Perspective

The Los Angeles Times reports that there is a growing belief among scientists that the H1N1 flu is not particularly lethal. Or even all that threatening.

In fact, the current outbreak of the H1N1 virus, which emerged in San Diego and southern Mexico late last month, may not even do as much damage as the run-of-the-mill flu outbreaks that occur each winter without much fanfare.

“Let’s not lose track of the fact that the normal seasonal influenza is a huge public health problem that kills tens of thousands of people in the U.S. alone and hundreds of thousands around the world,” said Dr. Christopher Olsen, a molecular virologist who studies swine flu at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine in Madison.

…..

This virus doesn’t have anywhere near the capacity to kill like the 1918 virus,” which claimed an estimated 50 million victims worldwide, said Richard Webby, a leading influenza virologist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Which makes Joe Biden’s attempts to spread terror and panic this morning even more inexplicable. Unless, of course, the whole point of the dire warnings is to stir up terror and panic: 

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued an apology Thursday for Vice President Joe Biden’s comments that he wouldn’t recommend taking a commercial flight or riding in a subway car because swine flu virus can spread in confined places.

Biden’s “clarification” issued later is a joke. He said what he said:

“I would tell members of my family – and I have – I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places now,” Biden said on NBC’s “Today” show.. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico. It’s [that] you’re in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft. That’s me. …

I take a somewhat jaundiced view of the whole thing because I have seen this all to often. SARS was trumpeted as the deadliest thing ever – or the press made it sound that way. It killed 775 people worldwide. The 1976 “swine flu” outbreak killed fewer people than the vaccine that was supposed to stop it.

36,000 die every year in this country due to regular flu with no outcry and no hoopla.  Some perspective helps.

Seven

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

A member of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has dismissed claims that more than 150 people have died from swine flu, saying it has officially recorded only seven deaths around the world.

Vivienne Allan, from WHO’s patient safety program, said the body had confirmed that worldwide there had been just seven deaths – all in Mexico – and 79 confirmed cases of the disease.

This is confirmed on the WHO website. They also include one American death. But I have also heard that the one death in the US was actually a Mexican national, 22 months old with several underlying health issues. I have not heard that there have been laboratory tests confirming that death was caused by H1N1 flu.

Meanwhile, the Blame America First crew is off on a full tilt attempt to whip things up: 

Mexico’s top government epidemiologist said Wednesday that it is “highly improbable” that a farm in the Mexican state of Veracruz operated by Smithfield Foods Inc. is responsible for the nation’s swine-flu outbreak.

Miguel Ángel Lezana, the government’s chief epidemiologist, said in an interview that pigs at the farm are from North America, while the genetic material in the virus is from Europe and Asia.

I heard that particular meme begin on the same day the media hoopla began over the “pandemic”.

And Then A Miracle Really Does Happen

When even the Associated Press realizes that Obamnomics is not going to work, I’d say that was a miracle. In fact, they almost ridicule Obama’s claims in this “fact check” piece.

Via Memeorandum

“And Then A Miracle Happens” Legislation

Vincent Carroll, writing in The Denver Post, is not buying the make believe reasoning driving cap and trade legislation:

A crackdown on greenhouse gases should involve “no cost to the consumer,” declared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi the other day – this from a leading supporter of the legislation. As if one fanciful pledge weren’t enough, the California Democrat also insisted that it would be wrong to pass a bill “that was a penalty to some states.”

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Steven Chu told a congressional hearing that “in today’s economic climate, it would be completely unwise to want to increase the price of gasoline.” Trouble is, Chu is a climate-bill enthusiast, too – and the purpose of the cap-and-trade legislation that he and his boss, President Obama, favor is to raise the price of fossil fuels. Refiners will be one of the hardest-hit segments of manufacturing.

Two years ago, the Congressional Budget Office forecast that if climate legislation were enacted, low-income households would experience a 3.3 percent drop in income from higher prices associated with a 15 percent cut in carbon dioxide emissions, with middle-income households losing 2.8 percent. (The Waxman-Markey climate bill calls for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020.)

More recently, the CBO estimated that “the price increases resulting from a 15 percent cut in CO2 emissions could cost the average household roughly $1,600 (in 2006 dollars),” with the greatest impact “relative to income, on lower-income households.”

I heard the interview EPA administrator Lisa Jackson gave to NPR yesterday in which she was flat-out caught out on her admiration for a command and control economy in which Washington dictates what kinds of cars Detroit manufactures.  

Frankly, folks, think about it. When the cost of fuel goes up, the cost of everything goes up. The bite of this legislation will be felt most by those least able to afford it. Those who have to commute further will feel it more than those who rely on urban transport.  

It will cost jobs, it will hurt the economy. A lot. You and I will pay for this. Every, single day, you and I will pay for the cost of increasingly expensive energy.

