According to Senior Harvard AIDS Prevention Researcher Dr. Edward Green, condoms not only are not helping to prevent the AIDS crisis, but are actually making the problem worse.
posted by Roach on Mar 22, 2009 - 47 comments

New Scientist:

What if we could rid the world of AIDS? The notion might sound like fantasy: HIV infection has no cure and no vaccine, after all. Yet there is a way to completely wipe it out - at least in theory. What's more, it would take only existing medical technology to do the job.

[more inside]
posted by andoatnp on Feb 21, 2009 - 49 comments

Archbishop offers a view on HIV/AIDS in Africa. The Archbishop of Mozambique, Francisco Chimoio, posits a new theory about the high incidence of HIV/AIDS on the African continent. He won’t be specific about which companies he believes are poisoning the tips though. It remains to be seen whether this, along with the Church's current policy on abortion and Amnesty International, will contribute to the long-running debate over the politics of HIV/AIDS and healthcare. [more inside]
posted by Myeral on Sep 27, 2007 - 33 comments

Americans Not Making Time for Making Love according to Durex® [note: PR and attendant conflicts]. "Americans are having a lot less sex than just about everyone else in the world, and when they do, less than half are fully satisfied." Also from the 2007/2008 Durex® Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey: Where is sex safer?
posted by kliuless on Sep 26, 2007 - 42 comments

"Bill Maher: The Decider" [Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, YouTube]. Maher at the top of his game.
posted by McLir on Jul 27, 2007 - 87 comments

Flour in Condoms Sent Her to Jail. An arguably boneheaded move combined with faulty field test results sent a Bryn Mawr College student to jail for three weeks for carrying a flour filled condom through airport security. A year later she has settled her case with the Philadelphia police department for $180,000.
posted by The Straightener on Jan 4, 2007 - 168 comments

The new lies about women's health (image slightly NSFW) according to Glamour. More on why every egg is sacred to the Bush administration. [via Wired's Sex Drive Daily]
posted by boost ventilator on Jun 3, 2006 - 90 comments

It's Time To Get Back To The Basics In Missouri: "A year after Republicans took control of state government, conservative lawmakers are promoting a wide range of social legislation designed to rein in sex and unshackle the Bible." One proposed bill, for example, would recognize a Christian God as the deity for most Missourians. Other bills deny alimony to ex-spouses who live with a boyfriend or girlfriend, ban all abortions, allow pharmacists, insurance companies, doctors and hospitals to deny treatment if the procedure or medication offends their moral values, and require sex education classes to teach that life begins at fertilization and that an unborn child has “sensory awareness” long before birth. Rep. Cynthia Davis, Republican and sponsor of several bills, said conservatives are tired of an overly permissive society in which high school students are taught how to use condoms. "...if the state starts paying for contraceptives we will have more babies than if we just teach people to not expect free prostitution from poor people. "
posted by Secret Life of Gravy on Mar 30, 2006 - 73 comments

"[S]ave more lives" is what George Bush pledged to do in a speech today about the AIDS epidemic. With more people living with AIDS in the world than ever before, is the US's problematic stance of promoting an ABC policy and other controversial policies working? Or is it an appropriate response to a culturally touchy topic that some oddball health officials in African nations are still coming to grips with?
posted by jessamyn on Dec 1, 2005 - 18 comments

Bush's War on Condoms "... the Bush administration's policy of emphasizing abstinence-only prevention programs and cutting federal funding for condoms have contributed to an alleged condom shortage in Uganda." Meanwhile, people desperate to prevent HIV infection have begun using garbage bags as condom substitutes.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy on Sep 13, 2005 - 49 comments

Accidental condom inhalation. (pdf)
posted by Wet Spot on Apr 30, 2004 - 17 comments

All your sperm are belong to us : play the condom game.
posted by taz on Dec 1, 2003 - 8 comments

Starting with this year's State of the Union address, President Bush began a plan to increase aid to Africa, and at the center of that plan is funding to prevent the spread of AIDS and HIV that has reached epidemic proportions on the continent. Critics however, have noted that aid to clinics comes with strings attached. Abstinence is preached first and foremost and condoms are mentioned only as a last resort. This reporter flat out says the policy to curtail the funding and use of condoms in Africa is killing millions.
posted by mathowie on Dec 1, 2003 - 32 comments

The value of disobedience. [note: nytimes] "Ignoring the reactionary policies of the Vatican, some local priests and nuns quietly do what they can to save parishioners from AIDS." So: when and why do people choose to quietly disobey, rather than leave and promote change from outside their social institutions...or vice versa? Should dissenters just leave, or stay and fight? Anecdotes from Republicans and NRA members are especially welcome ;-)
posted by stonerose on Nov 26, 2003 - 15 comments

Vatican declares fresh Death all around. It seems the Vatican is telling people in countries with high AIDS infection not to use condoms, because the virus is small enough to pass through the porous latex. The World Health Organization believes condoms do reduce the risk of AIDS transmission. To which the Vatican's Cardinal Trujillo replied: "They are wrong about that... this is an easily recognisable fact."
posted by the fire you left me on Oct 9, 2003 - 93 comments

Jimmie Hatz, the official condom of Hip Hop Kulture™. Available in Great Dane and Rottweiler. Hey, whatever gets more people to use them, no? (flash-based site)
posted by Ufez Jones on Oct 3, 2003 - 6 comments

"I was thinking, 'The only way to make something that won't come off is to tie it on,' and then it just popped in my mind - go around the testicles." Ann Arbor man invents new condom, wife rejoices.
posted by sandor on Aug 14, 2003 - 47 comments

An undeclared war on latex is apparently being waged by the Bush administration, which is taking all sorts of steps to avoid condoning their use. This is a patently ridiculous stance to take in the face of a global AIDS epidemic, but this interesting essay also raised my eyebrows:

According to figures in a report on condoms by Population Action International, the average man in Botswana gets less than one condom per year from international donors.

