Time for a reality check

Blogs and social media is abuzz this morning about a 'huge' purchase of ammonium nitrate by the Department of Homeland Security. Over half a ton! And some of them take their worry to the next level, expressing fear some kind of false-flag incident may be the motive for the buy.

Here's one example. And another.

Alex Jones' Prison Planet was apparently among the first to sound the alarms.

How huge is 700 pounds? In my head, I see nine  80-pound bags of fertilizer at Home Depot. Yes, the composition may be different, but it's a great indicator of the mass we're talking about.

This amount sounds in line with sniffer dog training. We have no idea how many dogs are involved in this training, or what the time frame is. It's likely small samples would be parceled out and dispatched around the country where bomb sniffing dogs are trained and deployed. That's a lot of airport, ports or border crossings, and perhaps local police departments.

Do our conspiracy hounds who fret over a false flag blast of some kind think DHS (or any agency intent on such a scheme) would follow all the proper advertising protocols to acquire the bomb making materials? That makes about as much sense as expecting armed felons to follow lawful firearms restrictions.

It's great to be vigilant, and express some skepticism of what seems to be an ever-growing government. But some are crossing the threshold into moonbattery.