Well I got back driving around in what is the deadliest weapon in recorded history, the automobile. I was hoping that if I ran over anyone, it would be a terrorist planning an attack. I noted that one of the home improvement stores has now started labling their product "Duck Tape." I guess if it's good enough to repair an injured duck, it should be good enough to seal up a few mouths in Washington.
lw: you really got to be careful driving around in those mall parking lots, word comes down from Ashcroft himself that terrorists are disguised as soccer moms in SUV's talking on cell phones ramming the hell out of unsuspecting patriotic citizens are their way home with rolls of PVC sheets and duct tape.
Delighted to see that plastic sheeting and duct tape have been downgraded to pale blue (= unnecessary), but only after 3M stock rose.
It turns out that this duct tape strategy was tested with focus groups:
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, responding to days of debate over duct tape and plastic sheeting, defended his new department's recommendations on how Americans can best protect themselves during terrorist attacks and promised even greater guidance in the near future.
Responding to critics who belittled some of the suggestions, Ridge said his department had worked for the last eight months, even using focus groups, to find the best ways to prepare the public in the event of terrorist attacks.
Chicago Tribune
This from the administration that told the American people in 2000 that they don't rely on polling and focus groups?
This is beyond cynical. This is playing with the deepest fears of the American people -- literally plunging millions into war hysteria -- on the basis of a twisted combination of brand-testing and political calculation.
Bad enough that this round of fear-mongering turns out to be based on a bum tip from a single informant. At its best, that shows abysmal incompetence on the part of the Bush White House. At its worst, it shows a calculated effort to whip up mass hysteria -- with focus-group tested results! -- at a time when the entire world is raising doubts about the Bush Administration's credibility.
That's bad enough. But what about the other questions it raises?
Which Republican pollster in getting paid to do focus-group testing for the Department of Homeland Security? How much is the pollster getting paid?
How did this focus-group ploy get into the works? Who is responsible? Ridge? Bush? Karl Rove?
Do they next field-test a small, localized chemical attack to see how the "market" might react?
i'm still waiting for the refrigerator magnet with the terrorist tips and numbers to call.
On the Morton Feldman show just now I heard the best suggestion for the use of plastic sheeting and duct tape: "Cover your TV screen with plenty of plastic sheeting," Feldman advised. "And tape it over. That way there will be no more terrorist attacks..."
Now you're down to the nitty gritty on this absurd attempt to fool all of us by introducing unknown fears -- I'm prepared for an earthquake out here which is far more likely. All the bragging about how well the CIA and FBI are doing in cleaning up terror cells has a ring of emptiness to it. I don't think they expected the reaction to the announcement not helping their case in going ahead with the war without the U.N. U.N. bashing by this administration is counter productive -- every action is followed by an equal reaction.
PD - There's a
big difference between using real people to determine best what suggestions will work well for real people, and governing by focus groups.
Come on...
Nation & World 2/24/03
Way beyond plastic wrap
The Israeli Experience
Israeli parents, when they take their newborns home from the maternity ward, are given a special gift for the little one: a blue plastic case that looks as if it might hold a violin. It's courtesy not of the Israel Philharmonic but of the Israel Defense Forces: Inside is a gas mask kit made especially for babies.
Duct tape and other such gear may be a novelty for Americans, but Israeli hospitals have been handing out these kits since the 1991 Gulf War, when Israelis donned gas masks and huddled inside "sealed rooms" in their homes. Indeed, since the war, all new homes and buildings must have "security rooms" that seal shut with rubber.
These days, Israelis are lining up at gas mask distribution centers, trading in their gas mask kits for fresh ones, something they're urged to do every few years. The kits--which also contain injections against nerve gas--are free, but security experts are debating whether they'd stand up to a real chemical attack. (They're useless against biological agents such as anthrax that can enter the skin.) So Israelis who insist on the best are buying family-size sealed tents, personal sealed suits, and air purifying systems, the latter for as much as $5,000.
And like many Americans this week, most Israelis are stocking up on tape, nylon sheeting, bottled water, canned goods, and flashlight batteries. But at the gas mask distribution center in north Tel Aviv, Sara, a pensioner waiting in line with her family, had little faith in the exercise: "You think these gas masks are going to save us?" she asks. "All they do is maybe calm people down a little."
The chemicals involved in an attack would probably dissolve the plastic covering the windows
. You'll be left with a mess hanging over the windows.
Best thing to do, is knock out all the windows in your house and layer in bricks. Not duct tape! No plastic! Just plain old brick!
Be sure to install an oxygen tank and mask in your house, in case you survive the attack and would like to continue to breathe.
Sara may be right, though most people seem to be reacting to the duct tape/plastic sheeting idea with hilarity instead of calmness. One of the other sites I frequent (mostly building contractors) has just about exploded with guffaws.
Toxic chemicals and nerve agents are not terribly presistent. The peak danger passes quickly as the cloud moves with the wind. As the cloud disperses the toxins are reduced to the point that they are no longer effective, and the compounds begin to break up. Rarely, will any chemical agent remain lethal after six hours. More often the danger will pass in as little as one hour.
The most common toxins will not disolve plastic, and can get past a good seal. Biologicals and nerve agents can attack through the skin, but if within a sealed area they can not get onto the skin. In-place preparations are not perfect, but they are the best defense available for populations threatened by air-born toxins. People will be caught out doors, or in locations where they can not reduce exposure, and will be made very ill, or die. Even the smallest preparation can save an appreciable part of a population under attack by these weapons.
Biologicals and radioactive particles are more presistent in the environment, and will require more caution in a post-attack than chemical or nerve toxins.
Preparation to meet the real threat posed by terrorists armed with these unconventional weapons should counter-act fear and panic. By preparing, we also reduce the likelihood that the weapons would be used. If a terrorist organization believes its attack will be ineffective, it is less likely to chance the risk attendant on its use. If there were a better way to prepare for this sort of attack, it would be publicized.
Right now, we don't know which chemical or infectious agents will be used.
Personally, I wouldn't want to have a mist of phenol hovering over my exposed body or face for an great length of time.
Tom Ridge and others in the administration have made statements in the last few days to try and diplomatically save face. The proof of the pudding. Like Uncle Milty used to say, "They're pretty bad when you have to explain them"
Ridge does not seem to know words once said cannot be unsaid. He has the same disease as the rest of this administration. Foot in mouth.
Has anyone else thought about this? The raw material of plastic sheets and duct tape is petroleum products. So, every sheet and roll purchase puts money in the pockets of those very petroleum producing nations (Kuwait, Saudi Arabi and Iraq) who are spending some of it to send the end customer to an early grave.
Hey, it's truly a global economy, Mr. Still.
buy duct tape = support terrorism
nah, think i will stick with drugs
