Ministry of Homeland Security at Hogwarts

In the course of rereading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix I felt compelled to write something. I've also submitted this as a review to Amazon.com

This is a very difficult book for me to read. While it does advance the story arc and realistically presents the 15-year-olds, the introduction of the political aspects of society too closely parallels the United States in the early 21st Century. The nightmare of the government manipulating the press and education is all too real already. Ms. Rowling does her Swiftian best holding up the mirror while remaining true to the context in which she's writing.

High Inquisitor Umbridge, the microcosm's John Ashcroft, Tom Ridge, and Alberto Gonzales, frightens and appalls me. Classic Aristotelian Pathos. Brilliant engaging of our emotions.

May we learn something from it.

There's a Lot of Money To Be Made Scaring People

The Department of Homeland Security is the greatest boondoggle in recent American history. Think up something plausible that scares people and they're all over it. It doesn't have to work, necessarily. Get the money up front for development. Go through several design revisions. Keep it in testing. Wait for them to change the requirements. Repeat.

This is a mighty big udder. During the Civil War President Lincoln was confronted with hordes of office seekers and had just so many offices available, "There are too many pigs for the tits." There are plenty of tits when you don't have to really pay for anything. Later generations will take care of it. Or Iraqi oil money.

At the airport we see the "yellow jackets" at the curb, chasing away cars. Inside we see the reason there are so many Help Wanted signs at the mall. Look at the people wearing TSA uniforms. Do you feel safer?

Thinking > Believing

It’s time to start thinking, and cut back on the believing. The country was misled and bullied into an unnecessary war and the party behind it needs to be sent home. Replace the Republicans who would have us believe that the only Freedom that matters is Freedom as they define it (freedom to carry any kind of gun, freedom to pollute, freedom to torture, freedom to bully, freedom to exclude, freedom to suppress dissent in the name of freedom, freedom to divert education spending to the military, you get the picture) with folks who might be a little more thoughtful. Let’s have a congress that stands up to Karl Rove and the rest of those who have been systematically destroying the my America.

Then again, there are a lot of people who believed the President Clinton was destroying their America.

Why it stands to reason that Bush is the Devil (using a definition from Broadcast News):
“He'll get a job where he'll influence a great and god-fearing nation. He'll never do an evil thing. He'll never deliberately hurt a living thing. He'll just, bit by little bit, lower our standards where they're important.”