Medical thriller debuts on DVD today

Citizens of the U. S. already know what happens when fewer than 10 letters containing anthrax spores are sent through the mail system to politicians and media personnel -- there is a nationwide panic with people, regardless of where they live, demanding the uber-antibiotic Cipro.

Back then my own aunt told me that if she even came down with the sniffles, she was going to demand Cipro from her physician. I tried to reassure her and calmly told her, "Well, I'm not worried about it. I'm not important enough to be anthraxed." It calmed her but only slightly.

Some folk in parts of Baton Rouge, when I spoke with them in those post-9/11 days, were worried about being "Amtraks-ed." They weren't sure exactly what it was that had people scared, but they weren't going let it happen to them. They weren't going to open their mail, even their bills.

That occurred and anthax isn't even contagious person to person. Contact must come from anthrax spores, which can lie dormant for years.

Imagine the panic that would occur if an actual contagion were released against a population, a deadly contagion with a delayed incubation period like bubonic plague -- which is spread by fleas -- or the pulmonary or inhaled form of that disease called pneumonic plague, which has the symptoms of a bad cold, is spread the same way the common cold travels, and can kill a person within 96 hours following infection.

That is the premise of "Panic in the Streets," a film noir classic from 1950 directed by the director leftists love to hate, Elia Kazan. The movie debuts today on DVD and is a must see study of the problems and conflicts public officials, the press and even the public must confront even before a full scale outbreak occurs.

In the movie version, the plague is not weaponized. It's carried by a ship's stowaway from Europe who sneaks into New Orleans. He's got the inhaled form of bubonic plague and he doesn't yet know it. He comes into contact with a number of people, including the men who kill him over a poker game argument.

It is only by pure movie luck the coroner discovers something else may be going wrong with the corpse other than the lead poisoning delivered from the business end of a .38 caliber revolver. A public health officer is notified and the hunt for the unidentified man's infected trail from stowaway to corpse begins.

Nuclear weapons don't frighten me because I believe, perhaps naively, their development takes brains, skill and money. And nuclear weapons can be detected if the detection is in place. About the only nuclear detonation I fear would be one deep in an oil field which could, I believe, cause an extinction level event.

But how can any measure stop a group of determined, psychotic suicidal terrorists entering the country with what appears to be a bad cold? The answer is: you can't. It's impossible. And I personally believe it's only a matter of time before something like this happens.

The leftists in this country claim no weapons of mass destruction exist or existed in Iraq. Before you agree with them, ask yourself these questions: How much bubonic plague or smallpox is enough to warrant being defined as a WMD, and couldn't a quantity that small be easily hidden?

Forget "Friday the 13th Part III in 3-D," Forget "John Carpenter's Halloween." If you want to see what's really scary, this coming weekend rent this movie, "Outbreak," and Stephen King's "The Stand." These are films that would leave even Hollywood scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis with wet pants.

And when you're finally scared enough, head to the website of the Department of Homeland Security. Let the liberals laugh among themselves about the color-coding of the threat level. "A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it."

You be different and be prepared. The Navy chiefs always told me: "Remember the seven Ps McBride! Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!" It's a kinder, gentler, cleaner Navy we have now, but six of those Ps are still good advice.

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Porn spam Easter egg of the day:

We're all pilgrims on the same journey - but some pilgrims have better road maps.

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Blog of the day (Hard R/Soft NC17 rating):

Life of a demure college student

I found this site when I was blog surfing one night and the basis of this site is hilarious. A young female "college student" takes somewhat provocative pictures of herself with a cheap camera and posts them on her blog. You never see her entire face. Most of the photos are low resolution, fuzzy and out of focus and she urges viewers to "donate" to her website via PayPal so she can buy a new and better camera. Seems to me I recall a similar business model in Boston's infamous "Combat Zone." The last time I checked, she had 398,204 hits on the website ... so I figure she's earned enough donations from horny Asians and sexually frustrated Middle Easterners to repair the space-based Hubble telescope. She's now taking ads as well. NASA, are you listening?