Our strategies have to reflect a certain amount of hedging our bets. One of the things we do know is that they care about things other than just how much damage they do to us.

An earthquake won’t get smarter or stronger or change locations just because we protected our buildings. The question is, how do our strategies change when their goals and values are not the same as ours?...

The level of public fear and concern sometimes is disproportionate to the threat. I think sometimes, hopefully, I know more about which things to worry about.

Some of the recent expenditures (in security grants to cities and states) probably have more to do with pork-barrel politics than actually making us safer.