Friday, December 24, 2010

[Peckers_Pics] Model Wars; Dec 25, 2010; Happy Holidays!



 
Model Wars; Dec 25, 2010
Safe PICS For All Ages, Rated  G
Diet & Fitness:
  • Reminder: Did you complete your Diet Journal today?  Get it done!
  • Did you do any physical activity?  If not, make a point of it by tomorrow! Own a bike?  Ride it to lunch, work, park, lake!
  • It is our hope that our male fitness photos shall inspire you!
Today's Health - Wellness / Exercise / Reflections:
New Drug Shows Promise in Fighting HIV
 
A new drug based on a compound produced by the human body appears to block fusion peptides and halt an early stage of HIV infection by thwarting interaction between the virus and host cells, according to research published in the Dec. 22 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

THURSDAY, Dec. 23 (HealthDay News) -- A new drug based on a compound produced by the human body appears to block fusion peptides and halt an early stage of HIV infection by thwarting interaction between the virus and host cells, according to research published in the Dec. 22 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

Wolf-Georg Forssmann, M.D., Ph.D., of Hannover Medical University in Germany, and colleagues examined outcomes in 18 HIV-infected volunteers after 10 days of treatment with three different doses of VIR-576 as their first antiretroviral drug. None of the subjects stopped taking working drugs to participate in the trial. VIR-576 is a derivative of a natural 20-residue fragment of á1-antitrypsin, designated virus-inhibitory peptide.

The researchers found the highest dose of VIR-576, 5.0 g/day, reduced the average viral load by 95 percent. Although the drug was well tolerated, it had the drawbacks of being expensive and, as it is given by injection, inconvenient.

"Our results are proof of concept that fusion peptide inhibitors suppress viral replication in human patients, and offer prospects for the development of a new class of drugs that prevent virus particles from anchoring to and infecting host cells," the authors write.

Several authors disclosed financial ties to pharmaceutical companies and/or patents on VIR-576.

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And Now, Model Wars!
This group is called "Peckers Pics."  The English -  slang definition of "pecker" is to pluck at the truth. Therefore, we peck at items such as Gay Men's Health, Male Fitness, Gay (LGBT) Politics & Issues.  In this section you may peck at each photo in order to decide the winner of the "war of the fittest!"  Whereas, who is the model that may inspire you to exercise and "get fit?"  Warning: This may stoke you!
 
Remember your participation in discussion of health / news articles - appearing in this message is greatly appreciated.
 
Ryan Matthew White
 
VS
Chris Fawcett
 
You Decide!
Stoked?
Pioneer fighter for gay rights
By David Carter, Special to CNN / December 24, 2010

New York (CNN) -- This week President Barack Obama signed into law the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," which banned gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the U.S. armed forces.

A seat at the front of the audience was reserved for 85-year-old Frank Kameny, who attended wearing the Combat Infantryman Badge that he was awarded for his service in World War II. Kameny recalls his service fighting in the wake of the Battle of the Bulge by saying, "I dug my way across Europe slit trench by slit trench, practically."

But Kameny was not invited because of any heroism he demonstrated in World War II, but rather for a much greater act of courage than even that conflict had demanded of him. He was invited because it was Kameny who began the assault on the military policy of discharging homosexuals by leading a demonstration at the Pentagon in 1965.

Indeed, it was Kameny who called upon the minuscule pre-Stonewall gay rights movement -- known then as the homophile movement -- to model itself upon the civil rights movement.

This may not sound radical today, but in the mid-1960s homosexuality was seen as the ultimate taboo. As the homophile movement stated, homosexuals were triply condemned: The medical establishment deemed them mentally ill, the law made them criminals, and religions branded them sinners.

At a time when lesbians and gay men were so totally ostracized, the homophile movement had decided its best tactic was to embrace the label of sickness: at least that seemed a half-step up from being criminals. But Kameny felt that such an approach was counterproductive, and that rather than begging for crumbs, gay people should demand equality with heterosexuals. To gain equality, he argued, the movement should renounce the sickness theory and embrace militant tactics.

