October 5
...serving up your daily dish.
At a family Rosh Hashana dinner last night, the Barista's son reminded us that, back in 2001, we wouldn't let him open or eat any of his Halloween candy until a week after Halloween -- a precaution based on the hysteria following 9/11 and the anthrax scare. With the miracle of Google, we just found the source of that particular bit of paranoia on the Hoaxbusters site. Of course, the Barista had forgotten the whole incident, but we can reconstruct our reasoning: let all the other kids eat their Halloween candy and if nobody dies within a week, it's probably safe for mine.
Well, that's just history. But if your paranoia needs any freshening up, here are two real news headlines today that can get you going.
- Counter-terrorism coup. This one's like something right out of an episode of "24." You know Jack's the only guy who can save the world, but the bureaucrats kick him out of CTU, or better yet, handcuff him and throw him in holding cell. In the real-world case, the story just broke of a major squabble over New Jersey's Office of Counter-Terrorism (OCT). It involves a turf war between Acting Governor Codey and state attorney general Peter Harvey, and apparently stems from a charge of racial profiling by counter-terrorism agents. Yesterday, Codey signed an executive order bitch-slapping the Department of Law and Public Safety and adding members to the counter-terrorism effort.
- Also on Codey's agenda yesterday, appointing a new Gang Land Task Force to root out street gangs that plague not just cities, but the suburbs. Members of the task force include Essex County Prosecutor Paula T. Dow and Essex County Sheriff Armando B. Fontoura. Consider this sentence in the governor's news release: "Police now report that there is gang activity taking place in 37 percent of municipalities that reported no street game presence during a similar survey done in 2001." Sheesh. And we thought we were worried then.
October 5, 2005 in Paranoia Beat | Permalink
Somewhere, the real terrorists are laughing their asses off at our bumbling, fumbling, stumbling, and mind-numbing stupidity. Political power is all about hoarding information. Anti-terrorism is all about sharing it with the people who need it. Had that been done a few years ago, the World Trade towers would probably still be standing.
At least you can recognize the street gangs.
Posted by: Conan the Grammarian | Oct 5, 2005 10:15:22 AM
"paranoia strikes deep
into your life it will creep
starts when you're always afraid
step out of line...The Man come
and take you away..."
Posted by: Frosty | Oct 5, 2005 11:33:31 AM
unfortunately there is a thin line between "love and hate"-and i am certain the state police don't want the "profiling" issue to arise--yet again--
in other countries they are allowed to investigate things alot differently then here --unfortunately data and data mining is alot different then making you open your purse or briefcaase-or luggage for that matter--even there they basically have to abide by the "number" of the day rule (meaning every third or fifth person--
even then if the same ethnic group gets asked to "open up" even when following the rule-it becomes suspect--
it's hard to compile data in a "free" society-and hard to keep up with that data with open borders--and limited resources-
Posted by: cstarling | Oct 5, 2005 3:11:45 PM
