What is even more concerning to me about the exploitation of these folks in the past is two-part: 1) Haiti in the 1970's, unlike modern times in the US, probably did not feature an abundance of red meat, Cheerios, and other iron-rich foods. Even assuming that these donations were voluntary (other posters have…

No, no, but I lived in DC at the time, and many of his crimes and awfulnesses were front-page news. Plus, he would periodically have people assassinated who lived in my neighborhood. And then, the thing where the US government cut him a deal to get him out of the country, so they could install Aristide, and put him…

I appreciate the suggestion, but the thing already creeps me out way too much. I mean, people donate their blood for free, and then hospital patients pay $400 a pint for it if they need it.

If you can find the doc “Bad Blood” then watch it. That will tell you all about the lack of ethics behind blood products.

Theoretically, there is nothing wrong with this sort of thing, if its done legally and fairly.

Transactions involve a buyer and a seller. You’re talking about blood plasma, produced by a company in Haiti, derived from blood purchased from Haitian citizens (even today, you can sell your blood to certain places in the US). For a poor country with little industrialization, I suppose it was seen at one time as…

HIV was in the US as early as 1968, probably much earlier (mid-1960s):

All because he used the letter O ... and people mistook it for a 0.

The book Spillover dedicates a large section to the spread of HIV and talks this, plus the myth of Patient 0. I’m glad they’re finally officially debunking it. It gives a good background of the possible route of the early infections (plural) with bushmeat hunters, and how it got going, facilitated by a plasma trade…

Salt Lake City is cool and it’s less than 50% mormon there. Great skiing/snowboarding, great summer outdoors, bad winter air quality, mediocre public transit, mediocre jobs, great housing prices.

Really as long as you avoid Utah County to the south, then you’re fine. Don’t let the ‘stigma’ stop you from at least…

In marginally related news, I give you BB-Amy:

I had similar circumstances, moved to Utah when I was in kindergarten. Parents would literally tell their kids not to play with me because I wasn’t Mormon. People do weird, dumb shit when they’re part of a majority and you’re not.

My wife moved to Utah when she was in high school because her dad got a job as a mine geologist there. She said they always felt like outsiders. People were always coldly polite, but because she isn’t a Mormon she was excluded from most social activities.

Well, the church just barely stopped publishing a book by a dead prophet that says it’s more virtuous to die protecting yourself than to survive a sexual assault. So yeah. You did do something wrong. https://bycommonconsent.com/2016/04/28/rape-and-the-miracle-of-forgiveness/

They are doing this because the backlash isn’t going to help their falling membership numbers. Don’t be fooled into thinking they care about these women or other victims

Two tiny steps forward? Title IX and “mormon and gay”. {sigh} Too little too late. Too small of a movement. I understand it is hard to move forward, but this isn’t okay. It isn’t okay that every positive step you take is decades after the rest of the world has figured it out. It isn’t okay, that so much damage…

Here’s what the new policy is going to be. No one is going to officially be punished in these situations anymore, it’s just going to take social ostracization to the next level, as cults are wont to do.

Does the word “amnesty” used in this case bother anyone else? The wording to me suggests that “well, you did something wrong but we’re willing to move past it.” That is not a good sentiment to express when referring to a sexual assault.

Utah’s one of those places I’d probably really like to live in if not for all the people there. Beautiful scenery, but easily the most unwelcoming state I’ve ever spent time in.

Can’t wait to see how they screw this up. Because they will screw this up. Most likely the medical reports will “mysteriously” get published and they’ll say someone’s life was in danger so they “had” to. I don’t trust BYU