Swindle Flu

The Hitchhiker's Guide had solid advice when it said "Don't Panic!"
Yet, every couple of months that golden advice goes unheeded, as most Americans seem to do the same thing. Freak the fuck out.
Before we fretted about the economy, it was the tomato salmonella outbreak. Then bird flu, then West Nile, then SARS, then terrorism, then Y2K. Nothing came of that, did it? At least, not in terms that our fears imagined.
We totally forget that we were terrified mere weeks ago of some other mystery monster.
Stupid Americans. Why aren't we afraid of real problems, like poverty, failing infrastructure or drug cartels? Oh wait, we are. We Americans are afraid of everything, the epitome of xenophobia, like gophers afraid of our own shadow.
We don't really solve our problems here, we throw money at the pigs on Capitol Hill and hope they'll do. . . something. Well, for the last 40 years our elected idiots haven't done shit, not really. Their War on Poverty, their War on Drugs and their War on Terror have all made those issues much worse. Thanks, guys!
If fear and government haven't helped us, what will? Maybe if we ignored these problems, would they disappear?

But back to Swine Flu. So far, 159 people have died and 3,400 have been infected. That's hardly a pandemic, and all this media coverage is only spreading panic. My advice is to relax and wash your hands a bit more often.

I want to condemn people and reflect the advice of Hitchhiker's Guide but it just seems pointless even to poke fun. I could mock you, but I really don't have to. We mine as well be fearful of a zombie invasion, at least that's more likely to be serious.

Anyway, here are two videos, one on the exact same fear before it was recycled and another from Congressman Ron Paul adding some logic to this insanity.