They call it make believe for a reason. It is not a good basis for realistic legislation.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch at Reason have a link-filled post that looks at the stale, old discredited ideas that are passing for change in Omerica. I will not even try to excerpt any of this one, the link-fest is what makes it fun.

From my point of view, just about everything Obama is spouting is recycled. Gillespie and Welch think a real day of reckoning is fast approaching, where a lot of people will suddenly realize they’ve been had. I only hope it is soon enough to limit the damage.

Your Tax Dollars At Work

Forget the sheer stupidity of the White House ordering a backup Air Force One to buzz Manhattan. Forget the delayed but “furious” response by Obama. Look instead at what this little fiasco cost. More than $60,000 an hour just for the big airplane involved – even more when the two F-16 fighters are factored in.

For a photo op that even the FAA knew – with certainty – would cause a panic.

CBS 2 HD has discovered the feds will have plenty to question.

Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.

In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration’s James Johnston said the agency was aware of “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes” in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.

The Best and the Brightest. A gift that just keeps giving to America. Or costing America if you are paying attention. Every, single dime of the cost of that little jaunt was money taken from American taxpayers – so the White House could have pretty postcards that could have been created with about of $100 (or much less) worth of photo editing software. 

My prediction: Louis Caldera will very soon “decide” he needs to spend more time with his family and “resign.” (As I wrote last night.

But Obama, if he was smart rather than clever, would have publicly fired Caldera on the spot after learning of the monumental stupidity. Now he simply looks like he is covering his tail.

Meanwhile, taxpayers are out some amount of money north of $100,000 – for postcards (that will never see the light of day, mind you).

Hype Versus Reality

Death toll so far in the US from H1N1 “swine” flu: Zero. Death toll since January 1st of this year from plain, old, regular, non-swinish flu: more than 13,000.

Since January, more than 13,000 people have died of complications from seasonal flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on the causes of death in the nation.

No fewer than 800 flu-related deaths were reported in any week between January 1 and April 18, the most recent week for which figures were available.

The report looks at deaths in the 122 largest cities in the United States.

Worldwide, the annual death toll from the flu is estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000.

About 9 out of 10 of those deaths are among people older than 65, Currie said. Most times, they already have health problems that the flu makes worse, he said.

“Regular influenza can be taxing,” he said. “It causes their underlying disease to decompensate and then they don’t have the reserves to get through it.

“While it may not be the direct cause listed on the death certificate, it certainly contributed.”

Yet we have a declared “Public Health Emergency.”  Over Swine Flu. Again.

I lived through the last “Swine Flu” hysteria in 1976. Didn’t get the flu shot – which ended up causing more problems than it was supposed to cure.  Hundreds of people were damaged or killed by the “vaccine” that was supposed to save us all from a disease that never materialized.

When this suddenly popped up, I was a bit concerned about how it was suddenly just there in a lot of places. Now that I have watched this play out for a few days, I am not at all convinced that the response to date is justified. Or even reasonable, given the figures for annual, just plain flu.

Benedict Arlen

The Democrats have a history of promoting this sort of thing. Arlen Specter, Like Jim Jeffords before him, betrayed the party members in his home state who elected him and crossed over to the Democrats. He did not do so with noble purpose from what I have read. He did so because he was going to lose a primary election:

Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat and announced today that he will run in 2010 as a Democrat, according to a statement he released this morning.

Specter’s decision would give Democrats a 60 seat filibuster proof majority in the Senate assuming Democrat Al Franken is eventually sworn in as the next senator from Minnesota. (Former senator Norm Coleman is appealing Franken’s victory in the state Supreme Court.)

“I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary,” said Specter in a statement. “I am ready, willing and anxious to take on all comers and have my candidacy for re-election determined in a general election.”

He added: “Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.”

Not a word of even feigned contrition for the voters he betrayed. And yes, I am using that word specifically and with intent. I have never been a big fan of politicians – from any party – doing this. Changing parties after one’s election is showing vast disrespect for the voters who stood by the politician and helped him get into office.

Changing parties prior to an election is perfectly acceptable, changing after the election is dishonorable.

Incidentally, Specter excoriated Jeffords for doing what Specter just did.

Look For The Union Label

Mickey Kaus has some uncomfortable questions for Big Labor:

OK, so the idea is to target unskilled workers who do work that can’t be outsourced, and who work for large institutions. Questions:

a) Is this an admission that traditional power of unions–to go on strike–is no longer a very effective weapon? So unions have to rely on corporate campaigns–which work best against big, respectable institutions–and mandatory arbitration? A union card no longer becomes a way to engage in a (sometimes risky) “economic contest” with management through walkouts and picketing. It’s a ticket that lets you summon a federal mediator who will raise your wage, whether or not your union has any strike power. Labor must think these chain retailers are sitting ducks. After all, why not sign the card and get the government to award you a raise?

b) Are there really enough workers in these service jobs to “rebuild the middle class,” even if they all get 50% raises?

