ah, the soothing effect of a monday morning rant.

i will never, ever understand what the government hopes to accomplish through its vague, veiled and information-free terror warnings.

today's warning was less offensive than most to my way of thinking--at least we were given an AREA and a type of potential target to be mindful of. this is something we can work with. there is a CENTER to that kind of announcement around which we can orbit and ease our nervous hearts. no, what really steams my dumplings is the ridiculous color-coded terror level threat index. when our 'terror level' is raised to 'orange,' or any other color, we are so rarely advised anything specific to be aware OF, leaving us to be aware only of our own fear, the nameless, baseless fear that taints our daily existence and leaves us helpless, because we don't know what we're SUPPOSED TO BE AFRAID OF, only that we're supposed to be afraid. only that we're supposed to be grateful for having been warned that we should be keeping an eye out for nameless shadows doing uncertain things in unspecified areas. and we should be understanding that they can't give us details, because loose lips sink ships. so we should go happily about our daily business, even though SOMEONE IS TRYING TO KILL US. but we can't say who. so good luck trying to defend yourself our anyone else.

i mean, what good is it to tell a child that a nightmare is coming on, but then not bother telling him how to identify the boogeyman?*

i believe that despite what hail to the chimp and his minions would have you believe, the danger level on our home turf has not risen all that significantly. as a country, we've pissed enough people off in our time that the list of organizations/people/countries who'd like to knock our block off is endless, and has been ever since we appointed ourselves world policemen and used that assignation to take whatever we want from everyone else on the playground with no regard for their needs or wants. people have been working on american soil to take down the great machine for as long as you've been alive. and longer still. this is not new. what's new is that the government is using our fear of it, our vulnerability, to play us. while i don't fully advocate the previous strategy of 'don't ask, don't tell,' i CERTAINLY do not condone the tactic of 'tell, but don't explain' that is currently being employed.

sometimes i think that this country is currently in more danger from its elected officials than it could ever be from any outside threat.

just kidding. i always think that.

*and no, i'm not intimating that the american public is akin to a pack of children. though i do think that we're being treated that way.