete failure, and this jackass decides that's going to be his big platform?

What were they thinking letting this ass clown run for Senate? Really guys? This is the best you could come up with, in a crucial race where there was a real possibility that we could switch the seat from R to D? Most people wouldn't trust Jack Conway to get their order right at McDonalds, let alone be elected a U.S. Senator. This was a golden opportunity and we completely dropped the ball. I wouldn't be surprised if whoever encouraged Jack Conway to run and made him think he actually had a chance is actually a republican infiltrator. Please get your shit together guys, this douche needs to be completely kicked out of the party.

By the way, is it just us or does this guy Conway give anyone else that creepy Ted Haggard type vibe?

Chile's Miners Ask Media to Leave Them Alone

Here's an article from Bloomberg.com about the mine workers asking for some breathing room from the media after their big rescue. Understandable, of course. From our skeptical position though, these excerpts are worth noting:

The miners plan to write a book about their experience and have agreed to keep details of their ordeal among themselves for now, Illanes said. “I am party to the idea of maintaining this as a state secret,” he said.

Or... it could be that it would be disastrous for all 33 miners to start talking to the media and NOT BE ABLE TO KEEP THE SAME STORY STRAIGHT. State secret, eh?

So far, the rescued miners haven’t told the full story of the first 17 days before they were discovered alive. The men made a pact about what they will make public and what will remain private, said Illanes.

Ah yes... this "pact" we keep hearing about.

Chile Miners Rescue Skepticism Update

On October 13th we expressed skepticism in the official story of the 33 Chilean miners that were rescued after being trapped underground for 69 days. Since then we've gone back and fourth, from thinking it's a hoax to giving the story the benefit of the doubt and figuring it probably did happen as they say. There's just a couple things I want to mention now that it's been a few days:

• Conspiracy theories are starting to pop up all over the place drawing connections from the miner rescue to Masonic imagery. The # of miners (33), the date of the rescue (10 + 13 + 10= 33), the number of days it took to drill the hole (33) and the "inverted pentagram" on the miners' shirts are just some of the supposed symbols that are proof that this was all a big stunt by the Freemasons to communicate some sort of Masonic message, whatever the hell that would be. We DO NOT buy into this line of thought at all, and we think it's a bit of a distraction.
• We've read another theory that this was all staged by media companies like Timer Warner to bring in ratings. Again, we also dismiss this theory. We wouldn't be surprised if this rescue operation turned out to all be staged but we strongly doubt it was orchestrated simply to bring in ratings. It is much more likely that the motivation was Chilean politics.
  
• When reviewing all the footage that we could get our hands on, everything from the earlier days of the miners being trapped underground, the day of the rescue and interviews afterward, we can't help but feel that some of what we're seeing actually IS genuine. Some of the footage looks damn real and the raw emotion from some of the miners and their family does seem genuine. But other scenes seem more like a low budget film and come off fake as hell. It seems a bit half and half, which makes us think maybe some people were in on the hoax (if it was in fact a hoax) and others were not. Perhaps this was orchestrated at a very high level, but many of the people at the bottom were simply pawns. Also, perhaps some of the miners trapped were in on it while most of them weren't. The ones in on it kept an eye on things and made sure everything was going alright and the men weren't starving to death.
  

I'm just throwing out some of our thoughts, we're going to continue going through everything we can for more information. If you have any information or thoughts feel free to comment or send us an e-mail at peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com.

Jennifer Petkov Arrested

Breaking News: People Liking People favorite Jennifer Petkov has just been arrested on assault charges.

Jennifer Petkov, the Trenton woman who taunted 7-year-old Kathleen Edward in a feud with the girl's grandmother, was arrested Friday afternoon after being accused of trying to run over another neighborhood resident.

Petkov, 33, was charged in 33rd District Court in Woodhaven with one count of assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of reckless driving. The first charge carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.

Apparently a neighbor was walking along the street to visit young Kathleen Edward's grandmother when Petkov floored it and went right after the neighbor with her car. In an interview the neighbor said she had to run to quickly get out of the way, else Petkov would have run her over.

