'Shroomed

I (obviously, once you read this post) don't know enough to opine on the the threat posed by the airway bomb-plot ring busted in England last week.

I do, however, think that many of the post-Sept. 11 air-passenger "security" policies are knee-jerk overreactions. And the thing about knee-jerk overreactions is that, one, they are overreactions; two, being knee-jerk, their realistic bearing on actual risks is underexamined; three, bureaucratic and institutional inertia being what it is, they will remain underexamined; four, for the same reason, they will remain in place while the development of actually useful policies stagnates because, hey, we already have safeguards in place.

And, well...after five and a half years of BushCo management, I am susceptible to thinking that the dog wags more than is good for anyone (these are, after all, the people who deride real reality, thinking they can create their own).

But the recent air-bomb-plot bust was made by the Brits. And, however idiotic a tool Blair is, UK gov't working stiffs do a thorough job. The job may be reprehensible, but it's always done thoroughly. At least, it seems that way.

But then you start to hear stuff like this. And this. And this. And this.

So, I don't know what the plan really was, or how far along it was. Which points to the actual effect, credible threat or no, of the bust: our government knows that they can continue to keep us in the dark and feed us shit, and by and large we'll like it.