Much has been made over the way anti-terrorism funding has been doled out. Small states often find themselves buried in funding, and who’s going to turn it down? Lloyd B. Omdahl, a former lieutenant governor in North Dakota, said it made no sense that his state was among the domestic security winners – the state received $91 for each resident over the last two years – when the only plausible terrorist targets, he said, are two air bases that are already protected by the military. Mr. Omdahl, a Democrat who is a professor emeritus at the University of North Dakota, said the fight against terrorism had not resonated with enough Americans to cause a public outcry for change. Short of that, he said, there is no incentive for elected representatives to rock the boat. “No amount of logic will change opinions under those circumstances,” Mr. Omdahl said. And so we get this: [The] Northwest Arctic Borough, a desolate area of 7,300 people that straddles the Arctic Circle, recently stocked up on $233,000 worth of emergency radio equipment, decontamination tents, headlamps, night vision goggles, bullhorns – even rubber boots. Even in post 9/11 America, pork still trumps rational risk assessment. Then again, breaking from our usual routine would mean that we let the terrorists win.