This Woman's Intuition
Both my email and some of Dan Drezner's comments suggest that it's better to go with your gut on the ports issue, never mind the facts. Dan and I are supposedly "overly rational." One reader email recommends Malcolm Gladwell's Blink
All I can say is my gut reaction was, "This is stupid." And, now that the research is in, I'd say that gut reaction was right--as Glenn Reynolds, among others, has come to agree (the blogosphere at its best). When you've seen enough ill-founded hysteria over foreign ownership, you develop an instinct.