Wingnuts

IT'S 40 years since John F. Kennedy was gunned down in Dallas, Texas, but the conspiracy theories surrounding his death have never died. It could have been the CIA from across the street, the Mafia on a grassy knoll or even a deranged social misfit taking pot-shots from the sixth floor of a book depository. Yet his assassination is not alone in sparking conspiracy theories. From faked moon landings to alien autopsies and shadowy world governments, they do make entertaining reading. But about the only thing you can be certain of in the world of conspiracy theories is most of them should be taken...

...Maggiore, who heads Alive & Well AIDS Alternatives in Burbank, Calif., is not your typical AIDS activist. In South Africa, some scientists spit nasty epithets at her. Protesters marching outside the meeting hall threatened to plug her and her galvanized followers with bullets. Why? Because Maggiore takes the strange contrarian stance that HIV, which has been blamed in the deaths of 18.8 million people worldwide, doesn't cause AIDS at all. She exhorts people to stop taking their medications and stop worrying about spreading their virus.