The View From the Outback ©

• Thoughts While Staring at the Ceiling Fan
• "The Agency" on TV
• Whose Side Is The ACLU On?
• Is Hollywood Finally Irrelevant?
• How To Scare The Living Hell Out Of A Nation
• Suggested Reading From Past Columns

Since we last met, my vote for the most idiotic question asked at a Pentagon news briefing was: "Is it fair to shoot at retreating Taliban troops?" Another media genius who has spent his or her life in pampered isolation. Apparently, they never heard the phrase, "Live to fight another day." That was what we and our allies were trying to prevent, the Taliban living to fight another day. Should the Secretary of Defense have to explain that at a briefing? Where do they find these reporters? At the Starbucks School of Journalism?

Spending on prescription drugs increased by about $20 billion between 1999 and 2000. The 50 drugs most heavily advertised to consumers accounted for 48% of the income. The other 52% of spending was divided among 9,850 other prescription drugs! You might not have needed the drug you saw on TV, and your doctor may not have stuck too closely to the caveat "first, do no harm." But, you got the drugs, by begging or threatening. Ain't capitalism wunnerful?

In the Outback for Sept. 20, 2001, I pointed out some of the simply stupid statements made by Sen. Patrick Leahy about the proposed anti-terrorism bill ("We Can't Give In To Terrorists by Making the U.S. a Police State"). I was so pleased to read the following in a column written by Ann Coutler: "Though I am sublimely confident that the public will recognize Leahy for the sputtering fool that he is, I note that: We are at war." Ann Coulter is considered by many to be a loose cannon. She certainly does not pull any punches. I love to read her work. You can find the quote above contained in "The Hun Is At The Gate" at www.frontpagemag.com, and it is a very good article about the "war powers" of the President and the Congress, the military tribunals, et al.

If you own a cell phone like the Nokia 5120 or 5165, here is something that might interest you. Ni-cad, Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), or Lithium Ion (Li-ion) batteries are normally supplied with cell phones. Li-ion were the longest lasting. There is now a "polymer lithium ion" battery. They are very thin and light for a given power rating (in milliampere hours mAh), and last a very long time between charges. I bought a 1400 mAh polymer lithium ion battery for my Nokia 5165. It is thinner and lighter than the 900 mAh NiMH battery that came with the phone. I leave the cell phone on for about 10-12 hours a day, but don't talk very much. So far, the battery charge lasts nearly two weeks. (www.batteries4less.com).

More than once I have questioned the popularity of the "Millionaire" quiz show on ABC. Sitting around for minutes waiting for somebody to answer a question has never appealed to me, but I was in the minority - for a while. ABC is now not sure they will bring the show back next fall. If they had any doubts, they should have watched Thursday, Nov.29. I watched for a few minutes to see if it was up to its usual "high quality entertainment value." A lovely and sweet female second-grade school teacher did not know what it was when a lord would tap a squire on the shoulder with a sword. She asked for an audience poll, and 97% of them knew that it was "made him a Knight." Later, when asked who was Emperor of Rome during the disastrous fire of 64 A.D., she had no answer. Her lifeline, Uncle Bob, the attorney, told her it was Nero. Now, I don't know squat about Roman history, and I once lived in Rome. But, is there anyone, other than the lady on "Millionaire" who has not heard the phrase, "Nero fiddled while Rome burned"?(*) I used it a couple of weeks ago in the Outback. ABC, please put the show out to stud. We don't want to have to shoot it if it breaks a leg.

(*)The idea that Nero actually played a fiddle while Rome burned is of rather obscure origin. There are conflicting accounts of whether he was even in Rome the day the fire started. Some historical summaries say that he organized fire fighting, food aid, and emergency housing. Some say that during the fire Nero sang about the destruction of Troy. Another said that Nero stood on the porch in Rome and recited the poetry of Lucan. Who can you believe? One thing is clear; he did not fiddle, as the fiddle (violin) did not exist in 64 A.D. - it had not yet been invented.

Are you thinking of installing Microsoft XP on your old computer? Have fun. I am building a Pentium 4 computer. I have been poking around on the Internet looking to see if any of my programs or peripherals, many of which I bought in 2000 and 2001, need any upgrade to work on Windows XP. Oooops! A bunch of them! Printers, scanner, Internet utilities, CD-RW "burner" software, Laplink, satellite Internet software, and I have just begun to look. On several techie sites, there are as many complaints and patches and workarounds for XP as for earlier versions of Windows. At epinions.com, a majority of people commented on "incompatibility with software and hardware." I am tempted to use Windows ME again, but I am a computer masochist and will probably install XP. Trying to get it to work will keep me off the streets and out of the bars. Actually, in a perverse way, the problems will be good exercise for the brain. Doctors tell us that one key to preventing mental decline is to keep challenging the brain. Bring on XP!

