It seems that the current regime doesn't want us referring to swine flu as swine flu. It seems that our friends in the world community of nations are banning US pork imports.

That's not good for economic stimulus. It also has nothing to do with flu, for that matter.

Then we have the Israeli deputy minister for health, one Yakov Litzman, declaring that the name 'swine' flu is offensive to Muslims and Jews. Talk about having your head up your politically correct backside.

He wants to call it "Mexican" flu. That's a dog that don't hunt, especially down Mexico way.

So let's call it "Oink" flu. It's actually an interesting combination of swine, human, and avian flu DNA, but we'll stick with "Oink" flu for now.

Meanwhile, fingers continue to point in all directions as Democratic operatives blame the Republicans ... say ... it just came to me ... we could call it "Pachyderm" flu ... because as previously noted, the Repubs resisted including pandemic funds in the stimulus bill. They are chewing the guts of Susan Collins, the Republican senator from Maine who actually voted for Porculus Americanus. They are also ignoring Chuck "Let 'em eat pork" Schumer, D-NY who said, back in the first week of February:

“All those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the [National] Mall or the sexually transmitted diseases or the flu pandemic, they’re all out,” Schumer said.

So we continue to come to grips with the vital issues of the day.

Oink flu progresseth.

But we will be OK. Sebelius has been appointed. Sebelius has been sworn in. We will be saved!

Of course, Sebelius ain't nuthin' but the former governor of Kansas (how's that, Toto?)and is absolutely clueless about this sort of thing.

Meanwhile, we have no surgeon general nor do we have anyone other than temps running the CDC. Whose fault is that? George Bush's?

But ... Sebelius has been sworn in. Not only that, but Janet Napolitano is making the Oink flu a Homeland Security 'issue'. Given the great job Janet's done so far, I feel great about all this. The government will save us!

Meanwhile, Obama is 'furious' over the New York photo op. I dunno why. The goofball he put in charge had this to say:

Louis Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, quickly apologized for Monday's incident after the planes prompted workers and residents to evacuate buildings in New York and New Jersey.

"Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision," Caldera said. "While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it's clear that the mission created confusion and disruption."

Ya think? That "Federal authorities took proper steps ..." thing is about as self-serving a bit of snivelry as you'll find in any administration. Why?

Because those simpletons, having told the local authorities they were going to do it, then told them they couldn't tell anyone.

New York Police Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne said the department had been alerted about the flight "with directives to local authorities not to disclose information about it." 

Now it's coming out that this fiasco cost us over $300,000, just for the flight time. That doesn't count the lost productivity as thousands of worked fled their cubicles.

Who's running this lashup? Larry? Moe? Or is it Curly?

So there is little evidence that masks work in preventing the spread of flu, according to an article on FoxNews this morning.

Can we trust that article?

Who knows.

Is this thing a real 'pandemic', worth getting rattled over?

Who knows. The MainStream Media is working overtime to make it one. Despite a plea from our Beloved Government for people to stop referring to it as 'swine flu', CNN and FoxNews and every talking head you can find while flipping through the channels continue to refer to it as 'swine flu'... even though it demonstrably is something other than that.

There's no doubt that it is a serious disease. I've had your average run-of-the-mill flu and will pass on repeating the experience. It's down home nasty stuff. People do in fact die from it.

But what's the mortality rate? Really, we aren't talking about 'Captain Trips' or 'Andromeda strain' or some super-Ebola here. Is this Oink flu really all that different from 'regular' flu? So far it does not seem to be.

First the MSM got the panic kicked into high gear with all their hype. Then the government got into it with that "state of public emergency" hype. Then they backed down on that. Kind of. Then we had that Peoples Workers Union or whatever it is screaming about how we needed Sebelius (you use her last name only, kind of like a Roman emperor) to save us. Me, I would rather have had Sanjay Gupta, who is a real doctor and who actually knows something about these things, but that ain't gonna happen.

And we have Sistah Jane going on before Congress, testifying about yet another subject where her ignorance is just off the scale.

We proceed apace in our Brave New World.

Oh ... don't let all this distract you from the 100th Day celebrations. They're unveiling "The Truth" today up in Union Square.

It passeth all understanding.

So.

