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As Gay Becomes Bourgeois
Townhall.com ^ | December 29, 2010 | Jonah Goldberg

Posted on 12/29/2010 11:03:28 AM PST by Kaslin

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To: Kaslin; onyx; Sherman Logan; americanophile; JudgemAll; Billthedrill; AEMILIUS PAULUS; ...
I am becoming more an more convinced that homosexuality is actually a disease caused by a virus. Before you laugh, PLEASE read this, written by Gregory Cochran, a physicist at the University of Utah. Here is an excerpt:

"So if a disease is common (> a tenth of one percent), hits in early life, has been around a long time (so we know it's not caused by some new industrial chemical or whatever), and it's not restricted to people from the malaria zone - it's probably caused by some bug.

But what about homosexuality? Well, from this biological perspective, it's surely a disease. Disinterest in the opposite sex reduces reproduction quite a bit - around 80% in American conditions. Does it hit in early life? Sure. Has it been around a long time? Certainly. Do you find it in non-African populations, people who never lived with malaria? Yes.

So it's a bug.

Now that we know that human male homosexuality looks like a disease caused by some infectious organism, the next question is how that could happen - how could some virus change sexual interest?

I don't think that anyone can be sure of the exact mechanism at this point. I think we can be fairly confident that it is caused by an infectious organism, from the information we have and general evolutionary considerations, but infectious organisms can cause harm in many different ways. Malaria colonizes and uses up red blood cells, diphtheria and cholera manufacture toxins, HIV slowly knocks out a key subpopulation of the immune system, leaving you defenseless against many other pathogens, while certain papillomavirus strains deregulates cell division and thus cause cervical cancer. And those are just samples: there are many pathogenic mechanisms involved in infectious disease, some not well understood.

What do we know? We have a lot of indications that there has been some change in the brain. After, all that's the most logical location for the cause of a change in behavior. Simon LeVay and others see differences in hypothalamic nuclei (similar to those seen in sheep). There are associated changes - the lisp, increased neuroticism and depression, etc. Somehow the cause is affecting the brain.

Just as important are all the things we don't see. We don't see IQ depression, we don't see epilepsy, we don't see convulsions, and we don't see aphasia. Clearly there is no gross trauma - somehow, the brain has been damaged, but in a very limited and focused way. A key function has been messed up, which gravely impacts reproductive fitness, but homosexual men can still hold down jobs, including very complex jobs. The overwhelming majority of mental functions are perfectly intact, or at most subtly changed. The damaged neural subsystem could be male-specific.

Do we know of diseases in which there are very specific targets - in which certain cell types are damaged or destroyed while neighboring cells are left intact? Sure. In some cases, a pathogen targets a particular cell type and has little effect on anything else. Human parvovirus (also known as fifth disease) hits erythroid precursor cells (the cells that manufacture red cells) and temporarily inhibits red cell production. In type-I diabetes, it seems likely that Coxsackie virus infections (in people with a genetic predisposition, in which HLA type plays a major role) trigger an autoimmune disease that gradually (over a year or so) destroys the islet cells which produce insulin. Other cells are not much affected.

We know of a similar, very specific damage pattern in the brain - Narcolepsy.

In Narcolepsy, most of the neurons that produce hypocretins (neurotransmitters) have somehow disappeared. There are only 30,000 of these neurons in the first place, all in a small hypothalamic nucleus. This loss leaves one pathologically sleepy, subject to cataplexy and in some cases hypnagogic hallucinations. Narcolepsy hits about 1 in 2000 people: identical twin concordance is around 25%. Almost all narcoleptics have a particular HLA type, one shared by about a third of the general population. Narcolepsy (almost always) is not present at birth but manifests in early adulthood.

Narcoleptics are pathologically sleepy, but most mental functions are unaffected.

There is at present a strong suspicion that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease, possibly triggered by a viral infection. The HLA association points in this direction, but as yet the exact cause of the destruction of the neurons that make hypocretin is unknown. Narcolepsy does, however, show that there exists some mechanism that can destroy a particular hypothalamic neuron subpopulation without causing general brain trauma.