Uhhh...doesn't the idea of condoms as a staple of international relief seem a bit strange? Haven't governments around the world devoted any resources to their own public health? Surely donor-nations can't keep everyon else's penises safely sheathed forever.
posted by subpixel on Jan 10, 2003 - 12 comments

White House Wages Stealth War on Condoms The government is waging a covert war on condoms. Fact sheets on the effectiveness of condoms in preventing the transmission of the AIDS virus have disappeared from government sites. Right wing activists have been appointed to the the presidential AIDS panel. Government audits of AIDS activist groups who protest these policies have begun. So, apparently only evil-doers have sex outside of marriage, and they deserve to die horrible deaths.
posted by dejah420 on Nov 20, 2002 - 166 comments

The male contraceptive pill is 100% effective and will be available in 2005. Will you take it? Will men stop using condoms and STDs increase as a result? Can men be trusted to take it every day?
posted by norm29 on Nov 13, 2002 - 66 comments

Underwear, raw eggs, temporary tattoos, condoms designed to match your blood type, emu jerky, marijuana, hot noodles, super glue. What do they all have in common, besides possibly being things you need to have a really unforgettable Saturday night? They're all things that have been sold in vending machines. From Raphael Carter, author of the insect-centric Honeyguide weblog.
posted by iconomy on May 29, 2002 - 9 comments

make sure she really means "yes"... consent condoms are an interesting twist on using condoms in a causal sex environment. the man hands a package to his partner containing a condom and a card which takes her fingerprints and lets her tear off the date for which the condom is to be used. one's to wonder if all casual sex will be conducted like this in the future.
posted by boogah on Feb 25, 2002 - 33 comments

There goes Colin Powell, pissing off the far right again. This time the Family Research Council and folks like Gary Bauer demand to know how dare he go on MTV and, in response to a teen's question about AIDS, tell kids to USE CONDOMS! (And for that matter, what is the secretary of state doing appearing on that smut-filled network in the first place, and what kinds of parents allow their children to listen to satanic rock music and hip-hop, and how dare insolent children raise filthy questions with government officials about SEX?!)
posted by jellybuzz on Feb 15, 2002 - 56 comments

Condoms don't really work? According to this study conducted by a panel of 10, 000 physicians, while condoms are 85 percent effective in helping prevent the spread of HIV, they offer less protection against sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhea, chlamydia, syphilis and genital herpes. The worst part? They claim the CDC has known this for years.
posted by summer1971 on Jul 25, 2001 - 45 comments

No soup sex for you!. President Daniel arap Moi has urged Kenyans to abstain from sex for at least two years to try to curb the spread of HIV. The government announced plans on Wednesday to import 300 million condoms to fight AIDS.
posted by 120degrees on Jul 12, 2001 - 18 comments

Catholic Church offered solution to AIDS crisis? Though I certainly lean more left than right, I have The National Review in print an online for many years to get some balance in my media intake. I must say, they have run numerous articles online of late that I felt were well-reasoned, fair and insighful. This, however, is crap. "Many have tut-tutted the Church for opposing condoms even as an AIDS prevention tool. Some have even called the Church complicit in AIDS deaths. But, as it has turned out, condoms aren't a very good AIDS-prevention tool after all. [emphasis mine] " So now condoms are not useful for preventing AIDS. Did we miss something?
posted by 4midori on Jun 15, 2001 - 27 comments

Shooting sperm with a condomgun is how the Swiss are attempting to educate people about aids prevention. Just shoot the oncoming sperm with your condomgun, and you can help prevent pregnancy, the spread of viruses and AIDS. At least this is more entertaining than an IRS site geared to children...
posted by Spanktacular on Apr 17, 2001 - 8 comments

Do you have so much sex, that you are going broke buying condoms? Here is your solution.
posted by thirteen on Mar 14, 2001 - 10 comments

"I don't imagine I'll be able to get it up again" A controversial five-story high condom banner is blown off the side of a South African civic center by gale-force winds.
posted by allaboutgeorge on Feb 8, 2001 - 6 comments

Doesn't anyone in this country know what condoms are for anymore? For crying out loud. (Yet Another Unexpected Baby...)
posted by Steven Den Beste on Jan 20, 2001 - 9 comments

Oh hell, here we go again.... Mother faces 15 years and $10,000 for buying 13 year old condoms. Why must we be so stupid?
posted by baylink on Jan 16, 2001 - 58 comments

51 condoms. 17 days. You do the math. Wow, someone would have to be in pretty good shape to... Oh...
posted by Tubes on Sep 12, 2000 - 2 comments

Telecondoms, the ultimate in germaphobe equipment. I guess just using something like a zip-lock bag would be too easy?
posted by Mark on Apr 15, 2000 - 1 comment