Does Homeland Security Understand the Laws of Physics?

As I stated in my post “What is a libertarian socialist anyway???” I have come to realize that most of the frenzy over security in the post-9/11 world really stems from a poor understanding of the laws of physics. At times, I wonder if anyone in Homeland Security actually passed college physics.

I’m an engineer, so in college I had to take a lot of physics courses. One after another after another. But you can’t build a bridge or building if you don’t understand physics, particularly the law of gravity. Gravity separates the engineers from those with a poor understanding of physics – if you don’t do the calculations correctly, your bridge or building will fall down!

Some of the early proclamations from Homeland Security seemed to come from folks who failed physics. [To be fair, I’m sure there are a lot of folks there that do understand physics, but they’re not the ones coming out with some of these statements.]

There’s the recommendation of having 3 days of water on hand at all times. Now this may apply to those with a well and electric pump. But I live in a city whose water systems works by gravity. Most big cities have water systems that work by gravity. This is an old technology. The Romans understood it and built great aqueducts. The Incas in South American did the same.

There’s nothing that the terrorists can do to disrupt the law of gravity. Even if blow up something, gravity still works. The water still flows. So why do I need all this bottled water?

[More to follow]