Sometimes you wonder how the government ever gets anything done…

DHS is the “Department of Homeland Security” a catch-all behemoth of an organization that includes Customs, Immigration, Border Patrol, Coast Guard, Airport Security, and who knows what all else.

This morning a Customs Service helicopter was on what I assume was a routine patrol of the harbor.  They called in a report that in our marina, and the larger one just up the coast,  there were “boats flying foreign flags.”

Two hours later, (They had to drive from Newark) a pair of armed officers show up to walk the dock and find the boat in question.  There were none.  But for a moment, they thought they had found their quarry!  A sailboat with a foreign name!  No flag flying, but you know those sneaky foreigners!  Oh, no…  wait a minute…  It’s from Laguna Beach.  (They had seen Harmonie.)

Other than the silliness of two agents spending most of their day on a wild goose chase for some unspecified foreign sailboat that was up to some unspecified no good, there is the total inefficiency of the operation.

How hard would it be for the helicopter spotter to reach out the window with his cell phone, take a photo, draw a little circle around the boat in question, and email it to the boots on the ground instead of sending them to look for an unspecified boat among hundreds in the marina?

Why don’t I feel so much safer?