DISASTER PREPARATION: Reliance on imports leaves U.S. vulnerable to disasters, report says.

An increasing reliance on imports, combined with the fraying of the nation’s power grid, highways and rail lines, leaves the United States more vulnerable to the damage of natural disasters and terrorist attacks, according to a report to be released Wednesday by former homeland security secretary Tom Ridge.

The report, which Ridge shared with homeland security officials Tuesday morning, warns that the offshoring of U.S. factories means that rebounding from a catastrophe will be more difficult because so many critical supplies would have to come from overseas.

If only we’d used that stimulus money for infrastructure-hardening instead of frittering it away on green payoffs to Obama supporters. But that would have produced too many jobs for burly men, and we can’t have that. All this stuff I’m reading about the grid has got me a lot more interested in owning a generator, though.