i got a call from a friend of mine yesterday, telling me her power had been out for a while and asking if mine was as well. a little later i heard this was a major outage that spread across the southwest and the thought of "terrorism" crept unbidden into my mind. each september since 2001 we've the same "credible" information about some anniversary attack and it has never come to pass. i don't know whether such plans were nipped in the bud by our watchdogs or not, though it seems highly unlikely that they wouldn't splash their exploits across the media to cash in on their successes. i can't help but wonder if these exercises aren't more of a show of the power that our "representatives" and employees have over us than anything else.