Byzantine Watch

John Tierney, who is fast becoming my new favorite writer (as Tom Friedman is on leave after continuing to struggle in the clutch when dealing with Iraq), successfully uses the word byzantine in an excellent and even-handed editorial today. He contrasts two styles of disaster preparedness:

Instead of relying on a "Good Samaritan" policy - the fantasy in New Orleans that everyone would take care of the neighbors - the Virginia rescue workers go door to door. If people resist the plea to leave, Mr. Judkins told The Daily Press in Newport News, rescue workers give them Magic Markers and ask them to write their Social Security numbers on their body parts so they can be identified... Yet Mr. Bush, with approval from conservatives who should have known better, reacted to Sept. 11 by centralizing disaster planning in Washington. He created the byzantine Homeland Security Department, with predictable results last week.

Bush could have done better with a Department of Scaring Sense Into Stupid People.