Pandemic
This one goes out to a couple of my good friends who drive and smoke yet are terrified of flying no matter what kind of numbers I throw at them. So far, Swine Flu appears no more lethal than Homo Sapien Flu yet it got the full Situation Room treatment for a week. What's regular flu go to do to get Sanjay Gupta analyzing its ribliocodes (?) on the gigantic touch screen monitor?
You wish this level of concern would be established for some other top killers that are even easier to prevent, namely car crashes and smoking.
I was loving the controversy over the naming of this goddamn virus.
First the Industrial Pig Farm Complex objected to the name, claiming it tainted the honor of their shit and blood filled factories. Then Jews and Muslims said the name was offensive--when god said "no pork" thousands of years ago, he clearly intended for the faithful to abstain from the Orthomyxoviridae Family of RNA Viruses that have evolved to infect hogs.
For more information, see Joe Biden's new website doihaveswineflu.org
posted by Matt Bors at
12:38 AM
5 Comments:
I like the overly-padded guy in the basement.
I understand the government response, because they are responsible for public safety. But the news media seized on it like it was, I dunno, some easy-to-understand instant drama that spares them the trouble of more intractable problems like, say, Pakistan's aggressive moves in the Swat. Or somethin'.
So I don't have a TV (I do watch the Daily Show on the internet), but my impression is that there was no real connection made in the media between the virus, the practice of factory farming, and the demand for cheap meat (oh and don't forget that Americans are among the fattest in the world). But I guess this time (to use Bush's phrase) "the bullet has been dodged"...
Matt, I drive, I smoke and yet I am absolutely put off flying. Mind, it's not the flying, crashing & hijacking stuff that bothers me... it's the sweaty, tittering chap with the rubber gloves and the smirk from the US TSA that has this US expat staying right here in Orstraya, as I have since 1996.
Travel by boat!
I need a reason to go to the USA first, Matt, no matter how I'd travel.
A Repuglican once admonished me to 'love it or leave it' and that sounded like a pret-ty darn good idea, so I took him up on it.
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