Is there panic in Rogers Park, Chicago? That's where the first known case of the virus in Illinois caused Kilmer Elementary to be closed 
yesterday morning (April 29).
The short answer: Not really.
The longer answer: Yes, but only among a handful of people, and their panic is being fueled by sensationalizing blog posts and small cadre of serial blog commenters.
I've been holding back on any real commentary about the "swine flu" in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago until all of the facts have been settled. As of 5:00 p.m. today (April 30), there are just over 40 "probable" cases of swine flu in Illinois. A total of eight Chicago-area schools are now closed in response to known or suspected swine flu cases (source: ABC7 Chicago). There is still only one known case in Rogers Park as far as I can tell from scanning news reports. One single case.
Let me correct that. A single known case of one of many strains of influenza. 36,000 Americans die every year of various strains of influenza. Even as the sick Kilmer student was hospitalized yesterday (and we wish her well), there is an unknown number of people in Rogers Park who have some strain of flu or, for that matter, another communicable disease. HIV, for example, or tuberculosis. Of the 60,000 people who are tightly packed into that 2-square mile neighborhood, a single case of influenza should be no cause for panic.
I visited Rogers Park on the evening of April 29, the day Kilmer was closed. I walked around and spoke with people at random on the streets. The foot traffic seemed to be normal, with plenty of people walking around. I lived a block and a half north of Kilmer Elementary for 10 years, until last October. I know the neighborhood and its traffic patterns, its feel and its general attitude. By 6:00 p.m., everyone in the neighborhood was aware of the Kilmer flu case.
Nobody, not a single person that I spoke with, could be described as being in a state of panic. I saw one girl, perhaps 14 years old, walking with two friends about two blocks from Kilmer, at Pratt and Glenwood. She wore a green surgical mask. Her friends did not, and I saw nobody else wearing a mask or, for that matter, gloves.
As I walked around Kilmer Elementary just past 6:00 p.m., a lonley Channel 7 news crew was packing up their gear. The big press conference was that morning at 7:00, when media and media whores gathered to sensationalize and capitalize on the solitary flu case. The crew that I saw had returned to to a live standup report outside of the school. Fear and sensationalism gets viewers, and Channel 7 is in the business of getting viewers.
Lake Shore Schools (preschool and grade school) sits at the corner of Glenwood and Pratt, have a block from Kilmer. I spoke with someone at LSS as the staff was leaving. She showed no signs of panic, and said they're keeping an eye on the situation but had no immediate plans to close. LSS is a private school. They have signs on all of their doors that say, "All adults and children must wash their hands" as they enter the school. (Click to enlarge it.)
So is one of the local bloggers, Craig Gernhardt, who has been breathlessly posting update after breathless update about the Kilmer case. Since the morning of April 29, he has posting 24 "updates" on the situation (when I looked at 5:50 p.m., April 30). That averages one update every 85 minutes; more often, really, since update #24 came well before 5:50 p.m. today. To be fair, much of what he's written has been tongue-in-cheek. For example, "Furthermore, [49th Ward Alderman] Joe Moore is leading the charge to create an ordinance banned [sic] swine flu in Chicago. After going though [sic] a few committee hearings, the swine flu ban is expected to reach a full city council vote in November." Y'okay, ha ha.
Gernhardt cornered Ald. Moore on video on the 29th. Kilmer Elementary is just south of Moore's 49th Ward border, but there he was, jumping in front of every TV camera in the neighborhood, whoring for exposure. and asks him a very good question: "Why are you concerned about this when you've had a couple murders in the past six months in your ward? Shouldn't murders be as much of an issue as swine flu in the 40th Ward?"
One of those murders was right outside of Moore's own ward service office at Jarvis and Greenview. Moore's answer: "Clearly this is a public health issue and it's important to get the information out."
Moore is well known as a hypocrite to residents of his ward. He seems to be saying that a rash of murders, not to mention the endemic narcotics street trade in the 49th Ward, are not public health concerns. Although he rushed out to get on camera at Kilmer, Moore never rushes out to the scene of a murder. He never stands vigil on any corners known to be hot spots of gang activity or drug sales. Judging from his actions, Joe Moore is indeed more interested a single case of influenza than in the greater, longer-term effects of crack sales, murder, prostitution, robbery, sex offenses, kidnapping, and... the list is endless. If only the victims of those crimes were suffering from a bout of influenza. Perhaps then Mr. Moore would show some public sympathy for them. Maybe, but only if he could be guaranteed that television crews would be there.
Moore and the Chicago City Council happily allow unregulated, uninspected vendors to sell their unrefrigerated food from filthy plywood carts on the streets of Rogers Park. But a case of flu in a neighboring ward? Now that's a public health issue..JPG)
There is now at least one more suspected case of swine flu in Rogers Park. Loyola University's campus in Rogers Park is just a few blocks from Kilmer Elementary. After Moore was done whoring his media time, "officials at Loyola University Chicago announced later in the day that one Loyola student, a 20-year-old male who lived on campus, had probably contracted swine flu." (Source) It is "suspected," not yet confirmed. Only the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta can officially declare it to be a particular strain of influenza, and testing can take from 24 to 72 hours.
Mayor Daley is another hypocrite in the whole swine flu hype, too. Vice President Joe Biden was criticized by Daley for a comment he made on NBC News' Today show on April 30.
"I would tell members of my family, and I have, 'I wouldn't go anywhere in confined places now,''' Biden said (source). Now, far be for me to agree with Joe Biden, but that comment seems like good advice. Yet Mayor Daley, the man who is ordering entire schools shut down because of individual cases of influenza, criticized Biden for saying that.