Today they are unveiling Michael D'Antuono's painting "The Truth", which depicts Obama in a kindasorta 'crucified' position, wearing a crown of thorns, while either unveiling or perhaps closing a veil upon, the presidential seal. How you perceive it depends on your ideological bent.

Here is an interesting observation from the artist:

" 'The Truth' is a politically, religiously and socially-charged statement on our nation's current political climate and deep partisan divide that is sure to create a dialogue."

You know what? He's right on da munny with that.

Add to this mix previous comments by a US Senator on the senate floor and a number of comments from Obamanians, all comparing Obama to Jesus Christ to varying degrees.

What I find bothersome about this is not so much the implication that Obama is in fact the "Obamessiah", but that Obama has done nothing to dissuade his followers from doing these things.

Obama professes to be a "Christian". I know of no "Christian", either rabid fundamentalist or perhaps just a weekender or even just one who makes it to church on Christmas and Easter, who would be 'comfortable' with being compared to Christ, especially in such literal fashion. The far liberal left sees this as a silly superstition - but they miss the point that even if that is all it is, it is one that is very powerful. The far reactionary right sees this as indications that Obama is really the Antichrist - which is even loonier than the left's view, but it is still a very powerful emotion. Why would a politician alienate so many people?

Even if Obama is a "Christian" for vote-getting purposes only, does he not realize that this on-going comparison offends a lot of "Christians", self-styled or real or merely aspiring? It deeply offends people. He can't make them stop; it is after all a free country and this certainly falls under the concept of protected speech. But why would he not come out with a simple request, "Please don't do this; it offends a lot of people for no good reason." If you substitute 'voters' for 'people' you can see why this would be a useful political expedient if not a genuine concern over behavior that is tantamount in the minds of many to blasphemy.

Or is such adoration so important to Obama that he is willing to risk alienating so many voters? Does he feel that his hold is so solid that he doesn't have to be concerned with what these people think?

Why is he so willing to avoid offending Islamic believers, yet so indifferent to Christians? I don't buy into the Internet hype that the man is a closet Muslim, yet the question remains.

Why?

Rich Galen has a pretty good commentary about Arlen Specter and the state of the Republican party here:

An American Cyber-column

The article, "Ex-specter-ate" will be up for awhile. After that you can scoot down to the bottom of the column and click on a link in the archived articles.

Arlen Specter is jumping ship, abandoning the Republicans to become a Democrat.

His statement is here.

Well.

Actually, he makes some good points. For a self-serving weasel. But then they are all self-serving weasels, so what difference does it make?

I'm not a Republican, nor will I be. I'm not a Democrat, nor will I be. I have never registered for either party, though in past years, a long time in the past, I tended to vote more for Democrats than Republicans. That was before they became the shrill collection of moonbats that they are now. Nowadays they don't even make sense, even less sense than the Republicans, and that's saying something. A pox on both parties.

Neither party represents my interests, and certainly neither party represents the best interests of the nation. They are all a collection of self-serving, often nearly hysterical hypocrites. They are a collection of pandering political whores. The ignorance, laziness, and pathetically inept behavior we saw from them over Porculus Americanus, and the subsequent knee-jerking panic over the AIG bonuses merely emphasizes that they are a collection of clowns. The Clowns of Congress. How anyone can have any respect for them is beyond me. They are a joke. In many ways, they are an insult to the nation's founders.

Some will say that they have lost respect for Specter, switching parties like that, as though it were some kind of disloyalty. His switching doesn't bother me. I had no respect for the man anyway, and switching parties is just another self-serving expedient to get himself re-elected. He certainly saw the writing on the wall.

Now ... let's get back to our regularly scheduled buffoonery on Capitol Hill and in the Orchid Office.

Specter jumps ship

Earth Day

It was Earth Day.

Millions of people got up and got out to Save the Earth.

One of those millions was no less a personage than Our Dear Leader, the President of the United States.

He made his Earth Day speech, designed to inspire us all. Maybe it did. I don't know. I didn't hear it. So I guess it didnt inspire me.

Obama did, however, use 9,000 gallons of fuel to gad about the country, celebrating Earth Day and green living. That's even worse than Al Gore. As our commentator this morning points out, in one day, Obama used half again as much fuel as used by one of those conscience-shocking, air-polluting SUV's in ten years.

