Politicians in general, and predominantly Republicans in specific, seem bent on creating the illusion of safety—especially from terrorists. The latest entry in this silly competition comes from California Assemblyman, Joel Anderson, who has introduced a bill requiring online global mapping services (e.g. Google Earth) to blur images of schools, hospitals, and public buildings.

His tortured reasoning is that potential terrorists could use these images to plot attacks by locating air ducts or other structural details of the building. This is akin to outlawing rocks being used in landscaping because they could be used to break a window. Anyone with any amount of determination to break your window will bring their own rock.

We’re talking about public buildings here. Buildings which anyone may drive by or walk into. Buildings where it would not be uncommon to see a nearby tourist snap a few photos. Buildings which often have professional photos of themselves proudly displayed on their own websites. Does anyone seriously think a terrorist, planning an attack requiring detailed knowledge of a building, would be deterred by the fact that he had to do on-site reconnaissance first?

“Oh man, I really wanted to blow up that school, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to drag my butt of the couch to go look at it first. Maybe there’s photos of a Wal-Mart online instead.”

This level of naivete displayed by elected officials is more than a little disquieting. Even if the legislator in question was himself this ignorant, wouldn’t someone on his staff have taken him aside and quietly noted how pointless this is? The alternative, of course, is that that Anderson and his ilk are completely aware that this is pointless legislation, but harbor a belief that their constituents are not bright enough to realize that. The result being at election time they can wrap themselves in the story of how they are making the country safe for you and your children in an attempt to garner votes.

So it would seem that these officials are either themselves ignorant, or believe the people they represent are. I think that either reason is ample cause to invite them to an early retirement from public service. We deserve better.