(no subject)

[featherynscale]

I'm so sleeeeeeepy. Work is the slowest ever today. Somebody do something entertaining, would you?

Or, alternately, join me in wondering why the word "Democracy" now seems to belong exclusively to the Democratic Party, the way that "Family Values" seems to belong exclusively to the Republican Party. What's up with that?

Comments

Entertainment!

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

(grunt, twist, balance, wobble, stretch, grimace)

TA DA

How's that?

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Hee. You want a real brain-breaker? Try to figure out the semantic difference between "Homeland Security" and "National Security." I mean, really, why do we need an "Office of Homeland Security" when we already have a "National Security Agency"?

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Seriously, this is a pressing issue in my mind, and I would be grateful for any light you or your followers could shed.

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

Part of the function of government these days is to be seen governing. Merely redoing a position that at the time was considered basically flawed because it allowed the attacks of September 11th would not be enough to reassure the general populace that the government was working on the problem. So a whole new piece was created. Necessary structurally? Debatable. Necessary psychologically? For enough people...yes.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

I'm missing something, I guess. Seems to me that NSA and OHS are two phrases that mean the EXACT. SAME. THING.

Yeah?

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

What does that have to do with anything. The government is filled with redundancies and overlaps.

Re: Yeah?

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I'm just imagining a couple Deputy Directors of the NSA having lunch after the creation of OHS:

"'Homeland Security'? Isn't that our job?"

"Not anymore, now it's Ridge's job."

"So what's our job?"

"..."

"..."

Re: Yeah?

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the Nation and the Homeland aren't synonymous as it would seem. Perhaps some of us are part of the Homeland and some part of the Nation. I wonder which one is in change of the security of say the ACLU?

Re: Yeah?

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Seems to me that the only people who could legitimately call this their "homeland" would be indigenous aboriginals.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

My theory is that they wanted to create some sort of phrase that sounded very parental to frightened people, but the Motherland is already Africa, and the Fatherland is already Germany, so Homeland is what they had left. I actually don't know what the NSA mandate is, but I imagine there's a fair degree of redundancy. But hey, bureaucracy is what makes this country great, right? You can't possibly be doing something about a problem unless you're creating new agencies.

And since when have I got followers?

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Your "followers" would be the people whose comments follow your entries.

*nodnod*

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

OHS - Domestic affairs
NSA - Foreign affairs

Or more to the point, downsized federal employees needed a place to be put.

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

Well, that makes sense, but it still doesn't explain the difference between homeland security and national security.

Nyah.

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

One is defense of the nation as a political entity.

One is defense of the people that live on the land governed by the political entity.

The US Military is set up to defend the nation.
The local police forces are set up to serve/protect the populace.

See the difference yet? ;-)

[greektoomey.livejournal.com]

LA LA LA MOOOO

Party words

[agrnmn.livejournal.com]

Perhaps every party needs a word/phrase that is theirs. Hmmm...
Green Party - "Now what?"
Libertarians - "Even more liberally conservative than the other guys."

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

Dems are pot-smoking mate-swapping sexual deviants who don't take care of their kids.

Reps are nazis who go with what has traditionally worked best, and will force everyone else to stick with it because new=disasterous.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Well, aren't you just a ray of fucking sunshine...

[diermuid.livejournal.com]

It's my new image...I test-drive those during release weeks. 8-P