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Best of the Web: “The Swine Flu”/“Influenza A (H1N1) Virus, Human" Edition

The Lebanese are told to kiss their kiss on the cheek greeting goodbye. As Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh put it, “If you visit someone, don’t exchange kisses… Let’s stop the social kissing habit.”

The Egyptian government takes U.N.’s “it has nothing to do with pigs” advice to heart by ordering the slaughter of all of the country’s 300,000 pigs.

Not to be outdone by the neighbors, Yakov Litzman, member of Israel’s United Torah Judaism party, had the bright idea to rename the influenza as “Mexican flu” because pigs are not kosher. The Mexicans were not at all offended.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden tried to make amends for his advice not to travel in “confined places” by taking a train back home to Delaware. Yes, but did he ride with a little cute piglet on his lap?

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Author

Nonna Gorilovskaya

Nonna Gorilovskaya is the founder and editor of Women and Foreign Policy. She is a senior editor at Moment Magazine and a researcher for NiemanWatchdog.org, a project of Harvard University's Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Prior to her adventures in journalism, she studied the role of nationalism in the breakup of the Soviet Union as a U.S. Fulbright scholar to Armenia. She is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, where she grew addicted to lattes, and St. Antony's College, Oxford, where she acquired a fondness for Guinness and the phrase "jolly good."

Area of Focus
Journalism; Gender Issues; Social Policy

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