TERROR ALERT

FOX NEWS ^ | 10/29/01 | self

[b4its2late]

Where's the flashing light.... we need a flashing light!!!!!!!!

[ExSoldier]

I think that given the situation Ashcroft is doing an excellent job. I mean, just think for a moment: IF he were to specify the target of a possible terrorist attack, don't you think the bad guys might say to themselves: "Whups! They're onto us...time to move to PLAN B!"

It's enough to say there are creidble threats against targets on US soil and that everybody should be on guard...and God willing, we'll have some lawfully ARMED and properly TRAINED CITIZENS to put a crimp in the execution of their evil plans....

I don't know about YOU, but I'm sending the wife off to quilting class on Halloween and I think I'll go have dinner at a MALL...just me and my lawfully concealed GLOCK M30. LOL

[gore3000]

American citizens have been advised to be on heightened alert.

An alert for what? How can someone be on the lookout for the unknown? What is the purpose of these alerts if they do not give us something to watch out for? If they know something they should tell us, else they should keep their traps shut. What's the point of this fearmongering otherwise? So that they can say when something happens that they knew all along when they knew beans?

[Alberta's Child]

Brian Williams alluded to some kind of specific warning given to these two.

If there was a specific threat against these two states, then I would suggest that the Mall of America is a distinct possibility. Any potential high-profile targets in Michigan come to mind immediately?

[Dan Day]

Fantastic. Please enlighten me as to how the symptoms slowly fade over the course of weeks/months, and why Joe Public need not be concerned with obtaining an anti-toxin that needs to be administered within 24 hours of first symptoms to prevent death.

You have severely misread what I wrote.

I did not in any way say that "Joe Public need not be concerned with obtaining an anti-toxin". In fact, I specifically said that the anti-toxin halts the progression of symptoms, which clearly indicates the need for and desirability of such treatment.

What I did say, however, was that the effects of the nerve poisoning fade over the course of several weeks or months (I didn't think that anyone would require the blindingly obvious statement, "for those who survive"), which was offered as a correction to your false statement that the effects of the disease are "irreversible".

[Kerberos]

Anyone think they know more than they told us? "

They always know more than what they tell us.

[Nogbad]

They always know more than what they tell us.

Except when they know less than what they tell us.

[GretchenEE]

Or as Spock put it, "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

I believe Spock was referencing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes tomes).

[George from New England]

Sorry I meant a blue moon exactly on Halloween happens but once every 20 or so years.

[NetSurfer]

I never posted that "the effects of the disease are irreversible". I posted: the protein is a neurotoxin and once the symptoms appear, the damage is irreversible.

From http://www.state.vt.us/health/han/common/articles/pdf/bot.pdf :

Consensus Statement, Boutlism Toxin as a Biological Weapon. JAMA, February 28, 2001. Vol 285, No. 8.

Once botulism toxin is absorbed, the protein carries it to peripheral cholinergic synapses, principally, the neuromuscular junction, where it binds irreversibly.

I'm not trying to split hairs, here. I am trying to understand how this damage is reversible, and apparently I'm not conveying that very well. If you could phrase your answer so that it's blindingly obvious for me to grasp, I'd appreciate it.