The barrier performance of latex rubber

A study in permeability and manufacturing flows of latex rubber published by C.M. Roland in The Rubber World:

From a broad assessment of data on HIV transmission rates during heterosexual contact, the use of a condom was estimated to provide only a tenfold reduction rate risk of contagion. This compares, for example, to the 5,000-fold increase in protection level afforded by avoiding coitus with partners from high risk groups

The author concludes:

Latex rubber devices originate as a suspension of particles coated with surfactants intended to prevent the particles from coalescing. The use of such a material for barrier protection for a 100 nanometer virus seems counter-intuitive. Certainly the presence of defects in latex rubber is well established; however, the origin, detailed nature and hence relevance of these flaws to the prophylactic performance of latex rubber is open to question. Channels penetrating the entire thickness of latex gloves have been directly observed, but more evidence of this type is needed. Unfortunately, condom inspection methods currently in use are inadequate for the detection of micron-sized flaws.

Could condom use be the solution?

“It should be noted that condom use cannot provide absolute protection against HIV. The surest way to avoid transmission of HIV is to abstain from sexual intercourse or to be in a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with a partner who has been tested and you know is uninfected.”

says... the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention

In the very editorial criticizing the statements of Benedict XIV, The New York Times ends up by recognizing that he is right. Speaking about condom effectiveness to prevent AIDS, after mentioning the CDC and the Cochrane Collaboration organization, the Times warns: “However, both groups warned that condom use cannot provide absolute protection. (...) The best way to avoid transmission of the virus is to abstain from sexual intercourse or have a long-term mutually monogamous relationship with an uninfected person.”

The New York Times

from "Behind the “Pro-Condom Media Uproar:” The Old Struggle of Rationalism and Secularism against the Church" by Luis Sergio Solimeo

Condom promotion in Africa has been a disaster

A neo-colonialist pro-sexual revolution lobby is behind the attacks against the Pontiff and is being pursued by fringe groups within the United Nations and the European Union

-writes Bernardo Cervellera in the Catholic Online article. He also points to many scientific and empiric studies supporting view that condom promotion brings more promiscuity and increases rate of AIDS and STDs.

Prestigious medical journal distorts FACTS about condoms

The Lancet, a prestigious medical journal ventured into a political/moral arena. It went as far as to distort scientific FACTS to attack the Pope for "distorting scientific data". The Washington Post states that "The Pope Maybe Right":

In 2003, Norman Hearst and Sanny Chen of the University of California conducted a condom effectiveness study for the United Nations' AIDS program and found no evidence of condoms working as a primary HIV-prevention measure in Africa. UNAIDS quietly disowned the study. (The authors eventually managed to publish their findings in the quarterly Studies in Family Planning.) Since then, major articles in other peer-reviewed journals such as the Lancet, Science and BMJ have confirmed that condoms have not worked as a primary intervention in the population-wide epidemics of Africa. In a 2008 article in Science called "Reassessing HIV Prevention" 10 AIDS experts concluded that "consistent condom use has not reached a sufficiently high level, even after many years of widespread and often aggressive promotion, to produce a measurable slowing of new infections in the generalized epidemics of Sub-Saharan Africa."

Irena Sendler vs. Al Gore

WYD08 Receive the Power

World Youth Day Sydney 2008 Final Trailer

World Youth Day 2008

World Youth Day 2008 - Melbourne Diocese

World Youth Day 2008 - Sydney

Bella - movie of the year - opens today in Windsor

Great movie opens today @ Silvercity. The public loves it despite some sour grapes from not very important movie critics. Bella was the winner of People's Choice Award at Toronto Film Festival.

FCP Convention Saturday April 12th

Ron Gray will be a key-note speaker. More info on FCP website

I have a dream!

Giuseppe Gori, Straight Thoughts 162:

Yesterday it was Martin Luther King day. His dream of equal dignity with respect to the colour of one’s skin was realized within a generation.

Today is the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and I have a dream of my own.

