Dust and Smoke

Interesting little article in The Nation about a chance encounter in a Boston hotel between the writer, 'Slam Dunk', and Gore Vidal as a result of a false fire alarm. A good quick read. He leaves us with a point to ponder:

[...] He told me it was a faulty smoke detector on the third floor. It had mistaken simple dust for smoke.

It's often that way with intelligence, confusing dust with smoke, and for the rest of us, not knowing when to heed the alarm and when to ignore it, a question that resonates well beyond the Charles Hotel. After so many false alarms, the system itself becomes suspect, and even after the "all clear," there really is no going back.

Obviously a metaphor for this administration, but to 'dust and smoke' he should have added 'mirrors'.

To this I add my own metaphor: there's always those sickos who pull the fire alarm just to see the pretty red fire engines come, and who get off on all the confusion and excitement, never caring that the firefighters might be called upon for a real emergency elsewhere. Just like Bush.