Scare Tactics

This morning, like most of you I suspect, I woke up with Avian bird flu. Stinks because I was just getting over SARS. I really wish I could drive to the hospital, but since gas in $5 a gallon I can't afford to. Plus I don't want to contribute to global warming, which may just kill me before the bird flu does, probably via hurricane. Even If I do survive what kind of life can I live? I mean the middle class are losing all their jobs over seas, and according to the porky Lou Dobbs we are at war (haven't really figured out who is attacking us just yet).

Of course the above are just a couple of examples of how the news tries to scare us to death. This time last year we could not turn on the news without hearing how the bird flu is the next world-wide epidemic. Expert after expert told us that will be hit and millions would die. It was also a good excuse to blame George Bush for not preparing the country enough for this disaster. Of course these are the same people who stirred up so much fear about SARS that Americans were riding bikes with hospital masks on.

A more recent scare tactic is this gasoline crisis we are having. How many experts told us we would average $4 or maybe even $5/gallon? Now that prices have dropped about $.30 in the past three weeks we hear nothing. Is this what passes for news? How can these people be believed or trusted on any subject? They give no apologizes when they are wrong. They just move on to the next over hyped story.

These scare tactics do more than just whip us into a frenzy, they have real consequences. How many billions were spent on drugs for the bird flu that are now sitting on a self? How many trillions will be lost due to over hyped global warming claims?

Even the poor sharks are victims of the media's stupidity. A couple of years ago during a slow news stint the media covered every last shark attack, as if they were more than normal. The result was every moron with a boat went out there and killed thousands of sharks, whether they were dangerous or not. Not that I am a big environmentalist, but most of these creatures were just minding their own business.

Maybe the news outlets should spend more time on important things, such as the inevitable bankruptcy of Medicare, or the pork spending around the country. How about focusing on the thousands of gross violations of property rights every year by various governments? I guess these things will just have to be read about at JCARDS world.