Oh no! Not the Grotto of Redemption! Say it isn't so!

Whew, that was close. For a minute there I was worried. But, happily, the Grotto of Redemption in West Bend, Iowa, has been left on the state's official list of critical assets to be protected from terrorists at any cost - along with 1,129 other critica sites including the Field of Dreams movie site, the Boone Railroad Museum, the Soto National Wildlife refuge, the Snappy Popcorn Co., and a Krispy Kreme drive-through. (What have I been telling you about Iowa?)

"Our survivability depends on how well we can protect our critical infrastructure," says David Miller, the state's homeland-security chief, as quoted in this DeMoines Register article.

Alas, Iowa's list of critical places is still too long, says Ron Bee of the quaintly-named University of California-San Diego's Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. "If you have more than 50, 100 max, you're kidding yourself," he says.

Leaving aside the question "what's a guy in California doing telling Iowa what to do," it should be pointed out Iowa is making progress, having pared its list down from the original 11,600 sites Iowa listed in its initial stage of fright (or, a cynic might say, it's initial stage of grabbing for Federal funds - but certainly I would never say a thing like that).

A good song, though, is "Duke of Dubuque." I hope that's on the list.

(There is, apparently, also a real place called Dubuque. I've never been there but I saw it once from across the river in Galena, IL. The rest of Iowa I'm not so sure about.)

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