Can you say stoopid?

I don't know much about the swine flu. In fact, I had to look up the meaning of pandemic today to make sure I understood it.

pan⋅dem⋅ic   [pan-dem-ik]
–adjective
(of a disease) prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world; epidemic over a large area.

I do, however, know the meaning of the word contagious, and I got a better than passing grade in math. Actually, I got straight A's in math. I was a nerd. I was in gifted classes, but that is not the point of this blog.


Seriously...how does this work out?

Swine flu is suspected of killing more than 150 people in Mexico and sickening over 2,400 there. WHO has confirmed 105 cases in seven countries, not yet including Germany. Over half of those are in the United States, but Mexico is the only country where deaths have been confirmed.
-Fox News (4/29/09)

"At this point, (health officials) have not recommended a border closing," he said. "From their perspective, it would be akin to closing the barn door after the horses are out, because we already have cases here in the United States."
-President Obama (4/29/09)

It seems to me that if I had a few horses get out of the barn, but several horses were still "containable," I'd shut the damn door. It seems to me that if there are thousands of cases bordering us to the south, we might want to do a little screening of those we're inviting in (and those sneaking in--ahem!). To be so nonchalant at the borders and airports while every day our government tells us that the threat is growing and spreading throughout the world is slightly infuriating (though I suspect this strain will weaken soon and most of us will be ok regardless), but today the little English freak in me is outraged by this:

-THAT IS ONE STUPID ANALOGY.

Stupid analogies are one of my pet peeves. Boo.

If someone doesn't talk to Obama soon and stop the madness, stupid analogies could persist for four to eight years and spread! If you don't believe me, just listen to all the people now saying "Nuke-you-lar" on AM radio following the Bush presidency.

FOLLOW UP:

A couple excerpt from a CNN article on the spread of swine flu...

(HISTORY REPEATS)

In each of the four major pandemics since 1889, a spring wave of relatively mild illness was followed by a second wave, a few months later, of a much more virulent disease. This was true in 1889, 1957, 1968 and in the catastrophic flu outbreak of 1918, which sickened an estimated third of the world's population and killed, conservatively, 50 million people.

(A COLORADO BORDER CLOSING)

Markel describes a dramatic example in the mining town of Gunnison, Colorado. In 1918, town leaders built a veritable barricade, closing down the railroad station and blocking all roads into town. Four thousand townspeople lived on stockpiled supplies and food from hunting or fishing. For 3½ months, while influenza raged in nearly every city in America, Gunnison saw not a single case of flu -- not until the spring, when roads were reopened and a handful of residents fell sick.

HMMM...SO IT WORKS. BUT IT'S DRAMATIC.

Visit LIFE.com for photographs of the lethal flu pandemic of 1918

Unpopular

Here are a couple interesting articles that surfaced today from the UK. I found them kind of interesting:

An unpopular but more prevalent view than one might think:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/environment/environment-minister-sammy-wilson-i-still-think-manmade-climate-change-is-a-con-14123972.html

And since Al Gore certainly gets mixed reactions from Christians both politically and concerning his environmental views, I wonder how English churchgoer's feel about ₤150 million of their offerings being entrusted to him!

http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/news/?NewsID=3568

I think it's wonderful that the church in America seems to be taking the call to be good "stewards of the earth" more seriously, and there are so many things we can do that don't cost a thing to take better care of the environment. For instance, we are very blessed in Denver to have the recycling (and soon composting!?) programs made so easy for us.

But is "green" being over-marketed to us in the form of guilt and panic? I can honestly say that I haven't done my homework, and I know there are two sides to every story and I have yet to hear both sides out. We shouldn't follow any trend blindly. It is a goal of mine to do a little more research on both sides of the global warming debate in 2009.

Your informed comments, please.

Stuff This Week

Mildly Exciting:

We met with a financial planner and I feel more on track with goals and ideas. We have a lot of catching up to do.

Disappointing:

Several of my post-op Percoset and Codeine pills are missing from my medicine cabinet. After going over and over it with Randy, we fear the only explanation is that a friend has stolen drugs from us.

Very Exciting:

I leave Tuesday to pick up my "new" car. It's a 1999 Honda CR-V that I'm buying from aunt in South Carolina. This means that I'll have a better car for snow (We woke up to first snow in Denver this morning!) and I get to see my sister, brother-in-law, nephews, and mom, plus aunts & uncles before driving 24 hours home. Along the way, I can visit friends in Nashville, Atlanta, and my brother and his family in Kansas City.

Bonus:

Trader Joe's in St. Louis means I can stock up on two buck Chuck.

Worth mentioning:

Randy is mopping right now. What a guy!

A Sign on My Door

ELECTION DAY BLOG -
IF ANYONE PUTS A SIGN ON MY DOOR, IT WILL BE ME.