Did the president’s Earth Day speech really do so much to fight climate change that it was worth those 9,000 gallons? I guess President Obama’s policy advisors must have calculated that a speech in front of wind turbines in Iowa would be far more effective than an address from the White House in which the president explained that he was refraining from travel to help fight climate change. After all, due to that one trip, fourteen people must now stop driving their SUVs for an entire year just to undo the pollution recently released into our atmosphere by our president…


Barack H. Obama. Hypocrite-in-Chief, resident of the Orchid Office.

Talk about left-wing moonbattery. Jeez.

It seems that the New Flu is the fault of the Republicans. Why? Because they didn't vote for the stimulus bill, which contained $900 million for "Pandemic Preparation", or ... as we here at Blogger Central call it ... "Preparation P".

The Republicans were against the inclusion of this money in a so-called 'stimulus bill' not because they were against spending money on "Preparation P", but because it didn't belong in a so-called 'stimulus bill'. Like a lot of other money, for a lot of other projects, which have nothing to do with stimulating the economy, but everything to do with fleshing out porker projects.

The "Preparation P" money should have been allocated ... appropriated ... though the established bill-passage process. That was the Republican point. But nope, you can't get that through the heads of a lot of the liberal lefties. Case in point:

GOP Know-Nothings fought pandemic preparedness

Buddy, that guy is stretching it to the breaking point. There are a great many things were that "Know-Nothings" tag would fit the GOP perfectly, but this isn't one of them.

Meanwhile, the lefties are shrieking that Sebelius can save us, if the Republicans will but stop holding up her appointment as Secretary of HHS. Never mind that the hold up is over her tax problems. This is another one of those deals where We Must Act Boldly and Quickly, and be damned to the unthought about consequences.

Never mind that Obama has not only failed utterly to get a secretary for HHS, but he has also failed utterly to appoint anyone to any of the top 19 positions after the secretary.

Why is that, do you suppose? He doesn't have a health team in place:

As flu hits, holes in Obama health team

The Obama administration declared a “public health emergency” Sunday to confront the swine flu — but is heading into its first medical outbreak without a secretary of Health and Human Services or appointees in any of the department’s 19 key posts.

President Barack Obama has not yet chosen a surgeon general or the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. His choice to run the Food and Drug Administration awaits confirmation.

Why?

Why are we messing about with witch hunts over waterboarding a collection of murdering Islamic thugs, while we have no health team in place?

Dozens of Kent State students arrested

Wow. Kent State.

I remember the last dust up at Kent State. They were holding a protest over the incursion into Cambodia that had begun a few days earlier.

The war had been winding down, and the Cambodian incursion by ARVN - the Army of South Viet Nam on April 29, 1970, had gotten the wind up a bit but the real hoo-hah started after the US Army went in on May 1, 1970. Many people saw it as an escalation of the war. I did not. After the Cambodian incursion, enemy action in the Delta quieted down to an almost non-existent level.

At that time I was down in Can Tho province, and we had been running the secret bombing of Cambodia prior to the incursion. If you are interested in such things, you can find a bit of background on it here:

OL-26, Binh Thuy

and with some better external links here:

OL-25, Ubon RTAB

and of course there is a wealth of info about the Kent State shootings to be found simply by Googling.

The thing is, Kent State was not one of those campuses known for a lot of radical or anti-war (not necessarily the same thing) activities. Kent State was a pretty laid-back university, and protests tended to be well-mannered and ... civilized. The one in May, 1970, got way out of hand.

Wikipedia, though often not considered a reliable reference source (with good reason), has a pretty good overview of the 1970 riot:

Kent State shootings 1970

and here is John Filo's Pulitzer prize-winning photo of the aftermath of the shootings:




Whether you agree with the 1970 protesters or not, or their methods, they were at least standing up for a cause of some consequence.

The Kent State of today seems to be just another collection of rowdy drunks with nothing better to do than party till they puke, then start destroying property.

What a shame.

Nope.

It apparently really isn't all that much of an emergency.

The Obamessiah says we should be in a heightened state of alert, or alertness, over The New Flu. We should not be alarmed. The public state of emergency is not really an 'emergency' emergency.

I am not sure what this means.