Daley's response was self-contradictory. "We all have to get to work. I mean, we’d be staying out of our cars. We’d be staying out of subways, out of elevators – how about elevators? No, no, no. You have to remember – we have to … use some common sense." (source). Uh, yes, and Biden's advice was good common sense. If you don't have to be in a closed, confined space, don't be. We all have to get to work, Daley tells us. That's easy for him to say - the anti-gun mayor has armed security people to chauffeur him anywhere he wants to go. Daley doesn't need to worry about catching anything on a bus or subway. But what if you get sick? Or what if you're afraid that many others around you might be ill - and contagious? It makes sense, under such circumstances, to take a car instead of public transit if you can, or take the steps up a flight or two instead of an elevator. Daley has no problem, apparently, with you or your child catching the flu on a CTA train or bus, or in an elevator. Just don't catch it in a public school.
Meanwhile, everyone who has come in contact with the Loyola student or the 12-year old at Kilmer are free to ride in crowded elevators, subway cars, or stroll through crowded shopping malls. Should they be stopped? No, and in that regard Daley is right and it exposes the lie that all the hype about this version of swine flu really is.
This all reminds of me a quote by local boy Rahm Emanuel, a good friend of Joe Biden. Emanuel said, "It's important not to let a crisis go to waste." (Source) That applies to any crisis, I suppose, whether it's real, manufactured, or greatly exaggerated. The weird thing is that nobody seems to taking any great advantage of the "crisis" of pending pandemic swine flu except for some of the pharmaceutical companies, and they've essentially been given marching orders by government. So, if this "crisis" really is a crisis, it seems that the politicians are letting it go to waste.
Why not just declare martial law now and order us all to wear masks under threat of summary execution? Why no drastic measures for what they keep saying is a drastic situation? It makes no sense.
If the government is so concerned with this health care "crisis," and if it's really about to become a pandemic, as the World Health Organization (WHO) is now warning, why are people not being quarantined? I am not advocating quarantining, but if the government truly believes this to be such a threat, then why are they not using that option? Why are people like Mayor Daley not praising Joe Biden for his comment, and even urging citizens to avoid unnecessary trips on public transportation?
The short answer: It's all B.S. It's not really the big deal they say it is. It's just another wave of flu, but it's a great opportunity for camera face time and, by God, it sure sells a lot of newspapers. Oh, and Big Pharma is loving this, too.
As I walked around Rogers Park, I spotted two youngster sitting on some steps behind Kilmer Elementary. Two boys, about 14 or 15 years old, chatting after dinner. I asked them if they knew about the school being closed. They did. I asked if they were scared by all the talk of the swine flu.
"I'm not scared," one said with smile, "maybe a little bit worried, but I wash my hands."
"Are you washing your hands more now than before this swine flu?" I asked him.
"No," he said, "I always wash my hands. That's just good hygiene. People should wash their hands." His friend was nodding as he said this.
Perhaps Joe Biden should have just suggested hand washing.
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The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) hosted a press briefing to discuss the ongoing investigation of cases of swine flu on Monday, April 17. The briefing was presented by CDC Director Richard E. Besser, MD. A full transcript is available. Below are some excerpts of what Dr. Besser said (emphasis added):
This situation is evolving very quickly.
....we want to be aggressive. We want to take bold action to minimize the impact on people′s health from this infection.
We are officially reporting 40 confirmed cases in the United States in five states.
So far, CDC has confirmed 26 cases in Mexico, but, clearly, from the reports coming out of Mexico this is a small fraction of what they′re seeing.
We will be distributing yellow cards at ports of entry. These will provide information on swine flu so that people coming into the United States will have information about this outbreak and what to do if they become sick and what things they can do in the likelihood that they do become sick. [NOTE: Dr. Besser did not address the thousands of illegal immigrants who cross the US-Mexican border every week who not be given the yellow cards.]
It′s time to think about that so that you′re ready in the event that there were a case in your child′s school. It′s time for businesses to review their plans and think about what would i do if some of my workers couldn′t come to work? How would my business function? Think about that.
There′s no single action that will control an outbreak, but the combined actions that we are proposing and they′re being undertaken around the country will help to stem the tide of any infectious disease outbreak and this one in particular. I want to reiterate that everyone has a responsibility and it′s been absolutely incredible to see people around the country standing up and taking responsibility and doing the things that they need to do to help reduce the impact of this outbreak. [NOTE: Dr. Besser did not address the thousands of illegal immigrants who cross the US-Mexican border every week.]
What we need to know is why we′re seeing a different disease spectrum in Mexico than we′re seeing here. I wouldn′t be overly reassured by that....I wouldn′t rest on the fact that we have only seen cases in this country that are less severe.... I expect that we will see additional cases and I expect that the spectrum of disease will expand.
In terms of our recommendations we would not recommend that people generally wear masks in their workplace as a precautionary measure.... Anything that you can do to prevent infection are critically important.... Masks, the evidence of their value outside of healthcare settings and outside of settings where you are coming direct face-to-face with someone who has an infectious disease, the evidence there is not very strong.... I would rather people really focus hand washing, not giving that little kiss of greeting when you′re meeting somebody right now. Doing those sorts of things and covering your cough and your sneeze.
You can′t get this from eating pork.... influenza is not transmitted by eating pork or pork products. They are safe.
....we look for any connections and see if any of the individuals who have been sick have been exposed to pigs or swine and we′re not finding that linkage here.
....we only have one case of documented by viral testing person to-person spread, but I wouldn′t be reassured by that. We′re seeing significant rates of respiratory infection among contacts, and I would expect that some of those individuals will end up testing positive for the swine flu virus.
The primary symptoms that we hear about, of fever, cough, respiratory symptoms, are still ones people need to look for.... there are individuals who have had gastrointestinal symptoms of diarrhea and vomiting.
Another thing that′s important to note is that we′re nearing the end of flu season and often in outbreaks of influenza you′ll see a decline in the number of cases because it′s the end of flu season and we can′t rest too comfortably on that because sometimes it comes back again in the fall when flu season comes back.
