Jumping The Swine

Roger L. Simon asks, “Is ‘Swine Flu’ the ‘Media Flu’?”

I don’t know the answer to this, but it’s certainly a distinct possibility. I suppose it could be rationalized by the all old saw about being safe rather than sorry, but it will interesting to study the real cause of the spread of this flu if it turns out be a very minor outbreak. A warning bell that this could be more of a “Media Flu” just came (probably inadvertently) from the WHO, which announced that, as of Wednesday morning, there were only 7 documented deaths, not 152, from this “pandemic.” That’s out of a current global population approaching 7 billion. Given that number there must be at least 7 documented mortalities from just about anything in that period of time. [Overeating spinach?-ed. Don’t tell my mother.] We also know that roughly 36,000 Americans die yearly from the “regular” flu. Slow news day or dangerous health hazard? You tell me. (No, I’m not an idiot. I’m not planning a trip to Mexico in the near future – but I wasn’t anyway.)

Since serious coverage of the affairs of the day is sooo 2002 and has been replaced by “Swagga” (gah) would you rather have us go back to killer shark stories? That what’s occupied the media’s time in the summer prior to 9/11, a.k.a., that event in September of 2001, which the media has done its damnedest to downplay, though oddly enough, it still seems to resonate slightly amongst Obama voters in New York.

Speaking of which, Jennifer Rubin spots a surprising endorsement for former President Bush from an even more surprising source — Tom Freidman of the New York Times, who writes:

I believe that the most important reason there has not been another 9/11, besides the improved security and intelligence, is that Al Qaeda is primarily focused on defeating America in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world — particularly in Iraq. Al Qaeda knows that if it can destroy the U.S. effort (still a long shot) to build a decent, modernizing society in Iraq, it will undermine every U.S. ally in the region.

Conversely, if we, with Iraqis, defeat them by building any kind of decent, pluralistic society in the heart of their world, it will be a devastating blow.

Now he tells us.

Meanwhile, back at the shark tank, the American Pundit writes, “People Magazine Finally Jumps the Shark.” Politics has long been thought of as “show business for ugly people”, but that was before the Time-Warner-produced magazine felt into had to jump onboard the Oba-enchantment bandwagon:

Partisan shill isn’t quite the term to describe it, though. I think it takes a bit more than regular shilling to come to this conclusion. Guess who made People’s 100 most beautiful list:

Michelle Obama, who has achieved celebrity status and has wowed the world as a fashion icon, made the list for the first time.

“I had a father and a brother who thought I was beautiful, and they made me feel that way every single day,” Obama told the magazine…

Also included in a “Barack’s Beauties” section were White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and others.

Yes, as these charts highlight, Tim certainly has “All The Right Moves”:

all-the-right-moves