Mark Wonsil wrote: The one that boggles my mind is that having sex with a
virgin will cure AIDS.
Indeed it should. Part of that belief is due to bad translation. What was
originally said was that if a you only have sex with virgins you won't catch
AIDS. Due to the fact that medical practitioners are seen by only a small
percentage of the poor the message "telephoned" into its present form via
word of mouth. So this is also a case where money would have helped.
The other part of the problem is the mystification of virginity. In many
cultures, including Christianity, virgins possess powers beyond those
otherwise sullied by sexual intercourse. It is therefore no wonder that
people not educated in the reality of science turn to the folklore for their
cures. Sex with unicorns will also cure AIDS. I'm sure of it.
Wirt is appalled and his mind is boggled by the idea that anyone would
believe that: Once a  missile is launched at us, we have to be able to
instantly react and go disarm the next ones before they get launched.
We have had at least two Presidents in the last four that had this same
comic book fantasy. Reality is so much less comforting than myth. Though we
couch our folklore in the terminology of science we are not really that much
more sophisticated than our poor peasant brothers.

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