No, I do not have the warm and fuzzies after Boston’s _very_ delayed reaction to the Err and Ignignokt lighted cartoon panels.
\nThese “terrorist” devices had been in place for two weeks before an MBTA passenger – a _passenger_ – noticed the first one around 8 am yesterday.
\nIt wasn’t until mid to late afternoon that officials figured out that the devices were harmless, long after the blogger community identified the panels as part of a publicity stunt by Turner Network.<\/p>
\nWell, excuse me, but suppose there had been two dozen bombs planted under bridges and overpasses in greater Boston. What kind of response time is _that_?
\nAnd I guess all the horror stories we hear about the lack of an inter-state Homeland Security communications network – over five years after 9\/11 – are true: similar devices were installed in nine other cities, and had been evaluated as harmless by same, long before the great Beantown panic.
\nSo, now, our humiliated and embarrassed public officials are on a warpath against the two little jamokes who installed the foolish things in the first place. It would be laughable if it weren’t so pathetic.
\nMind you, I respect the courage of public safety personnel who could have been putting themselves in harm’s way. I just wonder about their level of expertise – five plus hours to figure out that they were not dealing with bombs, but with little LED Moominites?
\nLiving as I do on what is essentially an island connected by two fragile bridges to the necessities of life, like food, medicine and gasoline, I am very aware of how vulnerable we all are. This little exercise has not not reassured that the vast, expensive Homeland Security structure for which we are taxed and re-taxed is keeping any of us safe.
\nUnless, of course, you’re the kind of person who has nightmares about battery-operated cartoon characters lurking under the bed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
No, I do not have the warm and fuzzies after Boston’s _very_ delayed reaction to the Err and Ignignokt lighted cartoon panels. These “terrorist” devices had been in place for two weeks before an MBTA passenger – a _passenger_ – … Continue reading