"The Agency" on TV

Originally, I had intended to write an in-depth contrast and comparison about the new CIA shows, "The Agency," "Alias," and "24." Two of the shows are so far fetched, and so remote from any similarity to CIA life that I could bear to watch only a couple of episodes. "Alias" on ABC is more of a female Jackie Chan takes on the evil rouge intelligence group. If you like shows where a fiance is killed because he discovers the heroine is an agent, and she slips out of class to kick ass with martial arts in Yemen or somewhere - and demurely returns to her studies - be my guest. The show has not the remotest connection with the real CIA, and thus I cannot watch it.

The show "24" on FOX is another stretch that is too much for me to take. As if the nail- biting action of the CIA counter-terrorist team (which could not exist and operate in the U.S. under current rules) is not enough action, there was the absurd subplot about trying to find a daughter who was running around with some "bad" boys. Again, if you like those shows, be my guest. But, if you are using them to help you decide if you want to sign on with the CIA, you will be in for a rude shock when you cross the hallowed threshold at Langley.

"The Agency" on CBS is supposed to have, at least from reports, the blessing of the CIA. The Agency is apparently helping authenticate scripts. There are quite a few interior shots at CIA headquarters, including shots of office doors with what I remember as real numbering systems used in the building. Although there have been a couple of episodes that took some poetic license in the form of "shoot 'em up" action, the show is generally very representative of Agency life.

The part that appeals to me, of course, is all the technical stuff, as that is what I did. I love the fake documents section. It is portrayed realistically, for the most part. One of the guys in my car pool when I worked in Washington was a specialist at creating false identity documents and passports. And I used the output of some of his cohorts in my many travels overseas.

What surprises me is some of the things that the real Agency apparently allowed in the scripts. One example was the scene where they were trying to open some envelopes surreptitiously. The conversation turned to the use of letter-opening tools handcrafted from Ivory. Ivory tools are polished to a mirror finish and thus are less likely to tear a fiber in an envelope flap, and so on. If I had written that in my novel, it surely would have been censored by the review board who reviews all books on intelligence by former agents, even books of fiction.

I mentioned in an earlier Outback that as a Treasury Agent, I had attended a school for "Technical Investigative Aids." One of the instructors taught us how to open envelopes (for Mafia mail) and seal them again without leaving traces. He obviously was from an intelligence agency. He had Ivory opening tools, with his initials on them, let's say they were "J.R." He gave his name as George Hopkins, or whatever. I asked him why the initials on the tools did not match the name he used in class. He was a little flustered and finally said that he had borrowed the tools.

Years later, while taking similar training at CIA, the same guy was one of the instructors. I couldn't believe it. We had a great laugh about the tools with the "wrong" initials at the Treasury school. The initials were there for a reason. After you spend maybe a hundred hours shaping and smoothing a complete set of Ivory tools, somebody inside the Agency might steal them - or at least pick them up by mistake and wander off. I once had a set of hand-honed lock picks stolen out of my safe in my CIA office in Washington - during the day. There was no outside cleaning crew or any "uncleared" people in the building. Some lazy oaf stole my tools and saved himself many weeks and months of fashioning lock picks and polishing them to mirror smoothness. Who can you trust?

In one episode of "The Agency," they spoke about somebody getting a "cover call" on the phone. Agents at HQ often have a phony number they give out to creditors, insurance agents, and so on. That number ostensibly rings at some obscure government office where you claim to work, but it is actually a CIA switchboard posing as that agency. You are paged on another line and told you have a "cover call." I was shocked to see this described in a TV script that was apparently approved by the Agency. It is tough to keep a cover in the sophisticated world of D.C. and the suburbs. In Fairfax, I told my neighbors that I worked at the Pentagon. One naval officer asked me why I did not have a Pentagon parking sticker on my windshield - and then smiled. So much for that.

In a recent episode, a team was going to make a clandestine entry into an office in the Watergate complex. FYI: there are both apartments and offices in the Watergate complex. Somebody in the group made a crack about them hopefully not being as inept as the original "plumbers" (who got caught inside the Democratic National Committee HQ at the Watergate). You remember Pres. Nixon and his band of incompetents. The reference surprised me, if the CIA had script approval. The people who broke into the Watergate complex were ex-employees of the Agency and/or former CIA contract agents. A contract agent is like an office temp. You keep them around for as long as you need them for a specific job. Many career agents start out that way and work themselves into a permanent status by demonstrating their worth. Beats the hell out of Civil Service, which I was under in Treasury. (You might like to read: "My Clandestine Entry Into the Watergate" which is on my main Web page under "A Fascinating Odyssey.")

