Warning, Warning! You're in DANGER!
 

The Security Flavor for today is ORANGE.

Planes might be used as weapons.
People might die in terrorist attacks.
Your own family could be in the crosshairs.
The United States itself is in imminent danger!


...but, please, don't cancel your travel plans and enjoy your holidays!


Why in the hell do they even bother with this? What good does this do other than make people edgy and paranoid?

Wolf! Wolf!

Re: Warning, Warning! You're in DANGER!
 

Nothing, except make those of us who are edgy and paranoid anyway feel better about ourselves.

My pager went off at around 1400 hrs (EST, in case you needed to know) with a text message from PEMA indicating that the threat level had been raised.

I did what I always do. I checked to see that my sidearm was loaded ... not much else one can do under the circumstances. You all have plenty of duct tape and bottle water already don't you? If not, it makes a fine xmas gift ... It wasn't until several hours later that I heard the dire warnings on the radio.

Friend of mine did have some prophetic dreams regarding a WMD (dirty bomb, if you're curious) attack on a city in the mountains ... I'm mentioning it here just in case she was really tuned in, so that I have something to point ot skeptics about ... see, see ... I'm not backpedalling and making something up. It was in actual electronic print on 12/22/03 ...

We had a "words that make us uncomfortable" thread a little while ago. I'd like to add Homeland to my list.

Edgy and paranoid people might not be worried by the Pentagon starting it's own "news" network.

Bah. If there is a dirty bomb attack, Philadelphia is a much more plausible target.

(There's water nearby, for the bomb-on-a-tramp-steamer theorists. Big city == higher body count. Nearby nuclear plant. Lots of historical sites rich with symbolic value. For the high-octane "stage an event to rev up America for war" conspiracy theorists, it's even more attractive; removing Philly would tilt Pennsylvania's electoral votes rightward, and who wouldn't want to go after Them Dirty Terrorists Who Melted The Liberty Bell?") ;)

Of course, since I live twenty miles from Philly, none of the above is particularly _comforting_ to think about...

When you consider that it's halfway between NYC and DC with none of the heavy security of those towns, yet it's the "birthplace of the nation", and they would attack where security is light,...

...if Philly was hit we'd all say we "obviously should have seen it coming."

Hey, being the Voice of Doom about these things isn't easy. If you're wrong, people think you're a loony; if you're right, you glow in the dark.

As for the practical effects of the Orange alert, I bow to Red Dwarf:

Rimmer: I'm upgrading this from a Blue Alert to a Red Alert.
Kryten: Are you sure, sir?
Rimmer: Yes, I'm sure. Now do it!
Kryten: But sir... this does mean that I'll have to change the bulb.

Philadelphia already looks like a dirty bomb hit it...

Oh! That's not what you meant...

I'm kinda glad I'm not around the corner from the Liberty Bell anymore...now I just use the busiest commuter rail station in the area...

AGGAAAGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH
orange? shit!
noooooooooo!

Yes, orange alert. The big white bubble thing is going to be chasing you again.

funny factoid - we had to do mark 1 training (Atropine and Pralidoxime autoinjector kits for nerve gas) and I forget the exact statistic, but we were told that in Desert Storm there were 0 reported cases of nerve gas poisoning and something like 900 reported cases of atropine overdose. Keep up the healthy paranoia everyone!

Make sure you tape up that safe room real good! At least "duck and cover" in the 50s made you feel more secure and you didn't have the option of suffocating to death.

I'll be honest in my opinion over these terror alerts and suggested precautions -- I think they're bullshit. The only decent thing they've advocated so far is the three days of water and food that everyone should have. (Or, at least, I say this because I live on the coast.) Be vigilant? Please -- the only thing the average citizen is going to be able to point out is that they saw an Arab on the way to work who might have been giving people the evil eye as he was waiting for the light to change.

The biggest terrorist threats that ever affected this country were ones we probably never knew about. When NEST had to scan the Superdome before the superbowl, the public was not notified of Charles Bishop's (kid who crashed the plane into the Nation's Bank building in Tampa) suicide note and the threat it contained. Telling the public that something might happen, that there is a non-specific threat, or that you might want to be a little more cautious driving over bridges for the next week is just silly. It doesn't do any good.

http://www.strangecosmos.com/images/...jokes/8321.gif



Bob :D