I could have sworn that back in the late 70s or early 80s, Bradbury made some comment that nuclear weapons were the "most Christian weapon ever created," or something similar. A Google search for "Ray+Bradbury"+"christian+weapon" turns up a single hit: a blogger who mentions that someone visited his site after running a similar search string. But he doesn't know anything about the quote. So I dunno, maybe I didn't imagine it. Unless that was me doing a previous search, which I've since forgotten.
Jeez, just when the stupefaction starts to wear off, the DHS responds:
City Has Itself to Blame for Terror Cuts, U.S. Says
Nicely framed, NY Times! Somehow, in the GWOT, it's come to U.S. vs. NYC.
But hey, let's give the DHS the benefit of the doubt here. Say its charges are substantive: maybe New York City's counterterrorism proposals really did deserve "poor grades," and thus failed to merit funding.
Maybe this is the case - I don't know.
Some niggling concerns:
1. Can we trust the DHS analysts' expertise? Well let's see, has the administration ever hired on a "basis other than competence"?
2. Are the funds possibly being distributed "for political reasons," as Bloomberg put it? (According to Bloomberg, "...in many of the places where they got money — but arguably there's no threat — there are close elections either at the Senate level or the House level.") Hmm, "political reasons": W's m.o., no?
3. Then there's this totally excellent point, wherein the DHS tips its hand: "Federal officials said yesterday that the city... had also mishandled the application itself, failing to file it electronically as required, instead faxing its request to Washington."
See, apparently, there is a person who imagines that this somehow constitutes a "Gotcha!" so valid it bears mentioning to the NY Times. Also, this person - assumedly an adult - fills a position of consequence in the GWOT. Good to know.
Anyway, the city has proof that it actually did submit a proper application, with a #2 pencil and everything, so there.
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