Nothing Like Starting the Morning with some Cheery News or "Time to Buy The Duct Tape"

I completely tuned out mass media yesterday so it was quite surprising to wake up and find this in the New York Times:

The Bush administration issued detailed advice today on how the public should prepare for a possible terrorist attack using chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, insisting that it was motivated by a sense of caution, not any specific intelligence that such an attack was imminent.

The mostly common-sense guidelines urged families to prepare a "disaster supply kit" that included a three-day supply of water, one gallon per person per day; food; a battery-powered radio; a change of clothes; an extra set of car keys; and cash.

Other advice was not so obvious, including the recommendation that people keep a supply of duct tape and plastic sheeting in their homes to seal off windows in the event of a chemical or biological attack.

"There is no specific, credible intelligence that says an attack using chemical or biological weapons is imminent," said Gordon Johndroe, the chief spokesman for Tom Ridge, the secretary of homeland security.

"However, this is prudent planning," Mr. Johndroe said. "We know of Al Qaeda's interest in obtaining these weapons, and we want people to be prepared so they can help themselves and their families should there be an incident." [_Go_]

When this, all of a sudden, filters into your everyday life in this way, it immediately becomes much, much more real.  Chilling.  At least it was for me.

And according to the Wall Street Journal only 700 of the required 500,000 emergency health care workers have gotten their smallpox vaccines (no link; actually read it in paper; go figure).

Here are the FEMA guidelines for "Citizen Preparedness".  And since a lot of us blog geeks seem to have (much beloved) pets, here's a link to the guide for your pets.  And lets not even get me started on the absolute stupidity of publishing this kind of actually important government information in a form, PDF, that has so many damn issues.  [_Go_]

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