A recent episode showed an agent taking a polygraph (lie detector) test. That apparently fell out of vogue during the onslaught of liberal values, PC, and the fear that someone might be offended by taking the test. Well, Aldrich Ames and other incidents have put the polygraphing of agents back in style. The make-believe agent in the episode "failed" his test on a question about having any contact with a foreign national that he had not reported. It was his Middle-Eastern girlfriend, who turned out to be a spy. That is real stuff.

I nearly failed my first polygraph. I will never forget that day. One question was: "Have you ever had sexual contact with a male, other than possibly a 'circle jerk' as a teenager?" Got through that one okay. In those days, the Agency considered that being a homosexual might subject you to blackmail and they did not condone the behavior. I am sure things have changed.

One question was: "Do you have an alcohol-related problem (or words to the effect)? My answer was NO. The examiner stopped the machine and said calmly, "I got a very strong reaction to that question." I jumped right in and said that I drank very little, practically never got drunk. And that the reaction perhaps had to do with my recent past employment as a criminal investigator with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Div. of Treasury (now called BATF). I added that I had been an insurance investigator in college and handled many life and auto policies that had a note on them "pay special attention to drink habits." I suggested that the CIA investigators "pay special attention to drink habits" while checking my background. The examiner nodded and turned the machine back on. It was not until I got stationed overseas with the CIA that I began to do some serious drinking! Still, it never got to be a "problem."

The point of all this nostalgia is that "The Agency" is for the most part a very accurate portrayal of Agency life. The show might not make it because it is too boring for the public who wants kick-ass shows like "Alias." In large part, real Agency life is boring for the majority of employees. Only a relative handful pick locks, meet agents in dark cafes in Algiers, roam the jungles in para-military units, or toil in the mountains of Afghanistan. We have just had a rare admission by the CIA that one of their people was killed in Afghanistan. The majority of the rest of the employees are collecting, collating and disseminating information. Shuffling papers or whacking away on a computer is not very exciting and does not make good TV.

The CIA is actively recruiting. My advice is to take one of the boring jobs. The other jobs, like the one I had, are too hard on you and your family. (My older son is writing a book about the stress of being the child of a covert CIA agent. Many people can say that they work at CIA.) If you can pass the stringent background examination (my application was about 35 pages, as I recall), you will have joined a dedicated group of people. Even if you don't sneak into foreign embassies to plant transmitters, the work is satisfying. And there is always the little high from what I call "secret knowing." That is the high you get when you glance at the cable board in your section in the morning and know that the events contained therein may well be the headlines in the evening paper or on the evening news. The difference is, as Paul Harvey says, you know "the rest of the story."

On balance, the CIA is a mainstay of keeping the peace. I was once asked during a TV interview what the main job of the CIA was. I answered, "Preventing World War Three." The interviewer asked, "How are they doing?" I paused, cocked my head, looked toward the ceiling, and said, "I don't hear any missiles." Always the ham. But, she was later to write that I was the "best interview she had ever conducted." She used the tape as her promo tape to get a new job. I was so proud. I sent a tape of that show to Fred de Cordova when he produced the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson - and he was impressed. Shortly thereafter, they cut the show from 90 minutes to 60 minutes and the frequent author interviews went away in the cut. Curses. Foiled again. Fred de Cordova died recently. I treasure his letters to me over the years, several of which are now in my scrapbook for the grandkids.

The CIA and FBI are being pummeled by inquiries as to why they did not know of, and did not prevent, the attacks of September 11, 2001. That is a long story. Now that everyone is focusing on the problem, which was not done at high levels in the recent past, you will see some dramatic changes. It will take time. In the meantime, we can only hope to minimize the threat. Well, this started out to be a review of three TV shows. But, it is all relevant. And all this nostalgia is therapeutic. I have had a really interesting life and sometimes I forget that fact - hunkered down here in the Outback in my dotage.

Whose Side Is The ACLU On?

For several decades, I have watched the work of the ACLU. My general impression has been that they often do more harm than good. They are often part of the problem, rather than the solution. By part of the problem, I mean that their efforts have contributed greatly to the climate in law enforcement and intelligence groups of making sure everyone is PC and that the smallest personal right is protected at the expense of controlling crime or terrorism. Every law passed is run through the PC and ACLU filter to make sure it is satisfactory. For the ACLU, every hint, every foreshadowing that a civil right might be violated, no matter how minor, is a crisis.

