Originally Posted by
bocastephen
There is a pretty wide lane between prudent measures to mitigate an obvious risk and measures taken to mitigate one with a low probability of fruition.
Of course. Then again, there is a wide lane between those that are statistically more common and those that, while less common, have a greater impact. What was the impact on this country after 9/11? Economically, socially, etc.?
The order is not relevant - unless you happened to be present when the document was written and asked the author if there was any intent with the order of the list. There is no ranking of importance - liberty and security do not outrank each other in the document, although I place liberty above security because without liberty, our country is no longer what it was created to be.
I would place security slightly above liberty because without a country there is no liberty. There is no "right to liberty." You can only have it if you can defend it.
I've never advocated giving up - but I have to say that a good number of our current aviation security efforts appear to be in that league - nothing but theater to keep the masses impressed, resulting in almost no quantifiable benefit - except by dumb luck.
I think wisely is self explanatory - for example, not investing millions in puffer machines to satisfy a politically motivated contract, and then abandoning what could be promising technology. Another example, not wasting untold billions to create the TSA (against the viewpoint of this Administration, no less) in order to unjustly enrich the pockets of a certain crooked Democratic Senator's wife and her cronies.
My point is that, while I think I might agree with you regarding much of what "wisely" would be, many other people would disagree, as we might disagree with their version of "wisely."
So, unless we wish to show ourselves the elite, the intelligentsia, and make the decisions for those little people too stupid to know "wisely" spending money from "unwisely," where does that leave us?
So we're not allowed to challenge these decisions? I call it as I see it. When I see something resembling a 'best effort' combined with realistic expectations and good spending habits, my criticism is likely to subside - although I reserve the right to call out things that just don't look right to me.
As well you should. My point is that there are a lot of people out there who disagree with you who think things are just hunky dory as they are right now.