Some interesting stuff out there today:
This bird flu thing is getting scarier every day. Today I heard on the radio that O’Hare airport has set up a quarantine center for international passengers who arrive with bird-flu symptoms. It seems inevitable that will happen in the not-too-distant future. I came across a column that is both interesting and disturbing from Charles Krauthammer about the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, which killed 20-40 million people in about a year: A Flu Hope, Or Horror? Apparently that virus has been brought back into existence by scientists after being absent from the world for 80 years.
The journal Nature has a page dedicated to bird flu, with a timeline of articles over the past several years.
Finally, the news story that is neither news nor story: that the Bush administration “staged” a teleconference with troops in Iraq. Facts:
- Soldiers were not, contrary to insinuations by the mainsteam media, told what to say.
- The soldiers were given the questions that they would be asked in advance, so that they could prepare their own answers, and be comfortable giving them on television, to their Commander-in-Chief, which would be daunting for anyone.
- The media is in the business of staging things, so I’m not so sure why they are so worked-up (actually, I know perfectly well why – Bush is a Republican).
Let’s recall, shall we, a few highlights from the long and sordid history of staged media events. NBC’s Exploding SUVs. Dan Rather’s Faked documents. Reporters clinging to lightpoles during hurricanes. Ring any bells? And let us not forget our illustrious former President Clinton, whose never-ending antics the kind people at the Weekly Standard reminded us of today in their blog:
But then, spying the stones at his feet left by his advance staff to show him where his camera mark was, the President crouched down and began to arrange the stones into a cross. He gathered more stones to finish the cross, and then bent his head as though in silent prayer.
See the full posting here. This is a Clinton ClassicTM.
