At the left, you can see a possibly ill-conceived advertisement by the Department of Homeland Security encouraging citizens to have an emergency plan. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having an emergency plan. However, it appears that the DHS has some interesting ideas as to what needs to be included in an emergency plan, or even what constitutes an emergency.

For example, at the right is one possible interpretation, involving something that might be an emergency on your part, and might even be one on mine, but it certainly does not represent the level of emergency that one normally makes plans for.

(I have also altered the proposed solution to include a course of action which might involve learning more about many diverse subjects, ranging from emergency planning through the history of government and the rights of the governed. I personally suspect that there might be more useful information to be found at a government-sponsored institution that does not wholeheartedly espouse the remarkable effects of duct tape and plastic upon the safety of the economy citizenship.)

A less charitible soul might wonder why the DHS finds it so important to know where everyone's mother lives. Perhaps this is the sort of useful information that they hope never to use, but might just have recourse to if the situation absolutely required it.

Take that last thought as you will. I'm going to get off of my soapbox before I start fulminating about states rights and Jefferson's Grand Experiment.

Enough of the Public Service Announcements!