TSA's Cheese Shop Sketch

"SHUT THAT BLOODY BOUZOUKI OFF!"

I know it's a few days old now, like a stinky Limburger left on the porch, but I'm intrigued about the TSA fake cheese bomb story because there hasn't been any collective backlash about the evident facts that:

• Homeland Security/TSA /FBI fabricated a story via internal bulletin about possible terrorist "dry runs" in San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore using “wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components and dense clay-like substances, including block cheese....The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern.”
  
• The "story" was unclassified for media consumption
• Media hyped the "story", using its polished combination of fear and lack of follow-up reportage
• Our national security juggernaut admitted it made up the story
• CNN thought it was funny
• American life continued on as if nothing had happened

Well actually life in America continued on just like it did when the Saddam/Al Qaeda link was disproven and when no WMDs were found, much of the population ignored the fabrication and continued to worry about cheese and wires. I'm sure if asked, a high percentage of U.S. citizens today would only recall the threat and not the hoax.

Hmmm...what could this all mean? I tend to shy away from conspiracy thinking (I know, a blogger who isn't into conspiracy theory is like a steroid salesman who avoids baseball players), but it appears the only "dry run" here was a test of our government/media fear-hyping capability. And, thanks be to TV ratings, we passed with flying colors. We can have fear up to color "Hatred" in a New York Minute.

George Orwell must be laughing somewhere.

And speaking of dear 'ol George, I have a beef about some Orwellian word usage. Since when did "homeland" start to replace "United States", "America", and "this country" as terms to define this here place? For example, the TSA bulletin "clarifying" its earlier bogus cheese bulletin states:

"There is no intelligence that indicates a specific or credible threat to the homeland."

Maybe it's just me, but that "homeland" thing is scarier than any collection of cheese and wires. When your government is one slippery verbal step from using "fatherland/motherland" in official bulletins it's really time to be fearful.

P.S.: Why San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore? If you ever want to see Internet Conspiracy Theory Dynamics in action, Google some relevant terms about it. The human mind is an amazing thing. Especially when it's covered in a snug tin-foil hat.