21 Nov 2002
So, the Useless Department of Harassing American Citizens will finish its
jog through Congress in the next few days, huh? Well, isn’t that just
wonderful.Of course, the original idea for the Homeland Security
Department (let’s pretend this argument is worth something for a moment) was
that intelligence and resources were not being intelligently shared between
various agencies, including the FBI, the CIA, and various other
law-enforcement arms of the federal government. Now, let’s look at
which agencies have been united under the Homeland Security banner.
Coast Guard? Check. Secret Service? Check.
Nope. Customs? Check. Plum Island Animal Disease Center
(whatever…)? Check. INS? Check. Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service? Check. FEMA? Check.
ATF? Nope. FBI? Nope. CIA? Nope.
DEA? Nope. So what does this agency do again? Was it a
failure of the Plum Island Animal Disease Center that allowed terrorists to
attack the World Trade Center? Maybe we should point the finger at the
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Hey, it isn’t like people
inside the FBI had suspicions about the people who destroyed the WTC.
So, the original problem was that the FBI couldn’t disseminate information
within itself. The INS couldn’t be bothered to keep up with their own
internal procedures. The CIA was generally clueless. How does
the formation of a large government agency help to solve these
problems? Oh yeah, it doesn’t. But it does give the illusion
of action which is all most anyone seems to care about.
Tonight, I’m off to my second curling league game. Last week we
lost in the eighth end after forcing a tie in seven ends. I fell down
on my back no less than three times during that game, which wasn’t too
fun. My neck (which worked overtime keeping my head from slamming into
the ice) and back were so sore the next day I decided to take the bus to
work instead of biking. It wasn’t until Tuesday of this week that my
neck finally stopped aching. Tonight I’m going to try some different
shoes that hopefully won’t slip on the ice as much.
Last weekend, Sarah and I took a day trip to Milwaukee. We stopped
at the Milwaukee Art
Museum because we wanted to see their new wing and also the
“Splendor of Poland” exhibit. Unfortunately, several
hundred other people all had the same idea. We weren’t able to get in
to the Poland exhibit because all the tickets were sold, but we were able to
get tickets to see the other exhibits. Overall, the museum’s
collection was interesting, but hardly overwhelming. In fact, it was
almost as if the museum was trying too hard to have a little bit of
everything, and as a result, they didn’t have a particularly good collection
of anything. Oh well. After the museum, we tried to have dinner
at the Safe
House, which is a really interesting Milwaukee restaurant with an
espionage theme. We got there at 17:00 CST. The matre’d told us
that we couldn’t get a table until 20:00 CST even though there was a
veritable sea of empty tables surrounding us. So, rather than sit
around drinking for three hours (which is what they, of course, wanted us to
do), we voted with our feet and took our business elsewhere. Perhaps
someday in the future, when my general bitterness has faded somewhat and my
memory has dulled even more, we will go back there (with a reservation this
time). Post-Safe-House-snubbing, we walked over to a German restaurant we had seen. This place was one of
those stuck-up, overpriced, “scene” restaurants for those older
members of society with too much money and too little idea of what to do
with it. We asked the matre’d if he had a table for two. So, the
guy begins an extended survey of the piece of paper at his podium and the
room. This took approximately one hour. Finally, the
says, “Is this for dinner
tonight?” My natural response was to blurt out, “No, this is
for lunch tomorrow, we just like to be early. Of course for dinner
tonight!” Sarah, however, sensing my, how shall I put it, growing
rage towards this guy’s pompous airs, cut me off half-way through, and said,
“Yes, for dinner tonight, but we want to see a menu first.”
After seeing the menu, we decided that it was time to beat-feet and hit the
sidewalks again. We finally ended up at a restaurant serving Middle
Eastern cuisine, which wasn’t great, but didn’t completely suck. Post
dinner, we went to a coffeehouse built in an old sewage pumping station for
dessert. I’d been hearing about this place for a few months and was
eager to see it. Half of the building is a regular coffeeshop.
The other half is still a functioning, though rarely used, water and sewage
pumping station. It was a very interesting urban reuse project.
We got our first real snow this morning, but it is already gone.
Regardless, it was a nice reminder of the coming winter to see the white
stuff coming down and actually sticking around on the grass for a while.
If anyone has any doubt about the fact that this country is going to war
with Iraq, they ought to stop living in a dream. It is clear that our
utterly embarrassing President/Vice President combo is going to push this
moronic war until it happens. In the past, I was 85% joking when
I said I was considering moving to Canada. Now, I’m only 40%
joking. There seem to be some clear advantages to moving to
Canada:
- Free health care.
- More hockey.
- More curling.
- Less invasive government intelligence gathering of private citizens for
no good reason. - Less embarrassing political leadership.