As the swine flu story develops, I’m strangely calmer than I might have expected.  I’m somewhat of a worrier – particularly about health issues – but I think there’s something about living in a period of assumed crisis that makes you better able to deal with the next potential bump in the road.  After 9/11, the Iraq War, the California budget mess, watching the economy collapse, and the start of serious polar ice cap meltdown, the prospect of a global flu pandemic doesn’t seem as horrifying as it might have prior to our entry into a period of permanent collective “emergency” circa fall 2001.

I will say, however, that I find the seemingly intentional scary-mongering on the part of certain segments of the media absolutely shameful – though surprisingly skillful in terms of narrative!  The rapid-fire oscillation between “we’re all going to die” and “business as usual” is insulting to the public, and borders on the deliberately manipulative.  Checking out the CNN website over the last couple of days (probably not the best idea), one can reconstruct the meeting that may well have been convened in CNN HQ as the swine flu story began to break:

“OK, we’re going to lead off with some really scary stuff – come up with some sort of map and color areas with flu cases blood red.  Every time there’s a case in a new state, go back to the map and make a big show of coloring the new state in.  We’ll dispatch Gupta to Mexico City, give him some sort of ethnic-looking vest, and put him in place for some on-the-scene spots to show that we’re on top of this.  If there’s a way for his voice to project through a face mask, let’s have him wear the mask.  Then after everyone’s good and terrified, we’ll drop in a few reassuring stories about how the regular flu kills around 36,000 people per year.  Then over the days that follow, we’ll pay lots of attention to the rates of infection and fatalities, periodically hinting that they might be scarily higher than projected.  And of course, we’ll overinterpret every ambiguous statement made by the government, WHO, or anyone else.  What’s important is that the viewers feel like we’re on their side.  Let’s get to work!  Where’s that flaming hell graphic I ordered?”

Anyway zach, I’m sure it’ll be off the hook.

THANK HAPPY CHRIST

oh my god you guys. sorry i have basically not had any activity on the site for 3 months. things have been a little crazy putting together my thesis and a postdoc proposal. the defense is in a couple days so i’m kind of in the calm before the storm or whatever. in any case, check this george will column, which mark (as the resident fashion plate) will have particular interest in:

Shorter George Will:
Demon Denim

• DEEENNNNIISSSSSS!!

also, this from glenn beck’s show (below the cut):

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Last night, I had a salad with some ranch dressing.

I don’t know, just felt like posting something but didn’t know what to write about.

I’m on something of a bad movie streak, between seeing Liam Neeson’s so-bad-it’s-still-bad thriller Taken in the theater, the horrendously sappy The Namesake on DVD, and most recently the initially intriguing but ultimately failed Italian mob exposé, Gomorrah. 

I was intrigued by Gomorrah’s promise of a stark, non-romanticized look at today’s Italian mob operating among the housing projects of Naples.  Also, I liked the idea that Gomorrah would – apparently – expose organized crime in all of its low-level banality and brutality, without the sort of emphasis on blood loyalty and honor – and the flashy lifestyle – that allows for characters like Don Corleone and Tony Soprano to be romanticized. 

Far from the intricate yet sweeping Wire-style crime epic I was hoping for, and which was promised in Gomorrah’s title, which twists the name of the Neapolitan mob (Camorra) into the sinful town of the Old Testament, this film was a mess.  It’s multiple story lines, which, for example, concerned a tailor apparently working at some sort of sweatshop (mob connection not explained), a shady businessman pitching waste disposal jobs (assumed mob connections again not explained), and a couple of young thugs trying to get into the game (relationship to various Camorra factions extremely confused), were never effectively tied together. 

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