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No public official here worries aloud that Austin is high on Osama bin Laden's hit list. This is not a center of national commerce, military might or political power -- it's the self-styled "live music capital of the world." There have been no fiery attacks, no terrorist cells uncovered, no lethal spores found in the mail. Half a continent away from the focal points of horror -- from the devastation at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the anthrax deaths in Washington and Florida -- Austin is outwardly at peace. One is [Michael Frick]'s new group, which is officially called the Terrorism Response Task Force. But members are so immersed in disaster discussions -- drafting protocols for handling hundreds of casualties from a terrorist poisoning of the water supply, for example, or a lethal gas attack on Austin -- that the phrase "weapons of mass destruction" has become part of their daily vernacular. Across the nation these days, firefighters do more than fight fires -- they help with "homeland defense" and make "biological threat assessments." [Alex Jones]'s oddly entertaining cable show, which runs live for 2 1/2 hours on Thursdays, has made the exuberant, 27-year-old conspiracy theorist a minor celebrity in Austin, a cult favorite named best local TV personality earlier this month in a readers' poll by the Austin Chronicle, a hip alternative weekly.
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