A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

I fell better (still propped up with Chinese herbs, Alavert and Advil), the sun is shining, it will be about 70 degrees today and I'll be able to work in the garden. All is well in Paradise....except:

the Obama Drool Team notices the Recession is on and it is really bad. Of course, when you want to showcase "smart", always go to Iowa (where I was born):

These kinds of crushing debts are unimaginable to Jerry Miller, the frugal Iowan. He has never bought a new car and still lives in the house he got for $8,500 in 1960, the house where he and his wife of 54 years, Barbara, raised six kids.

This is a man who once logged every purchase he made in a year — down to a .29 cent pint of ice cream.

As the silver-haired grandfather heads toward another pharmacy on his five-stop, 160-mile route, Miller talks about fiscal responsibility. It's not just about money, he says. It's reputation, too.

"If you've got a good name, they can't take that away from you," he says, jabbing a finger in the air to make a point.

It would have been nice, he adds, if he had a choice about retirement. But Miller says he needs the cash from this 15-hour a week job to pay for health care for himself and his wife.

Just after 12:30 p.m., Miller arrives home in Conrad, Iowa and the veteran of many recessions has some parting words:

"This, right now, is something different," he says. "You've got to have faith in the system. But can you tell me, where did all the money go?"

Swine flu may be in San Luis Obispo. 30 people locally have been tested; three probable cases at Grizzly Youth Academy (the local reform school)so far. Gotta give up the fajitas, Kiddos.

Swine flu probably is manufactured. Here's a nice morsel for your morning musings:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved NanoBio's Investigational New Drug (IND) application for the Phase 1 clinical study of NB-1008, a seasonal influenza vaccine administered via a nasal dropper. The Phase 1 trial was iniated in April of 2009 and is a randomized, controlled study in the United States involving 120 healthy human volunteers. ...

Cross strain immunogenicity after vaccination against a single strain: Mice were vaccinated with the H2N2 strain, then challenged with a lethal dose of H2N2. 100% of these mice survived. These same mice were then rechallenged with a lethal dose of a different strain, H1N1, again resulting in a 100% survival. Cross strain immunogenicity was also demonstrated in several studies in Ferrets in 2009.

Lots of scary stuff on WorldNetDaily.com today:
DHS broadened the descriptors for Right Wing Extremists (tm) so that Mr. Miller from Iowa and I both can be in the Big Tent.
Euthanasia is rearing it's ugly head in the USA again, as is eugenics.
A bright spot is Orange CO, CA yanking Planned Parenthood funding because of their gross violations of sexual assault laws pertaining to minors.

On the other hand, some things are just going to go on, and on, and on...you know the drill: "It's all Booosh's fault!"

*grabbin' the hoe and heading off to the Victory Garden....*

“Doctor, doctor, I think I have swine flu,”

“Try oinkment.”

UK pseudo-media types prep people to imprudent behavior:

The novelist and Evening Standard columnist Will Self has been similarly scathing, describing the predictions of imminent Apocalypse – or “Aporkalypse”, as some wags put it – as so much media “squealing”. Meanwhile, Michael O’Leary, the embattled boss of Ryanair, in a desperate effort to stave off a further catastrophic fall in passenger numbers in a business only just beginning to recover from the credit crunch, claims that only people “living in slums” in Mexico and Asia are at risk.

And then we have Marc Segal,MD at FOX:

In the current swine flu scare the virus is assumed to be a more powerful human killer than it actually is. In reality it appears to [be]losing virulence as it spreads human to human and is not that transmissable, and is NOT becoming widespread.

The vast overreaction to this virus and its potential has severe economic consequences as it did previously in 1976, 2003, and 2006. This time the hysteria may lead to billions of dollars lost to the travel industry, tourism, the Mexican economy, and to closing schools due to hysterical children and overreacting nurses. Vice President Biden’s statement that we should all avoid planes, trains, and crowded places was not at all consistent with the very low prevalence of the virus. It made me think he had become disoriented and suddenly thought he was back in 1918! Even President Obama’s statement that we should wash our hands (of course we should, they are loaded with bacteria and viruses of all kinds) sent the wrong message that there is far more of this particular virus around than there actually is. (The chance that this virus is on your hands as you read this is extremely close to zero).

As one commenter put it, Dr. Segal probably has a stock Tamaflu under his bed, so he'll be fine.

