Math is hard, but basically, by cutting $73 million to Planned Parenthood, Texas will now have to spend an additional $200 million underwriting the cost of caring for almost 24,000 unplanned babies. And then there’s the cost of medications for sexually transmitted diseases–Texas has the highest rate of uninsured Americans in the United States (and a woefully weak Medicaid system facing a shortfall), so really what will happen then? Will Texas celebrate the arrival The Great Satan in the form of Obamacare?

On Tuesday, 10:00 a.m., the US Senate Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging will hold a hearing on the high costs/prices for HIV/AIDs Drugs and the Prize Fund Alternative. Witnesses include Harvard Law’s Lawrence Lessig as well as James Love, Joseph Stiglitz and others. This is the prepared testimony of Dr. Lessig.

The strength and beauty and love of life each of these models expressed during their time with us was beyond inspirational, as was their commitment to spreading the word the HIV can happen to anyone no matter what their age, race, socio-economic class, education, sexual orientation or any other demographic.

Mr. Bruce is a cat. A cat who loves the band Queen. Freddie Mercury, Queen’s the lead singer loved cats. Today would have been Mercury’s 65th birthday, but sadly he died of AIDS-related complications in 1991. In his memory, friends and family  immediately established the Mercury Phoenix Trust raise to money and awareness about AIDS. Since 1992 the Mercury Phoenix Trust has been responsible for donating more than $15 million in the fight against AIDS  through proceeds and royalties from the 1992 Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness and other fund raising efforts.

North Carolina State Representative Larry Brown, proving that ignorance about public health knows no bounds even in the 21st century, wants to deny state assistance to citizens who contracted HIV through their own “perverted lifestyle.” This returns the debate to the era of the Innocent Victim, when only little children who got AIDS through botched blood transfusions or while being born to junkie moms were worthy of America’s attention and assistance. There’s a reason the most comprehensive federal assistance for HIV patients is named after a boy who was shunned at school, not a friendless San Francisco drag queen tossed out on the street.