...Preferential homosexuality, sexual interest in males, rather than females, is very rare. The only two species known to exhibit this behavior, at the-few-percent level, are men and sheep. It may be worth noting that men and sheep have often been found in close association.

Another point worth mentioning is that the prevalence of homosexuality probably varies a lot. It seems to be considerably more common in young men who grew up in urban areas than in rural areas, something like a factor of three, which is also true of Schizophrenia. This is a much bigger effect than the birth order stuff. If you look out in the real sticks, say among the Kalahari Bushmen, there doesn't seem to be any at all. Typically, hunter-gatherers have trouble believing that homosexuality actually exists.

All this is speculative, of course: but the idea that male homosexuality is caused by a pathogen makes good evolutionary sense, unlike every other explanation ever proposed. This particular form of pathogen explanation of homosexuality, inspired by the recent breakthroughs in narcolepsy research, is consistent with the low identical twin concordance for homosexuality, with geographical variation in its incidence, with some observations of volume changes in a particular hypothalamic nucleus in homosexual men, and most importantly, with the dog that didn't bark - the fact that homosexual men do not suffer from general brain damage, do not show symptoms like IQ depression...."

Hank

221 posted on 12/29/2010 4:07:55 PM PST by County Agent Hank Kimball (DeMint/Christie 2012...The Y'all and the Ball!)
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To: Graybeard58
Listen up NAMBLA types, mess with my grand children and given the opportunity, I will kill you, plain and simple. I'm old enough (65) that the prospect of the rest of my life in prison does not scare me in the least.

You have another 50 years to go! ;-)

I agree with your point, though.


Runaway Slave

Apostle Claver tells the world how the real party of racism is the Democrats

222 posted on 12/29/2010 4:08:13 PM PST by rdb3 (The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart.)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball

That’s interesting. Upon reflection, no one has ever engaged in homosexuality except those who have had sex with people of the same sex. I betthat’s how it’s spread.


223 posted on 12/29/2010 4:13:52 PM PST by gitmo ( The democRats drew first blood. It's our turn now.)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball

That’s interesting. Upon reflection, no one has ever engaged in homosexuality except those who have had sex with people of the same sex. I bet that’s how it’s spread.


224 posted on 12/29/2010 4:14:13 PM PST by gitmo ( The democRats drew first blood. It's our turn now.)
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To: kabumpo
My friend married a man who is an identical twin whose brother is homosexual. Very. So much for genetics.

The friend is female or male?

225 posted on 12/29/2010 4:15:28 PM PST by gitmo ( The democRats drew first blood. It's our turn now.)
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To: wagglebee; onyx
I a normal marriage between a man and woman sex is a PART of the relationship, but it is not the primary focus of the marriage (it may be in the beginning, but not later).

Tell that to my wife, please!

I'm tired. Very tired, just not complaining...


Runaway Slave

Apostle Claver tells the world how the real party of racism is the Democrats

226 posted on 12/29/2010 4:16:38 PM PST by rdb3 (The mouth is the exhaust pipe of the heart.)
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To: Notary Sojac

As the excesses and tyranny of the homo-agenda is understood by more people (and it is, the repeal of DADT is waking a heckuva lot of people up), I have no doubt that more states will re-institute anti-sodomy laws once they fedgov starts acting within its constitutional duties.


227 posted on 12/29/2010 4:17:20 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.CSLewis)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball

I don’t agree. Sexual dysfunction isn’t caused by germs, bugs or any other infection. To begin with one can be tested for a virus etc. There has NEVER been any link found in homosexual research other than environment/nurture etc.


228 posted on 12/29/2010 4:20:54 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: trisham

Trisham, it’s going to get turned around, one way - or another.


229 posted on 12/29/2010 4:23:01 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.CSLewis)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball

And an “infection” doesn’t explain the people that have walked away from that life either.


230 posted on 12/29/2010 4:23:32 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: DJ MacWoW

Sexual degeneracy in any form (even sinkEmperor’s manifestation) is a sickness of the soul and thus not treatable with chemical substances, other than to blunt the connection between spirit and body, as in somnabulent state from heavy dosing of such things as morphine, quaaludes, or heroin. Degeneracy is not absolute else God woul dnot have stated that no temptation comes that cannot be resisted.