The rest of us are on our own.

And I AM feeling better today. I hope to get out to my garden tomorrow morning. Weather should be just dandy for planting the beans and herbs.

Hammagedon or APORKalypse Now

Okay, the MSM has a grip o'us with our panties bunched over the Flying Pig Flu (FPF). But now, it is REALLY getting nutty. Egypt is slaughtering all pigs, companies that produce Thyroid medicine are putting out press releases, and now we can't call a pig a "pig".

Luv George and all, but in his factoring of mortality rate for FPF using calculations and statistics from WHO, it seems to me that reports show that there was gross underreporting of infection. For instance, one report I read reported over 1000 people in Mexico alone were infected. Today there was another report saying, AHEM, that there may be some exagerration of numbers. I know we don't wanna stand around holding our "privates" waiting for data ('cause now we KNOW it will be nairishkite), but neither do we want to be part of the chattering masses, performing the stir-n-scare for the Administration. Here's a fer-instance:

"In the United States, the confirmed case count stood at 132. State lab operators say there are more cases than the confirmed number because they are not testing all suspected cases, focusing on finding new outbreak hot spots and limiting the flu's spread.

In Mexico, the outbreak's epicenter, new cases and the death rate were leveling off, the country's top medical officer said. Health authorities said they have confirmed 300 swine flu cases and 12 deaths due to the virus...

As recently as Wednesday, Mexico's health secretary said there 168 suspected swine flu deaths and almost 2,500 suspected cases. Mexican officials have stopped updating that number and say those totals may have been inflated."

I suppose the Chinese herbs, antihistamines and other assorted chemicals with which I've been dosing myself to get rid of this hideous cold may be affecting my ability to process data. BTW, my accupuncturist told me of a soup one can make to fight off runny noses and "stuff":

1 tbl yang jiang preserved beans,
5-6 green onions (scallions)
1/2 tsp fresh ginger
couple white pepper corns
4 cups water (I used prepared kosher chicken broth)
I also added a handful of green pea pods and 1/2 green pepper
Boil for a few minutes and drink.
I found it a little salty, but tasty. And I wanted to pick out the beans, they felt mushy in mah mouth. But I didn't.

Yahoo had another FPF for Dummies article today.

Also, WH spokesman Gibbs' report that one of the WH staffers and members of his family have/had FPF.

And God bless Mr. Biden for telling the "truth". He truly is the WH Court Jester. It makes me just feel so proud to know that ANYONE can get into the WH, regardless of intellectual or diplomatic capacities

The rest of the news makes me want to be beheaded (Three possible SCOTUS judges needing replaced, Craigslist Murderer's Girlfriend came to her senses, Gay Couples crossing state lines to get "married"...), so I'll go back to my comfy bed and get better.

Thank goodness for Kinneret challah. I am just too tired to make my own today. Red snapper, carrots/scallions and cuke/tomato/garbanzo salad for Shabbat dinner.

Shabbat Shalom, y'all.

Curious George has the "Goods" on the Flu/Pandemic

No, not Obama. I meant George at Urban Survival. (Okay, yup, I am still really "schnuffy", tired and achey - but not so much that I can't be a little snotty. Dr. Happy says it is a rhinovirus, dropped some cans of chicken soup on the counter - high-tailed it to the desert to work for a few days. *b'rack, b'rack* Alright, truthfully, he made a fresh pot of lemon green tea before he left, too.)

While I was hepped up on antihistamines, decongestants and Advil trying to achieve "Claratin Clear" nirvana, George was doing his darndest to provide credible links that I meant to have yesterday about the Mexican Flu being a "man-created disaster". (Naw, we all know women wouldn't be doing crap like that, now, don't we? *INSERT EVIL HILLARY CACKLE HERE*)

George also posted the practical things to have on hand to get through the pandemic and, luckily, I do have most of that stuff. (Food, water, bleach, latril gloves and meds - no smart aleckey comments from the Peanut Gallery, Folks!) You have plenty of time to gather your supplies. George's crystal ball says it will be really crappy in the autumn.

One thing that George dug up from Reuters-UK:

Here are some facts about the virus and flu viruses in general:

* The World Health Organization has confirmed at least some of the cases are a never-before-seen strain of influenza A virus, carrying the designation H1N1.