Meanwhile, I remain alert. I have the sniffles. I am not sure if this is due to allergies or some nefarious viral skulduggery. I am wondering if I should seek medical assistance. After all, over the last three weeks I have suffered bronchitis and strep throat. As an Old Fart, am I at risk? Is my immuno-system deficient? Shall I wear a surgical mask? Shall I avoid shaking hands with people? Should I become an obsessive hand-washer? Should I carry a spray can of Lysol with me, and spray all door knobs, keyboards, etc etc etc before touching them? Should I spray the air when someone comes into the office? Should I carry Clorox wipes with me?

I am not sure. We are in a 'state of public emergency' but not really.

If I spray you with Lysol, please do not take offense. If I refuse to shake hands with you, please do not take offense. If I hold up a sheet of paper between us as we talk, please do not take offense. I am complying with Our President's instructions to remain alert. I am taking 'precautionary measures'.

Is it true that Janet Napolitano, who still thinks - along with John McCain - that the 9/11 terrorists snuck in ... sneaked in ... through Canada ... is it true that she really thinks the New Flu virus snuck in ... sneaked in ... across the Canadian border in a truckload of Canadian bacon that was really imported from China, and was bound for Walmarts all across the US?

We are following our Dear Leader's advice and are remaining calm.

When may we expect to receive our free Federally-funded surgical masks?

The MSM is going nuts over the so-called 'swine flu' outbreak, over which a state of public emergency has been declared here in the US.

Emergency? Well ... maybe that's the thing to do. I dunno. The very fact that we are in a declared state of 'emergency' gives me visions of Stephen King's "The Stand", one of his best novels. I have visions of "Outbreak". "Andromeda Strain". A bunch of other doomsday stories of that ilk.

It seems that this strain of flu - which apparently has DNA tidbits from swine, avian, and human flu viruses - is running about a 6% mortality rate down in Mexico. So far it has a 0% mortality rate here in the US. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Meanwhile, we have the continuing saga of "Mr. Transparency in Government" Obama's appointee to the number 2 spot at HUD, Ron Sim.

Ron Sim is hardly a paragon of governmental transparency. This guy was so secretive it took a significant lawsuit to get him to release records about the 2004 gubernatorial elections up in Washington State. It was a hotly contested election so some transparency in the records and vote counts and related issues was kind of important. This upstart blogger, Stephan Sharkansky, tried to get those records through the various open records laws, and was blocked at every turn by Sims. So Stephansky sued King County, Washington.

King County just settled with Sharkansky for $225,000.

A comment from Sharkansky:

The documents that they eventually provided to me revealed that county election officials unlawfully counted hundreds of ineligible ballots in the 2004 election: a multiple of Christine Gregoire’s 133-vote “margin of victory” over Dino Rossi in the contested gubernatorial race. Documentation of these illegal votes was withheld from discovery in the election contest trial and not released to me until months after the trial. Consequently, the trial was conducted in ignorance of these potentially outcome-changing illegal votes.

Anyone want to make any bets that this Congress is going to have any problems with confirming Sims? All the man needs to make him an absolute down home shoo-in is some delinquent tax 'issues'.

Chris Muir has a good commentary on PerezHilton, the trash-talking gay blade who had a hissy fit over Miss California's politically incorrect response to his/her question about gay marriage:

Day by Day

Ain't it innerestin' how these Hollywooders can scream about tolerance, rights, equality ... but exhibit none of that toward anyone who dares disagee with their shallow thought processes?

We're all supposed to accept their load of self-centered crap, and if we don't, we must be homophobic, intolerant, narrow-minded, unenlightened hicks from the sticks.

Yup. We're supposed to sweat the opinions of PerezHilton, the fluttery, trash-mouthed, bigoted queen who gets all a-twitter over the idea of doing Paris Hilton's makeup.

What a clown. What a sad, pathetic, confused clown.

Really. Remember when Tennessee Rep. Steve Cohen actually gave a speech on the floor of the United States Senate, saying that "Barack Obama was a community organizer like Jesus"?

Remember when Democratic operative Donna Brazile (yep, the Brazile who scarfed the Obama Blanket at the inauguration: "We have a black president! It's free!") made this comment on CNN:

The Bible says to whom much is given much is required and it comes out of that tradition. So it was insulting to see both, you know, the governor as well as Mayor Giuliani criticize people. There’s some on the Internet now that Jesus was a community organizer, Pontius Pilate was a governor. And perhaps they should understand the role of a community organizer, do help people in distress.

