SOME MOTHER’S DAY GIFT IDEAS.

OF COURSE HE DOES: Perez Hilton gives Obama a pass on gay marriage. Why would he do that? This seems right: “It’s not so much about the cause, it’s about feeling superior to political opponents.”

TODD ZYWICKI: Is the TARP Congressional Oversight Panel Off the Rails?

ROBERT FISK: How can you trust the cowardly BBC? I don’t, but for rather different reasons than Fisk offers.

HOW (AND HOW NOT) TO BATTLE A FLU EPIDEMIC. Some lessons from experience. “A two-week difference in response times, according to the researchers, is long enough for the number of people infected in an influenza epidemic to double three to five times.”

UPDATE: The good news is, it’s never too late to blame Bush!

BBC READERS ARE posting flu reports from Mexico City.

SALENA ZITO: Dismissing Tea Parties is Perilous:

Everybody complains about taxes and government spending, but nobody does anything about them.

Perhaps that’s because whenever they do something, they’re often labeled as racists, right-wing extremists or worse.

That’s what happened when various news organizations covered the April 15 “tea parties” across the country; the media clearly did not know what to make of such a robust turnout for the loosely organized events, and wound up dismissing or belittling them.

The tea party movement may or may not go forward — but anytime the media or politicians dismiss a grassroots effort, they do so at great peril.

People attending those tea parties were consumers and voters, with a decent number of registered Democrats and independents sprinkled in.

State Rep. Josh Shapiro, a Philly-area Democrat set to run for Republican Arlen Specter’s U.S. Senate seat, was not keen on the rhetoric at some of the events, but he is wise enough not to ignore the real concerns of angry Americans.

Elected officials “should be trying to figure out where that anger is coming from and address it, rather than trying to find ways to dismiss it,” Shapiro says.

Read the whole thing.

WHO IS JOHN GALT? Andrew Lloyd Webber warns of an “exodus of talent” from Britain as taxes skyrocket. “I write this article because I fear the inevitable exodus of the talent that can dig us out of the hole we find ourselves in. It is inevitable, given that other countries are bidding for entrepreneurs. . . . So I ask the Government to reconsider what it is doing. More than ever before we need to keep high-flying professionals in the UK. We can’t, as we have done in the past, dump on them through penal personal taxation.”

WELL, GOOD: Statins Guard Against Prostate Cancer. Plus a bonus: “Other studies found they also reduced chances of erectile dysfunction.”

HOPE AND CHANGE! In South Carolina Town, Economic Calamity Since Obama’s Inauguration. “During the final stages of the presidential campaign, Hackett obsessively tracked Obama on CNN and spent Election Day driving her neighbors to the polls so they could vote for him, but now she avoids watching the news. It puts her in ‘a dark mood,’ she says.” It always seemed as if he was overpromising.

HATE SPEECH UPDATE: “Rednecks” demand apology from Garofalo.

British MP tells interviewer: “If you read that Miss California is murdered you will know it was me”. Good to see that all that political-correctness stuff has put an end to hateful talk . . . .

HMM: Fear and disbelief stalk Mexico City’s eerily empty streets. If people are really staying home to this degree, how long can the city function? Will grocery stores get filled, drug stores supplied, etc.?

Bad news for the already-suffering tourist industry. Or is it all just hogwash?

UPDATE: Reader Stephen Jacks emails:

I live around Toronto. During SARS life carried on even though churches were very empty, the subway was very empty, the restaurants were completely empty. For weeks!

The idea that someone would come to Toronto for a meeting was a joke. And they really didn’t want you visiting them either. It was weird to be a near pariah.

My sympathies to what Mexico is about to get put through, and it wont be because of some kind of politically incorrect issue, fear from biological sources like virus generates a deep and real concern from people, no matter your language, skin colour or religion. If people wouldn’t come to Toronto with a reputation for cleanliness, good health care and modern infrastructure….well I can’t imagine what sort of multiplier will be attached to Mexico, that lacks some of the aforementioned in its reputation.

And they’re in a worse position to weather the loss.

MORE: Ohio Boy’s Swine Flu Matches Deadly Mexican Strain.

STILL MORE: A roundup and thoughts at Aetiology. Here’s a later post from Aetiology, and here’s a roundup of older swine-flu and pandemic flu posts.

THE GEORGIA GUIDESTONES: Obviously, the mysterious stranger who commissioned them was a visitor from the future. Start outlining your novel now . . . .

RAISING BILL GATES: A “headstrong” child, he required correction that a few would probably call abuse today. And he benefited from growing up with a strong father. So what’s happening to this generation’s Bill Gates?

I’M SURE THAT COMES AS A RELIEF: Clinton says US never will `sell out’ Lebanon.

WHERE’S MY HOPE AND CHANGE? Is America now an exceptionally bad country?

CONTAGION ON A SMALL PLANET: “An urbanizing planet knitted by transportation is an extraordinarily welcoming world for infectious disease, particularly easily transmitted viruses like the flu.” Just one more reason why we need space colonies, as soon as possible!

THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT? Obama feels fine.

ROLL CALL: Watchdog Groups Want Ethics Panel Probe of PMA Ties. “Democracy 21 and other good-government groups are expected to ask the House ethics committee next week for an investigation into lawmakers with close ties to defunct lobbying firm PMA Group, Democracy 21 President Fred Wertheimer said . . . . Democratic leaders have remained in a defensive crouch in the wake of reports that federal investigators are probing the earmark empire of Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the defense-spending chief in the House and a close confidant of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). But that position is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. Since news broke in February that federal agents raided the offices of the PMA Group and the home of its founder, former House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense aide Paul Magliocchetti, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has kept the issue front and center by calling votes on whether to force an ethics probe. His first attempt gathered 17 votes from the majority party, but Democratic defections on subsequent votes have mounted, reaching 27 on his seventh and latest attempt before the spring recess.”

HOW THE ASSOCIATED PRESS defines “assault rifle.”

FIGHTING THE SPREAD OF FLU with humidifiers?

MECHANICS AT WAR: Joe Pappalardo reports from Afghanistan.

UNITED STATES DECLARES PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY over Swine Flu.

UPDATE: Text of the briefing is here.

Plus, some thoughts on economic effects, from Daniel Harrison. And CDC recommends planning for school closures. We’re already seeing some of those. Maybe you should get some sun. (No, really.)

ANOTHER UPDATE: Michael Silence offers Swine Flu Central. Stupid swine. Me, I’m going to have a pork chop for dinner — just to get even.

BITES FROM THE APPLE: A roundup of news from the Apple empire. Including some cool iPhone apps.

DRUG-VIOLENCE SPILLOVER: More hype than reality?