“When liberty comes with hands dabbled in blood it is hard to shake hands with her.”

Yesterday afternoon, I was stopped by something right in my tracks. As I was leaving Subway, I walked by a newspaper stand where the cover article in the Chicago Sun-Times said, "1-6 gay men in Chicago are HIV positive." I immediately bought an issue and devoured the article on the train to Evanston. According to the Chicago Public Health Department, 17% of openly homosexual men in Chicago proper are HIV positive. Unfortunately, half of them don't even know it. To put that in perspective, only 1.2% of "straight" men are HIV positive. On even more alarming news, nearly 30% of black gay men are HIV positive. Needless to say, AIDS is no longer the "chic" disease that it was even ten years ago. It is however crucially imperative that articles like this are still written that show that AIDS is still very prevalent and growing - not just in America but across the whole world. According to the CDC, there are approximately 40,000 new cases of positive diagnoses for HIV in the United States each year. Who knows how many more people have the disease but don't even know it. In the past 25 years, AIDS has been responsible for the deaths of 25 million people. Just last year alone, over two million people died of AIDS. This article is not meant to be an opinion piece, a call to arms, but merely a reporting of the facts. HIV/AIDS is still an enormous problem not just in Africa but in the Midwest too. I don't know if a cure will come anytime soon; but I am praying it does.

1. Friday night I ate at this awesome restaurant that was Oscar Wilde themed. I loved not only the food, but the atmosphere. I have always been a big fan of the Irish playwright. Although I enjoyed reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, An Ideal Husband, and The Importance of Being Earnest, it was really reading biographies on Wilde, the man, that really fascinated me. I admired his superciliousness towards the typical late 19th century thought on everything from politics, to fashion, to sexuality. I was really into Wilde when I was 18, 19, and very much shared his philosophy on the aesthetics. Of course I disagreed with his views on anarchism and socialism, but his complete disdain for the bourgeois was inspirational and moving to me. For those who are not familiar with Wilde, I highly recommend his work.

2. Yesterday night I watched the movie Bringing Down the House. This 2003 Steve Martin/Queen Latifah comedy had horrible written all over it. I was actually pleasantly surprised; and I give the movie a B. It's not a bad rental.

3. This is the cutest, funniest wedding entrance I have ever seen! I totally want to do this at my future wedding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0&feature=fvw