As we mentioned in our earlier post on Jennifer Petkov, we were getting a little concerned here at People Liking People that she was starting to get soft and lose that edge that made her so irresistible. Rest assured she's still got it and is back with a vengeance! We can't wait to see what she does next, but we're hoping that we can help in some way. Jennifer if you're reading this: let's get together and do a photo shoot, we're offering $500. This will be your chance to show the people there's much more to you than just what they read in the papers.

People Liking People: Koran Burning Nov. 25th

Folks, it is with great excitement that we announce what should be without question a dramatic and exciting ceremony. On November 25th Thanksgiving day, People Liking People will be holding a Koran burning event. While the rest of the country will be celebrating and giving thanks to others and getting together with family members to eat turkey, we'll be setting copies of the Koran on fire.



We will be broadcasting this event live for all of our fans and followers to join in on the fun. We're still working out a concrete schedule, but we're looking at around 3:00pm eastern time to begin the initial ceremony and then around 3:45 the actual burning of the Koran will begin. More details to come, but stay tuned and be sure to mark this on the calendar, though it should be pretty easy to remember being that it's on Thanksgiving day.

By the way, we want to make it clear that we still like all types of people, even Muslims. But this event will go much deeper than a simple like or dislike for any particular group of people. This will transcend time, cultures, geographical boundaries, and will revolutionize the way we think about oatmeal. If anyone has suggestions, comments, or for whatever reason does not want us to follow through with this, feel free to contact us at peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com. Death threats are welcome too, all feedback is encouraged. Thanks to everyone that has stood behind us from day one.

Chilean Miners Rescue: Was it a Hoax?

The 33 Chilean Miners who were reportedly trapped underground for more than two months were rescued yesterday to cheers and a big sigh of relief for family members and everyone around the world that had been following this story. But as we here at People Liking People were watching the rescue on television, something seemed just a little too perfect about the ordeal, almost as it were made for TV.

Here is the footage of the first and second miners rescued:






We haven't really had time yet to go through all the information, the articles, the footage...etc to really make a firm case for it being a hoax. We're still up in the air on it, but something really seems off with this. First of all, you'd expect the miners to be dirty, unkempt, and extremely lethargic after being down there for 2 months with barely anything to eat. They are all clean shaven and not much of a mark on them at all. Now, we've heard from people who said "well obviously they all wanted to look good for their big day, so they sent razors down there". That could be true but...it just doesn't seem important enough to do that. 2 months without shaving honestly doesn't look that bad, so they'll look a little scruffy - big whoop.

Secondly: as you watch the video, you'll notice they keep panning back and forth from the hole in the ground to the family members as they wait in suspense for their loved one to come up. There is something about the way the boy of the first miner is behaving that just comes off as overdone acting. He seemed to be playing up just a bit too much what they know everyone wants to see - the poor family that hadn't seen their dad/husband in months, this big emotional moment where it goes from suspense to complete excitement and euphoria.

I could be wrong but you would think that immediately after a rescue like this, they would all be put on a stretcher and the first priority would be for medical personnel to take over and get them to the hospital. Eventually they did this of course, but there seemed to be quite a delay from getting out of the hole to that point, making sure that great TV moment was captured and sustained for everyone's viewing pleasure. And the miners seemed to have just too much energy for people that have been kept down there for so long without adequate food and oxygen. By the way, at least one guy is wearing sunglasses, what's up with that?

Another thing that seemed odd was the noise level - it seemed way too low. Usually with a big rescue operation like this, you have everyone trying to help and you got family members excited to see their rescued loved ones, and there's a ton of commotion. In these videos, sure there's shouting with glee, talking...etc but it seems almost like they're taking turns. A little holler from over there, a comment over here...etc but there seems to be lacking that "crowd noise" that you'd expect. And that sort of makes sense if this was staged, the people standing around wouldn't be standing around BSing as much, they'd just be playing their role and wouldn't say much unless it was in the script.

As much as we hate getting into conspiracy theories here, something just smells about this ordeal and we'll be looking through as much information as we can over the next few weeks to see if we can uncover anything. If you have any information or tips, feel free to e-mail us at peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com

In Defense of Jennifer Petkov.