* Although it's called swine flu, this new strain is not infecting pigs and has never been seen in pigs. The threat is person to person transmission.

* It is genetically different from the fully human H1N1 seasonal influenza virus that has been circulating globally for the past few years. The new flu virus contains DNA typical to avian, swine and human viruses, including elements from European and Asian swine viruses.

Of course, this was the PERFECT situation to get Congress to approve Kathleen Sebalius as the Head of HHS. Yup, like we need a enthusiastic euthanist in charge of Health and Human Services. My eldest son in Kansas said that now that she is out of the state, they are building a fence 200 miles high to keep her from getting back in. No hope of getting her to leave DC, I suppose. We can only hope the Mexican flu will blanket Capitol Hill and slow down the fascist assault. *sigh*

Back to my regularly scheduled gripe sessions soon. Until then, AmericanThinker.com has some great fill-ins. Like this: How 'Bout that Boy-Genius in the White House? Didn't think New Yorkers would be worried about "Low-Flying Jets" near Manhattan...and The One knew and threatened NYPD if they told the greater population of NYC...Enjoy.

Oh, and don't breath in. It will keep you from getting any "bugs". And it will make Al Gore and the Wanna-be Hippies-types Happy. I know all of us Right Wing Extremists LIVE to make those folks do the Happy Dance (TM).

:-)

Mexico Flu, Pandemics and Fear-mongering

Yup. I believe that this one was a "man-created disaster", to quote our "favorite" DHS Director.

Obama declares Swine Flu emergency; plays golf. He can play golf because Bush prepared for a pandemic and Obama can breath a sigh of relief.

And look at this from David Brown of the Washington Post:

U.S. public health officials did not know about a growing outbreak of swine flu in Mexico until nearly a week after that country started invoking protective measures, and didn't learn that the deaths were caused by a rare strain of the influenza until after Canadian officials did...
Whether delayed communication among the countries has had a practical consequence is unknown. However, it seems that U.S. public health officials are still largely in the dark about what's happening in Mexico two weeks after the outbreak was recognized...
The earliest case found in Mexico was a 39-year-old woman who died April 12 of severe viral pneumonia in San Luis Potosi, a city of about 700,000 in central Mexico.

Here are some links to keep you amused while I fight off a minor rhinovirus (common cold).

Before the Storm Hits - practical things to do in case of prolonged isolation issues.
Preparing for No Power
Map of the Swine Flu Outbreak in North America

Vinny wrote a great flu transmission path and the most LOGICAL description of the current flu's current course:

With that in mind, I want to reflect on the infamous 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic. This virus was also a swine-flu virus, and it led to widespread human-human transmission. It is estimated to have killed 20-100 million world-wide and 500-675 thousand in the US. It typically killed about 5% of those infected, while this current outbreak in Mexico may have a kill rate of 0.5%. Yearly flu epidemics in America might lead to death 0.002% of the time.

Why was the Spanish flu of 1918 so deadly? One should remember that the world had just emerged from a world war, many were starved and in poor health even prior to contracting the flu. When pathologists examined lung samples of those 1918 flu victims, most deaths were attributed to secondary bacterial pneumonia. It is theorised that that particular flu strain was very effective at destroying the respiratory epithelium and preventing the self cleaning function of our airways I described above. This way, the affected individuals became very susceptible to bacterial infections. Although such pneumonia is now easily treated with antibiotics, these drugs were not available at that time. Penicillin was only discovered in 1928.

A side note on that guy (not covered my Mexico's National Health Care) that shook hands with D'uhbama and died of the flu:

Jose Isaac Cepeda, who has had fever, diarrhea and joint pains since Friday, said he was turned away from two hospitals — the first because he isn’t registered in the public health system, and the second “because they say they’re too busy.

Oh yeah, that's what WE want in America, PERFECT Health Plan to limit the number of people NEEDING health care....and this "pandemic" will probably just be another "crisis" for Obamessiah & Co. to exploit for their own nefarious plots and schemes...Perhaps, if you STILL want Obama's Health "Care" Plan implemented, you might take a gander at this opinion based on Obama Administrative statements by John Lott at FOX...

Mexican National Health Officials have now ordered all people in affected areas to get immunized against the flu. They will be administering shots of this wonder elixer in announced locations. The name of the flu shots: Tequila.