Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Gazing at Gaza -- H1N1 and Other Stuff

By John Ballard


Got a tweet from Crof about swine flu in Gaza.



Swine flu has not reached Gaza yet but with 1.5 million residents squeezed into 360 square kilometers it would appear to be a small miracle.
[,,,]
The joke in Gaza is that its swine flu-free status is the sole benefit of Israel's blockade on the territory.
At the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has installed a thermal imaging camera which checks all passengers coming into the terminal.
If any part of a person's body is above 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit) they will be taken aside and tested for H1N1.

Border guards told CNN they've found no flu sufferers yet.


With about 4,000 people per square kilometer, Gaza is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.


But that's not what prompted this post. When I went to the link an excellent CNN video report by Paula Hancock played about forty seconds then stopped. I waited thinking maybe the Internets is slow or my equipment is buffering. Wait. Wait. But nothing...


So I go looking for the thing at You Tube and it's not there either. But I came across this video report, uploaded today, with only five views thus far. Makes me suspicious that Paula Hancock is not being politically correct or something.




I'm not a conspiracy nut kind of person. The CNN report I was waiting for might be having "technical difficulties." I sure hope so. I would hate to think anyone was trying to squelch a story about Israel's blockade of Gaza, especially if the place comes down with a messy swine flu epidemic with no vaccines available.


Followup:


Silly me. It's just a few minutes later and her video is up and running completely. I was too quickly suspicious. Beg Pardon. So go to the link and see it for yourself. Cute little kids being taught to substitute good hygiene for a vaccine.



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