Are We Ready for the Next 9/11?

"What do gym memberships, the Fourteen Mile Bridge in Mobile, Alabama, and a promotional campaign for a child pornography tip-line have in common? Answer: They all were funded with your homeland security dollars."

"Since September 11, Congress has appropriated nearly $180 billion to protect Americans from terrorism. Total spending on homeland security in 2006 will be at least $50 billion—roughly $450 per American household. But far from making us more secure, the money is being allocated like so much pork. States and cities are spending federal homeland security grants on pet projects that have nothing to do with homeland security; state and local officials fight over who will get the biggest share of the money, regardless of whether they have a legitimate claim to it. And when Congress isn’t doling out cash indiscriminately, it’s overreacting to yesterday’s attacks instead of concentrating on cost-effective defenses against the most likely current threats. The result is an edifice that, far from preventing terrorist assaults, actually makes us more vulnerable by diverting resources from worthier projects."

This is how seriously our politicians are about this farce we call the War on Terror. Business as usual. We'll never be ready for another 9/11, and there's no way we ever could be, even without the nonsense mentioned in the article. It's impossible to prepare for all possible events, so anyone dreaming that anyone can ever "make you safe", is just fooling themselves. As we can see, the politicians aren't taking it seriously, they're having fun with the windfall from HS grants, and couldn't care less about your safety.

There is something we can prepare for though. We should prepare to be hit again, and not fall to pieces like the last time. We can prepare ourselves not to act like sniveling little wussies, begging for mommy and daddy government to protect us at all cost. We can prepare to be told that because of the latest attack, the Constitution and Bill of Rights will be suspended indefinately, to "keep you safe", at which time, we should all be prepared to say, in a very clear and loud voice: "Screw You". We should be prepared to tell them we will not sacrifice any more of our liberties under the pretense of safeguarding them. We should be prepared to reject any lies about our attackers trying to destroy our freedoms, because that particular threat, comes directly from those claiming to defend them.