Anytime there is a TV show about the terrorism bill, or any of the new terrorism initiatives, there is a good chance that somebody from the ACLU will be on. Who elected them saviors of the world? The ACLU is expert about one thing, finding civil-rights violations in every human utterance and piece of legislation imaginable. With all the independent lawyers anxious to bring civil-rights lawsuits, do we really need an organization that has solutions for problems that often do not yet exist? Go to the ACLU. web page (www.aclu.org) and take a look. They list twenty issues where they are pro-active, from Drug Policy to Lesbian & Gay Rights.

The ACLU president, Nadine Strossen, is a professor at New York Law School. She is a graduate of Harvard Law School.

Anthony D. Romero is the Executive Director. His bio notes that he is (or was) a Ford Foundation executive and "public interest attorney." Mr. Romero, a native New Yorker, was born in the Bronx of immigrant Puerto Rican parents. He lives in Manhattan with his partner. Mr. Romero is a very bright man. Being of Puerto Rican decent and apparently gay, he surely knows about discrimination and abrogation of civil rights. Does the term "radical civil-rights advocate" come to mind?

Steven Shapiro is the Legal Director. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and is an adjunct professor of constitutional law at Brooklyn Law School. He spent one year as a law clerk to a judge in the federal Second Circuit. He joined ACLU in 1976! It is noted in his bio that "The ACLU routinely participates in more Supreme Court cases each year than any other private organization." Ah, ha! That is part of the problem.

Do you see the pattern? My favorite theme. A bunch of folks educated mostly in Eastern law schools who have spent the bulk, if not all, of their careers involved in "public interest law" or teaching. In plain English, that means they are liberals who dream of a society where there are no wrongs committed against its citizens, not by government, not by corporations, not by individuals. They are crusaders. They are evangelists. They are Utopians. They live in a dream world that they have created for themselves in their Ivory towers of learning. They have never had to patrol the mean streets of our country, never had to try to stop the inflow of Cocaine, never had to prosecute murderers and terrorists. In short, they have lived an isolated existence in the fantasy world of their text-book version of a perfect society. Out of this mix comes a stew that is so heavily spiced as to be mostly unpalatable to anyone who delves deeply into the recipe.

The ACLU is against facial recognition technology. They write letters and position papers about how unreliable the technology is and how it will discriminate against certain classes of people. Another case of whining before anybody is hurt. Give the technology and the databases a chance to mature. It is now in its Windows 3.1 phase.(*) Wait until the XP version. It will work like a clock. Public opinion and the courts will smooth out any abuses in the long run. We don't need the zealots at the ACLU doing their "number" on the technology when it might be a valuable asset in terrorist and criminal deterrence and apprehension. I don't see any bios on the staff at the ACLU that mention past experience as a cop, a Federal agent, or a CIA agent. But, everybody who went to an Eastern law school is an expert, regardless of their real-life experience.

The ACLU is against much of the anti-terrorism bill and was on the offensive even before the bill was passed. Their efforts, in most cases, benefit terrorists more than they benefit American citizens.

They go ballistic about the proposed military tribunals to try non-American terrorists. The Constitution does not embrace any safeguards for foreign soldiers who attack us, and certainly not for foreign terrorists who destroy our buildings and kill thousands. To the ACLU: "Butt out of the Military Tribunal dialogue."

The ACLU is up tight about the monitoring of conversations between jailed terrorism suspects and their attorneys. The number of suspects involved is a handful - those who are believed to still be trying to initiate terrorist acts. Nearly 75% of Americans who were polled support this monitoring procedure. But the ACLU marches to its own agenda of their Utopian society, regardless if it gives "aid and comfort to the enemy." (one definition of treason)

Nearly 80% of Americans polled support the interviewing of about 5,000 non-citizen young men in this country from the Middle East. The ACLU calls it "racial profiling." Most of the interviewees are here on visas. A visa is a privilege and not a right. When I lived and worked overseas, if I did not like the legal climate, I was free to leave. As I recall, the interviews are voluntary. As one wag put it on TV: Those were not Irishmen, or Mexicans, or middle-aged white ladies from Michigan who flew into the World Trade Center towers or the Pentagon. You go where the logic of an investigation leads you. To call this sort of activity - vis a vis men from the Middle East - "racial profiling" is absurd - an aberration of the liberal mindset that established the climate of inactivity that allowed the incidents to happen in the first place.

