I know they meant this to be educational

but how come the ones bibbling in the corner or hesitating to take action in these things are always women? In this film by the Department of Homeland Security on how to survive an active shooting episode, a man leads his fellow co-workers to safety, a woman hides herself, and a group of people prepare to fight back, but one of the women is crying and useless and another is having to expend her efforts to keep her quiet. My point is, we all have moments of indecision or fear. Granted, men don't tend to fall apart emotionally because of gender expectations, but women don't necessarily do so, either. I would have liked to see a woman leading an indecisive man out from under his desk to safety, at least. But I'll let you decide:



That said, I do think they did a decent job with the video in terms of their tips and the information conveyed.

There is constant vigilance

and there is also just plain racial profiling...

Some real Shock and Awe: Racially profiled and cuffed in Detroit

Shoshana Hebshi had the misfortune of looking a bit too middle-eastern on a plane on September 11, 2011. Half Jewish, half Arab, and fully American, she was taken off the plane, cuffed, strip searched and basically given a whole lot of harassment not due to any of her behaviours, but rather how she looked. That shouldn't be the legacy of 9/11. I know the authorities need to be careful and run down leads, but this seems way overkill. Read her blog post for more.

I know someone who is a fairly dark-skinned woman who is constantly pulled out of line and asked to strip down to her bra. Her husband, also Jewish but lighter in skin, sails through without a raised eyebrow.

Terrorists can't be profiled by how they look. Look at Timothy McVeigh, for example. Not all threats to homeland security come from abroad.

I'm supposed to fly to Chicago in December, the first time I'll be on a plane since 1993. I've never had to deal with pat downs and TSA/Homeland Security regulations and the like. Fortunately I am light-skinned, WASPish in appearance, and basically look innocuous. So I don't anticipate problems. But in a post-9/11 world, you can't make assumptions. Shoshana Hebshi and her family had joked about flying while ethnic, but never seriously expected trouble like what she got yesterday.

What the...?

Kentucky law requires Homeland Security credit God (link good for a few days)

And I quote:

Kentucky's Homeland Security office must publicize God's benevolent protection of the state in its reports under the 2006 law that organized the department.

Under the law, Homeland Security's religious duties come before anything else the department does, including distribution of millions of dollars in federal grants and analyzing possible threats.

The law lists the office's initial duty as "stressing the dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."

I'm a ninth-generation Kentuckian; I'm very proud of my heritage and I think my state is often unjustly maligned. But then there are cases like this. Sometimes I think the people (and leaders) of the Commonwealth of Kentucky are just loopy as a bowl of fruit, to use a phrase that's become popular amongst my circle of friends.