Foot & Mouth.

This is coolbert:

Thanks both to CNN cable and Internet these headlines capture my attention immediately.

There is a context here that must be considered? The war of words and the "war" [cold and then sometimes hot] that has recently manifested itself between North [DPRK] and South Korea [ROK]!

A message is being sent from the north to the south? Beware! Watch yourself-see-what-we-can-do-if-we-so-desire!

This is all speculation on my part, but consider the context of the tension, most recently escalating in an alarming manner, on the Korean peninsula.

"Report: Foot-and-mouth disease spreading in South Korea"

"Seoul, South Korea (CNN) -- South Korean officials confirmed seven additional cases of foot-and-mouth disease Sunday despite nationwide quarantine efforts, the Yonhap News Agency reported."

"Foot-and-mouth disease is a highly communicable disease that affects cattle, swine, sheep, goats, deer and other animals"

"Investigators detected the latest outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in the country on November 28 on a pig farm in the southern city of Andong. The disease has since spread to areas around Seoul in the northern part of the country."

There is an innocent explanation for all this? This not a "cold war" type of bacteriological warfare being waged sub rosa by the North against the South?

"sub ro·sa   - – noun confidentially; secretly; privately."

I am being overly paranoid here? Perhaps there is good reason for my thinking that way? Perhaps too others have speculated in the same manner as I have? And have GOOD reason for doing so!

For some time my own intuitive observation was that the WEST NILE VIRUS was somehow spread to the Western Hemisphere by terrorists or by a foreign power hostile to the United States. Prior to 1999 there WAS NO INSTANCE EVER of the West Nile Virus in the U.S. And then somehow, out of nowhere, the disease manifested itself, by whatever means unspecified. NOW is a hemisphere problem and ALWAYS will be. HOW is that so? NO one seems to know.

Take it for what it is worth! Your guess is as good as mine.

coolbert.