231 posted on 12/29/2010 4:25:31 PM PST by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: MHGinTN

I agree.


232 posted on 12/29/2010 4:27:16 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: DJ MacWoW

Can you be tested for narcolepsy...other than by observing behavior? I’m not arguing, I don’t know the answer.

The idea that localized damage to brain function (if that’s true) combined with geographic variation make a case for a virus seems plausible to me. Hey, I’m not a scientist...but I find the guy’s argument compelling.

PLUS it has the advantage of REALLY annoying leftists and homosexuals by posting that their beloved affliction is, in fact, scientifically, an affliction.

I’m going with it anyway.

Hank


233 posted on 12/29/2010 4:29:13 PM PST by County Agent Hank Kimball (DeMint/Christie 2012...The Y'all and the Ball!)
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To: newzjunkey

Thanks.


234 posted on 12/29/2010 4:31:09 PM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Sherman Logan; wagglebee

Every action other than those performed by the autonomic nervous system is voluntary, for one thing. A person may not be able to control thoughts or desires (although with practice, one can at the very least not entertain them, and get a grip, and so on*) but every human who is not psychotic or nearly so, can certainly control actions such as sex, eating, walking, speech, etc.

For another, the only reason we’re all having this discussion is because of governmental promotion - primarily non-legislative - of the homsoexual agenda on everyone else. So we’re so far beyond the point of neutrality, in the public and legal sphere, that the question is moot. Basically, for most or at least many people, even acting on their beliefs and understanding that homosexual acts are wrong, destructive, unhealthy, immoral and unnatural is tantamount to civil disobedience.

The real question is - where to do people go from here? I mean people who don’t want to support the homo-agenda.

*And an interesting point is that when desires and thoughts are acted upon, they gain strength in the mind; and when ignored or told “no, we’re going to do that today”, they become less troublesome or insistent. The mind is controllable, at least to a goodly extent. We are not meant to be, as humans, slaves to every desire that pops up. That makes us very different from animals. If this were not true, no one could ever control any desire, such as the desire to smoke. For instance, I used to smoke both cigarettes and marijuana - and stopped, with very little trouble, although I realize the difficulty varies a lot. Now, you couldn’t pay me to smoke anything. The “uncontrollable” desire is now gone.)


235 posted on 12/29/2010 4:32:35 PM PST by little jeremiah (Courage is not simply one of virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.CSLewis)
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To: Sherman Logan
So which person in a consensual relationship is the perp, and which is the victim?

Neither one, they are both complicit in their actions.

Two guys rob a bank, one goes in and the other stays with the getaway car........Who's the perp and who is the willing accomplice?

236 posted on 12/29/2010 4:33:01 PM PST by Hot Tabasco (There's only one cure for Obamarrhea......)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball

Yes, Hank, not onlyt can someone be tested to prove nacolepsy, the chemical imbalance int he barin can be treated with chemical intervention. The more serious problem arises when the release of seratonin floods cannot be regulated.


237 posted on 12/29/2010 4:34:37 PM PST by MHGinTN (Some, believing they can't be deceived, it's nigh impossible to convince them when they're deceived.)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball
Can you be tested for narcolepsy.

Yes. And people with narcolepsy can't control it. But a person CAN control sexual behavior. They simply choose not to.

Quite frankly I can't picture an infection of any kind that would make another man's butt attractive.

And in the twin study they found one twin was homosexual and the other was not. Wouldn't twins share germs etc? The "bug" theory doesn't work.

238 posted on 12/29/2010 4:38:17 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (If Bam is the answer, the question was stupid.)
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To: County Agent Hank Kimball
Don't ping me again...

Thanks

239 posted on 12/29/2010 4:40:46 PM PST by Osage Orange (MOLON LABE)
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To: MHGinTN

Interesting...didn’t know that.

Well, if the guy’s theory is correct, they may be able to come up with some chemical therapy to reverse same-sex attraction. Obviously they haven’t and the article is 5 years old.

Still, it annoys homosexuals enough that I’ll go with it for now. Thanks for the info, though.

Hank


240 posted on 12/29/2010 4:50:54 PM PST by County Agent Hank Kimball (DeMint/Christie 2012...The Y'all and the Ball!)
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