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Mexico, it seems, has responded to the two-week old swine flu crisis in a manner that can only be described as criminally negligent. The government has issued no medicine or treatment to thousands of people know to have been in contact with people who have died from swine flu. First responders are too afraid to do their jobs. God only knows how many poor people living in remote areas of the country are dead or dying with no official recognition or response. Meanwhile, U.S. federal, state and local governments and pretend to care about this crisis from down south, while doing nothing significant to curb the free flow of illegals crossing the southern border every hour of every day. If Washington really cared, they would have shut down the US-Mexican border completely a week ago. How many of illegal border crosser are carrying swine flu into the US, into your city, into your neighborhood, your local grocer, church, public transportation? (See, folks, diseas control is one of the primary reasons that immigration control makes sense, and why proponents of an open border are out of their damned minds.)
Photo: An unregulated, uninspected, unlicensed, untaxed food vender in Rogers Park, Chicago sells unrefrigerated food on Morse Avenue near N. Clark Street. The City of Chicago, a sanctuary city, knowingly allows hundreds of carts like this to pose a public health threat every day.
Remember the avian flu? "Bird flu," some call it, and it scared the bejeezus out of us for years. Still does, actually, but suddenly it has been pushed aside. Bird flu has not flown. Swine flu is flying high, soaring over the population of Mexico and just beginning its flight over the U.S. As thousands in Mexico may already be affected, and now at least 149 there dead from swine flu, with confirmed cases in California, Texas, New York, Kansas. All U.S. states are bracing for the probability that it will affect them, too.
The pig has flown, and it has big wings.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the Mexican/US swine flu outbreak as a “public health emergency of international concern”. Sciencebase.com tells us that swine flu is "a type A influenza virus present in pigs. Human infection is usually uncommon except among people who work and live closely with pigs."
People who don't associate with pigs, of course, can become infected by those who do, and they in turn continue to spread it. For example, a pig farmer in Mexico catches swine flu from one of his herd. He then infects his wife, and she then infects a sales clerk in town, who in turn spreads it to a tourist, who brings it back to Minneapolis and spreads it around her real estate office. One of the real estate firm's clients catches it from a sales rep, then flies out to a meeting in, say, Louisville, spreading it as he passes through two airport terminals and then to everyone in the meeting. This goes on and on until tens of thousands are infected. (You cannot catch swine flu by eating pork or pork products.)
What Are the Symptoms of Swine Flu? Let's turn again to Sciencebase.com:
Symptoms are similar to regular human flu: fever and chills, a cough, sore throat, aching limbs, headaches, and general malaise. However, there are reports of swine flu also causing diarrhoea and vomiting. Pneumonia and respiratory failure can occur leading to death as also happens in regular human flu, which kills thousands of people every year.
Are there warning signs in children?
Children having trouble breathing, being averse to drinking, lethargy not waking up or not interacting, being so irritable that the child does not want to beheld, flu-like symptoms improve but then return with fever and worse cough, fever with a rash.
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The federal government of Mexico has closed all schools in the nation as a precautionary measure to help stop the spread of swine flu. At present, the known death toll in Mexico is 149, but is expected to rise.
According to Associated Press, Mexico's Health Secretary Jose Angel Cordova "says only 20 of the deaths have been confirmed to be from swine flu and the government was awaiting tests results on the rest....Cordova says school at all levels nationwide are suspended until May 6. Schools had already been suspended in Mexico City and five of Mexico's 32 states." Full Article...
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You've heard Liberals and Democrats rant against Republicans and corporate welfare, right? Sure you have. Now you can tell them to shut up, because their very own Messiah, Barack Obama, has been dubbed the "King of Corporate Welfare." And who can argue? Well, perhaps Leslie Paige can. She's the media director of Citizens Against Government Waste, who emailed this to the Huffington Post: "Forget corporate welfare," said Leslie Paige, : "We are now seeing full-scale corporate adoption."
Cute, but I'm sure even Paige would agree that the adoption involves enormous amounts of money being given to the very corporations and industries that Democrats and Leftists love to complain about.
So who gave the title of "King of Corporate Welfare" to Obama? It was Thomas B. Edsall, who wrote a brilliant piece for Huff Po, published on April 25. Excerpt:
No matter what else he achieves or where he falls short, Barack Obama can lay claim to the title of King of Corporate Subsidies. Using any of a variety of measures, the Obama administration has broken all records in the distribution of taxpayer dollars to American businesses, primarily banks, automobile manufacturers and insurance companies. The tidal wave of dollar bills has stunned folks on all sides of the political spectrum.I'm not saying that I like corporate welfare. It's just that the Dems and the Libs love to make it sound as though Republicans are the only ones who are guilty of it. To be sure, some conservatives / Republicans are, and a handful of Democrats try to fight it. It's hypocritical of the Left to blame it all on the GOP. So, as I said, the next time you hear a moonbat spouting off about corporate welfare, remind them that the leader of the Democrat Party holds the all-time corporate welfare dispenser record. That's Obama, King of Corporate Welfare.
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UPDATE 5/21/09:
The Real Straight Dope - Rogers Park More Dangerous Than Admitted
------------------------
Was the man a victim of a violent crime, or of natural hemorrhaging? On Saturday, April 25, 2009 a man collapsed in a pool of his own blood on the west side of the Howard CTA station around 7:50 p.m. He lay there for two hours until police transported him to St. Francis hospital in Evanston. Four and a half hours later, at 12:20 a.m. on Sunday, the Chicago Police Department released a bizarre statement that only adds to the confusion of the incident. We do not believe the police statement. Quite frankly, we believe that the statement from CPD is either a deliberate lie or some weird, unintentional admission of some of the most incompetent police and paramedic work in the history of Chicago. Or the world, even.
There are five reasons why we do not trust the police statement.