The ACLU is fighting against racial profiling in general. They even have a hotline to report suspected racial profiling by law enforcement. Working to combat racial profiling of minorities by police is a laudable cause. Even here, there is no black and white, if you will pardon the pun. Good police work involves concentrating on the best suspects, and often that requires a degree of racial profiling, whether it be drug traffic or inner-city crime. The American public is largely behind screening people who come from areas that have posed a terrorist threat to us in the past. I have heard blacks on TV say emphatically that they are in favor of "racial profiling" of Middle- Eastern men at customs check points and airports. Jay Leno made a joke that it would be a tough year for Santa Claus. "A foreign guy with a beard trying to get into the country." Some police departments are refusing to cooperate with the FBI in interviewing several thousand young Middle Eastern male immigrants. They say it is "racial profiling." Duh. Nice job by the ACLU in their campaign against profiling. One more question of "whose side are they on?"

The ACLU is against "English Only" laws. Good grief. I wrote an article in the Dallas Times Herald many years ago that stands today as a very good argument for English Only.(*)The idea came to me in San Antonio while standing in line at a McDonald's. The menu had Spanish and English entries. "Quarter Pounder con Queso." Please. How are Hispanics ever to blend into the mainstream and get good jobs if they must be told what a Quarter Pounder with Cheese is in Spanish? The ACLU fought a voter-approved English Only law for the state government in Utah. They were telling the voters of Utah what was really good for them, as opposed to their own wishes as expressed in a vote they had cast. As usual, the ACLU was full of crap.

(*)On my Web page, click on "Letters To The Editor," then click on "Dallas Times Herald re 'English Only' (1988)."

A personal observation: My novel, "Serpent on the Hill," by Philip Eliot (my pen name) was heavily censored by the CIA review board. I had to make changes to about 50 pages. A lot of the changes were asinine. So asinine that James Kilpatrick, whose column then appeared in about 500 newspapers, wrote an entire column about the CIA's censorship of my book. My story was told in the book pages of the Sunday edition of The Washington Post. I was interviewed on radio stations all over the country and appeared on several major TV interview shows in Texas.

I wrote a lengthy article about the CIA censorship in a professional journalism review. (Sup. Ct. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor had an article on the flip side of "my page.") I was able to speak about the matter briefly on a town hall meeting on network TV with Ted Koppel. During all of this I was never contacted by the ACLU - to ask if they could help. My theory is that they hate the "evil CIA" and anybody who has ever had anything to do with it - and they were happy to see me screwed by the Agency. And of course, I would have died before I ever called them for any help. At that point, I considered the ACLU the equivalent of a Communist front organization. (See "The Disinformation Conspiracy" Outback for Sept. 20, 2001.) My opinion of the ACLU has not changed much since the days of the Cold War.

When I see an ACLU representative appear on my TV screen, I immediately change channels. We know what is coming. They might as well send over a cassette tape with a frown-face sticker on it and play the tape on air. "We are deeply concerned about the erosion of ...." Yatta, yatta, yatta. It used to be called a broken record. Now, it might be called a scratched CD.

I am going to take a wild guess that Americans will wise up to the over-reaching agenda of the ACLU and will start to back away from supporting them as strongly as in the past. And that their funding will diminish over time as people become more concerned about stopping terrorism and worrying less because somebody was called a bad name or an FBI agent wants to talk to you about your subscription to the "Baghdad Times." It's only a guess.

(*) I once sent an early Windows floppy disk to Bill Gates with about 30 bullet holes in it - and suggested that was all it was good for - target practice.

Is Hollywood Finally Irrelevant?

One journalist whom I admire is Arnaud de Borchgrave. We met in Dallas many years ago, and he was kind enough to help promote my novel "Serpent on the Hill" in some low-key ways. Arnaud had been a senior correspondent overseas for NEWSWEEK, an author, and editor of The Washington Times, among other things. When last we were in contact, he was working in a think tank in Washington.

Recently, Arnaud wrote a wonderful piece which I found posted at newsmax.com on Nov. 16, 2001. He sides with me in castigating Hollywood for many sins, such as the many movies in which CIA, NSA, and FBI agents were depicted as ruthless maniacs. He cites from Prof. Jack Shaheen's book "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People." The professor notes that in the majority of 900 films he researched, Arabs were depicted as sinister, dangerous, and engaged mainly in blowing up buildings and hijacking airplanes. And you wonder why Arabs think we hate them?

Mr. de Borchgrave mentioned that KGB and Stasi (E. German intelligence) files proved conclusively that his novel "The Spike" had understated the problem of Soviet disinformation themes eagerly embraced in the western media. (Once again, refer to my Outback of Sept. 20, 2001 "The Disinformation Conspiracy.")

