Johnson’s destructive viewpoint
Re: “Debt To Society: Bad Investment”
7/26/01

In my own personal opinion, I think Governor Gary Johnson ought to be kicked out of office. I can’t wait until his term is up and I pray that he cannot do any more damage than he has already done.

I do not believe he knows what happens to families and innocent children when people do drugs — even marijuana. I have watched my whole family get torn apart by the effects of drugs on my children.

Becky Christopher

 

Corporate animosity
Re: “Peace, Love, and Marketing”
7/26/01

These companies must think we are all complete morons. Whenever I see advertisements of this ilk, I feel nothing but contempt for the offending company.

Barry St. Denis

 

Companies keep out
Re: “Peace, Love, and Marketing”
7/24/01

I agree. Enough is enough. I can’t ride the bus, pass a bus stop, or walk down the street without being assaulted by yet another corporate buyout of public space! Ugh.

Cora Perez

 

Right and wrong
Re: “Viral Load”
7/24/01

This is a very realistic article. I’ve read about both sides of the issue and can honestly say that while the dissidents are wrong about some points they are right about others. While I don’t know who is totally right, I do believe it is wonderful that your magazine used such an article.

Kevin Casper

 

We screwed up
Re: “Dubya and Me: We’ve Got No Idea”
7/24/01

I really enjoyed this article. I know it was tongue in cheek, but I seriously think you’re onto something. I’m at the older end of Generation X, and have seen how we screwed things up — like the whole dot-com economy we started. We should strive for mediocrity from now on, and maybe we’ll stumble into greatness.

Scott Hodgins

 

A converted skeptic
Re: “Viral Load”
7/20/01

I am a professor of communication at Binghamton University and started examining the AIDS controversy for my course on communication, ethics, and social action. I must admit that I went into the material with a very skeptical mind, thinking the AIDS revisionist people were the same as the people who argued that the Holocaust did not occur.

When I read the literature, especially Christine Maggiore’s book What If Everything You Ever Thought You Knew about AIDS Was Wrong, I realized that these people make sense. I have read several articles about the matter now and seen several videotapes, and I am completely convinced of the points that you raise in your article: AIDS is not an epidemic — the medicines used to treat AIDS actually cause AIDS.

I am most impressed by the impeccable scientific basis for the AIDS revisionists’ ideas.

Thank you for publishing this piece in Mother Jones, one of my all-time favorite magazines.

Lois Einhorn

 

The establishment’s costly mistake
Re: “Viral Load”
7/20/01

Thank you for presenting another side of the AIDS argument. I’ve been reading up on the other side of AIDS for some time now, largely due to the work of Christine Maggiore. This issue is too important to let the popular “science” (seems more like a religion these days) of AIDS go unquestioned. Bottom line: I have lost too many loved ones, needlessly, to this disaster.

It becomes clearer with each passing day that the truth is coming to the fore on this issue. If one more life can be saved from an official poisoning, it’s worth it. Thanks Mother Jones and thank you Ms. Biggs.

Qevin Oji

 

Prisons get support from presidential mom?
Re: “Debt To Society: The Real Price of Prisons”
7/20/01

According to my 80-year old mother, who is a news junkie and generally sharp, Barbara Bush owns quite a lot of stock in corporate prisons. If this is true I wouldn’t expect to see a shift to drug treatment over incarceration in the near future.

Janet Lindgren

 

Two govs spurn the party line
Re: “Debt To Society — Bad Investment”
7/20/01

Thanks for the kick-ass article. I am heartened by how Republican Governors are crossing party lines these days. Now we have Gary Johnson speaking out about the irresponsibility of the drug war and George Pataki of New York talking about how important it is to save the environment.

Greta Hassakis

 

Feminists cave to patriarchal orthodoxy
Re: “Viral Load”
7/20/01

Thank you so much for your thoughtful commentary. As a feminist gay man who has lost so many to AIDS, I am deeply disturbed by the unwillingness of so many in my own community to reflect on the many questions and possibilities raised by HIV/AIDS reappraisers. My view has always been that I could not afford to exclude willing contributors to the search for a better understanding, better prevention and a cure for AIDS just because their views do not conform or are considered dangerous.

In my opinion, nothing could be more dangerous than an entrenched, patriarchal, authority-based, scientific orthodoxy that has the unflinching support of left-leaning people, liberal-minded people, and even feminist people.

Carl Stryg
Toronto, Ontario

 

HIV’s an effect, not a cause
Re: “Viral Load”
7/20/01

Great job on your article. I am a physician who believes that HIV is likely an endogenous marker for an immune system in jeopardy (produced by the cell), and not a contagious agent. Until we can look at the last twenty years objectively and recognize that HIV positivity has not led to widespread disease progression in the US, as would be expected if it was such a contagious virus, we can never begin to prescribe the proper treatment.

Thankfully, more physicians are speaking about immune-enhancing medications which may allow the medical community to save face after using lethal anti-retrovirals that have brought many to an early death. Until there are more writers and publications like Mother Jones, voices from all sides of this vitally important issue will not be heard.

Craig Michael Uhl, MD
Monarch Beach, Calif.