What the hell, exactly, happened at the Howard CTA station in Rogers Park, Chicago on the night of April 25, 2009? What we do know that a man was bleeding heavily and staggered along the street until he collapsed on the west side of the Howard station. Our informant said, "Victim was shot about 7:50 p.m. and not transported to St. Francis until 9:45 p.m.," based on what police themselves were saying on the radio. The police went next door to get videotape from Dominicks supermarket, then an hour later pulled apprehended a car that they thought they saw on that tape. They took the care in to the 24th District police station be sniffed by K-9 for "gunshot residue." Yet, despite all of that, the police put out a very strange statement:
"Per Area 3, their investigation revealed the incident on the 7500 blk of N Paulina not be of a criminal nature after discovering that the M/44 subject appeared to be suffering from a medical condition and had NOT sustained a gunshot wound."
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The aldermen in Chicago's 49th and 50th wards seem to not care about the safety of bikers, pedestrians or motorists. To wit:
Rogers Park (east) sits along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is ruled over by 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore.
For years, the intersection of W. Pratt and N. Greenview, in Moore's ward and right in front of a school, has been dangerous. The vast majority of motorists driving westbound on Pratt do not stop at the clearly visible stop sign. This includes CTA buses and trucks of all kind, and it happens day and night, rain or shine. I've had a video posted to this blog since December, 2006 which shows vehicle after vehicle blowing the sign. Moore has done nothing about it. Is he waiting for a group of school children to die before he takes proactive measures?
West Ridge is ruled over by 50th Ward Alderman Berny Stone, who seems to care about traffic safety about as much as Joe Moore does. Rogers Parka blog's Jackie recounts when she was struck by a vehicle in February, 2007 in Stone's ward, at the intersection of N. Western and W. Granville.
While crossing Western, I was hit by a car traveling east on Granville.... he struck me on my right knee and I went flying onto the ground. At least, the driver.... stopped and helped me right myself.... I sustained a small (but very painful) fracture and, for three weeks, hobbled around in deep snow. On crutches! .... I emailed Bernard Stone's office about my accident, and told them to consider putting a red light camera at that intersection. The response? "A camera isn't necessary." So that was the end of that conversation. I suppose that something will be done... after a pedestrian is killed! Full Post...
Jackie was not asking for anything for herself. She was asking a city council member to consider a way to make an intersection safer. According to Jackie, Ald. Stone didn't seem to give it any consideration. Ah, Chicago, the city that works. When the aldermen want it to, that is.
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THERE IS SOMETHING VERY FISHY ABOUT THIS CASE...
ARE THE POLICE COVERING SOMETHING UP HERE?
IF SO, WHAT AND WHY?
AT 11:20 tonight (April 25, 2009), Chicago Police sent out a very, very strange press release about today's bloody incident at the Howard CTA station in Rogers Park (Chicago Police District 23). The full release:
"Per Area 3, their investigation revealed the incident on the 7500 blk of N Paulina not be of a criminal nature after discovering that the M/44 subject appeared to be suffering from a medical condition and had NOT sustained a gunshot wound."
WHY IS THIS FISHY?
The police statement makes no sense for at least five reasons:
Reason #1: Earlier, our informant reported that the "victim was shot about 7:50 p.m. and not transported to St. Francis until 9:45 p.m." CONSIDER THIS: Did it really take police and paramedics two hours to determine that this was not a gunshot wound or a criminal act? Why would they leave a man who was allegedly "suffering from a medical condition" laying on the ground for two hours before transporting him to a hospital?
Reason #2: On April 16, another man left a very bloody trail for blocks, as he walked from Howard Station south to Loyola Station. According to the NHNA blog, that incident was not an attack but a homeless person "with an infected abscess wound, which ruptured and began to bleed profusely," then "made their way down Paulina to the El at Howard Street and traveled south to the Loyola Station ... where someone called 911 .... they were taken to St. Francis Hospital for medical treatment." We can probably assume that the police put that story out, since NHNA quotes a CAPS beat facilitator.
CONSIDER THIS: Two such cases in a week and a half? How often do people hemorrhage large amounts of blood in the same two-square mile neighborhood? Both persons began their ordeal in a the same rough part of Rogers Park; both left a lot of blood at the Howard station; both are within the 24th Police District, whose new commander is struggling with public relations lately.
Reason #3: As reported by our informant, police went to the nearby Dominicks to obtain video of what might have happened. CONSIDER THIS: If the man was only suffering a medical condition and was not the victim of an attack, why the need for the videotape?
Reason #4: Our informant also told us that after police viewed the videotape, they stopped a car "about an hour later that matched a car they saw on the Dominicks videotape..." CONSIDER THIS: Why, a full hour after supposedly determining that the man's injuries were determined to "not be of a criminal nature," would the police be looking for a suspicious car?
Reason #5: If the man "had NOT sustained a gunshot wound," as the police statement claims, then why was the suspicious car seen in the videotape sniffed by a dog for gunshot residue? CONSIDER THIS: If the man had not been shot, why look for gunshot residue?
This is very strange indeed. Something stinks, and it smells rotten. Either the 24th District Police are unbelievably incompetent, or somebody in CPD's public affairs department is the dumbest liar in the history of Chicago.
