Swine Flu Conspiracy: Listen to These People!

I've been fairly skeptical about the swine flu and even more so about the vaccines being developed against it.

However, my skepticism is nothing compared to what these people opined about the Centers for Disease Control and its plan to vaccinate the totality of the U.S.

They say it's all a conspiracy to reduce the population and swell profits for the laboratories and pharmaceuticals. Scarily, they may be at least partially--if not wholly--correct on one or both of the charges. (The last time there was a massive swine flu vaccination program--in 1976--25 people died and many more developed Guillan-Barre Syndrome, not a pleasant thing to have.)

READ WHAT YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS FEEL ABOUT THE H1N1 VACCINE PROGRAM

Double Dipping: I Earned You, You Can't Do It

As is true anywhere politicians ply their so-called trade (if lying and cheating can thus be called), Albany, New York, the state's capital, is rife with hypocrisy.

Taking advantage of quirky state law (which they themselves authored), Albany politicians can retire one day and return the next, collecting both their pension and their salary. The only loophole in the law is they have to be off the payroll for one day, so many just wait until the end of one term in office (on Dec. 31), retire, and then return to work on Jan. 1 for the new term. Bam--two paychecks, or what's called double dipping.

This is how Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg engineered his double dip at the end of last year. He now earns $101,500 in salary and $72,000 in pension funds.

And catch this? Last year, the 75-year-old Weisenberg sponsored legislation to outlaw double dipping at the local government level.

When asked about the seeming contradiction in his own actions and his sponsorship of the measure, he quipped: "I don't see this as that [double dipping]. This is something I earned."

The arrogance and hypocrisy are typical of our ruling class, which is now conspiring to set up one health care system for us Average Janes and Joes (read: "public option") and another VIP (read: privatized) health care system for themselves.

Not only is that not "change you can believe in"; it's just business as usual, with the public being played for suckers.

Get Vaccinated or Go to Prison

The World Health Organization (WHO) is rapidly morphing itself into something akin to the first world government. It recently directed 200-plus nations to vaccinate all its citizens for the H1N1 (swine flu) virus--or else.

It's not clear what the "or else" is, but Nicolas Sakozy of France wasted no time in directing the military to forcefully vaccinate the entire French population.

Canada is mulling the same and talking about issuing certificates of vaccination, without which one cannot return to work or school or receive health care.

Seems we're on the verge of the Nazification of so-called health care--line up, folks, and submit to the government or else.

Maybe the military will just bayonet you if you refuse the vaccination.

Everything is evidently on the table when there's no proof that the swine flu will even return, let alone return in a more virulent form.

Meanwhile, Austria is investigating drugmaker Baxter for bioterrorism after reports that the company created and spread the H1N1 virus this past spring, launching it in South America.

The Obamacrats have yet to announce their vaccination plan, but the military option--like the public option in health care reform--is alive and well and under consideration.

My thanks to Gorilla Radio for providing a comprehensive survey of all things swine flu, from which I drew this encapsulization.

'Deathfest' Convenes Reps of Fastest-Dying Cities

There was no joy in Mudville, or most of Ohio, in 2008 when Forbes magazine ran an article to out "America's Fasting-Dying Cities."

But representatives from the ten named cities are meeting this week in Dayton, Ohio (one of the ten), for a symposium on "Ten Living Cities." Skeptics are calling it (more accurately, no doubt) a "Deathfest."

What got the cities on the list was a flight of jobs joined by a flight of residents, all resulting in cities decaying both physically and economically.

Four of the ten are in Ohio--Cleveland, Dayton, Canton and Youngstown--and two in Michigan--Detroit and Flint. The others are Scranton, Pa.; Springfield, Mass.; Buffalo, N.Y.; and Charleston, W.Va.

As usual, local observers were able to cut to the quick of the matter in rapid order.

Said student Joe Sack, 22: "It's like a gambling addict [trying] to help an alcoholic. It's hard to see what they can learn from each other."

I'll drink to that.

Nepal Will Pay You to Marry a Widow

Now here's a stimulus plan Obama might consider copying with a variation or two.

Nepal recently passed a law to pay men a $650 bounty to marry one of the country's many widows (what's killing off their husbands?).

Women, especially widows, didn't like the measure too much and took to the streets of the capital of Kathmandu (I love that name) to protest. Protestors carried signs that read, "You can't sell your mother" and "We don't want government dowries."

Rightfully sensing that the payment scheme would turn the men into rats who'd take the money and run after marrying them, the widows instead demanded jobs, education and health care.

A sensible demand, I'd say.

However, we could easily apply this idea to the U.S. and pay working men and women to marry unemployed men and women (I'm speaking only of heterosexual unions here, but in some states, same-sex could be subject to the subsidy as well).

Or how about a subsidy to marry the unmarriable (or is it un-marry-able?).

Now, let's stretch it a bit more: If you can trade in clunkers for cash, how about unwanted spouses for cash?

That last one gets my vote.

British Union Wants 'Sexist' High Heels Outlawed

The British Trade Union Congress (TUC) is railing against women's wearing high heels at work since they are "sexist and pose a health and safety hazard."

In the place of high heels, the TUC proposes "sensible shoes" that are no more than an inch high and are safer for the foot and back.

They didn't ask the women what they felt, evidently.

"This is absolutely ridiculous, and I think these union officials should be spending their time dealing with more important issues," said Michelle Dewberry, winner of the UK's The Apprentice. "I'm at work in five-inch heels and perfectly able to do my job. Heels are sexy, they boost your confidence and they are empowering to women."

Thanks to Erik Deckers for sharing this development with us across the pond. Deckers, however, sees men's ties as a bigger threat to safety, pointing to a man who got crushed to death when his tie got stuck in some machinery and pulled him through it.

Don't Read His Lips--It's All in HR 3200

The health care bill that emerged last week from the House of Representatives, HR 3200, indeed contains a provision mandating end-of-life planning despite Obama's insistence that no one would visit you to explain that health care ends when you get a terminal illness and you have no quality years left.

(There actually is a formula for figuring out quality life-years, and if you're retired, you're on the short end of that list. Quality in governmentese=productivity, or $$$ in taxes that you can pay.)

I bring this up because Fox TV's Glenn Beck has aired a video of Representative John Conyers, D.-Mich., explaining that congressmen are too busy to read bills before they pass them; besides, they couldn't understand them anyway. (Translation: "So long as my pet earmarks are in the bill, I'm votin' yes!")

Here's what the esteemed gentleman (I use the term quite loosely had to say):

"To get up and say, 'Read the bill.' What good is reading the bill if it's 1,000 pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"

Scary, isn't it/he?