I have a dream that within my life time truth shall prevail, and abortion shall cease to be called a “procedure” and be recognized for what it is, the killing of a human being.

I have a dream that one day we will look back at our society, and our judges and our politicians and ask: “How could they?”

“How could a few judges affect all of society for two generations?”

"How could politicians not be moved to action?"

“How could they allow the killing of millions of their own children and continue with their daily business?”

“How could they destroy human life, when their knowledge of biology was so advanced as to know exactly when life begins?”

Just as today we look back at the Russians, and Stalin and his army and ask, “How could they?”

Just as we look back at the Germans, and Hitler and his Gestapo and ask: ”How could they?”

I shall not rest until cultural leaders like King will emerge, and set aside their own ambitions of fame and power, and dream of a world of justice and dignity for all.

20 years of no restriction hunting season on the unborn

Morgentaler's "truth" as revealed in 1st Degree Morgentaler:



You can vote for this movie at Project Breakout (needs registration).

Note also spreading of a virulent historic lie by Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Greg Moran in his citation for Morgentaler about alleged antisemitism in pre-war Poland. You could also think that he implied that Gestapo and concentration camps were Polish not German institutions in occupied Poland. One big lie meets another lie.

Remebrance Day/Independence Day

November 11th has a special significance for me and other Poles. We remember the veterans that laid their lives to keep Canada free but also commemorate Independence Day of Poland. Canadian soldiers helped bring freedom to the Polish nation in 1918. Thank you!

Bring the Pope to Canada 2008

Do you remember John Paul II's visits to Canada? Do you remember the crowds and the enthusiasm?

Now is your chance to help to bring his successor to our country. Quebec City holds 49th International Eucharistic Congress in June 2008. We are asking Our Blessed Father Benedict XVI to visit us.

As Suzanne of the Facebook group Bring the pope to Quebec City explains:

A very serious effort to bring the pope to Quebec City has been launched by former Quebec cabinet minister Marc Bellemare (now leader of a municipal party, Vision Quebec).

The pope's presence in Canada would obviously be an opportunity for him to speak out for the culture of life and the rights of unborn children.

Most of North America is enmeshed in the culture of death, but in Quebec it's especially bad. We need a strong voice to defend the unborn.

So please, sign the petition

The petition is in French but don't worry:

One small hitch: the petition I have is in French, but no big deal.

Go to http://www.pape2008.com

Click on "Signer la pétition ici".

On that screen you will get a small form. Note:

Prenom= First name
Nom= last name
Courriel= email address

The checkbox asks whether you want your name to show up in the list of signatures. If yes, check it, or leave it blank to keep your name private.

The blogburst:

BlueWave
ProudtobeCanadian
Deborah Gyapong
The Bear Blog
Stand Your Ground
SoCon or Bust

Dwight Duncan - Save Our Schools!

I drove length of Riverside last night and noticed yellow stickers on Dwight Duncan's Liberal signs. I stopped and backed up to read:

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS!

I am not sure if conservative partisans tried to make Duncan look ridiculous or was the sticker really approved by our Honourable Member. I have a feeling that the latter is true.

Now, what does he mean by SAVE OUR SCHOOLS - from whom?

Perhaps from Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal government. (Just to make clear, I do not support J. Tory's proposal and his later flip-flops.) Preston Manning writes in yesterday's Globe and Mail:

What is most instructive, however, is the provincial breakdown. With respect to reading, Alberta students had the highest international score of all jurisdictions tested, with Ontario students in fifth place. In science, Alberta students placed third behind Finland and Japan, with Ontario students 15th. And with respect to combined mathematics, Alberta students placed second behind Hong Kong, with Ontario students 11th.

Preston Manning explanation for Alberta advantage makes sense:

Alberta excels in Canadian and international education comparisons because the province provides parents with a greater range of educational choices, more "freedom to choose" the best educational options for their children, and more resources to support those choices.

Alberta ensures equity and choice in kindergarten to Grade 12 by funding independent schools and home schooling, as well as the public system.