UPDATE #2 @ 10:27 PM, APRIL 26
Our informant sent more details,
below in red:
At approximately 7:50 this evening (Sat., April 25) a black male 30 - 40 years of age was shot at the Howard Street CTA station bus turn in Rogers Park [on N. Paulina, just south of W. Howard Street]. The station is just east of the Dominick's grocery store [main entrance is 1649 W Howard Street]. Victim was shot on Howard Street, then staggered to the bus turnaround just off of Howard. Victim was tranferred to St. Francis in Evanston in critical condition. As of 10:22 p.m., it is unknown whether or not the victim has died. Huge crime scene taking up the entire stretch of Paulina from Howard all the way to the station entrance. Victim left a very large trail of blood.... UPDATED INFO FOLLOWS:
...the crime scene was so large that Chicago police had to call in for more crime scene tape. Victim staggered along the sidewalk past businesses on the east side of Paulina, leaving massive amounts of blood in his wake. CTA does not have any cameras at the Howard Station, so the police went in to Dominicks to review their security tapes. (While doing so they caught a woman stealing bread from Dominicks.) Police put a stop on a car about an hour later [approx. 8:50 p.m.] that matched a car they saw on the Dominicks videotape, and took it to Police District 24 [near Clark and Devon] for a K-9 to sniff for gunshot residue. Victim was shot about 7:50 p.m. and not transported to St. Francis until 9:45 p.m. This confirms to me he is dead the Trib got that detail wrong.
NOTE: Chicago Breaking News has a bit of a story, but with far less detail than provided here. Thanks again to our informant.
NOTE: It is disturbing that recently refurbished Howard Street CTA station has no security cameras. Was that an oversight by CTA? Or were cameras deliberately not installed?
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Heard on Chicago police frequency 460.175 at 9:31 p.m., Saturday, April 25:
"Four male blacks with AK-47s on the street at 5069 W. Madison."
Then, on frequency: 460.175 at 9:36 p.m.:
"Possibly in a black Ford Taurus"
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Today, April 25, is "World Malaria Day." Millions of people around the world die every year from malaria. Because of environmentalist efforts to ban many pesticides, especially DDT, millions of people have died - and are dying - unnecessarily.
Malaria could be easily controlled, but the Left and their enviro-radical allies simply will - not - allow - it.
Environmentalists and their allies on the Left knowingly allow millions of human beings to die of malaria. Between 300 and 500 million people contract malaria every year. You will probably encounter some nonsense today about how to combat this horrible disease, which is spread primarily by mosquitos.
...the organization Malaria No More is using social media tools to spread the word and raise donations to buy lifesaving mosquito nets. The article urges us to "Tweet to beat malaria," and goes on to say, "On World Malaria Day, $30 buys 3 mosquito nets to save lives. Please donate!" (Source)
"Tweeting" to beat malaria? Malaria is a parasite. When a mosquito bites, it sucks blood from its victim. Some of the blood in the insect's gut, from a previous victim, can mix with the new victim's blood, thereby infecting the new bite victim. I'm not sure how getting a bunch of people to send messages to each other on Twitter will prevent that process or kill trillions of malaria-bearing mosquitos. This is just more "Leftist Magical Chanting," as I've called it previously. It is reminiscent of the hippies trying to levitate the Pentagon to stop the Vietnam war. It is as useless as a neighborhood crime walk, and as effective as anti-crime candlelight vigil. Hey hey, ho ho, ma-lar-eee-yaa has got to go.
You have to wonder who's making a windfall profit from the sale of mosquito nets, which may save a handful of lives but do absolutely nothing to save the millions of people who are bitten by mosquitos when they're not under the damned nets.
Earlier this week, Sec. of State Hillary Clinton gave a nonsensical video speech just for Malaria Day:
"We're using proven drugs to treat malarial illness, and simple tools to prevent the disease, including insecticide nets, indoor spraying, and safe, inexpensive drugs for pregnant women.... With solutions already in hand, we can envision a world free of the scourge of malaria.... So today, we reaffirm our committment, not just to curbing the spread of this disease but to working with our global partners to end malaria as a major public health threat. We will redouble our own efforts and we will call on our partners to join us in reaching the day when we can celebrate a world without malaria."
That sounds nice, but Clinton omitted some very important information. She never once mentioned the possibility of spraying insecticides to combat the mosquitos that spread malaria. She certainly didn't tell you that environmentalists have forced poor nations to stop spraying DDT and other pesticides about 40 years ago. If that had not happened, malaria might have been eradicated by now. The Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT, a powerful pesticide, in 1972. Certainly, tens of millions of people would not have died, and hundreds of millions more would not have become dibilitated or orphaned by malaria. Everything that Clinton spoke about in her fluffy video was about treatment of malaria or the feeble attempt to prevent it by means of "insecticide nets." Neither of those measures do any good on any significant scale.
As to the effectiveness of the nets, Hillary Clinton omitted this recent news story: "Studies have indicated that two species of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes found in Kenya have developed resistance to permethrin and DDT," Vincent Corbel, a malaria specialist with the World Health Organization, told a symposium held in Nairobi on 23 April. (Source: "KENYA: Act now on growing insecticide resistance, says malaria expert" - UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, April 24, 2009)
SciDev.net reported this in February, 2009: "Insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) primarily protect only the people sleeping under them and are less effective than generally assumed because ITN distribution does not equate with consistent use. And while the mass distribution of ITNs has undoubtedlysaved thousands of lives, mosquitoes are becoming increasingly resistant to the insecticides used on them, partly because the same chemicals are used in farming.Recent studies have identified growing resistance in Benin and Uganda, where free net distribution has occurred for a decade." (Source: "New insecticides are crucial in battle against malaria" - SciDev.net, February 19, 2009)
Get this straight, folks: Those measures cannot and will never bring about "a world without malaria." Unless the primary source of the disease is attacked (mosquitos), the world will continue to need donated nets and medicine. Let me repeat myself: Nets might keep the mosquitos away from you while you're in a tent or laying down to sleep. Meanwhile, millions of disease-bearing mosquitos are breeding and buzzing around right outside, ready to inject you with malaria the moment you go outside. As the Left so loves to do, Hillary Clinton proposes more Band-Aids when what is really needed is major medical treatment. The treatment needed: Spraying large areas with insecticides to kill off the mosquitos.
