Finally they are reporting some reality. At CNN: Regular flu has killed thousands since January

Since January, more than 13,000 people have died of complications from seasonal flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on the causes of death in the nation.

No fewer than 800 flu-related deaths were reported in any week between January 1 and April 18, the most recent week for which figures were available.

Compared to regular flu and auto accidents, the shooting rampages and swine flu are weak beer. As Stalin purportedly said: “One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.”

Pensacola’s Fiesta of Five Flags has also started. This year marks the 450^th anniversary of the first attempt by the Spanish to settle in the area that has become the US. That attempt was interrupted by a hurricane, which is why St. Augustine is the oldest continuously occupied city [founded by Europeans] in the US.

They still use the wrong flags, but they have gotten better. I did notice that they use the wrong British flag at their Fiesta site, but the correct one on the city’s flag poles. At least Earl Bowden got them to use the proper flag for the Confederate year.

John Barry, a staff writer for the St. Petersburg Times is the path to perdition, as my grandmothers would say.

There will be letters, I guarantee it.

The NWF Daily News reports: “NICEVILLE — The Northwest Florida State College Board of Trustees voted 4-3 to fire President Bob Richburg Tuesday morning.”

No doubt he will get a severance package, but he can use it to pay his attorney, rather than our paying for a public defender. Richburg wasn’t an educator, he was an empire building developer who used his position to help himself.

Everyone is reporting the non-event of the day, Arlen Specter is going to call himself a Democrat, but, while better than a similar announcement from Phil Spector, the Pennsylvania Senator is acknowledging what everyone already knows: the Pennsylvania Republican Party is controlled by the wingers and he was going to get a well-funded primary fight if he runs for re-election as a Republican.

He isn’t going to change his position on anything, so he isn’t going to improve the filibuster problem. He is another member of the LIEberman/Blue Dog problem in the Senate which helps the Republicans screw up the system.

If he had retired and allowed a real Democrat to be appointed to the Senate, something might have changed, but this is just shuffling labels.