Hollywood rejected the script of his book to become a movie as being "anti-communist propaganda." My book never made it to the small or large screen either, although it was universally acclaimed as being "the stuff of a perfect action-adventure film." At one point, Larry Hagman, whom I befriended when I had walk-on parts on the TV show "Dallas," agreed to play the lead character if the book were made into a movie. He carried the book around on the set and would read it during breaks, much to my delight. That was sort of how I met and became friends with Linda Gray on "Dallas," but that is a yarn for another time. It's a terrific story - trust me.

Sen. Jesse Helms, one of the strong voices in Congress during the Cold War about the influence of the Russians in our media and society, gave me a ringing quote for the jacket of my novel. The book concerned a Russian KGB illegal who eventually got into the U.S. Senate (by marrying a prominent American woman for starters) and finally ran for President. Jesse's people told me that he wanted to do a TV program about the Russian menace in American society, et al., but could not get air time on any of the three major networks, even if he paid for it! Finally, Ted Turner agreed to air the show. I was supposed to appear with Sen. Helms on the show, but due to a late publication date for the book, I was not able to join him in talking about the Russian menace within our borders and about my book. Bummer.

I mentioned in a letter to Sen. Barry Goldwater that CBS had shown an interest in doing a mini-series based on my espionage novel (which he had read and liked). In a letter dated October 26, 1982, Barry said, in part:

I am amazed that CBS and NBC have expressed an interest in your book. Both of them are guilty of malpractice as far as defense of our institutions are concerned ...." (I did mention the CBS interest, but I don't remember mentioning NBC to Barry.)

So, it is not like I make this stuff up about the media and Hollywood being damn near Communists in their leanings during the Cold War - and beyond. I am, and was, in good company. There are good reasons why it is known as the Left Coast.

The best yet is an article by Rob Long in the Nov. 26, 2001, edition of The Wall Street Journal, entitled "You Mean Terrorist Don't Read Variety?" (Variety is the show biz paper of record in Hollywood.) Mr. Long suggests that since Bill Clinton is no longer president, Hollywood has lost its clout. He writes, "It's true. When Bill Clinton was president, we were more than entertainers and campaign contributors. We were policy makers and deep thinkers. Our ideas on environmental protection and space exploration were sought after by the White House."

Mr. Long makes fun of the Hollywood people who have been barricading themselves waiting to be attacked by terrorists. He said, "We are, we told ourselves, the single most influential group of people in the nation." Further, "...we're suddenly not so sure that we're on the A-list of people worth murdering..... maybe, just maybe, all of our music and television and movies- the collected work product of thousands of talented people- is, well, marginal. Irrelevant, even."

Karl Rove from the White House met with Hollywood moguls to discuss how Hollywood might help in the war against terrorism. Mr. Long says that "about the only concrete outcome was an agreement by the studios to supply first-run movies to our armed forces overseas." And finally, "Among the not-so-terrible casualties of Sept. 11 ... , we must now add Hollywood's flatulent self importance."

Mr. Rob Long is a writer in Hollywood and a contributing editor to "National Review." He ought to get the Pulitzer Prize for honesty. He made my year.

How to Scare The Living Hell Out of a Nation

Americans shunned air travel, preferring to drive their cars, or take a train or a bus over the Thanksgiving holidays. It is amazing what the hijackings of September 11 and the constant media coverage of the "breaches of airport and aircraft security" have done to our psyche. Add to that the apparent aircraft accident in Queens, New York, and you have a double whammy.

More people will die in auto accidents over the holidays than will die as passengers in commercial airliners, even if there is a terrorist hijacking - or another accidental plane crash. Writing now after the holiday is over, there were 33 traffic deaths in Texas and 39 killed in California, for example. The total national death toll was no doubt huge. No commercial aircraft were hijacked and none fatally crashed over the Thanksgiving holidays. But fear kept people from flying.

Words mean something. When we are bombarded, inundated, and besieged with news of the Anthrax Bio-Terrorism, it takes on an ominous meaning of its own - regardless of the facts. Maybe some people in the media could drop the Bio-Terrorism and just speak about the "Anthrax letters." Something simple like that might help. It would no doubt help if various spokespersons for the government would stop telling us about all the (non-specific) terrorist threats that keep coming in. What can you or I do about it? Worry!

The flip side is that the public needs to be scared half out of their wits to go along with the huge expenditures to fight terrorism and not complain too loudly about increased government powers to combat terror. Where is the balance? I don't know, but there has to be a middle ground somewhere from the scare mongering that is now taking place.