The solution is so simple that it's mind boggling. Spraying with DDT would virtually eliminate the problem in many, many large areas of the malaria-affected world. As the BBC reported in August, 2000:
Some of the world's poorest countries say their fight against malaria is being threatened by environmental agencies in the West. Every 20 seconds a young child somewhere in the developing world contracts malaria and because they cannot afford modern drugs developing countries tackle the disease with cheap pesticides like DDT. In Britain and other European countries, DDT has been banned for years because it's toxic and damages crops and wildlife - and some environmental groups want the ban extended world-wide. (See "Environmentalists threaten malaria fight," BBC, August 30, 2000)
In October, 2006, self-described environmentalist Richard A. Posner, Judge, United States Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Senior and Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School, wrote that the benefits of using the pesticide DDT to fight malaria outweigh the risks when balanced against the loss of life caused by malaria. Posner wrote the following (emphasis added):
I am a strong environmentalist, and support the ban on using DDT as a pesticide. Although Rachel Carson's belief that DDT causes cancer has not been substantiated, there seems little doubt that its widespread use as a pesticide, if continued, would have caused a significant reduction in biodiversity because of its lethal effect on many fish and bird species.
Althouth the World Health Organization (WHO) actually approved DDT for dealing with malaria, it never actively supported it.
"While DDT repels or kills mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite," wrote Joanne Silberner for NPR's All Things Considered, "it doesn't get much good press. In 1962, environmentalist Rachel Carson wrote a book, Silent Spring, about how [DDT] persists in the environment and affects not just insects but the whole food chain....In the early 1960s, several developing countries had nearly wiped out malaria. After they stopped using DDT, malaria came raging back and other control methods have had only modest success." (Source: "WHO Backs Use of DDT Against Malaria" - National Public Radio, September 15, 2008)
Judge Posner, then, doesn't like DDT. He doesn't like malaria either, however. Posner, unlike so many environmentalists, is rational about the subject of DDT v. Malaria and puts human life first:
Considering how much cheaper and easier it would be to (largely) eliminate malaria than to eliminate AIDS (which would require behavioral changes to which there is strong cultural resistance in Africa), the failure of the African countries, the World Health Organization, the World Bank, and private foundations and other nongovernmental organizations to eliminate most malaria by means of indoor spraying with DDT is a remarkable political failure. (Source: Global Envision)
Hillary Clinton is a party to that political failure. The Left, as a whole, is too.
In 1997, the New York Times noted that "In the 1950's, experts were optimistic that malaria could be wiped out, and for a time DDT and other insecticides led to a sharp reduction of mosquitoes and of the disease. But the use of DDT and similar chemicals was sharply curtailed because of their dreadful environmental effects, and partly as a result malaria began a long upswing around the world in the 1960's and 70's.
DDT's "dreadful environmental effects," they say. How's this for dreadful environmental effect of not using DDT: Billions of human beings horribly affected by malaria, and tens of millions dead. How many humans do you think would have died as a result of the "dreadful environmental effects" of using DDT? More or less than from malaria? I'd guess far less.
The NYT article continued:
As a single disease, malaria has a bigger impact on the world than anything you can think of,'' said Dr. Kazem Behbehani, director of the division for control of tropical diseases at the World Health Organization in Geneva. ''And it's spreading.'' Source: "Malaria Makes a Comeback, And Is More Deadly Than Ever," New York Times, January 18, 1997)
A response to the New York Times article, by George Reisman, Ph.D., professor of Economics at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management, shone a spotlight on the guilt of the Left and the radical environmentalists in worldwide malarial catastrophe (emphasis added):
The malaria epidemic is the result of the vicious, antihuman philosophy of environmentalism. Environmentalism regards wild speculation as the equivalent of scientific proof, and the "environment" - from California condors and spotted owls to rock formations and jungles - as intrinsically valuable and fully on a par with the value of human life. In the instance of the banning and continued prohibition of DDT and the consequent return of malaria as a leading killer of human beings, the environmentalists demonstrate their indifference to the value of human life. (Full post at http://www.capitalism.net/articles/malaria.htm) Also see the index entry "Ecology movement" in Reisman's book Capitalism: A Treatise on Economics [Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books, 1996].
Happy Malaria Day. It's a "holiday" that we could have avoided decades ago. Since the environmentalists stand in the way of real progress in the war on malaria by denying the use of DDT or equivalent pesticides on a meaningful scale, perhaps we could have a can hold a big candlelight vigil and chant "Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Malaria Has Got To Go!"
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Warning: This video is very sexy. Oh, and it's politically incorrect, too.
Global Warming - Click here for funny video clips
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"The global warming alarm is dressed up as science, but it's not science.
It's propaganda."
The top video here is titled "The Great Global Warming Scandal." (1:15:56 - Dec 22, 2008) "Interviews of climate scientists and biologists from numerous sources who explain, step by step, why Al Gore and the global warming alarmists are incorrect. In some cases, blatantly so. It also provides evidence that the global warming agenda is being funded with tens of billions of dollars as a mechanism to create global governance."
The one below it is "Global Warming or Global Governance" (1:20:23 - Sep 24, 2007). "Hear from congressmen, experts and even well-known news broadcasters how global governance puts global institutions that are not accountable to the American people in control of every aspect of our economy. The U.S. government is very close to making this a reality."
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The cowardly Al Gore spoke before Congress today (video below). In doing so, he expelled several pounds of carbon dioxide into the room. He was urging passage of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Gore did not ride in on an environmentally friendly donkey. The petroleum-fueled vehicles that brought him to the meeting also expelled carbon dioxide. "I am here today," Gore said, " to lend my support to what I believe to be one of the most important pieces of legislation ever introduced in the Congress. I believe this legislation has the moral significance equivalent to that of the civil rights legislation of the 1960's."
