Risk Assessment

New Yorkers reacted with approval, weary resignation and dry humour to a new police policy of random bag searches in the subway, implemented after the attacks on London's transport system.

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"We just live in a world where, sadly, these kinds of security measures are necessary," Bloomberg said. "Are they intrusive? Yes, a little bit. But we are trying to find that right balance."

New Yorkers comply, with some grumbles, to subway searches

Given that it is already common to search one's belongings in airport terminals, this measure doesn't strike me as particularly out of place. I wonder, though, how long it will be before the average citizen will have to undergo interstate checkpoints and random residence searches. This does seem a bit far off, but who knows how far we'll go to protect ourselves. As for myself, I'll be digging a hole twenty feet in diameter, fifty feet deep, and lining it shock-resistant titanium alloy and duct tape. Of course I'll be stocking the place with Campbells Tomato Soup and Wallgreens brand water. What a crazy world we live in.

*Update -- How far we've gone thus far.