Hooray for

Next we have the tremendous hype about the coming apocalyptic bird flu. It's making headlines all over the world, pushing away other, more embarassing headlines. And it's spiking my "Conspiro-Meter"™ too.

For one thing, it's obviously fear inducing, which is always a good way to get people thinking and talking about something else. And they're really pulling out all the stops, too, making it sound like some kind of impending biological terrorist attack from Ma Nature herself. (It also serves to accustom people to the idea that they and their loved ones might succumb to the random and heartless vicissitudes of a modern plague originating from birds instead of rats or some underground lab... So if you want to live you'll need to trust Dear Leader to tell you what to do.)

It also has the wonderful side effect of shooting up the stock prices of the Big Pharma companies charged with creating enormous stockpiles of these unproven vaccines. One can't help but wonder what kind of investments BushCo and cronies have in these companies. Ever heard of "peak oil"? Somehow, coincidentally, oil companies are currently registering "peak profits". Remember the run on duct tape a few years ago? How about all those billions that went to Katrina? or Iraq? Where'd that money go? These guys are brilliant at manipulating the media for PR campaigns that induce flash panics, all of which pours money from taxpayers into their own coffers. It's guerilla marketing in hyperdrive, a more finessed and potent version of what Hollywood does to program the public to attend some movie's opening weekend.

-- Inspector Lohmann

In a related development:
US oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted a quarterly profit of $9.9 billion, the largest in US corporate history

File it under Highway