Monkey Protein Blocks HIV. The assumption among many has long been that HIV jumped to humans from other primates. Yet researchers have had a hell of a time getting HIV to infect other primates for treatment testing.
Now scientists have figured out why: old world monkeys have a built-in AIDS blocker: a protein that prevents HIV from shedding its shell and infecting cells with its DNA. Now researchers are focusing on ways to transfer this protein to AIDS patients through gene therapy, or modifying a similar protein already present in humans.[ from Scientific American]

Congratulations to President Bush on his <a href="expansion of the war on terror to gays and lesbians. It's a political move that will be sure to further the schism in this country between the secular/liberal religious and the conservative/orthodox religious, and promote further hatred in this country.

Bush is creating two Americas. I'm sure he has only the best of intentions in his desire to preserve the sanctity of marriage — after all, the one thing seperating him from Clinton is that he's never cheated on Laura (that we know of). But in his ham-fisted approach to the “problem”, this one-time state's-rights advocate is screwing around with what should be by all accounts a local decision.

The amendment won't pass, and Bush's people know it. It's an attempt to bottle up the homophobic response of the religious right into another campaign issue, a policy version of the Dean war-whoop to get the troops fired up for action. He's channeling hate into campaign contributions.

As of late, I've been trying to step back from the Bush demonization zeitgeist; after all, he's a human being, and most of what he's done can be explained by simple misperceptions, preconceptions and, well, incompetence.

But this latest move is just plain ayatollah-like, turning religious fervor into public policy. There's an evil genius behind his aw-shucks stupidity. It's like Bush is tryingto incite a civil war.