...And Avian Flu is Offensive to Big Bird

If this complaint is taken seriously, then we secularists have much farther to go than even I realized. Per the AP:

The outbreak of swine flu should be renamed "Mexican" influenza in deference to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, said an Israeli health official Monday.

Which assumes, I take it, that we're not concerned with offending Mexicans.

Oh, but it gets better, because in USA Today's Faith & Reason blog, Leslie Miller asks (I can only assume with a straight face):

DO YOU THINK ... scientists should defer to possible religious sensitivities, as the Israeli official suggests?

Really? So, we thought this brain-stabbingly stupid notion deserved a little extra touch of legitimization?