Terror Thoughts...
A few thoughts based on the events of the previous week:
There really seems to be almost no sure fire way to prevent random "about to embark on a weekend camping trip" looking young men from blowing themselves up in trains, short of violating civil liberties at every twist and turn. I applaud the response of Londoners...a tough city for a very, very long time, and a city that will no doubt do a wonderful job with the Olympics. (Side note - I think the Olympics should be used as an economic tool, and cities like Beijing are perfect candidates for such an endeavor. London is already fully developed...why not get Africa or South America involved?).
In light of the extreme security risks that still exist on every subway and bus around the globe (as illustrated by the London attacks), I was quite pleased to see a fantastic op-ed in the NY Times today. The op-ed pointed out that Susan Collins, Senator from Maine, recently proposed an amendment to a federal spending bill to allot only 60% of homeland security funds on the basis of risk. The other 40% is doled out to Kansas, New York, Wyoming and Washington D.C. in equal doses. As the Times so rightly put it, this is shameful. Shame on Collins, and shame on Joseph Lieberman for supporting such an amendment. Hopefully the House will rectify this egregious mistake.
If and when a random London-type attack occurs in New York or Los Angeles, people will wonder why the corn farms of Iowa received even a dime of federal funds.
There really seems to be almost no sure fire way to prevent random "about to embark on a weekend camping trip" looking young men from blowing themselves up in trains, short of violating civil liberties at every twist and turn. I applaud the response of Londoners...a tough city for a very, very long time, and a city that will no doubt do a wonderful job with the Olympics. (Side note - I think the Olympics should be used as an economic tool, and cities like Beijing are perfect candidates for such an endeavor. London is already fully developed...why not get Africa or South America involved?).
In light of the extreme security risks that still exist on every subway and bus around the globe (as illustrated by the London attacks), I was quite pleased to see a fantastic op-ed in the NY Times today. The op-ed pointed out that Susan Collins, Senator from Maine, recently proposed an amendment to a federal spending bill to allot only 60% of homeland security funds on the basis of risk. The other 40% is doled out to Kansas, New York, Wyoming and Washington D.C. in equal doses. As the Times so rightly put it, this is shameful. Shame on Collins, and shame on Joseph Lieberman for supporting such an amendment. Hopefully the House will rectify this egregious mistake.
If and when a random London-type attack occurs in New York or Los Angeles, people will wonder why the corn farms of Iowa received even a dime of federal funds.
posted by mattguiney at 7:25 AM
2 Comments:
"why not get Africa or South America involved?"
Because they don't have any credible bidders. Hell, Greece was barely able to pull it off on time, and they're in the EU.
"why not get Africa or South America involved?"
Also I think if you went to a poor place there would just be a ghetto with a stadium at the end.
An imperfect analogy is Montreal, who has that Olympic stadium that no one cares about and the fact that they had the Olympics there 30 years ago does nothing for its economy or reputation.
Also, as Joe implies, without a credible bid, the initial cost would be too devastating for any profits to repair.
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