Keeping us scared
Interesting piece this morning on NPR on the promotion of fear by the U.S. government. David Ropeik points out that so-called “dirty bombs” are more scary now than they were before, because John Ashcroft and the Justice Dept. made this type of bomb sound as horrible as possible so as to make the arrest sound as heroic as possible. He wonders aloud whether the Bush Administration wants us afraid, so we’ll support military spending and the curtailment of civil liberties. Of course, having the population terrified is exactly the goal of terrorists.