Kameny succeeded to an astonishing degree. He led the fight for tactics such as public demonstrations, went on the attack against the Civil Service Commission for its policy of firing homosexuals and spearheaded an effort to get the homophile movement to take the position that homosexuality was not only not a mental illness but was on a par with heterosexuality. In 1968, he got the only existing national association of gay rights organizations to adopt as its slogan a phrase that Kameny had coined, "Gay Is Good." Kameny himself had been discharged from the Army Map Service in 1957 for being gay.

His relentless efforts paid off by not only making the homophile movement more militant but in changing laws and policies. In 1973, in response to a series of court decisions in which Kameny was involved, the Civil Service Commission announced that it was ending its ban on employing homosexuals.

That same year the American Psychiatric Association declassified homosexuality as a mental illness as the result of a drive organized by Kameny. Long before the Supreme Court declared sodomy laws unconstitutional in the 2003 Lawrence v. Texas ruling, Kameny had crafted strong legal arguments for overturning such laws, including the first brief submitted to the Supreme Court for nondiscrimination against gay people, filed by Kameny in 1961.

While waging all these other battles, Kameny did not shirk the Pentagon. To give but one example, when a decorated Air Force veteran of the Vietnam War reached out to Kameny for support with a phone call from Florida in 1974, Kameny mentioned that he was looking for a military test case to take to the Supreme Court. Kameny was seeking someone with a model record who had been kicked out of the military simply for being homosexual.

Months later, the Air Force veteran volunteered to serve as that case. In 1975, carefully coached and prepared by Kameny and a lawyer, Technical Sgt. Leonard Matlovich handed a letter to his superior officer stating that he was a homosexual, and the Matlovich case became a national news story.

Still, success in ending the military's discriminatory policy eluded the combined efforts of Kameny and hundreds of other activists and a slew of organizations until this week. Asked why it had taken so long to change the military's policy, Kameny responded that it was a policy that went back to George Washington's day.

Where does this leave the national movement for equality for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals and the transgendered? Many would probably say that the biggest remaining LGBT issue is the right to marry.

But what most Americans, gay or straight, do not realize is that if a lesbian is fired from her job or thrown out of her apartment by her landlord or denied credit because of her sexual orientation, she cannot go to the federal government for redress. The reason she can't is because 60 years after gay people began to fight for their rights, Congress has not extended basic civil rights protection to LGBT people.

Not only has Congress failed to pass a comprehensive law that would outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation -- protecting us in the realms of housing, employment, public accommodations and credit, for example -- but, to its shame, Congress has not even passed a much narrower law, Employment Non-Discrimination Act, or ENDA, that would have given LGBT people protection only in the realm of employment.

Of course, the right to marry is an important issue, but it is high time that Congress pass a law to extend civil rights that are more basic than marriage to LGBT citizens.

Today, Washington has named a street for Frank Kameny and his 1965 picket signs are in the Smithsonian Institution, but if Congress were to pass basic civil rights protection for America's LGBT citizens, it would be the greatest tribute yet to Kameny's pioneering work.

"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."

....Jake

URGENT:  Boycott Gold's Gym, Target and Best Buy for donating money towards anti-gay political candidates/organizations and to Proposition 8 (California) to prevent gay marriage. I would not purchase "Blood Diamonds," nor should a person / organization be contributing funds to both Hitler / Nazi's and the Jews at the same time!   Obviously giving money to the Jews and not Hitler/Nazi's was the right thing to do.   Hence, these companies violated my trust and well-being.   They gave money to my enemy who would terminate me from my job, deny me housing and send me to a Internment camp.  Therefore, goodbye Gold's Gym, Target and Best Buy!  The CEO's of these companies have been insensitive to our reaction and do not even comprehend their actions!  What takes so long to "fire" these Neanderthals?



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All members of "Peckers PICS" are requested to join our "Obama Biden 2008" group as it runs in conjunction to this group.  Both groups shall not repeat articles from one group to another.  However, to gain full knowledge of Gay rights, members must belong to the Obama group as well as this group.  Therefore, please accept your invitation to join. 

To join the Obama group please click (or copy and paste the link into your browser) @  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ObamaBiden2008/join

Thank you!
 

"Every gay and lesbian person who has been lucky enough to survive the turmoil of growing up is a survivor. Survivors always have an obligation to those who will face the same challenges."

...Jake (Moderator)



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