KIDS ATTACKED BY COYOTES in the Los Angeles suburbs. I guess the Wild West is back. Better strap on a six-shooter. Er, unless you're six. Still, it's more evidence that David Baron was onto something. And the advice from experts in the article is stupid: "Authorities dissuade people from hunting renegade coyotes themselves and suggest that they instead make noise or throw objects to scare them from neighborhoods." Yeah, a few yells and they'll leave the neighborhood. Right.

They're not scared of people because there's no reason for them to be scared -- why should they be, when the worst they're likely to encounter is people yelling or throwing rocks? Some related thoughts on that problem, here.

UGH: Aid trickles into Burma, but toll 'could reach 1 million if disease set in'. At this point the increasingly-dreadful numbers are basically made up, because nobody really knows what's going on. But the situation is certainly awful. If you'd like to help, this Katrina donation list is still a good place to start. But I have to say that I still lack confidence that the regime in Burma will let the aid actually get to the people who need it.

MOTHER'S DAY THOUGHTS from Rachel Lucas.

RANDY NEAL ON THE MEDIA'S DISRESPECT FOR APPALACHIA:

After anointing Obama as the nominee on Tuesday, the media narrative has shifted to the West Virginia and Kentucky "Appalachian" contests. They are reduced to quaint curiosities in which poor, white, uneducated mountain people from a "bygone era" have been trained to make their way to a school gym and push a button just like real people for the delight and amusement of the media elite.

The "dueling banjos" video in this post entitled "On to Appalachia" is a good example. Presumably it is a reference to the retarded West Virginia inbred voter demographic making up Clinton's 20% to 40% margin of support there.

Because it's "silly season," as Obama called it, let's analyze that more closely.

The scene is from the movie Deliverance. It was filmed on the Chattooga River, which is the border between Georgia and South Carolina. Obama won both of those primaries. Other scenes were filmed in North Carolina. Obama won that primary, too.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Reader B. Hartwig emails: "You really think a parochial backwater like Kentucky, with half the population and gross state product, equals North Carolina?" Sounds to me like this is making Randy's point.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Chad Olson emails: "Just echoing B. Hartwig's thoughts here that it's weird that a parochial backwater like North Carolina, with half the population and gross state product, equals Florida. How many delegates does Florida have at the convention this year?"

And Will Cate emails: "Pooh-pooh our friends in the Mountain State at your own peril: no Democrat has won the presidency and failed to carry West Virginia since 1916." I'm guessing that calling them a bunch of dumb hillbillies won't make that easier for Obama.

BILL ROGGIO: Operations continue in Sadr City.

VACCINATION UPDATE: Tightening up in Britain? "Children who have not received all their vaccinations should not be allowed to start school, a Labour MP has suggested."

Meanwhile, in the United States: Bay Area School Closed Due to Whooping Cough. "The state averages a 99 percent immunization rate. But at East Bay Waldorf School, health officials say less than 50 percent are protected from the disease and say that's why it was able to spread so easily. . . . The Waldorf School System was founded by Rudolph Steiner in 1919. He believed children were made stronger through illness and believed in a holistic approach to medicine. A school spokesperson says they do not make recommendations to parents regarding immunizations."

I do. My recommendation is, get the shots. Meanwhile, has McCain ever backtracked from his Imus-inspired anti-vaccine talk? According to this report from Farhad Manjoo he hasn't, and Clinton and Obama seem to be on board too. However: "McCain and Obama are the worst offenders."

UPDATE: Some must-read (and -listen) thoughts from Shannon Love.

THE FIVE BEST movie-star Gap commercials. My favorite is the one with Scarlett Johansson and the bicycle.

FROM THE "CAN OF WORMS" DEPARTMENT: Pastors to Challenge Ban on Political Activity by Endorsing Candidates From Pulpit on Sept. 28. Can the I.R.S. audit them all? Yes they can!

HILLARY'S STILL GOT HER FANS: "Pundits marvel at how and why Hillary Clinton would keep going when her chances of winning the nomination are now essentially nonexistent. We can all examine the psychological and political motives that keep her going long past the point when common sense would dictate that she throw in the towel. But they underestimate the fervor of her support, and perhaps the difficulty many Democrats will have in moving on to support Barack Obama."

WELL, WE'VE GOT IT: Obama's new Kentucky ad focuses on coal.

OOPS (CONT'D): Second McCain aide quits. "The second McCain aide in as many days has left the campaign over ties to a public relations firm that once represented the Burmese junta."

TIPS FOR TAMING RISING GROCERY PRICES, plus some perspective: "Food prices have actually been fairly stable for more than a decade. According to the latest Department of Agriculture figures (from 2006), American households spend less than 6 percent of their income on food -- that's less than in any other country."

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