My friends Andy and Shannon picked up this crazy set of Osama Bin Laden and George W. Bush (with some kind of train and tracks) in a market in Morocco. We all agreed Dubya looks a lot like Charlie Sheen.

Over on the Freakonomics blog, Steven D. Levitt asks the thought provoking question, what would you do to maximize terror if you were a terrorist with limited resources. Readers’ responses to the post were a mixed bag of terror suggestions and hate mail. In a follow-up post, Levitt says that, “The people e-mailing me can’t decide whether I am a moron, a traitor, or both”.

Personally I think it’s an interesting topic, and not one that will give “the terrorists” any ideas they never had before. Hopefully it will provide those in charge of terrorist prevention and response to be better prepared in the event of domestic terror attacks.

In Canada, I think the biggest vulnerability to terrorism would be if they took out a couple of train bridges and brought Canadian commerce to a stand-still.

Because of the layout of the country (something like 80% of our population lives within a couple hours of the border) the transportation networks run basically east to west. I’ve been told there are only two main lines that run parallel across the country. A huge percentage of our goods arrive via sea in Vancouver and are shipped across the country by train. Disabling the tracks in the middle of the country would cripple this process, and doing so probably isn’t much more complicated than a couple of properly placed explosives.

Removing just two very vulnerable bridges, one in Medicine Hat and another in Edmonton, would be enough that virtually no goods could travel across Canada. I have no idea how long it would take to rebuild a train bridge, but it would definitely be the worst terror attack in our country’s history.

So what could be done to prevent such an attack? Building bomb proof bridges is not exactly an option. Putting up security guards around the bridges probably would work, but who wants to pay for that—not to mention the fact that because on any given day the chances of a terrorist strike against the bridges is so slim, it might be ineffective anyway unless the guards are always particularly vigilant.

I guess the best I can do for peace of mind is try not to think about it.

Update: Levitt’s third post on terrorism.

Less than two weeks have passed since Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza strip and the Islamic terrorist faction known as Hamas has launched rocket attacks against Israel. Although I can’t say I never expected there would be attacks from the Palestinian controlled Gaza—there always have been, it just surprises me how quickly the terrorists are back at it again.

In a retaliatory response Israel launched air strikes early Sunday morning and gathered troops outside of Gaza.

I have a strong suspicion that this is exactly why the Sharon Government wanted to leave Gaza. Now that Gaza is somewhat autonomous Israel can make good on its promise to take a more serious stance.

(From the New York Times):

“Hamas and other Palestinian factions have fired hundreds of rockets from northern Gaza in recent years, prompting periodic Israeli military incursions. The Israeli troops usually pulled back after a few days, and the rocket fire would subsequently resume.

But Israel has warned for months that if the rocket fire continued after its withdrawal from Gaza, it was prepared to hit back much harder than it had in the past.”

Hamas’s claim for launching its attack came after a truck carrying rockets exploded killing 15 Palestinians and wounding more than 80. The say the blast was caused by an Israeli attack.

[Both t]he Palestinian Authority and Israel said the blast was caused by Hamas explosives that went off accidentally, and they dismissed Hamas’s allegation that an Israeli airstrike caused the explosion.

The Palestinian Interior Ministry said Hamas should take responsibility for the blast “instead of making accusations against others.”

I think it’s important to note that it’s the terrorist causing the trouble, not the Palestinian Authority.

I also wanted to note that the Times article makes me even more hopeful for the Palestinian people because of the comment by Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian leader, who said, “We must stop parading our weapons and stop using guns among the people.”

Clearly he see what is wrong with parading Ak-47’s in the street and wants to try and make them a more civilized people.

I hope this so called “war on terror” sorts itself out. I wish people could just get along.

I was just reading about the terrorist attacks in London and just have to say how pissed off it makes me. Other than that, there isn’t much to say.

Apparently the attacks are being claimed by an Al Qaida group. Here is a news report with information from some of the people near the explosions.

Making Iraq Safe? Nope. Easy Access to Oil? Maybe.
Abu Musab Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who is being blamed for more than 700 killings in Iraq, could have been neutralized long before the war, however the Bush Administration passed on the opportunity three times. Why did the White House’s National Security Council veto Pentagon plans to attack Zarqawi’s Terrorist organization?

From MSNBC news:

“Military officials insist their case for attacking Zarqawi’s operation was airtight, but the administration feared destroying the terrorist camp in Iraq could undercut its case for war against Saddam.”

Brazillians are now finger printed, photographed, and are required to have travel visas to enter the United States. In a move to try and show the US how obtuse they have become Brazil is reciprocating.

It is reported in a Canada.com story, that comments were made in an annual report on International Terrorism criticizing the Canadian Government for not “spend[ing] enough on policing” and “plac[ing] too much emphasis on civil liberties.” I guess they would prefer us to get rid of the very few laws we have protecting our citizens just as they have destroyed some of the laws that I thought were so dear to the heart of every American with the creation of the Patriot Act. (The Critical Voice Article) I guess my Social 30 teacher was at least partially right stating that Canada’s government could be turned into a dictatorship under the right circumstances, but it turns out that it’s the United States Government that has turned authoritarian.

Update: The links have been taken down. It’s funny how I can keep posts on my blog for a few years, but news agencies feel they need to get rid of old content. Funny strange, not funny—haha.

CNN is running a story about air restrictions over Disneyland and Disney world not because there is any indication that they are in danger, but just because they might be good targets for terrorists.

Speaking of terrorists—I’ve heard that a single, 30 year old, post-secondary educated woman who has never been married has more chance of getting killed by terrorists than ever getting married? For all you unmarried ladies out there, maybe you’d better drop out to increase you odds of getting hitched. You’re not getting any younger so you might as well not get any smarter either. It’s just a suggestion.