A few months ago I had occasion to go through a security check after having spent a couple of hours on an indoor rifle range.

The bomb-sniffing dog in attendance was a pleasant, medium-sized, short-haired thing, of a breed which escapes me--some kind of European hunting dog supposed to be ideal for this duty.

Well, Fido got to me, sat right down and stared at me like the dog in the old RCA logo. It turns out that the smokeless powder and primer residue which had permeated my clothing was the main scent a bomb dog is trained to alert on.

A reasonable precaution, a minor inconvenience--something a mature person should tolerate.

crypto-fascist

are you saying the Government shouldnt be doing this?

I am seriously relieved to know the govt is actually looking for problems proactively. There is so much PC talk, I worry that nothing gets done because of it.

Posted by: Kay in CA at December 23, 2005 3:47 PM

First they came for the dirty bombers....

My God, that facist Chimpy McBushitlerburton is going after Peter Parker!

It seems we're smarter than we thought we were.

Hope the leftists go after this one.

If it comes to it we could have each city hold a referendum on its desireability and let them decide locally.

Learning this, I'm sure the Muslim community will grant fulltime inspection access to every center of activity, for their own protection. It would make sense to me.

What about all of us who may have handled radioactive material ... You're not making bombs, you have nothing to worry about.

Thank God for President Bush.

These "shocking" revelations are so good for Bush and the GOP that, if I didn't doubt their loyalty, I'd swear the leaks were coming from Rove and other Administration officials.

I am amazed that Reuter's does not realize that all the things they think are terrible that W does are the very reasons he won the elections. They keep coming up with these little gems they think will bring him down and his numbers go up. you would think they would notice that but they don't seem to.

It is a well-known fact that mosques are used as arsenals ibn the Mid-East. Of course we should be checking them out here as well!

You think they'll be hiding nuclear devices in the trunks of their cars? Maybe initially, but not for long.

obc - Nuclear devices won't fit in the trunks of cars. They need at least the back of a van, more likely a 12' truck - or, one room of a home.

PJ is right - a 'suitcase nuke' that actually works is unlikely to be possessed by terrorists (way too much maintenance involved to keep the fissile material uncontaminated & electronics unfried) and in any case are several hundred pounds.

A 'regular' nuke (5 -20 kt) would probably be carried by something about the size of a UPS delivery van.

OJ: perfect pitch

dick, Good point. Contrary to what OJ said the other day, you do know your name.

I will have to look back to see what OJ said the other day. I was not aware that I did not know my name although it is such a common name that I could get confused for someone else.

When I lived in Oxen Hill, Md many years ago there were 4 of us with the same first, middle and last names all living on the same mail route. The mail mixups were hilarious.

I noticed on the Chicagoboyz website that there is a comment from someone with my name. I went back and looked at it and the political leanings were diametrically opposed to my leanings.

I still say that AP, NY Times, Reuters, AFP, WaPo, and LA Times and Boston Globe pull these stunts on the president thinking they will pull him down and they keep backfiring on them over and over. Don't they pay any attention to the results of what they are pushing? After losing the election one would think they would but they don't seem to. All W has to do is respond when it gets too bad and otherwise let them beat up on themselves.

Did they say top secret? Why yes, yes they did.
It is an old point that has been made many times, but "top secret" does not seem to mean what it once did.

As an aside, the 'discovery' of radon as an environmental hazard was made when workers at the Limerick Nuclear Plant (outside Phila.) began setting off alarms as they exited the plant. Once the company realized that many of these guys hadn't been anywhere near any radioactive material that day, it became apparent they had picked up traces from somewhere else. It didn't take long to find the answer.