Today was fun. I say that with a slight tone of sarcasm, since it usually doesn't take me three hours to get home from work, and on most days I don't assume I've been the victim of a terrorist attack.
While sitting at my desk in the Flatiron building in Manhattan, first the air conditioning, then the computer, died while I was typing an e-mail. (And yes, it was work related, in case anyone in upper management is reading this.)
Unfortunately, it wasn't the microwave short-circuiting our end of the floor again.
I soon found out that Brooklyn was out of power, too, and even cities as far as Toronto. I called my mom, who lives in NJ, and she had occasional power, at least enough to power the radio for a few minutes at a time.
I also live in New Jersey, so a few other people and I went up to the ferry (14 blocks north), which turned out to be the best choice for leaving Manhattan. Even while waiting at the ferry, the people in charge (i.e., anyone yelling into a megaphone) were telling us that buses were still running a few blocks away at Port Authority. That turned out to be totally false, so it was good that we stayed where we were.
We waited with a thousand or two thousand people (all of whom were getting progressively more frustrated as dusk was turning to night), until finally the ferry came. It was a good thing we didn't believe the guy who yelled out that the ferries were no longer running because the ferry workers weren't able to pump any gas. (A lot of people left when they heard this.)
Three of us sat down on comfortable seats in the ferry, and were happy to see that some lights (but not all) had gone in NYC as we approached the Weehawken ferry port. I was also happy to see that my apartment had power when I got home. Buildings only blocks away did not.
Of course, as I've already mentioned, my initial assumption was that this was caused by a terrorist attack. I still don't know. In fact, no one knows yet what caused the problem. President Bush, however, is certain that it wasn't terrorism:
"One thing I think I can say for certain is that this was not a terrorist act." (Associated Press)
This is a case of blatant bullshitting. I.e., bullshit everyone so no one freaks out.
Jesus Christ. If no one knows yet what caused this, no one knows yet what didn't cause this. The fact that there's been no explosions reported doesn't mean terrorists didn't have something to do with it. The only reason Bush felt the need to say he's "certain" it wasn't a terrorist attack is that he knows damn well it could have been.
We may very well know as early as the morning that terrorists weren't involved. (I'm writing this in the late evening of the 14th.) But whatever the case, I have one suggestion. Please, let's not make the issue simply about whether our power grids are designed as efficiently as possible. That's only half (or less) of the issue. Let's make the issue about (a) how vulnerable the United States is to a major terrorist attack, and (b) what we're going to do to stop it from happening.
God dammit. I am sick of thinking of terrorist attacks every fucking time I see an airplane overhead, or today, while I'm walking down a dozen and a half flights of stairs wondering if someone I care about is stuck in a subway somewhere. We have more bombs. Let's use them.
Iran
North Korea
Saudi Arabia
That's the short list. Start with the first two, and the third may have so much piss dripping down its leg we might not even have to waste a single additional bullet.
