Is Camel Pox Coming? Maureen Dowd in the NY Times about the state of modern fear.

Washington is rife with contradictory signals. The White House urges us to

go out while Dick Cheney is under wraps. Congress urges us to stay calm

and go about our business while the entire House takes a powder at the

first sign of powder. We are supposed to shop till we drop, literally, as

the F.B.I. and C.I.A. warn of major attacks at any moment.

The capital is the heart of confusion. The U.S. has been at war with the

Taliban for two weeks so . . . we can reinstate the Taliban? The Post

Office is sending us mail warning us . . . about opening mail?

Nothing seems to track: Gov. George Pataki said he was taking Cipro but

wouldn’t get tested. Senator John Breaux said he got tested but might not

take Cipro. Dan Rather said he hadn’t been tested or taken Cipro. Tom

Brokaw ended the NBC news with “In Cipro we trust.”

I went to the White House, seeking some answers from Tom Ridge at his

briefing on Friday. But he looked a bit like a big Pennsylvania deer in the

headlights. He didn’t even know what CNN had been running — that an

assistant to a New York Post editor had contracted anthrax.

When Mr. Ridge said they didn’t know if the anthrax came from a foreign

or a domestic source, he was slapped around by Helen Thomas, doyenne

of the homeland. “And why are you so slow in finding the actual source?”

she asked tartly. “I mean, is it that difficult really?”

Tommy “Plenty for Everyone” Thompson was still buddying up to the

pharmaceutical industry, refusing to break Bayer’s patent to ensure

generic Cipro for everyone…