When every media outlet delights in trumpeting the latest "breach of security at an airport or on an airplane," the message sinks in. Yes, five people have died from inhalation Anthrax. More people than that will probably die falling in bathtubs this month. I see an analogy in the way we view crime in our big cities. If you watch the evening TV news in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, or Washington, DC, for example, you think that there is a violent crime wave and that you stand a good chance of being shot while grocery shopping or going for a walk with your dog. The problem is that crime makes news, just as terrorism does. They are both good "grabbers" for the promotion of the upcoming news broadcasts.

Years ago, I studied the situations surrounding hundreds of murders in Dallas over time. One thing I used to say was: "If you want to avoid being murdered, stay out of parking lots at bars at 3:00 o'clock in the morning. (After I wrote this paragraph, a Dallas off-duty police officer was shot and killed while working security at a bar.) And don't buy or sell drugs on the street." But the evening news seldom puts things in perspective in the few seconds or minutes they take to report a shooting. With Anthrax, the media drumbeat was that this was a continuation of the "terrorist attacks of 9/11," and may just be a preview of what is to come. The news show are full of experts who fan the flames of anxiety with their dire predictions of toxins and gases and maybe nuclear weapons being unleashed on our cities. Please, I would rather not know.

Now, everyone seems to be "hoping" that the Anthrax letters were the product of a lone-wolf in the United States who had some scores he wanted to settle, whether real or imagined. That seems less frightening than if Osama bin Laden was behind the letters.

Billions will be spent to tighten mail security, with expensive machines to irradiate the mail, more training, more cameras in post offices, and so forth. Sure, the effort is worth doing, as a precaution against potentially serious attacks on our mail system in the future. But, if you could see the incredible sense of urgency in the Congressional hearings, and comments like "money is no object," you can see what a frenzy this country is in over two or three letters with Anthrax. It is a serious matter, but it is not the end of our civilization as many are prone to portray it.

While the Congress is going about making Americans secure from every conceivable foreign or domestic threat, at the cost of untold billions of dollars, they might give some thought to appropriating money for rubber skid mats in bathtubs for every home in America.

No matter how much money you spend on physical defense and preparedness, terrorists will always find a way to launch a new threat - as long as they are alive. This is why it is so important for the President, the nation, and other countries to stay focused on rooting out terrorists and those who support them. And if the terrorists want to know how we are preparing to defend against them, all they need do is watch the Congressional hearings on TV. By listening to the testimony at the various committees and the questions to the witnesses and their answers, you can pretty well piece together our national strategy. Many of those hearings should have been closed, just as intelligence briefings to Congress are closed to the media. We learn very, very slowly in this country.

Suggested Reading From Past Columns

(Right-click on an underlined link and select: "Open in New Window" to leave this window in place)

Terrorism

"Please Don't Tell Us That Nobody Could Have Predicted the WTC Disaster," November 17, 2001
"Enviro-Terrorists Operate With Near Impunity - But Not for Long?" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"Hackers Are Terrorists, Too" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"U.S. Government in a Frantic Scramble to Catch Up" Sunday, Nov. 4, 2001
"Americans Succumbing to a Climate of Fear" Sunday, October 28, 2001
"Secure ID Cards and Visas" Sunday, October 28, 2001
"Anti-Terrorism Bill Sniping Begins" Sunday, October 28, 2001
"Various reflections on the events of Sept. 11, 2001 Thursday, Sept 20. Must read Outback re Sept 11 Events
"The World Trade Center & Pentagon Attacks!" Update on Sept. 11 to Outback for September 8, 2001

Global warming and environmental debate:

"Rush to Glacier National Park Before All the Glaciers are Gone" September 8, 2001
"Chipping Away at the Global Warming and Environmental Alarmists," September 1, 2001
"John Stossel And ABC's 'Tampering With Nature,'" June 29, 2001
"The Kyoto Protocol & Global Warming - A Monumental Scam?" June 16, 2001
"Public Interest Groups With Sometimes Very Little Public Interest," May 12, 2001
"Environmentalism For Dummies - Part II," April 21, 2001
"Environmentalism For Dummies," April 7, 2001
"Environmental and Animal-Rights Terrorists," March 24, 2001

Politics:

"The Dubya and Vlad Show," November 17, 2001
"My Friend Senator Jesse Helms," September 8, 2001
"Forget Liar & Adulterer - Cong. Gary Condit is Simply Stupid," September 1, 2001
"Government Waste and Fraud," August 18, 2001
"President Bush's Excellent Adventure," June 29, 2001
"The Bush Budget - Fighting Over 4% Growth Versus 8% Growth Is Nonsense," April 21, 2001
"The Chinese Demand for an Apology Regarding the Aircraft Accident is Preposterous," April 7, 2001
"Campaign Finance Reform - A Senatorial Catharsis - And National Snow Job," March 31, 2001
"Florida Secretary Of State Literally Begged Networks Not To Call Election Early," March 24, 2001
"Charlton Heston Speech at Harvard," March 10, 2001 (about free speech, PC, et al.)
"The Ever-Expanding First Amendment," January 26, 2001
"Bush Administration Needs To Review The Mission Of Federal Law Enforcement," January 26, 2001
"New York, What Were You Thinking?" November 13, 2000 (Re: Hillary Clinton)
"Lessons Learned In Election 2000?" November 13, 2000
"How the Federal Government Corrupts the Constitution to Intrude Into Your Life," October 30, 2000
"Let's All Make Fun of the Dumb Guy From Texas," December 15, 2000 (Pres. Bush)

The Media

"How the Media Should Cover a Covert War" Sunday, November 4, 2001

Prescription drugs - advertised on TV - abuses in the pharmaceutical industry - supplements:

"Prescription Drug Plans," September 8, 2001
"Baycol Cholesterol Drug Withdrawn From the Market," August 18, 2001
"Prozac Gets New Life!" July 28,2001
"The New Cholesterol Guidelines - Everybody Gets A Pill," July 7, 2001
"Bitter Pills To Swallow," June 2, 2001
"The Drug Companies Continue Their Assault On Your Pocketbook," May 19, 2001
"FDA Questions Practice of TV Ads for Prescription Drugs," March 31, 2001
"Prescription for Disaster," September 11, 2000

Health - General:

"Trans Fatty Acids - The Hidden Fat," August 4, 2001
"Your Body Clock," August 4, 2001
"My Medical Writing Credentials - Such As They Are," July 7, 2001
"The 'Eggs Are Bad For You' Alarmists Strike Again," May 12, 2001
"Herbal Remedies, Supplements, And Alternative Therapies," September 18, 2000

Computers and Technology:

"Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 and Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P)" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"LCD Flat Panel Displays & Dual Monitor Video Boards," August 18, 2001
"DishNetwork's Personal Video Recorder Dish Pro 501," July 28, 2001
"Internet Via Satellite," June 16, 2001
"The Internet in China," April 21, 2001
"Mark Cuban is the Posterboy for Dotcom Mania," April 21, 2001

Interesting Books to Read:

"Your Body Clock," August 4, 2001
"Body of Secrets," by James Bamford, July 28, 2001 (About NSA)

A case history of horrendous abuse by Federal law enforcement:

"FBI Sniper At Ruby Ridge My Be Tried For Manslaughter," June 9, 2001.

Crime, guns, gun-control:

"Real Anxiety - Texas Jail Inmates Break Out Weekly" Saturday, Nov. 10, 2001
"Eyewitness Testimony is Suspect," August 18, 2001
"The AMA Is Losing Its Way," June 29 2001
"Doctors Have Written the Wrong Prescription for Guns," April 14, 2001
"The FBI and the Hanssen Case," March 10, 2001
"FBI Director Freeh Stays On," January 26, 2001 (Some clues to recent FBI failures)
"Aircraft Cockpit Security," December 29, 2000

Late Night TV Cruel Humor, et al.:

(I quit watching late night in disgust, so there are no new articles on the subject.)

"David Letterman Grovels For The Colombians," May 19, 2001
"Are Leno And Letterman Using The Same CD-ROM For Constructing Jokes?" May 12, 2001
"Late Night Comedians Struggle To Lampoon Bush," May 5, 2001
"Late-Night TV Sick Humor," August 28, 2000
"Late-Night TV Political Comedy," August 14, 2000

Hollywood, Entertainers, Celebrities:

"Celebrities Rush to Move Overseas in Protest of Bush Victory," January 5, 2001
"The Mother of all Hollywood Activists," December 22, 2000 (Jane Fonda)
"Elton John, Political Pundit - Druggie - Drunk - Compulsive Spender," Dec. 15, 2000

Telemarketing:

"Telemarketers, Caller-ID, et al.," August 4, 2001
"Rid Yourself of Telemarketers," October 23, 2000

Miscellaneous:

"TV 'Crawls' - Annoying and Distracting"Sunday, October 28, 2001
"The Decline in the American Work Ethic," May 12, 2001
"Made in USA," January 5, 20001
"How Many Gigabytes in Your Brain?," December 15, 2000

COPYRIGHT 2001 Richard C. Rhodes

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