So Maryland apparently has swine flu. Or at least six people living in Maryland. Since when did six sick people qualify as a pandemic? I hate that word. I hate any word that is over-used, especially when it’s used incorrectly. This isn’t a pandemic, just like the avian flu outbreak wasn’t a pandemic (I kvetched about this in my angry blogger days, too).

Yes, this is something to be treated with due caution and care. But stop trying to freak us all out. You’re going to scare the children, and then they’ll start crying. I hate the sound of crying children. It irritates me like nails on a chalkboard might irritate normal people.

Doesn’t matter to me anyway. According to my dad, I might actually be immune to piggy flu (ew, that evokes Lord of the Flies imagery that I just don’t want to have in my head this early in the day). Apparently, he believes that both my parents went through swine flu back in the seventies…1976, to be precise. And my mom just happened to be pregnant with me at the time. I wonder if that’s true…the immunity part, not the pregnant with me part. I think this will be a theory I’ll refrain from testing.

On other news fronts, I’ve been thinking about this whole deal of Arlen Specter switching teams. I think this was a bad idea. If there’s one thing that the GOP needs more of, it’s moderate thinkers. They need people in the party who will start pulling them away from the far-right precipice on which they’ve been teetering for far too long. I get that Senator Specter is willing to do whatever it takes to make sure that he has a better chance of winning next time he’s up for re-election (if I remember correctly, he came close to being trounced soundly by his Democratic opponent last election), but this is a Spock sacrifice moment if ever I saw one: needs of the many, my friend. And right now, the GOP needs many, many more of your moderate type.

Also, I don’t necessarily think I like the idea of a filibuster-proof Senate. Democrats are running all the tables right now, and I don’t even think that’s a good idea. Everything requires balance. The government has been fairly imbalanced for a while, what with the GOP running the show for practically 8 years straight. Now we’re just flipping over to the exact opposite end of the spectrum. Avoid the middle at all cost.

Never mind that most people actually exist in the middle anyway.