Duct and cover
: Some folks wonder, in my comments, why I’m being so rough on Tom Ridge and his advice on how to prepare for a terrorist attack.
Simple:
Not a single thing Ridge advises — not one single thing — would have helped a single victim of 9/11. They all would have died anyway.
So we’re fooling ourselves — or he’s fooling us — if we think we’re “prepared” for the next attack.
It’s bull — dangerous bull, if it lulls people into thinking they are prepared when they are not … when they are, in fact, f’ed.
If a bomb goes off around my office at Times Square, we’re f’ed.
If a bomb goes off in the subway I ride every day, we’re f’ed.
If a biological attack sneaks up on us, we’re f’ed.
Whistles won’t do a damned bit of good; neither will duct tape or plastic wrap or cereal bars or batteries or pictograms of Americans choking on terrorist gasses.
We’re f’ed. We’re not prepared. To act as if we are is a dangerous lie.
That’s why I’m tough on Tom.
: Credit Scott for the catchphrase of the age: “Duct and cover.”
