If it were up to me, I'd preserve social security but gut medicare. You get more happiness per buck by feeding healthy people than by keeping sick people alive.

I suspect the lockdown was because this was so unusual for Boston. If they got a lot more terrorist attacks, they'd quickly learn to take them in stride. It's sort of like southern towns closing all the schools when they get a sprinkling of snow.

In college, I stopped by the fraternity storeroom whenever I wanted to hear people ranting about things. After college I subscribed to The Economist and Science News instead. Then I did just Science News, since I never got through The Economist, especially all the wars in Africa. Then I switched to Slashdot.org instead of Science News, which had more on computers and less on microbes. Then I switched from Slashdot.org to ScienceDaily.com, which has better and more timely coverage of science.

I still occasionally look at Slashdot.org when I want to see people ranting about things.