There are a lot more questions. Questions that should make current union members uncomfortable. And make potential union members very uncomfortable.

The Obama administration is leaning – heavily – on the UAW to make major concessions. Which, it appears, is working. So the strategy of Big Labor is to lose all the old school, high wage manufacturing  jobs and substitute low wage service jobs?

But on to another union-themed item: The “Swine Flu” brings the unions – or one of them, at any rate – out howling:

The Service Employees International Union has launched an online petition criticizing Republicans for delaying the confirmation of a Health and Human Services secretary in the face of a swine flu outbreak.

The union accuses Senate Republicans of delaying the confirmation of nominee Kathleen Sebelius to “curry favor with extremist outside groups” and depriving the department of leadership as the nation confronts a potential flu pandemic.

Exactly what could a politically appointed “leader” do more effectively than the long-term professional staff is not exactly spelled out here.  But then, the logic of the first item also escapes me.

Sophist?

Jay Cost at Real Clear Politics:

This is from the President’s remarks at the National Academy of Science:

At such a difficult moment, there are those who say we cannot afford to invest in science. That support for research is somehow a luxury at a moment defined by necessities. I fundamentally disagree. Science is more essential for our prosperity, our security, our health, our environment, and our quality of life than it has ever been.

Who the hell is saying we cannot afford to invest in science? Isn’t the real argument about whether we can spend so much more (fully 3% of GDP) on science, and revitalize the economy, and save the banks, and save the Big Three, and spend more on education, and reform health care, and revolutionize the energy sector all at the same time?

I have heard “there are those who say…” from this President quite a bit in the last three months. I think it’s time he start naming names. Who are these people who hold such backward-looking, unacceptable positions? If they are elected members of the government, shouldn’t the President tell us who they are so we can vote them out? If they are unelected, how is it they have such power?

Or maybe there are no such people, at least not of such relevance they deserve specific mention by the President. Maybe this is just a rhetorical trick designed to make Mr. Obama’s position seem like the only one allowed by common sense.

Do read it all. Cost’s frustration is palpable.  

Obama seems to miss no opportunity to insult, abase and denigrate anyone who opposes any of his policies, even when the opposition is a difference of opinion based on different beliefs. Unfortunately, he also trots around the world with nothing whatsoever good to say about the country that elected him to the highest office in the land.

Personally, I would not characterize Obama as a “Sophist” as Cost does (which, I take it, was not meant in the classical Greek way, but in the more modern meaning). I think the word ”Solipsist” is a better fit.

And In Today’s “Best And Brightest” News

White House officials “brilliantly” authorized a low-level fly-by of Manhattan of the backup Air Force One and a couple of fighter jets. In secret. The result: just what you’d expect. Panic.

An Air Force One lookalike, the backup plane for the one regularly used by the president, flew low over parts of New York and New Jersey on Monday morning, accompanied by two F-16 fighters, so Air Force photographers could take pictures high above the New York harbor.

But the exercise – conducted without any notification to the public – caused momentary panic in some quarters and led to the evacuation of several buildings in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City. By the afternoon, the situation had turned into a political fuse box, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg saying that he was “furious” that he had not been told in advance about the flyover.

At 4:39 p.m. Monday, the White House issued an apology for the flyover. Louis E. Caldera, director of the White House Military Office, who served in the Clinton administration as secretary of the Army, said in a statement:

“Last week, I approved a mission over New York. I take responsibility for that decision. 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. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.”

The White House at first denied knowing what was going on. Which is actually probably true. They appear to be pretty well compartmentalized over there from what I am seeing. Still, whoever thought a New York City fly-by would be a great photo op is obviously still living in a September 10th, 2001 world. 

How long do you suppose it will be until Louis E. Caldera “decides” to “resign to spend more time with his family?” The best thing Obama could have done in this situation would have been to fire Caldera on the spot, not leak to the press that Obama is “furious” with Caldera.

And no, I rather doubt Obama himself knew about this in advance. But there have been a lot of, frankly, boneheaded decisions coming out of the “Best and Brightest” Obama chose to surround himself with.

UPDATE: Oh this makes it even better: The White House was just updating a file photo. This administration leak to the AP just makes everything all better, doesn’t it?

Anyone got a clue bat handy?

Obamanation

Get used to the reality:

But now, as Obama nears the 100-day milestone of his presidency, Childs suffers from constant exhaustion. In a conservative Southern state that bolstered Obama’s candidacy by supporting him early in the Democratic primaries, she awakens at 2:30 a.m. with stress headaches and remains awake mulling all that’s befallen Greenwood since Obama’s swearing-in.

