You know you inhabit a strange corner of the world when you turn up to the office to find a mass mailing from a place called, BioSeal Systems. “Open Now! Disaster Response Temporary Morgue Planning...Sample Enclosed.”
Sample enclosed?
I had to know more. I didn’t even take off my sunglasses. Just opened it right up. Appears to be some kind of sealing wrap for dead bodies, complete with portable heat-sealing equipment.
“The only human remains containment solution that can be stored for 49 years without deterioration in performance.” There is a picture of a…
Second most important detail to come out so far about the attempted bombing of Times Square on Saturday evening: People did not freak out.
How many movies have imagined chaos in Times Square at the slightest threat of danger? Now we know that the reality is a lot less cinematic. As is the case in almost every disaster I have studied, from terrorist attacks to sinking ships to airplane crashes, regular people become calm, quiet and obedient… because it’s in their interest to do so.
HERE’S THE MOST IMPORTANT DETAIL to come out so far about the failed attempt to bomb Times Square on Saturday evening, from the New York Times City Room blog:
The shutdown began Saturday when the T-shirt vendor, a veteran of the Vietnam War, saw smoke coming from a box inside a vehicle with Connecticut plates on 45th Street near 7th Avenue. The vendor notified a New York police officer on…
So let me first say that I wouldn’t want to be head of homeland security and emergency management for the city of Washington, DC. It’s an incredibly hard job, and not just because it means protecting a city that is a terrorist’s fantasy land. The thing that makes it hardest of all is the fact that it is home to at least two dozen competing law enforcement agencies, many of which don’t really like each other very much.
In any city, getting police and firefighters (or the FBI and the CIA) to get along before, during and after…
Disaster after disaster has shown that regular citizens are the first-responders, so it’s nice to see federal reports acknowledging this reality. The recently released, first-ever Quadrennial Homeland Security Review Report places a much-needed emphasis on a resilient and psychologically prepared public:
“Despite our best efforts, some attacks, accidents, and disasters will occur. Therefore, the challenge is to foster a society that is robust, adaptable, and has the capacity for rapid recovery. In this context, individuals, families, and communities—and the systems that sustain them—must be informed, trained, and materially and psychologically prepared to…
OK, as I sit here waiting for Pres. Obama to speak (again!) on the attempted airplane bombing, I find myself perplexed by a very basic question. Perhaps I am missing something. But the indictment of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab alleges that he carried a device containing PETN and TATP, among other ingredients, onto Flight 253 in Amsterdam.
The indictment doesn’t say how much explosive material he was allegedly carrying, but news reports consistently cite 80 grams of PETN--which is just under 3 oz. (Not clear how much TATP he is charged with having carried.) In any case,…
In the Washington Post, Stephen Flynn has a nice round-up of the nation’s Top 5 shared delusions on homeland security. Flynn has spent the past several years tirelessly pointing out the great irony of 9/11: The only people who prevented a terrorist attack that day were regular people. The passengers on Flight 93 likely saved the lives of some of the very same DC politicians and pundits who have, for the past 8 years, utterly ignored the contribution that regular people make to homeland security.
In case you missed it, David Brooks had a cogent critique of the homeland-security hysteria in the NY Times the other day:
In a mature nation, President Obama could go on TV and say, “Listen, we’re doing the best we can, but some terrorists are bound to get through.” But this is apparently a country that must be spoken to in childish ways.
It does seem that we have become a nation of pansies when it comes to terrorism. It’s curious because we don’t expect the same paternalism when it comes to protecting us from…