Gore felt pretty comfy in the air conditioned room, knowing that he would not be challenged. He never once proposed turning the air conditioning or lights be turned off, or that the testimony be conducted by candlelight. Hypocrite. There was nobody there to challenge him, because his Democrat pals made damned sure no global warming dissenters would engage in open scientific debate or embarrass Gore. One such dissenter, Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, was suddenly un-invited to give his testimony to the congressional panel:
Lord Christopher Monckton told "Climate Depot" that committee Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance with former Vice President Al Gore because, according to him, they don't want "Gore humiliated" over evidence or lack of evidence about global warming. Full Article at MyStateline.com...“The House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton said. (Source: Canada Free Press) Does that sound to you like an objective interest in science and facts, or more like pure politics?
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The Posse Comitatus Act - Prohibits search, seizure, or arrest powers to US military personnel. Amended in 1981 under Public Law 97-86 to permit increased Department of Defense support of drug interdiction and other law enforcement activities. (Title 18, "Use of Army and Air Force as Posse Comitatus" - United States Code, Section 1385) DoD Dictionary of Military Terms, 2006
"We have got to teach black people to stop beating each other to pieces right in their own living rooms." - Dr. Carl C. Bell, M.D., F.A.P.A., FA.C.P. 
President & CEO Community Mental Health Center of Chicago
I usually avoid Mary Mitchell's column because she's a racist and an idiot who writes nonsense most of the time, as in the aforementioned article from March 31 (emphasis added):
Obviously, President Obama can't read the tons of mail he receives. But there's one letter floating around the White House that I hope he reads. That letter is from Edward G. Gardner, a prominent Chicago businessman and the founder of Black on Black Love, the city's pioneering anti-violence campaign. Gardner is asking Obama to send federal troops to urban areas that are now under siege by domestic terrorists fighting gang wars. Full Column, Chicago Sun-Times...
Mr. Gardner lives in Chicago and is the founder of Soft Sheen Products. He has been very useful to Barack Obama's political career for many years. Soft Sheen (now called "Soft Sheen Carson") promotes "the Celebration of Black."Ironically, his request to Barack Obama to send in the troops is due to the fact that black-on-black murder is out of control. Some celebration. (And by the way, try to imagine a Revlon "celebration of white.")
Nowhere in Mitchell's column is the phrase "posse comitatus" mentioned. That's the problem. Mr. Gardner's proposal to use federal troops (i.e., Army, etc.) would be unconstitutional and violate United States Code, Section 1385. Mitchell should know this. After Hurricane Katrina, she and other race baiters screamed that President Bush was slow to act because he didn't rush federal troops to Louisiana. Bush offered; he phoned then-Governor Blanco and urged to her to allow him to send federal troops in to help keep the peace. Blanco refused.
Colonel John R. Brinkerhoff, US Army Retired explains that "posse comitatus doctrine comes from English common law. Posse comitatus means, literally, the 'force of the county'; the posse comitatus is that body of men above the age of 15 whom the sheriff may summon or raise to repress a riot or for other purposes." (Source) Brinkerhoff notes that posse commitatus, and U.S. Code, Section 1385, are often misunderstood. Posse comitatus, he notes, "does not prevent the President from using federal troops in riots or civil disorders. Federal troops were used for domestic operations more than 200 times in the two centuries from 1795 to 1995."
Under the Constitution, a President cannot send federal troops to a state for purposes other than training or quelling riots, however, unless they are specifically invited by that state's governor. In addition, however, § 1385 of the US Code, "Use of Army and Air Force as posse comitatus," states that "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." (Source: Cornell University Law School, U.S. Code Collection)
Mary Mitchell ignores the U.S. Code. Instead of looking at federal law and its application in the case of punks killing people in cities, she tugs at our heartstrings with passages like these:
- The number of CPS students who have been killed so far this year has surpassed the number of students killed in the previous school year.
- "We are trying to let the president know we respect the full plate he has, but this is something that has not been addressed by the administration," Leak said.
- What Gardner proposes is indeed controversial. But how many children have to die before we acknowledge that we are at war in our own country?
Dr. Carl Bell, quoted at the top of this post, is a Chicago psychiatrist and former gang member. He once said the following to a Bible study class at Chicago's all-black Messiah-St. Bartholomew Church (emphasis added):
"If you have a loaded gun in your home, that gun is 118 times more likely to kill a family member or a friend than a burglar. But for every murder, there are 100 other acts of black-on-black violence—sexual molestations, rapes, robberies and physical assaults. And do you know what sends more black mothers to the emergency room than all the auto accidents, muggings and rapes combined? Husbands, that's who. We have got to teach black people to stop beating each other to pieces right in their own living rooms."
Dr. Bell said those words in 1988. He still practices psychiatry and still works on violence issues. Those words still ring true.
It is ironic as hell that the likes of Mary Mitchell scream about the local police when they get a bit heavy handed in dealing with murderous thugs. Yet there she is, giving support to Gardner's proposal of sending in the Army. Sure, fine, Mary, send in the cavalry. But don't write another whiny, heart-tugging column when you find that the US military cannot make bad parents good, cannot change the culture of violence-promoting rap music, or employ a velvet glove any better than the Chicago Police Department can. Federal troops would not be able to make black people stop beating each other to pieces right in their own living rooms.
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Today is the fourth and final day of hearings being held this week by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Obama Regime officials and members of Congress are debating the discussion draft of The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (see "Documents" below).
More Leftist lunacy on the environment. Is the Obama Regime really concerned for the environment? Or is it just another play in the Left's power grab game?
Keep in mind that this "global warming" madness continues in spite of the fact that temperature monitors report widescale global cooling.
One thing is certain: The Left's environmental fear mongering is NOT about science. If it was, they would not insist, as they do, that more research is unnecessary. If the Left - and Democrat leaders in Congress - were truly interested in objective science, they would not refuse to allow dissenting voices to testify. They've just done this, in the case of a dissenting British environmental expert:
A former science advisor to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher says he has been uninvited to appear before a House Energy and Commerce hearing today on global warming. Lord Christopher Monckton told "Climate Depot" that committee Democrats rescinded his scheduled joint appearance with former Vice President Al Gore because, according to him, they don't want "Gore humiliated" over evidence or lack of evidence about global warming. Full Article at MyStateline.com...
