-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 At 09:53 PM 12/27/01 -0800, John Young wrote:

Targets for centers of these exports are not hard to identify,

David wrote:

...

After the WTC, the only truly theatrically worth it encore I can think of is a stinger at the space shuttle. This would not trepan the serpent but would kick the angst up a notch.

Funny, I assumed all along John was just rorschachblotting around to avoid saying the unsayable, i.e. bringing up the idea of simultaneous detonation of suitcase nukes in multiple metropolitan areas. But even that wouldn't pack the same punch as if had come before the WTC/Pentagon/Anthrax crisis. The psychological impact of an entire population seeing the towers go down in flames over and over again is probably more significant than we'll ever know. Also, I dont think there's really any reason to assume that Americans are so soft and weak they'd roll over and die at the prospect of a real home war. For every hundred (thousand?) people whining around begging for the government to hand them safety on a silver platter, there's at least a couple arming themselves and laying in supplies to take responsibility for their own security. All the people who organized themselves for Y2K are already there: the fact that so many more woke up post 9-11 and started integrating survivalist ideas into their everyday experience has to be a positive thing. History shows that in any war or crisis, some people will pull it together and pull through, others won't. America won't be any different. You never know how people are going to act--what they're really made of--until they're actually put through the fire. The only thing you know for certain is that people will surprise you. Besides, the much-ballyhooed "American sense of security" always was a middle class myth. How easy it is for smug and comfy desk workers to forget that a good number of their fellow Americans face hunger and a violent death on the street every single day of the year. Abandoned, destitute, homeless, those garbagey hordes of little inner city kids know a thing or two about how to stay alive. Wretched, but with the perserverance and cunning of sewer rats. Would you have ever guessed that's my background unless I told you? The Law of the Yukon, baby. Adapt or die. ~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPCzQh/g5Tuca7bfvEQIM0ACgorG+h2oh4+9j4OZZHXJV6Umns+EAoNc/ aOMAlKe+TIiWKzluWI0YKFeA =lYT9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----