Plot foiling growth industry

CW FISHER. Imagine a world where terrible things almost never quite happen due to the uncanny abilities of government plot foilers. For the price of an imaginative story, any government could become the savior of its people overnight. Bush claimed a foiled plot saved Los Angeles but dropped the assertion when pressed for details. Britain did a better job when it imprisoned 22 terrorists with plans to bring down multiple trans-Atlantic flights between the UK and US. The plot, said to involve liquid explosives, is probably real but could just as easily be fake. Who'd know the difference? Once you've got the story, all you need are suspects. Pluck them off the street, put your word against theirs, they meet their fates and everybody wins. In today's foiled plot, the enemy is toothpaste and toiletries, any liquid or gel that could be mixed with another to create an explosion big enough to rip a plane out of the sky. The mind immediately thinks Listerine, but current guessing is on gel explosives such as those seen on TV. Smear this on that and voila! Kaboom! It's just that easy. On any given day an infinite number of events did not happen. Why not celebrate the best of them?