Giving up freedom for security only means less freedom, not more security…

“We need these programs to keep America safe! If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” Are some of the phrases we’ve heard justifying the surveillance state.

The problem is that this sort of “magical thinking” that if we just give the government enough power, it can “prevent” things from happening. Might as well try to stop the phases of the moon or the setting of the sun.

Cases in point, two states with the most draconian gun laws and extensive police agencies are still unable to stop people from building explosives and setting them off. That would be New Jersey and New York.

http://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/17/us/nj-explosive-trash-can/

Registration problems at the starting line delayed the start of the race, which meant no one was near the garbage can when the explosion happened, a law enforcement official said.
“We were lucky,” the official said.

That is the crux of “security theater” is that all the nostrums that governments do have very little impact on the success or lack thereof regarding a terror attack. The Tsarnaev brothers were successful bombing the Boston Marathon, whoever this asshat was failed to kill people at the 5k.

Of course shortly after that attack in New Jersey, was this attack in New York.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/09/18/explosion-in-new-york-city-believed-to-be-intentional-mayor-says-29-injured.html

In the “no shit Sherlock” department we have the stunning insight that a pressure cooker IED remotely detonated with a cell phone was likely to be “intentional.”  I’m sure that there will be more deep insight into this incident by De Blasio in the future, hopefully without the press release being ghost written by Captain Obvious.

Not to jump to conclusions about whether it’s “Islamic Terrorism” or not, but the last couple of times we’ve had bombs set off in the northeast it was “Islamic Terrorism” so that’s where the safe money is betting. The fact that it’s September, a week past the 9/11 memorials with all their security theater, can’t be dismissed either (yeah, I know, Captain Obvious sometimes writes here too).

Instead of trying to stop bad things from happening, it is better to focus on building resiliency into our society. We’ve experienced terrorism before, and will continue to do so for the rest of our lives. And resiliency starts with you, your plans, your preps, and not relying on the State to keep you safe, or protect you in the event of an attack. I’m not saying that you’ll be ok, because often times bad stuff happens to good people, but that if you are prepared to react, you are better off than if you aren’t.

Good luck, be safe, comments are open.