GLOBAL HEALTH? WE GIVE IT THE BIRD

Well, now that America has celebrated its dominance over nature and indigenous peoples with the annual bird-killing ritual, I have to say I did see about three times as many of those "what about vegetarians?" stories as usual. There will probably be even more of them next year once the reality of this has set in: "Bird Flu Pandemic inevitable, 7 million people could die," says the WHO. I know, they keep sounding the alarm about this, louder and louder, and I keep relaying the message, yet I'm sure that as of Thursday fewer than one in a dozen Americans had any idea there was such a thing currently ravaging the Pacific Rim, much less that the World Health Organization believes a pandemic is inevitable. We'll see if that's any different by next Thanksgiving, and how much we have to be thankful for at that point.

UPDATE 11/29: Sorry, "7 million people"? More like 100 million, according to today's stories.