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Jeff,

The generation coming on has been raised to be non-observing; "experts," they are told, are there for them, wherever they may desire to trip along.

And trip, they do.

At the company where I work, I bought the fire extinguiser months ago. I bought the flashlights in case the power goes out. I bought the analog telephone so that when the digital units are dead, somebody can still call out. All, at my own expense.

Last July, at a gasoline fuel depot nearby, I stopped to investigate when the siren was blowing --- nobody was there; gates wide open; no guards; no track of how many thousands of gallons the terrorists had driven away with; no mention of it in the news; and nobody there or downtown or in the F.B.I. would care to know this, because the event caught them all completely ignorant of what is going on out there.

I watch the airport fence perimeter, and sure enough, there is no patrol at all. Somalis drive the taxi cabs right up to the doors of the terminal, no security checks at all, while passengers must park many hundred yards away.

Delta Airlines B-757's sit only a hundred feet from fences which are not watched; the jets' hatches are open; anybody could plant a bomb therein; but nobody is watching ... except the Somali taxi cab drivers.

I carry a many first aid supplies in the car; fire gloves; fire extinguisher, etc., because unlike Nancy Pelosi who thinks that President Bush has not offered up enough money for "the first responders," I am painfully aware of the entire lack of 2nd and 3rd responders throughout the country --- such as the fire last evening.

When the 1st team goes in for, you may say, a busy day, who will be minding the 'burbs? Nobody but volunteers who suddenly realize, that while something big blew up downtown, and the "1st responders" have all rushed there ... well, guess what, out on the beltway around the town, that is where an even bigger disaster awaits, and there are absolutely no firemen, no fire trucks, no water, few ambulances, and ten thousand people in need of the now lost "1st responders."

Nobody is watching the schoolyards to make sure that some Muslims do not plant a few landmines brought in from Kosovo. Nobody is watching the outside of the buildings which are on the threat list.

There's just a whole lot of inside discussion that is near incredible in its centricity.

You could drive up to that gasoline depot and leave with 10,000 gallons of fuel, and nobody would stop you; there is nobody there, even tonight.

Sleep tight.

You are right, even after 9-11, our society is amazingly unprepared to face the types of enemies we face.

I posteed an article on a way to prepare and one that could be extrapolated to include the 2nd and 3rd responder role.

Here it is on my site:

Arm the People NOW

It also had two great and lengthy discussion threads here on FR.

I produce a working version of it in my series of novels when our nation is faced with a fictional scenario similar to all of the things you spoke of in your post.

The Dragon's Fury Series

Did you ever consider that a gasoline depot (or many of them) could be owned by an Islamist sleeper, sent to America with funds to open the business, and run it normally? That he could train and employ his own drivers "from the old country?"

That one fine day they could crash a dozen gasoline tanker trucks into the ground floor lobbies of high rises, trapping all above in the flames, until the buildings came down?

It's the easiest thing in the world to open and run a legit business in America, when Uncle Saddam is slipping you operating cash to keep it running.

The CIA and all intelligence services use "proprietary front" cover businesses overseas to mask their spy efforts.

The reverse is even simpler; do you think it is easier for the CIA to open a business in Damascus, or a "Syrian American" to open a gasoline distributership in America??

Having had the opportunity this evening to talk by telephone with a person who was in this fire who went out the Kitchen exit, it seems the majority of the dead were stcked up trying to get out the front door. The similarities to the famoud Boston Coconut Grove fire are far too great for my taste. However, as I said I had the opportunity to speak to a 25 yearold man who had survived this fire. he and his companions walked quickly and in an orderly fashion to the kitchen door and no one required hospitalization.

He survive and his companions survived because he had a mag lightin his pocket and whenthey arrived he looked for the exit signs.

When the fire was first starting he did not initially realize that it was not part of the show. When he saw the band leave he left by the closest exit that was clear. The emergency lighting failed on the way out and his flashlight helped him.

It was very much a matter of awareness of what was going on arround him that saved him and the people with him. He recognized dange eventually and he used his prior looking for the emergency exits as his ticket to life. The young man considers himself lucky that he was also the designated driver and had not gotten as intoxicated as his friends one of whom did not even want to leave before finishing her drink.

Reading the posts from the doubters makes me really wonder about some FReepers. There is now no difference between them and sheeple. I do not have the details yet, but there was a shooting here yesterday afternoon that involved a barber and someone else. The report I heard was an attempted murder of the barber and a suicide by an ex-business partner. How many carry into the barber shop? That is one place we would normally let our guard down some, familiar territory, someone we know, a relaxed attitude.

We need to be alert, be safe and be armed. This leads to being alive.