Add another activity to the list of things that cause cancer: Sheep Fucking

It seems like you can't do anything these days without increasing your chances of getting cancer. Drink too much alcohol? Cancer. Not enough? Cancer. Exposure to sunlight? Cancer. No sunlight? Cancer. You just can't win. Well a recent study conducted by a team of urologists in Brazil has found yet another item to add to the list: bestiality (aka having sex with animals).

From nbcbayarea.com:

In a study of 492 men from rural Brazil, 35 percent reported having had sex with an animal at men who had sex some point in their lives. The report found those men were twice as likely to develop cancer of the penis.
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Men reported having sex as frequently as daily with such animals as mares, cows, pigs and and chickens. Penile cancer accounts for up to 10 percent of cancers in men in Asia, Africa and South America, although it is rare in the U.S.

Wait, you mean to tell us that 35 percent of men in Brazil have had sex with animals? Is this really that common over there? And we hate to pick on Brazil here, for all we know everyone's doing it here too but we've just been out of the loop. But that number seems ridiculously high. For God sakes people get a girlfriend or hire a prostitute. If neither of those are options you always have your hand.

Here comes the science: the researchers hypothesize that long term sexual intercourse with animals such as cows and sheep could cause "micro-traumas" in the penile tissue. The mucus that animals produce in their naughty regions is different from the bodily fluids that we create, and there could be microorganisms spread from the animals to the human farking them.

You what's going to happen is these sheep fuckers are going to end up creating another disease and it'll be the new super-AIDS. For the sake of humanity guys just jack off to Animal Planet next time you get horny, you're risking your life and potentially everyone else around you.

Healthcare Solution: Everyone Pays Cash

Everyone's always talking about the health care crisis, it's one of the biggest "hot button" issues these days. Some of us here at People Liking People have had major health issues and we know first hand how incompetent the health care system can be. Costs are skyrocketing and health problems are going undiagnosed for years. So when people start complaining about health care, we're the first to agree and say that some changes do need to be made. Unfortunately the solutions most people are proposing and putting into action are dead wrong and are the complete opposite of what needs to happen to improve health care. Everyone is demanding that the government do something about the crisis, and the government is more than happy to oblige because usually their solutions end up giving them more power.

The real solution is for everyone to pay out of pocket 100% for their health care. Now I know the thought of this scares a lot of people. The reason it's so scary is because health care costs are through the roof and most people can't afford health care at current rates, ourselves included (We're not rich here at People Liking People). However, you need to understand that the reason health care costs so much is because of the third party payment system.

The third party payment system effects many factors:

1) The health care provider's real customer is no longer you, it's whoever is actually footing the bill. Their real customers are the insurance companies and the government.

2) People stop paying attention to the real cost. Most people don't know how much their doctors actually charge for visits, they don't know how much a CT scan is, and they don't know much their medication really costs. All they know is that with their insurance card, they pay their $25 co-pay and they're on their way. Nobody prices around looking for the best deal on a health product or service. Our insurance card takes care of that and we don't need to think about it.

3) As a result of people not paying for their health services, people aren't really that demanding with the quality they receive. We are not as demanding as we should be with doctors. We put up with their in-and-out 5 minute visits and we put up with them not always being the most thorough. We don't really make a big deal about it though it didn't cost us that much, oh well it was just $25.

4) Whoever foots the bill has the control. We have to go through their approval process to see whether or not we can receive a certain procedure.

People Liking People's Golden Rule: The more someone else is paying for a product or service you're receiving, the less of a say so you have in it. Also - you cannot complain about something you are receiving for free. Wheres your bargaining power? You have none. You're a liability now.


Imagine if tomorrow someone flipped a switch and all the sudden there was no health insurance. No third party payment systems. All cash out of pocket for doctors visits and procedures. What do you think would happen?

The first thing that would happen is patients would be calling their doctors offices asking what they're charging for a visit. There would be a lot of "WTF? you gotta be kidding me!" moments. For the first time people would be finding out just how much health providers have been gouging us. There would also be a lot of "Uhmm that's the best price you do? I'll have to call you back let me check around". Within a week prices would be driven down significantly by the market. If the doctors kept prices at the same high levels, appointments per day would drastically go down. Doctors would be forced to lower their prices to get demand back to what it was. All of the sudden little by little it would turn into a real competitive market, with the patient calling the shots and having the bargaining power. Doctors would be competing with each other, trying to offer the best quality at the lowest cost, and hospitals would be doing the same with the cost for procedures and tests.

And now that everyone is paying with cash, you better believe people are going to be a lot more demanding with the quality they're receiving. That's money coming right out of their pocket, they're not going to leave that office until the problem is resolved. And doctors and hospitals will work extra hard to keep customer loyalty.

If you were to have a bad experience at a restaurant and you speak to the manager and threaten to take your business elsewhere, there's a good chance they will be very apologetic and maybe even give you a meal for free. Try threatening to take your business elsewhere in a doctors office and see how quickly you get laughed out of there. They do not try hard for our business, they do not care. You're not the one paying them. When you pay for what you receive, that gives you complete control and bargaining power. It gives us the right to be demanding and creates a competitive dynamic among providers. This is how you lower costs and increase quality. Having someone else pay for it puts us completely at the whim of the payer and provider.

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.