On Day 4 of his presidency, the Solutia textile plant laid off 101 workers. On Day 23, the food bank set a record for meals served. On Day 50, the hospital fired 200 employees and warned of further job cuts. On Day 71, the school superintendent called a staff meeting and told his principals: “We’re losing 10 percent of our budget. That means some of us won’t have jobs next year, and the rest should expect job changes and pay cuts.” On Day 78, the town’s newly elected Democratic mayor, whose campaign was inspired partly by his admiration for Obama, summarized Greenwood’s accelerating fragility. “This is crippling us, and there’s no sign of it turning around,” Welborn Adams said.

On Day 88, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that South Carolina had set a record for its highest unemployment rate in state history, at 11.4 percent. Greenwood’s unemployment is 13 percent — more than twice what it was when Childs first started chanting.

“We have a lot of people who live in cold houses, with no jobs and no food,” Childs says.

You can probably figure this out on your own. Let me just point out that the media wailed – and the left screeched – about the abysmal unemployment rate under George Bush.

That would be less than 5%.

Welcome to Obamanation. This will get a lot worse. Bank on it.

Divorce – EU Style

No, not between people. Between towns. What happens when a partner never calls, won’t respond to overtures and displays complete apathy toward its tinned town?

Well, nothing, actually. The European Union bureaucracy in charge of partnering towns together has no way of divorcing twinned towns that are not getting along.

When Wallingford and Luxeuil-les-Nains became twin towns 30 years ago, they hoped to form a trans-European bond and share each other’s cultures.

Now, Alec Hayton, the mayor of Wallingford, has sought to end the relationship after repeated attempts to contact civic leaders across the Channel fell on deaf ears.

But the Brussels-based Council for European Municipalities and Regions, which co-ordinates the schemes in Europe, has told him it does not have the authority to “de-twin” towns.

Mr Hayton said: “They were not interested in sorting out the problem. They said they did not have the forms and it was not their job to de-twin towns. They did not think anyone had asked that before.”

The problem of “Town Marriage” gone bad will doubtless inspire a whole new field of “International Law”. We simply cannot wait for these decisions to be handed down.

XP Lives On

Call it the zombie operating system. Microsoft has revealed that the new release candidate for Windows 7 will include an optional download to run a Windows XP virtual machine from the new operating system. Apparently, Microsoft has figured out that people are still very happy with the XP system despite its flaws. And they are even happier with the software that XP can run.

The Windows 7 Release Candidate leaked earlier today contains a lot of minor tweaks to previous beta versions of the new operating system, but Microsoft says that it also has a couple of new features: A Windows 7 PC will now be able to stream media from your home to any Internet-connected Windows 7 PC, and for the first time the OS supports (via an optional download) a virtual Windows XP environment for running legacy Windows XP apps.

That’s good news for folks who have a lot of XP compatible software. As I do. Some of my software runs on W7, some does not. Most of my XP stuff does not run on Vista at all – one reason I never switched over. This will boost acceptance of W7 right off the mark.

The bad news: The release candidate will not include some of the things I found most useful in the beta version – no more audio support for Bluetooth, for example. I’m currently running two machines with W7 beta – one is being tortured by my youngest boy who is gaming up a storm on the system he is using. W7 seems rock solid running games so far. The machine I am actually using has some issues with W7 and has had a few incidents of unusual lockups/malfunctions doing routine stuff.

When the beta licenses expire, I’ll probably put both of these machines back to their regular XP licenses (still installed on their original hard drives – the beta versions were installed on spare drives). Close to bleeding edge when I built these boxes four years ago, they have insufficient resources to really run W7 as well as it can be.

Oh darn. Now I’ll have to build a new box. (Hope the wife doesn’t read this!)

Anything Worth Reacting To…

…Is worth over-reacting to appears to be the new policy at the Obama administration. Of course, over-reacting is a way to divert attention to the clueless nature of the Obama administration. The administration has decreed the 20 or so relatively mild cases of H1N1 flu in the US a “public health emergency“.

In an unusual Sunday briefing at the White House, administration officials said a “public health emergency” is being declared in the United States in order to mobilize maximum resources to combat fears of a global swine-flu pandemic.

The term “sounds more severe than it really is,” said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, who called the measure “standard operating procedure,” adding, “I wish we could call it a declaration of emergency preparedness.” The same measures, she said, were taken for the inauguration and in cases of flood and hurricane.

The clueless bit? Well, it seems the outbreak began two weeks ago - and Mexican authorities began taking steps to curb it a week ago. 

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.

The delayed communication occurred as epidemiologists in Southern California were investigating milder cases of the illness that turned out to be caused by the same strain of swine flu as the one in Mexico.

This is what we can expect from the “Best and Brightest” Obama appointed? Delayed over-reaction?

God help us.

There were multiple ways for the government to mobilize all their resources without this. There was no need to do this at all.  This gets a whole new category: Obamantics.

Via Memeorandum