Note: Anyone wishing to contact us for any reason may do so by e-mailing us at peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com

By now you've all heard of this story. Kathleen Edward, A young girl in Trenton, MI is dying of huntington's disease, an illness that took her mother's life not long ago. A neighbor, Jennifer Petkov has apparently long had disputes with young Kathleen's family and this ongoing feud has lead to some pretty vicious harassment by Jennifer Petkov. Jennifer Petkov placed on her Facebook page photoshopped pictures of Kathleen's face above a pair of crossed bones and also Kathleen's deceased mother being cradled by the grim reaper.

The local media went out to the neighboorhood last week to find out what was going on and asked Petkov why she would think of doing such a horrible thing. Jennifer Petkov appeared on camera smugly standing firm behind her actions, saying she did it because it "rubs their asses raw". She appeared to continue to taunt the family and showed no shame in what she did.

Fast forward a couple days, after the internet outrage machine had set their sights on her and called her out for being such a horrible person, and Petkov has now done a complete about face, now apologizing and deeply regretting her actions. Still some are continuing to call for her blood, death threats and calls to harass and humiliate Jennifer abound all over the net.

We here at People Liking People were also about to jump on the rage train, however after long debate have decided that in actuality Jennifer Petkov is a real American Hero.



Let's look at the facts:

• Nothing Jennifer Petkov did was illegal. She was practicing her rights to free speech. It just so happens that people don't agree with the type of speech she was engaging in, but controversial speech is precisely the type of speech that we must stand up and protect the most.
  
• Take a look at those lips in her picture there. We here at People Liking People could think of a few things those could come in handy for, and we'd hate to see them go to waste. There's value in each and every human being, despite whether or not you agree with their actions or opinions. (By the way if you're reading this Jennifer, send us an e-mail at peoplelikingpeople@yahoo.com. I think a "photoshoot" may be in order here to restore your image and let others see how you want to be shown, not these random pictures the media has been putting out there.)
• She has a good sense of humor. Showing someone's deceased mother with the grim reaper? I don't care who you are, that's comedy gold right there.
• She's got balls. Well, I hope just figuratively, or else my previous comments just put me in the homo camp. But to go on television and stand behind such an action instead of refusing to talk to reporters or lying and say you never did it, that takes guts. And we here at People Liking People like guts.
  

Honestly, I think this whole thing could be settled easily with just a little spanking. I think everyone would agree that seeing Jennifer Petkov bent over getting her ass whipped would be the one thing that could really settle this whole thing once and for all.

Petkov has recently come out and apologized, saying she regrets the whole ordeal and never knew it would blow up to be such a big story. We feel that this is absolutely the worst thing she could have done. All the respect we had for her has just been put in jeopardy. If you're going to be a huge ass in public and then stand by it 100%, you have to stick with it and not give in. When you end up cowering, the one thing that turned us on about you - your guts and attitude, crumble within seconds as your tough facade is seen for what it is. We hope this isn't true Jennifer, so please prove to us that you still have it.

Jan 13 2012 We are very saddened by the news that Kathleen Edward has passed away. For someone to lose their mother at such a young age and then be plagued by the same disease... that's tougher than most of us will ever have to deal with in our lifetimes. Yet from the footage we've seen from the media, she was just so full of life and brought a smile to everyone's face just by her presence. I'd like to apologize for defending Jennifer Petkov and making light of the situation.

People Liking People: Firmly Against Senseless Evil

Folks, there's been a little bit of controversy lately with a bunch of murmurs and rumors flying around. We thought it would be a good idea to clear the air and get this out in the open once and for all: the entire staff at People Liking People stand firmly against senseless evil, wherever it may lie. We do not make exceptions or do favors, it is what it is and we stand by it 100%.

We've always strived to create an environment here that was positive where all are free to come and share ideas. But those ideas do not include evil, and we're simply not going to tolerate it. We hope this doesn't offend anyone but policies must be stood behind every time or else there is no reason for having them in the first place. Thank you for understanding and hopefully our next post will be on a more positive note.

