One of the big pushbacks currently being undertaken in the media in regards to the swine flu pandemic is the idea that those seeking to link it to factory farming methods and big agri-business are merely opportunists, that factory farms are in no way responsible for this outbreak. However, the CDC has confirmed that the current H1N1 flu virus wreaking global havoc owes it ancestry to a strain of swine flu that originated in a North Carolina factory farm in 1988:

A preliminary analysis of the H1N1 swine flu virus isolated from human cases in California and Texas reveals that six of the eight viral gene segments arose from North American swine flu strains circulating since 1998, when a new strain was first identified on a factory farm in North Carolina.

This analysis, first released by Columbia University’s Center for Computation Biology, has now been reportedly confirmed by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital and virologist Ruben Donis, chief of the molecular virology and vaccines branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Robert Webster, the director of the U.S. Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization, and considered the “godfather of flu research,”is reported as saying “The triple reassortant in pigs [first discovered in the U.S. in 1998] seems to be the precursor.”

One of the neat things about editing the Syntheis Weekly is that I get a first-had crack at the action before the paper even hits the streets. Last Friday I was proofing Mad Bob Howard’s column, and he referenced a fellow “outsider artist” (aside: something about the term “outsider art” or “outsider artist” makes me cringe, and therefore, encase it in quotes like some sort of literary specimin) by the name of Jonathan Troxler.

Easter is one of those bizarre holidays – quasi-religious, quasi-pagan, entirely alcoholic these days. It has really become a post-modern event. Thanks to Johnathan Troxler’s terrific and terrifying paintings I will never get the image of the crucified Easter Bunny out of my head. That and the three stooges strumming the guitar in a manger for baby Jesus and Santa Claus. This is Troxler’s older work – to me it doesn’t point to any particular warp or hiccup in his character – instead it asks of us a simple and direct question: What kind of sick freaks are we?

Three Stooges as the Three Wise Men, with Baby Jesus and Santa in the Manger? Sounds like my kind of religous art! Unfortunately I couldn’t find that particular image on any of Troxler’s sites, but I did manage to uncover a few other precious religous art specimens. Enjoy.

I was about to leave the office but this caught my eye.

It is a pretty well-known fact at this point that President Barack Obama smokes. This has sparked a great deal of controversy, asking the question, should United States citizens demand that their president quit?

It has been well documented that smoking is bad for your health. Not only for the smoker, but also for others as second-hand and third-hand smoke are also very harmless.

First, let’s just gloss over the typo that says second- and third-hand smoke are harmless.

Should we demand Obama quit smoking? My answer, Fuck no. They say each cigarette takes some arbitrary amount of time off of your life, but no matter what it would take Obama smoking a carton a day for years before he caught up with McCain’s old ass in the race towards death. Plus, it is a stressful job and I would rather have the people in the White House smoking cigarettes to relax rather than taking ridiculous amounts of vacation time and shooting their friends in the face. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have a pot-smoking Obama than a sober Bush. I need a cigarette.

For the benefit of teeny-boppers who have no idea who Leonard Cohen is, and doubtlessly could care less even if they were familiar, I’ve occasionally posted blogs celebrating the singer/songwriter’s total bad-assery. Stepping up his game, Cohen donated more money than I will make in two decades to the Victoria, Australia fire victims.

From BBC:

Singer Leonard Cohen has donated A$200,000 (£90,000) to aid victims of the Australian bushfires.

Cohen is currently touring across Australia, performing his final concert on Tuesday in Melbourne.

The star’s tour promoter said Cohen hoped the contribution would go some way to aiding those in need.

Because their official policy of discriminating against gays, atheists and agnostics, the Boy Scouts have apparently been feeling the financial pinch these last few decades. So they turned to selling off some of their most pristine natural properties for clear cutting and development, despite the fact that many of these properties were donated for the express purpose of remaining wild.

So I was out on my porch smoking a cigarette before I came into the office. A sketchy dude walked by and I thought nothing of it. He hesitated on the corner then told my roommates and I that he had 75 bucks worth of food that he would sell us for 25. What a great deal! 75 dollars worth of frozen pizzas(that looked pretty melted) and god knows what else shoved into two clear Aeropostale bags. We politely refused and he scampered across the street to the giant tweaker pad we share a corner with.

If only he watched as much bad television in the 90’s that I did. He would have seen the dangers of meth: