Hmm. Shouldn’t we be at least a little bit worried by this?
Some Iraqis are letting their birds loose rather than slaughter them and the lack of a proper shipping container has kept the tissue sample of a man suspected of dying of bird flu sitting in Baghdad despite reports it was being tested abroad.
Poor communications, scarce equipment and the dangers of the insurgency are all plaguing efforts to combat bird flu in Iraq.
…
Officials say containing the spread of bird flu in Iraq may be beyond the capabilities of health authorities in some parts of the country, particularly the volatile Anbar province.
You know, if I were writing a post-apocolyptic novel, this is exactly how I might imagine events unfolding. Should it be Iraq where H5N1 finally makes the jump to human-to-human transmission, history will at least partially blame American arrogance and incompetence for the deaths of hundreds of millions. And rightly so.
Well, Goldy, I hope you’re not a modern-day Cassandra (making true predictions no one will believe). Perhaps this threat will prompt the Bush administration to rethink its guerilla war in Iraq and do more to get that country back on its feet (so we can leave, already). In which case you’d be more like a Jonah, I guess (predicting doom that does not come to pass because the people repent).
Of course, I hope the rightwingnutters here (can I put those three words together?) realize Goldy is voicing a hypothetical to illustrate the folly of Bush’s misadventure in Iraq; Goldy is not hoping for a flu epidemic to start in Iraq or anywhere. If you are tempted to misconstrue the words “And rightly so” to imply that Goldy wants bad things to happen (and I know some of you will be sorely tempted to twist things that way), I have a question for you: Do you support arrogance and incompetence? Is that what you think America stands for?
If it really is bird flu, why hasn’t it wiped out chicken-shits like JCH, Carns, prr, YO, Mark Reddick, Janet, Christmas Cunt, etc., etc.?
Davidsaid Perhaps this threat will prompt the Bush administration to rethink its guerilla war . . . .
One way or the other, we all may end up having to hold our breath.
It almost certianly won’t be H5 when it jumps to humans in a way that human to human contact is possible. At least given that no H5 strain has ever been a human to human problem. Also a cause: global warming. Bird species are migrating in new patterns because of the change in temperature. So they are coming in contact with species that haven’t evolved immunities to the flu that the birds have. And when those species are mamals, they are more likely to pass it on to humans than birds are.
Im going to let my bird loose…
http://cgi.ebay.com/
Geez louise.
I think somehow the Americans should be held collectively rsponsible for the poor officiating in the Super Bowl — and for near rain records….get real
If bird flu mutates so that human to human contact can spread the disease, we may be looking at a flu epidemic the size of the Spanish flu back in 1918 or even larger. Of course, I don’t have much of a problem if this pandemic starts in the Middle East. Maybe it would put quite a dent in the indigenous populations while the scientists in the West come up with a vaccine. Hopefully it’ll get the Wahabi sect of Islam: they’re very troublesome and noxious.
Yeah, it’s awesome when OTHER people die. It’s not racism if the birds do the killing!
Some of these righties sound like the kind of guys who gave smallpox infected blankets to the Indians.
Hey! Bird flu in the Middle East that migrates to humans! Nah! What kind of people would be inhuman enough to do that??
Hey Yossarian. You’re only supposed to come out to project your hate on a DL thread.
Why hasn’t Dear Leader invaded Saudi Arabia?
DIAL-A-SCANDAL
Under the Scandal-A-Day Bush regime, we have several items to report today.
1. Ex-FEMA Director Michael Brown says White House claims it didn’t know about the levee breaches are “baloney.” Meanwhile, the White House has barred staffers from answering Senate investigators’ questions.
2. In private correspondence released today, indicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff says he met with Bush “a dozen times” and was invited to Bush’s Texas ranch, contradicting White Claims that the president “didn’t know” him.
erratum
should read “contradicting White House claims that the president ‘didn’t know’ him.”
Why hasn’t Dear Leader invaded Saudi Arabia?
Comment by For the Clueless— 2/10/06 @ 8:30 am
My guess is that it’s because “Dear Leader” is that knucklehead in North Korea, not GWB. Dear Leader hasn’t got the wherewithal to invade anything except possibly some border area between North and South Korea, and that would be quite a stretch for him.
No I believe Dear Leader is GWB who feels he can do anything he pleases like spy on Americans without a warrant or court oversight and submit a budget for SS privatization that went over like a fart on a elevator on his 60 plus “bamboozlepalooza” tour.
See you on the next DL thread. Can’t stand people you disagree with politically exercising their first ammendment rights to assembly can you? Tell your buddy GWB to order a wiretap. Remember what tricky Dick Nixon said: if the President does it, it’s legal.
Yossarian is part of a mass hysteria that will go down in history as something akin to the Salem witch trials.
Kill the Muslims. Every one of them!
Can’t stand people you disagree with politically exercising their first ammendment rights to assembly can you?
Comment by For the Clueless— 2/10/06 @ 9:07 am
No, I really don’t give a shit what others think, and I don’t care if they sound-off on HA. All we’re doing here is engaging in idle dislogue.
+
Yossarian is part of a mass hysteria that will go down in history as something akin to the Salem witch trials.
Comment by Roger Rabbit— 2/10/06 @ 9:17 am
The only thing that’s hysterical, Roger, is the fucking idiot posts you put on this blog. You wast a lot of space with all that “HAR, HAR” shit. Why don’t you grow up?
Kill all the Muslims. Then they will stop the bull shit terrorism.
Remember the theories that AIDS ws a germ warfare experiment gone beserk? I still think that idea has merit. Gay men were the test group.
Was not supposed to jump. Margaret Heckler Reagan’s Health Secretary, on TV, assuring the masses that it would never be their problem. Have no fear, it is only those gays.
I have always thought she had be briefed by Defense. The homophobia 25 years ago was intense in most places. There were ongoing gay groups in most cities testing a vacine for hep.
Not related to bird flu, but one reason older gay men have little trust in the
govt.
Bob, Who cares about a bunch of “anal” gay Democrat “Tookie Williams” pillow biters who give each other AIDs by self infliction?
Kill all the Muslims. Then they will stop the bull shit terrorism.
Chime in Jaybo. At least JCH is honest about it.
21.Thank you. The nukes ended WWII. Perhaps a few hundred million Muslims need a quick lesson in history. Start with Iran. Then take their oil. Every drop. Wait a week. If the towel heads keep fucking with America, pick another piss ant Muslim country. Repeat. Soon they will stop their terrorist ways or they will ALL die.
JCH: You and your class will fight and die for the oil, but I guarantee you won’t get your hands on any of rhe profits. You’re only a pawn in their game — and a willing one at that!
You can get your head blown off in an inadequate American “war machine” if you want.
Isn’t The Apocalypse the ultimate goal of Bush’s hardcore ‘values voters’, in terms of their un-dying support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq?
Sane people tend to worry about the end of the world. The new GOP seems to be welcoming it with open arms.
Maybe that would explain why the Talibangelists are so unconcerned about failure after failure over there….
24, Yawn…..It’s WAR! Rev up the B-52s. Kill the enemy, and take their oil! Every drop. Then you libs will be happy that we will not drill in ANWR and the little white Artic foxes can play in the snow!
Saul Rosenberg@24
I thought Apocalypse was an African tribe???
I thought Chuck gets his anal tract frequently and voluntarily violated by turgid black penis’.