Here's an interesting headline from Huffington Post:
GOP Still Filibustering Sebelius Desptie Flu Outbreak
This means that either...
a) Huffington Post writers really think Huffington Post readers are silly enough to believe that career politician and tax brainiac Kathy Sebelius being unable to helm the Department of Health and Human Services at the present time will somehow hinder the United States government's response to the swine flu outbreak,
Or...
b) Huffington Post writers are really worried about the health and well-being of Republican senators participating in the Sebelius filibuster, and think Huffington Post readers should be too.
I'm kinda hoping John Ringo got this flu thing right in The Last Centurion. LA and Frisco get hammered. Of course, I live in LA, so I's gots mixed feelings about that, but it ought to be fun to watch as long as the bottled water and duct tape around the windowsills and doorjambs holds out...
Posted by: richard mcenroe | April 27, 2009 at 09:43 PM
Well, seems Sebelius is now confirmed, (not that I think it matters), and the first "US" death is a Mexican toddler, and the WHO now says that "hey, not that many people have actually died from this" anyway, and now people are arguing about the name. Like the guys on FARK, I say we stop calling it swine flu and start calling it 'bacon lung'. Sounds tastier, anyway.
And John Ringo is a hack.
Posted by: Eric Blair | April 29, 2009 at 03:17 PM
Via Kevin Drum: Ezra Klein passes along the news that Israel's ultra-orthodox deputy health minister has some taxonomic concerns about our flu epidemic:
Yakov Litzman said the reference to pigs is offensive to both religions and "we should call this Mexican flu and not swine flu," he told a news conference at a hospital in central Israel.
Both Judaism and Islam consider pigs unclean and forbid the eating of pork products.
And from the AP last night:
Egypt began slaughtering the roughly 300,000 pigs in the country Wednesday as a precaution against swine flu even though no cases have been reported here, infuriating farmers who blocked streets and stoned vehicles of Health Ministry workers who came to carry out the government's order.
...
At one large pig farming center just north of Cairo, scores of angry farmers blocked the street to prevent Health Ministry workers in trucks and bulldozers from coming in to slaughter the animals. Some pelted the vehicles with rocks and shattered their windshields and the workers left without killing any pigs.
...
Most in the Muslim world consider pigs unclean animals and do not eat pork because of religious restrictions. One Islamic militant Web site carried comments Wednesday saying swine flu was God's revenge against "infidels."
In Egypt, pigs are raised and consumed mainly by the Christian minority, which some estimates put at 10 percent of the population. Health Ministry spokesman Abdel-Rahman Shaheen estimated there are between 300,000-350,000 pigs in Egypt.
...
"It is unfortunate," the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Chief Veterinary Officer Joseph Domenech said of Egypt's decision. "The crisis today is in transmission from human to human. It has nothing to do with pigs," he told The Associated Press.
In the northern suburbs of Cairo Wednesday, health authorities killed 250 pigs and buried them. Angry farmers demanded compensation and provincial governors paid them around 1,000 Egyptian pounds (about $180) per head. The farmers asked for an official government decision to set a price for each pig slaughtered.
Agriculture Minister Amin Abaza told reporters that farmers would be allowed to sell the pork meat so there would be no need for compensation.
I guess they just have to dig up the dead pigs after the authorities leave and wash off the carcasses.
Well at least some Muslims and Jews agree on something for a change. The only good pig is a dead pig. Who's up for some ribs?
Posted by: markg8 | April 29, 2009 at 07:13 PM
Don't look now Dennis but Kos is criticizing Democrats again. Apparently some of our House reps who are lesser versed in the law led by Linda Sanchez have come up with a half baked bill (HR 1966) that'd amend title 18, United States Code, with respect to cyberbullying. It could make your next post a felony.
`Sec. 881. Cyberbullying
`(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
Posted by: markg8 | May 02, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Yeah, well fuck Linda Sanchez... and the horse she rode in on.
Is that worth two years?
Posted by: Dennis the Peasant | May 02, 2009 at 11:52 AM
How pretty is the horse?
Posted by: PeterUK | May 02, 2009 at 01:40 PM
Prettier than Sanchez, that's for sure.
Posted by: Dennis the Peasant | May 02, 2009 at 04:59 PM
I suppose this is a new variant of the horses head in the bed?
Well,looked at the picture.What's the horse look like?
Posted by: PeterUK | May 02, 2009 at 05:56 PM
Check both ends, to be fair.
Posted by: richard mcenroe | May 03, 2009 at 12:42 PM
The odd thing about this is it's in response to the suicide of Megan Meier, the 13-year-old girl in MO who was bullied and humiliated towards suicide by Lori Drew, a friend's mother. As as a local teenage boy she invented she led this poor kid on and then pushed her over the edge with some really cruel comments. The odd part is there wasn't anything "interstate" about it, they lived in the same town.
Posted by: markg8 | May 04, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Lil Petey wrote: Sad when you have to do everything solo.
Which I guess explains why you're such a miserable fuck.
Posted by: markg8 | May 04, 2009 at 12:58 PM