“The House Democrats don’t want Gore humiliated, so they slammed the door of the Capitol in my face,” Monckton said. (Source: Canada Free Press) Does that sound to you like an objective interest in science and facts, or more like pure politics?
The Rocky Mountain Collegian wrote an idiotic column on April 22 that parrots the talking points of the Democrat environmental opportunists. An excerpt (emphasis added):
Here is my challenge to skeptics. The findings are now in a 60-day public comment period before they are made official. If you can debunk the theory of global warming, contact the EPA within the next 60 days and do so. If, however, you cannot, allow the rest of us to continue the debate on how best to mitigate the threat of global warming so we can begin what we should have been doing five years ago.
To the writer/s of that idiotic passage: Are you aware of the fact that Democrats and their environmentalist whacko allies have been doing backflips to prevent "the rest of us to continue the debate on how best to mitigate the threat of global warming?" Or is your column just another way of telling dissenters, such as Lord Christopher Monckton, to shut up?
GetLiberty.org reports:
Just this past Friday [April 17], the EPA classified the supposed side-effects of “man-made” climate change, including smog, heat waves, and storms, as a danger to "public health and welfare.” Under the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act in the Massachusetts v. EPA case—a clear case of judicial activism based on yet more junk science that defined carbon dioxide as a pollutant—the EPA can now regulate carbon-emitting facilities and industries.
The hypocrisy and the idiocy of the court's ruling is this: Every one of the justices on that court expell several pounds of carbon dioxide every day as they breath. They get to and from the court by automobile. Their homes are heated and cooled with electricity. Any pets they have produce carbon dioxide, too. Oh yes, and if they or their pets are overweight, then that's another offense:
"And the EPA is no doubt more than eager to oblige," writes GetLiberty, "After all, its comrades on the environmental fringe just defined fat people as a threat to mankind’s survival." (Say, isn't Al Gore kinda plump?)
The Left and its environmentalist radical allies, along with the Obama Regime, are fear mongering for the sake of attaining more control over industry and individual behavior, and to achieve political points internationally in their global attempt to stunt the growth of industry.
Mondaq.com's Kevin Holewinski wrote an excellent summary of Massachusetts v. EPA, in which he struck at the core motivation behind the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (emphasis added):
... as a number of commenters have already suggested, the expected endangerment finding will be used as leverage by the Obama administration as it gets ready for international negotiations in December 2009 in Copenhagen. It will presumably allow the administration to show the United States' unequivocal commitment to addressing climate change at the time that it seeks to persuade China, and other countries, of the need to do the same—without the necessity of having a comprehensive federal cap-and-trade piece of legislation passed. Given early reaction to the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, cosponsored by Reps. Henry Waxman (D. Calif.) and Ed Markey (D. Mass.), by Senator Durbin (D. Ill.) (and others) as to whether that proposal can ever become law, EPA's endangerment finding might be all the President has to use as leverage.
You'll hear Democrats such as Henry Waxman (D-Calif) tell the lie that this package of environmental legislation will "create millions of jobs." But, as pointed out by The New American, "if we listen carefully, we find that even members of the Obama administration have admitted that cap-and-trade plans will impact the economy: the government has already made plans to 'help' (at taxpayer expense) those who might suffer because of them."
As I said, this is not about the environment. It's all about control.
DOCUMENTS (PDFs):
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 Discussion Draft Full Text
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 Discussion Draft Summary
American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 Discussion Draft Section by Section Summary
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We have some new information (below) about last weekend's Uptown shooting. Since nobody else will do it, we'll give you an actual Uptown update.
Bullets aren't the only things flying in Uptown these days. Rumors are zipping around, too. The shooting in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood on Saturday, April 18 resulted in one man being critically injured. Chicago News Bench (CNB) has been talking to people in the area where the shooting occured, near 4600 N. Broadway just south of W. Leland.
At 6:45 p.m. on April 18, a suspected gang member fired four rounds into a man at Broadway and Wilson, critically wounding him. The victim was identified on another blog as Antoine Williams; CNB has confirmed this. Williams is not dead, despite rumors to the contrary. CNB has learned that he is still recovering in the hospital. On Sunday evening, CNB sources said that police had a suspect in custody, but that has still not been confirmed.
CNB has also confirmed with first-hand witnesses the following:
The FBI responded to the scene at approximately 8:30 p.m., about two hours after the shooting. They were looking for expended shell casings. This is unusual, since the FBI does not respond to the average street shooting. This indicates that there is much more to this story than either the mainstream press or the Chicago Police Department is telling us.
The gun used in the shooting is said to be a chrome plated pistol, possibly a .32 caliber.
As CNB previously reported exclusively, a photography shoot was taking place atop the Family Dollar store (photo left; click to enlarge), half a block south of the shooting. The photographer heard the shots and photographed the suspect as he rode his bike south on Broadway. The photographer went down to the street and told police that he had very good photos of the shooter. As a result, the police have photos of the suspect.
Witnesses tell CNB that the shooter rode a "beach cruiser" bicycle, although the exact model was not specified.
The shooter rode away "calmly" and "in no big hurry," witnesses tell CNB.
Two homeless "girls" (ages unknown) told police on the scene that they witenessed the entire incident.
One of the bullets fired blew out a glass door next to 4637-1/2 N. Broadway (photo right; click to enlarge). That door was boarded up.
Word on the streets is that this was probably gang related. Many in Uptown are now worried about gang retaliation, and with the expected above-average temperatures over the next few days, Uptown is hunkering down for a rough weekend on its mean streets.
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Updates from any other blogs or news sources - (none!)
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