Blog-IT-o ergo sum

	12/30/2003

"An Abundance of Caution"

Of course I am sensitized to this phrase now, but in the car ride home this afternoon while listening to NPR, I learned that John Ashcroft has in "an abundance of caution," just recused himself from the Bush spy leak investigation.

And though the term was not used, I am sure that it was "an abundance of caution," that inspired production of the quad-fold bilingual flyer that was waiting for me in today's mail from Plantation Pipe Line Company. Their Baton Rouge, LA petroleum pipeline runs right through Greensboro (under 220 near the Lake Brandt city water reservoir) on the way to its terminal point in Washington, DC. Along with using an unspecified level of caution while digging near the pipeline, we are informed that,

"PPL supports our nation's homeland security efforts and PPL encourages (us) to immediately notify and report any suspicious persons and/or activities near the pipeline to (our) local law enforcement authorities by calling 911."

The pipeline is less than a half of a mile from our house, but we will not fret about being blown up in any conflagration. Funny though that I had just road my bike over this pipeline several times yesterday and thought, "Hmm, I wonder if this would make a good target for troublemakers?" I remember the Wolverine gasoline pipeline running along I-94 between Chicago area refineries and Detroit that broke unexpectedly not far from where I worked. It took 10 days to fix and everyone panicked that, "Detroit was running out of gas!"

Who needs a suitcase nuke detonation to send the country into a police state lock down, when cutting off the flow of gasoline to the suburbs will do just as well.

editors note: my personal suspicion for the next terrorist attack is an assault on a large body of elected representatives (like a state legislature) with legally purchased high powered rifles. How could terrorists not desire to create conflict between our government and our well armed militia.

6:39:52 PM

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