Fight Giraffe Terrorism!

There was an interesting counterpoint today in a newspaper I read about the millions being wasted to search bags on the NY Subway.

While the point was made that you can legally decline to have your bag searched, the police officer you decline has just as much right to see that as "suspicious activity" and hold you anyway. The constitutionality of such a Catch-22 is still at play.

What most struck me about this article, though, is that the author introduced me to a new term: so-called "Giraffe Terrorism", about the theory that we could pour millions of dollars into protecting the American public about terrorist giraffes without any real results. The fact that we are spending the money, however, is supposed to make the public feel better that we are doing something about acts of terrorism committed by giraffes.

And yes, I mean "giraffe" the animal, not as a code word for any "group". See the absurdity in it? So next time you and your friends talk about wasted dollars protecting the American people against "unseen threats" - go ahead and tell them about the killer giraffes that we are fending off and introduce them to this term.

It's an easy way to point out how absurd unchecked funds for counter-terrorism are really just a fleecing of the American public.

Oh, did I mention that the President got billions and billions of dollars for the war in Iraq because he diverted funds from Congress-approved "counter terrorism funds"? So ... even if we do stop funding the war, they'll find a way to get their money through this backdoor program.

What we need is accountability and oversight -- not redefinitions!