Homeland Stupidity
The Feds give Wyoming, that near-empty hotbed of terrorist interest, $61 per person for homeland security; here in California, where Hollywood is a de facto red flag at a bull for terrorists, they dole out just $14 per citizen. Then there's Alaska, with $58 per citizen, and New York, with only $25. Time Magazine's Amanda Ripley calls funding "almost inversely proportional to risk," and attributes it to directing money based on emotion rather than actual assessment of risk. Then there are all the greedy senators from small states, like Leahy of Vermont, who pretends to think the frozen ski slopes there are as important and in as much danger as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. In Ripley's article, she quotes Tim Ransdell, who "authored one of the few comprehensive assessments of homeland-security money on behalf of the Public Policy Institute of California":
Wyoming and South Dakota are important states, but it's a bit counterintuitive to say an individual in those states is manyfold more important than someone living in a state that has a border with a foreign nation, some of the nation's icons and almost half of the nation's containerized cargo.
Then Al O'Leary of the New York City Patrolmen's Benevolent Association weighs in:
It goes against every fundamental precept of fighting crime. If you're having a robbery pattern in a particular community, you put detectives there. It's actually a no-brainer, but there's apparently no brain in Washington, D.C.
Naw, they just understand that all the dynamic, resourceful personalities live on the coasts, so we don't need as much help as would Wyoming. I'm only partly kidding about this.
Canada was getting on my nerves the other day, so I looked them up on the CIA site. It turns out that Canada is almost precisely as populous as California. But of course Canada WILL NEVER BE AS COOL as California. The babes will never be as rockin', their men will never be as muscular, their businessfolk will never be as clever.
Anyway, it sounds like you have more evidence their that federal government is not as usefull as some like to think. Let's remember this next time we're reading an oped from Hillary Rodham.
Crid at March 26, 2004 10:18 AM
Yeah, we really gotta watch Canada. They are polite, non-violent, ecologically minded folks who have the audacity to elect a government that puts the welfare of their citizens first. The highways there are clean and well maintained. You can walk around the cities at night feeling safe.
Of course, they did apologize for Bryan Adams.
The fact that they are not hated by the rest of the world makes me suspicious. You just can't trust people like that.
eric at March 26, 2004 1:04 PM
Yes, BA's cameo on "Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone" bought a lot of good will. I'm just saying they shouldn't press their luck, not with Shatner and Jennings still mucking about.
Crid at March 26, 2004 5:10 PM