Galen Hekhuis wrote:
On Tue, 11 May 2004 21:22:49 GMT, Brian Nystrom
wrote:


...
You have an incredibly skewed view of life here. It's nothing at all
like you're imagining it to be. Other than noticeably tigher security at
airports, seaports and public events, life has changed very little here.
I don't know why you think we're all running scared, as that simply
isn't true. We've become used to the exaggerations of the media and most
people just take it all in stride.


Just out of curiosity, what are we supposed to do when they raise/lower the
"terror threat level"? I'll agree, little has changed here other than
tighter security at some places and stuff, but if you think the media is
exaggerating stuff you haven't heard some recent government pronouncements
predicting a terrorist attack before long. Scared? Not me, personally,
but I think the public as a whole is to varying degrees. And the darned
thing is there all these frightened people running around and all the
government tells them is to be alert and go shopping.

That's a fair question. It seems that the short answer to increase
threat levels is "be more vigilant, but on with your life".
Realistically, there's little else an individual can do. We have to
expect that any specific threat will be dealt with by the authorities.
The vagueness of the warnings is annoying, but they're apparently based
on increases in non-specific "chatter", so what other option is there? I
guess they could just say nothing, but I don't see that as helpful.