Giuseppe Gori, in his interview on The Agenda (posted here earlier), stated that the whole issue of funding for private schools was a desperate attempt on Tory's side to find a difference between two left-of-centre parties (Liberals & Progressive Conservatives). Here is what P. Manning has to say on the issue:

The educational debate in Ontario is narrowly focused on whether to publicly fund one form of alternative education, namely religious schools. The bigger issue is how to expand freedom of choice in education for all Ontario parents, while improving the performance of both public and private schools and ensuring their adherence to provincial educational standards.

Family Coalition Party platform on education is based on parental choice and improving schools through competition by introducing the voucher system. P. Manning seems to agree:

Can mixed educational systems such as Alberta's be improved? Of course. Freedom of choice could be further enhanced by providing parents with educational vouchers that they could cash in at the public or private educational institution of their choosing.

SAVE OUR SCHOOLS? I agree and some experts too:

In the words of Harvard economist Caroline Hoxby: "It appears that public schools are induced to raise achievement when they are faced with competition. ... This is not only good news for students; it should be welcome news to those who think that public schools have much good potential."

Now, Lynn Martin Show AM800 manipulates elections

Lynn Martin Show CKLW AM800 - I've just spent 40 minutes waiting in the phone queue to ask Windsor-Tecumseh candidates how would they address democratic deficit as created by local media censorship, and specifically how do they feel about exclusion of John Curtin from the Lynn Martin's show and exclusion of FCP and Greens from The Windsor Star coverage of local ridings.

Finally when the show ended I was told by the screener that Windsor West candidates during the show that followed would not want to answer my question, that they were only interested in their local issues. I tried to show him that it was quite presumptuous for him to speak on behalf of the candidates.

We are being actively blocked by the local media from sharing Family Coalition Party message with the voters. Producers of Lynn Martin Show @ AM 800 CKLW have refused to allow John Curtin to participate in the Friday morning show. All other parties, including Greens were invited. As I've described in the previous post, The Windsor Star has limited their coverage only to the three largest parties excluding both FCP and Greens.

The station's program director Keith Chinnery kindly explained to John that because FCP has no candidate in Essex then our candidates from the remaining ridings are not allowed to speak to their voters.

What a parody of democracy!

The Windsor Star manipulating election process

My letter to the editor:

The Windsor Star has committed an outrageous act of censorship or, at least, failed in its duty to its readers to offer factual information. In Wednesday's riding profile on Windsor-West, the editors had omitted names of two candidates running in the election. These are: Daniel Dionne (Family Coalition Party) and Jason Haney (Green Party). That's true that they both represent smaller parties. However both of these parties gained hundreds of thousands votes across Ontario in the previous election. The Windsor Star has ignored over 1200 Windsor-West voters that voted for Green Party in 2003. This is a manipulation of election process that no media can be proud of. Not surprisingly people are turning to the internet and bloggers for true and factual information. If you want to find out what is really happening in Windsor and Essex County check W.E.Speak at www.windsoressexspeak.com. There you will find a compilation of blogs, each with its own point of view and agenda that are not hidden.
Just in case that The Windsor Star is going to repeat its misinformation I will list the candidates for Windsor-Tecumseh: John Curtin (Family Coalition Party) and Andrew McAvoy (Green Party), for Essex: Jessica Fracassi (Green Party) and Aaron Parent (Libertarian Party), for Chatham-Kent-Essex: Mark Morin (Family Coalition Party) and Ken Bell (Green Party). I have not listed the three main parties candidates since I am sure the editors will not forget about them.

As I was afraid they have repeated this fraud in today's edition - this time in Windsor-Tecumseh riding profile.

In Wednesday's edition they blow up headlines and photos to fill the space to sizes never seen before on page 3 just to keep up the pretense of lack of space.

Today somebody forgot and left a gaping hole where the info on other candidates should be. Gaping hole not only on the page of a newspaper but in their reputation and democratic process. I can't recall seeing an empty space on the pages of The Windsor Star before.

Shame on you!

Go! FCP Go!