I know I've posted this before,
Aug. 3rd, 2004 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynbut with all the crap happening in NYC and the five NJ counties on Targeted Orange Alert (note: the rest of the country is still exactly where it was before), I think this is appropriate to put up again.
The Table O'Terror, Explained
(Completely unauthorised by any agency what-so-ever)
Green - Low Risk
At this level the appropriate security response is to discuss baseball scores and make rude armpit noises, because frankly, you're probably in more danger from deranged CPA's who've prepared one tax return too many than from terrorists. Not that we've been anywhere near this level since 11 September 2001, but hey.
Blue - Guarded / General Risk
This is supposed to be baseline, or something. I dunno. At this level it is appropriate to look worried every so often, slap small patriotic stickers on your car bumper, and wave to the soldiers in Penn Station. Emergency responders such as ambulance squads, law enforcement, and fire departments should work on their standard drills - plane crashes, large-scale fires, etc. - rather than anything particularly WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction)-related.
Yellow - Elevated Risk
This is pretty much where we've been since 11 September. Here it is appropriate to chew your fingernails and complain about the price of gas, but not too much. Other preparations include talking about what you would do in the event of a major terror attack somewhere, but not actually making any of the preparations, because this is the United States and nobody except Scouts, Mormons, the Coast Guard, and emergency response organizations is willing to acknowledge that Bad Things Might Happen even though they already have. Emergency responders should add WMD drills to their routines around here, but they are allowed to poke the designated 'victims' in these drills and ask, "Hey, you dead or what?"
Orange - High Risk
Here it is appropriate to watch the BBC News on cable instead of or in addition to CNN Headline News. According to Federal guidelines, Orange Alert means you should wet your pants with fear, but it is not a high enough risk to warrant soiling them as well. Civilians should buy good-sized first aid kits and feel guilty that they are not keeping more disaster supplies on hand, because let's face it, fires and floods don't pay attention to the Table O'Terror Risk and boy will they feel stupid if the Mississippi / Hudson / Columbia rises and they have to flee the house and have no supplies but the clothes on their backs. First responders should take the precaution of buying particulate respirators at Home Depot and becoming mildly to moderately sarcastic in their everyday senses of humor. On drills they are no longer permitted to poke the victims, but quoting disaster movies to each other is acceptable. Use care, though- "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines!" is not permissible around pilots or Canadians.
Red - Severe Risk
Federal guidelines say you can change your pants now. Red Alert means that someone just erased the line between real life and Jerry Bruckheimer movies, and I am not talking about Kangaroo Jack, either. Here the appropriate response from the civilian population is to run to the store and buy all the bottled water in sight, because God knows, being surrounded by a thick layer of Poland Spring gallon jugs can hold off anything from flying shrapnel to a biplane full of anthrax. The appropriate response from emergency responders is to get extra sarcastic, then throw a change of clothes, several extra pairs of underwear/socks, and a pair of comfortable boots into their vehicles, because they're probably not going home any time soon.
The Table O'Terror, Explained
(Completely unauthorised by any agency what-so-ever)
Green - Low Risk
At this level the appropriate security response is to discuss baseball scores and make rude armpit noises, because frankly, you're probably in more danger from deranged CPA's who've prepared one tax return too many than from terrorists. Not that we've been anywhere near this level since 11 September 2001, but hey.
Blue - Guarded / General Risk
This is supposed to be baseline, or something. I dunno. At this level it is appropriate to look worried every so often, slap small patriotic stickers on your car bumper, and wave to the soldiers in Penn Station. Emergency responders such as ambulance squads, law enforcement, and fire departments should work on their standard drills - plane crashes, large-scale fires, etc. - rather than anything particularly WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction)-related.
Yellow - Elevated Risk
This is pretty much where we've been since 11 September. Here it is appropriate to chew your fingernails and complain about the price of gas, but not too much. Other preparations include talking about what you would do in the event of a major terror attack somewhere, but not actually making any of the preparations, because this is the United States and nobody except Scouts, Mormons, the Coast Guard, and emergency response organizations is willing to acknowledge that Bad Things Might Happen even though they already have. Emergency responders should add WMD drills to their routines around here, but they are allowed to poke the designated 'victims' in these drills and ask, "Hey, you dead or what?"
Orange - High Risk
Here it is appropriate to watch the BBC News on cable instead of or in addition to CNN Headline News. According to Federal guidelines, Orange Alert means you should wet your pants with fear, but it is not a high enough risk to warrant soiling them as well. Civilians should buy good-sized first aid kits and feel guilty that they are not keeping more disaster supplies on hand, because let's face it, fires and floods don't pay attention to the Table O'Terror Risk and boy will they feel stupid if the Mississippi / Hudson / Columbia rises and they have to flee the house and have no supplies but the clothes on their backs. First responders should take the precaution of buying particulate respirators at Home Depot and becoming mildly to moderately sarcastic in their everyday senses of humor. On drills they are no longer permitted to poke the victims, but quoting disaster movies to each other is acceptable. Use care, though- "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines!" is not permissible around pilots or Canadians.
Red - Severe Risk
Federal guidelines say you can change your pants now. Red Alert means that someone just erased the line between real life and Jerry Bruckheimer movies, and I am not talking about Kangaroo Jack, either. Here the appropriate response from the civilian population is to run to the store and buy all the bottled water in sight, because God knows, being surrounded by a thick layer of Poland Spring gallon jugs can hold off anything from flying shrapnel to a biplane full of anthrax. The appropriate response from emergency responders is to get extra sarcastic, then throw a change of clothes, several extra pairs of underwear/socks, and a pair of comfortable boots into their vehicles, because they're probably not going home any time soon.
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no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 06:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 08:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 07:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 07:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 08:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 07:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 08:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 09:06 am (UTC)I'm told Connecticut is battening down the hatches, too, mostly 'cos of their high insurance company presence.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 11:21 am (UTC)I was going: "Michigan can't be on there. All we have are cows, livestock, and Children of the Corn. We only have one big city." Well, its true. We'er boring.
Entertainment involves watching a family of raccoons fight each other outside, running away from pigs that have broken loose, bike riding down to either a bridge we call "The First Bridge," or "The Second Bridge", reading, or going to the mall to watch a movie. Relatives are close by you. For example, my sadistic Shoggoth cousin lives next door to me. RIGHT NEXT DOOR.
-A bored Michigander.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 11:23 am (UTC)So yesterday and today we have heightened CITY security at all the kinds of places New York has it. He got the governor to lend us the National Guard and their machine guns, and everything.
Richie
Date: 2004-08-06 06:44 pm (UTC)"The police are here to preserve disorder -" The Hon. Richard Daley, 1968.
"We never stop thinking of ways to harm our citizens -" George Bush, 2004.
no subject
Date: 2004-08-03 11:34 am (UTC)just found this...
Date: 2004-08-05 10:52 am (UTC)Re: just found this...
Date: 2004-08-05 11:20 am (UTC)ClassicDrogn's favorite meter
Date: 2004-08-05 09:32 pm (UTC)- CD
no subject
Date: 2004-08-05 11:12 am (UTC)