Here is Michael D'Antuono's "The Truth", which is to be unveiled on The One Hundredth Day of the Obamessiah's reign:



The painting is going to be exhibited Wednesday, April 29, 2009 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the South Plaza of Union Square Park at 14th Street in New York City.

Yep. That's a crown of thorns on His head.Don't see any nail scars, however.

D'Antuono is not some fleamarket velvet Elvis hack; he is an artist of note:

About Michael D'Antuono

Michael D'Antuono studied in New York and Paris earning a B.F.A. from the prestigious Parsons School of Design. He was an art director for the advertising agency DMB&B creating award winning national campaigns including one that ran for 20 years and a freelance illustrator working for major ad agencies and national publications before deciding to bring his skills to the world of fine art. His work has been shown in New York, Las Vegas, Aspen and California.

Website: http://www.dantuonoarts.com/

Day, Liebowitz and Pirrong: Guns make colleges safer

04:56 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Mass public shootings are a horrific feature of modern life. Many of the bloodiest examples of this scourge have occurred on college campuses. As professors, we are particularly sensitive to this danger.

Despite this – no, because of this – we support a bill currently pending in the Texas Legislature that would permit the concealed carrying of firearms on college and university campuses in the state by holders of concealed-handgun permits.
Any public policy involving matters of life and death should be decided only after weighing carefully the competing risks. Examining the relevant facts and data indicates that permitting Texas permit holders to carry weapons on college campuses would improve safety because:

•The best available empirical evidence shows that concealed-carry laws reduce the incidence of mass public shootings.

•Mass public shootings occur almost exclusively in places – like universities – where concealed carry is proscribed.

•There are numerous examples of firearms owners acting to disarm would-be mass murderers, thereby saving lives.

•Concealed-handgun-permit holders are overwhelmingly law-abiding individuals.

If gun bans truly reduced the risk of mass public shootings, then gun-free zones would be refuges from such havoc. Sadly, the exact opposite is true. All multiple-victim public shootings in the United States with more than three fatalities have occurred where concealed handguns are prohibited. Moreover, the worst primary and secondary school shootings have occurred in Europe, despite its draconian gun laws.

Furthermore, peer-reviewed research demonstrates that the passage of a concealed-carry law reduces incidents of mass public shootings. Tellingly, those episodes that have occurred in states allowing concealed carry overwhelmingly happened in places like schools and malls, where concealed carry was prohibited.

These facts should not be surprising. Gun-free zones are magnets for killers bent on maximizing their body count. They know that they face far less risk of quickly being stopped there. There are numerous cases in which private firearm owners have disarmed or disabled those attempting to murder indiscriminately in public places.

In such circumstances, police officers and other "first responders" are anything but. The true first responders are often armed citizens who are in the line of fire. The possibility that a legally armed citizen could distract or disable an assailant could be the difference between life and death for potential victims.

Nor are the benefits of permitting concealed carry on campus limited to its effect on the likelihood of mass carnage. Numerous peer-reviewed academic studies document that concealed-carry laws reduce rates of violent crime. Therefore, extending the right to carry will also help reduce the rates of crimes against individuals that occur all too frequently in gun-free zones, such as college campuses.

On risks that concealed-carry licensees pose to their fellow citizens, the record is abundantly clear. Based on recent data, Texas permit holders commit misdemeanors and felonies at a rate of about one-seventh that of the rest of the population. For violent crimes, the rates are even lower.

Opponents of permitting concealed carry on campus raise concerns about guns in dormitories. These are misplaced. The bill would allow universities to prohibit weapon storage in dorms.

When concealed-carry laws were first proposed, opponents prophesied a plague of indiscriminate gunplay. It didn't happen. Similar apocalyptic fears are being raised now. The facts, though, demonstrate that concealed carry will reduce mass shootings.
As college professors, we want to reduce the odds of a Virginia Tech massacre happening on a Texas college campus. That's why we encourage the Texas Legislature to allow concealed carry on the state's college campuses.

Theodore Day is a professor of finance and Stan Liebowitz is the Ashbel Smith Professor of Economics, both at the University of Texas at Dallas; Craig Pirrong is a professor of finance at the University of Houston. The three may be reached through stan@liebowitz.biz.

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away!

That is the sad truth. Despite the best efforts of the police, too often they end up being social garbagemen, cleaning up the mess after the fact.

Create your own gun free zone: It's time to stop the madness!