By ARIELLE LEVIN BECKER |The Hartford Courant
It started in New London, then crept across Connecticut, killing men and women in Hartford, Middletown, Norwich, Waterbury and more than two dozen other towns as September wore on. Then, in October, it took off, killing 5,228 people throughout the state in one month alone.

The Spanish flu of 1918 moved across the world slowly compared with the current spread of swine flu known as H1N1. But the 1918 flu proved to be deadly, killing nearly 9,000 people in Connecticut, 650,000 in the United States and between 20 million and 40 million worldwide.

It's too soon to know the course of the current outbreak of swine flu, whether it will mirror any of the three pandemics of the 20th century or die off far short of any kind of comparable destruction.

So far, the swine flu has been linked to only one U.S. death and 725 confirmed illnesses worldwide. Most cases are in Mexico, where 19 deaths have been reported. (Tomcat notes: The Mexican death toll stands at over 100 unconfirmed cases)

Spending is out of control and our country is headed sharp left into an economic abyss while throwing out every semblance of fiscal responsibility while running the printing presses at full speed and with no plan to actually pay down the record debts he is incurring. Although I am not Christian, I respect Christianity and am thankful for the values of the nation that allowed for plurality and free speech.

Now I witness these very same tolerant Christians under attack by elements of the Left who choose to single out this one group to advance an agenda that can be summarized as, at the very least, anti-American in nature. To this end, I stand with the Christians in return for their tolerance and years of loyalty to the notions of freedom and small government with fiscal responsibility. Worse yet, there are serious verbal and even physical attacks on citizens who do not adhere to the views of the left. Democrats see no issue with heaping vile language and disrespect on Conservatives and yet, when questioned by conservatives, they become defensive and even threatening when logic and truth are applied to their plans and schemes for the world. It took me some time to come to this conclusion and I advance it here.

Watching Fox News tonight, Bob Beckel calls us "1950s Leave it to Beaver" idealists who are out of touch with reality. Last time I checked, most Republicans spend wisely, live below their means and live by a code of ideals that do not include socialism, Marxism  and other alien views that have been proven not to work by the cruel judge that is history. So Bon Beckel's views seem to mirror the typical liberal view and it is time to ignore the ravings of these people who really are more interested in themselves and their power then in the betterment of the nation.

The difficult view I've come to is that Conservatives and Libertarians should not speak to, listen to or even live in or around Democrats when the subjects of politics or religious views comes to the fore. Normally, I'm in there with the best of them to argue and debate with these folks, but it has now become a matter of personal safety and the realization that our views stand no chance of a fair hearing in any public arena that has me convinced to speak of our beliefs in our own camps and not elsewhere. The world is living in a strange dream right now, and when the facade comes crumbing down, those who live with structure and morals will survive this.

A recent letter I wrote to Senator Diane Feinstein convinced me of this truth after getting the same form letter telling me that there was no intention to listen to my concerns about the spending levels and lowering of our defenses while hiring a secretary of the treasury who can't even get his taxes right.