Dowd and Out

It's amazing to me how little I knew when I was a kid, but even more incredible how ignorant I was throughout middle school and high school. Remember when more than 700 people died of SARS in China in 2002? I certainly don't. I imagine at that time I was setting social fires among my friends and spending my time lolling about the farm by myself and reading Calvin & Hobbes comic strips. I was a stupid little shit back then, completely isolated from the world -- but I was happy. Blissfully and blindly happy. It has to make you wonder: Is it better to not know anything at all and be ignorantly content, or is it better to know everything and live in a world of happiness and pain? I'd certainly take the latter, but I smirk when I think of my 15-year-old self idly floating above the chaos, completely content being alone and unaware of everything going on around me. Stupid boy.

I digress, but with good reason as I'm back at home in Blairsville for the weekend. What sparked this wreckless train of thought was an article I read in the New York Times today. Mexico, it turns out has been dealing with the recent epidemic with more style than most have given the country credit for. NYT reporter Larry Rohter does something interesting to put Mexico's reaction to the swine flu in perspective -- he compares it to the SARS outbreak in China in 2002. Apparently, China did everything short of calling its pandemic a complete fluke, censoring the media and refusing aid. From its former government, Mexico has come a long way and has dealt with the outbreak in every way they could, from pooling sources with the US to getting out the news so that its citizens could protect themselves - enough to get a tip of the hat from Mr. Colbert.

On the other hand, I think our man could give the wag of the finger to Maureen Dowd, crazy lady who wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times. In her article, Put Aside Logic, Dowd explained the death of the newspaper industry by comparing it with the new Star Trek film. No class I've taken at the university in journalism will help me explain this one. Read her article on The Final Frontier and try not to kirk out.