It was bleach...

Or something like bleach. Chlorine anyway.

Maybe.

We're not sure.

I've read several incomplete accounts of yesterday's shutdown of the McPherson Square area yesterday, "Oh my god! It's terrorists! Or an errant cleaning crew? Who knows?" And I'm not feeling particularly safe or confident.

It looks like the WaPo didn't even cover the "We could have been in real trouble and there's not much we could have done about it," non-story. On the one hand, I can see their point. On the other, I'm starting to think that we aren't really protecting ourselves from terrorists by avoiding having to think about this stuff. The theory behind the lack of substantive stories, I've heard, is: If the press doesn't write about our inadequate protection systems, terrorists won't learn that we will respond with fire engines or other details that they probably could have assumed anyway.

It's starting to seem more like we're protecting ourselves by not having to face how completely inadequate our defenses are. Which I guess makes spending on protection from terrorists like the ridiculous shoes I buy. I have nowhere to wear ostrich strappy sandals but I want them and if the occasion comes up, I will have them. In the meantime, I don't have the money I've spent and all the occasions which have come up have been decidedly inappropriate venues for ostrich footwear.

This is very much like the things we buy for defense. I've seen the (censored) protection head bubbles they pass out in sensitive areas, in the event of chemical attack. They are even less well-made, and more useless than a Jimmy Choo sandal. What happens after (censored) of, quote, "Adequate, if incomplete protection," you might ask, while holding one of the bubble hats? The answer is: Nothing. They let you breathe, more or less, for (censored). If the threat still hasn't cleared up after that, you die. Threats rarely clear up after (censored), so... yeah.... you know... and that is when the person explaining this to me stopped talking.

In fact, I can't even remember the last time anyone added up how much we've spent on this. Our public safety really has become like my never-opened credit card bill. "Just throw money at it sometimes and try not to think about it too much otherwise." We are running our nation's capital like I run my closet.

This can't be good.