ISN'T THIS WHERE WE CAME IN? - AT 8:02 P.M. ET:  Please read:

LOS ANGELES (AP) | Schoolchildren dove under tables in Los Angeles and sirens sounded in San Francisco on Thursday as California practiced how to survive a major earthquake.

"Drop, cover and hold on," dozens of fourth-graders chanted just before the announcement of a simulated earthquake sent them scurrying under tables at the California Science Center at 10:15 a.m.

At the same moment, nearly 7 million other people up and down the state were expected to do the same while emergency agencies and hospitals began response drills and mass casualty exercises.

COMMENT:  As Stonewall Jackson liked to say, "Commendable, very commendable." 

We declare it good that California holds earthquake drills.  But wait a second.  Isn't this exactly what the left ridiculed when it was applied to the possibility of a nuclear attack?  Remember "Duck and cover"?  We held duck and cover drills when I was in elementary school in New York.  It was common sense.  No one could rule out a nuclear attack on the United States, and millions of lives could be saved by basic civil defense measures, like duck and cover.

But no more.  Isn't even mentioned.  At a time when terrorist groups are trying to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, we are ignoring civil defense.  Sure, an earthquake drill can double, to some degree, as a civil defense exercise, but political correctness doesn't permit the terms to be mixed together.  Might offend someone planning to attack us.

In parts of San Francisco, if a nuclear device went off, a portion of the populace would probably start singing, "Here comes the sun, here comes the sun."

Weird, man.

Bring back "duck and cover."  We may need it.

October 16, 2009