The establishment has no problem working with him and lauding him. From 1981 to 1987, Podhoretz was an adviser to the U.S. Information Agency. From 1995 to 2003, he was a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush in 2004.
Podhoretz was one of the original signatories of the "Statement of Principles" of the Project for the New American Century founded in 1997.That organization sent a letter to President Clinton in 1998 advocating the removal by force of Saddam Husein in Iraq. Podhoretz received the Guardian of Zion Award from Bar-Ilan University on May 24, 2007. He served as a senior foreign policy advisor to Rudy Giuliani in his 2008 presidential campaign. His warmongering columns are regularly featured in WSJ.
This is what he thinks about gays.
Norman Podhoretz, in mid-1980s, on why he was opposed to funding research into AIDS vaccine https://t.co/lwKj6hoghe pic.twitter.com/DhDhjMtkb0
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) May 18, 2015
There are respectable reasons for keeping the government out of ALL medical research, but Podhoretz view is not among them. It's clear that the observer quoted above is correct and that Podhoretz is anti-AIDS research, not based on libertarian principles that government should not be involved in funding any type of research, but because he sees AIDS as a method by which the cost of performing male gay sex acts stays high.
-RW
Podhoretz's comment was thoughtless and insensitive but it seems to me that it is mother nature that has placed a high cost on performing male gay sex acts and the promiscuity that often accompanies them. The same can be said for other communicable diseases. Those who indulge in risky behavior and/or ignore or are ignorant of basic human hygiene may suffer this cost. Forcing others to inoculate this risky behavior is a clear violation of the human right to life unlike Podhoretz's careless comment.
ReplyDeleteA rotten comment from a rotten man.
ReplyDeleteWasnt the attitude among Christian conservatives back then that AIDS was a "gay" disease anyway or was that the 70s? Not excusing the comment but just making an observation
ReplyDelete