The Avian Menace. Sadly, while I was away, it was not. A parrot participated in a hardware store robbery. One has to assume the parrot was in charge. Otherwise, why bring him? (Thanks to e-mailer Kevin, who continued to send me news stories every day, even when I was invisible.)

And while you chuckle over that, let me tell you about the Avian Flu. Derb asked about it yesterday, and I heard a segment on Hugh Hewitt’s show about it. This really is no joke. This article about Rob Webster, “arguably the world’s most important eye on animal influenza viruses,” outlines the potential dangers of strains of influenza virus known as A/H5N1. Check this out: “What has Webster and other experts so worried are the 112 people who have been infected with the H5N1 “bird flu,” more than half of whom have died. The fatality rate of 55 percent outstrips any human flu epidemic on record, including the epochal Spanish flu of 1918 and 1919 that killed at least 50 million people.”

So while it’s not here, it may be coming. Watch the skies.