I am mostly posting this here for posterity, and have worked hard to be civil and hear all my friends' views out because I have a network of very diverse and intelligent friends, but maybe it will explain why I take it a little personally when people use my own house as their advertising space.

I have not put any campaign signs up in my yard. The only one that got offered to me said "I'm Latina & I Vote!" but I'm not, so I couldn't really use it. Anyway, after being canvassed and having about a jillion large Obama poster-sized fliers put on my door-knob, I now feel the need to respond, so the is going on my door. This is not the sole basis of my voting decision. Many other issues factor in, but this is the stuff that I get emotional about:

We have voted and do not want any fliers put on our property. Please do not leave any.

At the age of 6, my sister’s life was threatened by Black Panthers following the teachings of people like Khalid Al-Mansour, who has been pulling strings for Obama for some time. These Black Panthers were connected with international terrorists and took their orders from them.

Khalid Rashidi (former PLO press) both received funds for his organization and gave funds to the campaign for Obama. His former organization, the PLO, pointed many guns at my own father's head threatening his life.

These threats were made because of the work my father was doing to stop people like Bill Ayers from blowing up American buildings & to keep the PLO at bay, work which kept many Americans safe without their ever knowing it.

Enjoy your freedom today & vote your conscience, but
PLEASE DO NOT KNOCK ON MY DOOR & ASK ME TO VOTE FOR SOMEONE WHO BEFRIENDS AND RELIES ON THOSE WHO HAVE POSED A DIRECT THREAT TO MY FAMILY’S LIVES.

no, I'M breaking up with YOU!

WHY OH WHY CAN WE NOT GET MARKETING RESTRAINING ORDERS?

A while back we decided to cancel our DirecTV service.

The Goal:

-Watch less tv. Write more songs.
-Watch only what WE pick out (thru Netflix) and skip the advertising.



The customer service department at DirecTV seemed bewildered by this lifestyle choice and I tried to break it to them gently:

"We are not dissatisfied customers. You have delivered what you promised, but we just no longer want IT. Oh, and please be sure to put in our notes that we are very resolute about this decision and do not want to be asked again."

She informed me that they usually did not come back to remove the satellite dish which they installed on our roof because "we might change our mind."

"We won't. I just told you we are very resolute and do not wish to discuss this further."

"Yes, but we're not coming to pick it up in case the next people who live there want it."

"Ah, but this is MY house. I own it, so there are no 'next people' for many years to come."

"We still aren't coming to take it down. If you want it down, you'll have to do it yourself."

I informed her that I was NOW a dissatisfied customer.




Three hours later, I got a call from a salesperson asking me to come back. I told him that his company was worse than a whiney ex-boyfriend and really shouldn't be trying to win me back because I had expressed my explicit disinterest in retaining their services and reminded him that I was on the Do Not Call list.

Now they have taken an aggressive stance with me, sending me at least one piece of paper mail per week, threatening that this was my "last chance" to come back on the outside of the envelope, but alas when I open it up so that I can recycle the envelope and shred the letter, the letter takes that "Baby, I'm sorry it will never happen again" tone, promising me a free DVR, free HD access, and vague "upgrades." It's textbook behavior inviting me back into the cycle of abuse.




Does anyone know how to stop this cycle?

It's almost as if DirecTV can't handle the fact that I have broken up with them. Each week they must tell me it's my last chance to come back so that they can say, WE'RE breaking up with YOU!!!

HOW MANY TREES MUST DIE SO THAT DIRECTV'S EGO CAN BE SPARED?

Siouxanne

In 2002, Randy and I wrote a song called "Siouxanne." He was just playing guitar in the living room and I was kind of humming and thinking aloud about a friend I lost touch with. It is always weird writing about people you know.

One of the first big shows we did in Denver was at our friend's art studio just after our friends' wedding. For the wedding, they asked us to learn a secret dedication from each one to the other. At the reception, we sang their surprise dedications to each other as a special gift. Well, bride & groom showed up. Let me back up and say that the bride and I had fallen out of touch for several years, and in the meantime, I had written a song called "Simplicity" about some of the things the bride in my story was going through at the time and my part in how the story might have unfolded differently, etc.

Knowing all of this, you can understand my puzzled look when, at the art studio show, my friend yelled out, "Do my song--you know the one you did for me!" and I suddenly thought she knew...In front of a crowd of people, I told her I didn't realize she knew I had written a song about her. She said she didn't know that either. And so, after many years, I confessed on the spot and sing "Simplicity" followed by the original misunderstood request of "Tupelo Honey." Yikes.

Well, thanks to Facebook and myspace, tonight, I sent an mp3 to Siouxanne (now just Zanne) of her song. I am nervous, nervous, nervous, but I have been wondering if she was alive, how she is, and if the day would come when I'd have to tell her that this song exists with her name on it.

New Duke Special!

Yaaay! New Duke Special album out soon!