Yesterday I blogged about the idea of putting armed guards on BC Ferries, which I think is stupid. I love the Times Colonist’s article on the topic: Call for ferry marshals one more sign of post-911 paranoia.

Not sure what a terrorist would do on a B.C. Ferry. Budge in line at the cafeteria? Bring back the Sunshine Breakfast?

A determined hijacker could try ramming something, I suppose. Give ‘er enough gas, you might be able to take out that great little burger joint down by the dock on Pender Island. Hard to maintain the element of surprise chugging in at 14 knots, though. Not sure ferry-based terrorism would pass any reasonable cost-benefit analysis.

No matter. Reason has never played a big role in the Fear Industry, which never met a bogeyman it couldn’t keep at bay with a little help from the taxpayer. Or a lot of help from the taxpayer.

This is the legacy of 9/11: Publicly funded paranoia. Security spending that is wildly disproportionate to the probability of attack.

[The article quoted above is no longer available on the newspaper's website.]

One of the things I like about Gabriola is that we don’t have to deal with security theatre here. I hope BC Ferries won’t change that.

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