Alternate universe

Can truth be stranger than fiction? Indeed so. Make that, especially so, at the Department of Homeland Security. The cognoscenti will recall that the latest round of counterterrorism grants to regions around the country was to be more risk-based than ever before. Yet, somehow the areas encompassing the only two cities that have been attacked by terrorists - New York and Washington, DC - wound up taking a 40% cut yesterday when the allocations were announced. On the other hand, areas that any reasonable and unbiased person would agree are relatively low risk places like Omaha, Nebraska and Louisville, Kentucky, saw an increase in funding. Department spokesmen defend the indefensible with a straight face.

Either DHS officials really believe that this allocation of scarce homeland security dollars makes the country as safe as possible, or they don't and they're just claiming that it does. If the former, our security has been entrusted to incompetents (to use a polite word); if the latter, our security has been entrusted to dissemblers (to use another polite word).