Those AIDS Patients In Africa Aren't So Stupid After All

Africa has a ridiculously high percentage of people that suffer from AIDS, in many regions it's up to 20% of the population. Africa is inhabited by around 14% of the world's population, yet is home to 88% of the people living with HIV. For years we've heard of all these initiatives from first world nations like the USA to help them out by supplying HIV medications either free or at a very low cost. But we've also heard for years about how many people in Africa are afraid to take these medications from us, fearing that we're trying to poison them. What a bunch of frickin' morons, right? I mean they're dying of AIDS, we're trying our darndest to help and they're refusing the one thing that can save their lives.

Here's an article from the NY Times back in 2003 about a clinic in Khayelitsha, South Africa which treats AIDS patients with antiviral medication for free.

''I thought I was going to die, but now I'm fresher than ever,'' said Ms. Charlie, 28, who shares a two-room house with her mother. ''People here are dying of AIDS every weekend, every weekend. But I'm gaining weight. I've got no problems. So far, so good.''

This clinic offers a rare glimmer of hope in South Africa, which has more people infected with H.I.V. than any other country.

What a nice optimistic feel good story about something finally being done to help those who are suffering in Africa because of the AIDS virus. But further down in the article, some moronic killjoy had to get all conspiratory about it, with the idea that we're actually poisoning them:

President Thabo Mbeki has expressed concern about the safety of AIDS drugs commonly prescribed in the United States and Europe. Senior members of his political party have called the medicines ''poison'' and accused drug companies of trying to use Africans as guinea pigs. Other officials insist that providing AIDS drugs in the public sector is too costly.

What a bunch of assbackward savages, right? I mean you think you can just do a couple voodoo dances and you'll be cured of AIDS? For God sakes take the medication, we're trying to help, you bunch of retards.

Fast forward to now, where today we read about a recently uncovered U.S. Government administered study in which medical researchers intentionally infected hundreds of people with gonorrhea and syphilis without their knowledge or permission in Guatemala from 1946-1948. This was done with the cooperation of the Guatemalan government, and we're just now apologizing for it because it was just exposed by Professor Susan Reverby while she was researching another study where 399 black men who had syphilis were kept from getting treated in a research project called "untreated syphilis in the male Negro." What??

Yes that's right, from 1932 to 1972, the United States observed seriously ill poor blacks living and dying of syphilis while they took notes on what happened, all the while knowing that a simple dose of penicillin would have immediately cured them.

Researchers never treated the illness over its usually fatal course, even after the simple remedy of penicillin was shown to be an effective syphilis treatment; participants received only free meals and medical exams, together with federal funding of their funeral expenses after they died. The study began in 1932, continuing right through to 1972, when it was exposed in media reports.

Well gee, at least we paid for their funeral expenses, that pretty much evens everything out then.

So just to recap, our United States government monitored hundreds of black American citizens dying of a disease they could easily treat, but instead of treating them, we told them they just had bad blood, and took notes while they died in agony. Then we're over in Guatemala injecting people with gonorrhea and syphilis for a study on what happens when people are infected and go without treatment. So just think about that for a moment, if we're doing this to our own people in America, and we're doing it to people in Guatemala, do you really think we aren't doing the same thing in Africa? Those "idiots" in Africa who refuse to take our medication just might know a lot more about what the U.S. does than us living here in the states know about. What others studies occoured that haven't come to light yet? What will we be apologizing for in 60 years that's happening right now?

I can't stand conspiracy theorists. They annoy the hell out of me. But I'll tell you what, with shit like this coming to light all the time, it's hard not to see why so many people have such distrust for our government. And for people who say "well this happened in the 40s, that was a different time back then". Listen, I believe in evolution, but it doesn't happen that fucking fast. Humans today are the same humans 500 years ago; don't ever fool yourself into thinking we're reaching any sort of enlightenment with society - either culturally or genetically. Unfortunately all the horrible shit that happened in the past is just as likely to happen today as it was then. Societal changes are kind of like fashion trends, they move this way and that way but we'll never say "we're here! we've arrived, this is what we've been working towards!" because it isn't ever going to happen.