We may not know which of the deadly strains of the bird flu will eventually hit the U.S. But Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is offering a rather specific warning about how to prepare for the disease. He urges Americans to buy extra cans of tuna and powdered milk and stash them under the bed to get ready.

Thank you to the Rick Emerson Show, 12-3 on “Johnson 970” here in Portland, Oregon, for some insight into Mike Leavitt’s proposal on how to prepare for the Avian Flu. It’s good to have the Rick Emerson Show back on the air, or I would not have had this insight into the levers of control in our government.

Mike Leavitt is a former Governor of Utah (The first incarnation of The Rick Emerson Show — or perhaps it’s best to say the embryonic form of The Rick Emerson Show– had Rick broadcasting from Salt Lake, so that would be how he knows Leavitt), and therein lies your hint.

Back in 1998 and 1999, the Art Bell Show had an advertiser selling a years’ worth of supplies to prepare yourself for the ensuing Y2K Crisis. The Y2K Frightenees being a Secular version of a Millenial Cult — as though the “experts” wouldn’t get to work and return everything back to normal if everything went awry. In one version of the ad, Art Bell made the comment “The Company is located in Utah, and that should tell you something.”

Subtle enough, but it must have left any number of Insomniacs and Paranoids confused. So, in a later version of the ad, Art Bell made the comment, “Located in Utah, and the Mormons know how to prepare!”

So, basically our nation’s Health and Human Services Secretary is giving advice working off habits formed by an understanding that there will be a one-year fight between Satan where you will need one year’s supply of tuna under your bed. Perhaps Satan will come in through the guise of those Birds that are expected to attack and infect us sometime in the near future.

(Do I need to provide a disclaimer that, while I find the religion — as I do all or most religions — a bit nutty, I’ve never personally known a Mormon I didn’t respect? Okay, there it is — whether I need to provide it or not.)

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