Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

No one is miminizing the death caused by terrorism but it just shows how skewed our perspective is. People are so concerned about being killed by a terrorist yet everyday they get on the road they are putting their life into jeopardy. A terrorist can send shockwaves throughout the country by killing a few people when thousands are being butchered every year on the highways.

We focus on the tragedy of every soldier killed in Iraq, yet we don't list the death toll everyday of people killed on the highways. Are soliders killed in Iraq more tragic than a person killed on the highway. Can you imagine what change there would be if everyday, for every person killed in a car accident, their picture was shown on the news.

Being a soldier is considered a high risk operation, yet how many people do you know who have dies in Iraq. How many people do you know that have died in a car accident?

Policy run by emotion is never a good thing. If you don't have the proper perspective on events you can't determine priorities very well.

In addition, you say terrorism is the decision by someone to kill someone else and that makes it different. What about 16,000 murders last year in the United States? Why don't we put their pictures up on the nightly news and have a daily toll of people murdered?

Security v. police state
 

Yeah, but this doesn't seem like a random stop to me. The bus was driving onto a closed Federal facility property. A closed property belonging to a Federal facility. Or, like, it sounded like that because there was a gate and there were guards. I mean, I think (str8 should be able to confirm) that people in cars (drivers and passengers) have to show ID to drive through the gates to get onto that huge WB property in Burbank (or wherever that is) and if my cat hadn't been at death's door, I would have had to have submitted copies of ID and my license plate number to go to some Oscar party that was at CBS.

Which is why I think it's unfortunate that a city bus's route goes through this locked-down property.

Security v. police state
 

Yes, Jefferson and Hamilton each believed that we should stop the pesky British and prevent them from searching out ammo dumps in Lexington and Concord.

It's kind of fun channelling the founders. I feel like Clarence Thomas.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

2. My wife and I have discussed this disconnect many times. Every year about 160,000 people in the US die of lung cancer - at least 80% are caused by smoking. That's about 145,000 preventable deaths each year, or almost 400 per day. Put another way, every week smoking kills as many people as died in the 9/11 attacks.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

I thought the 10:00 news was all about seeing pictures of everyone who has been murdered that day. It is in the area I live in. If you're interested in other news, tune in at 11:00 (unless it is a slow news day or you tune in to the local Fox affiliate).

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Every year millions of people die of natural causes. Is that why Bush wants to destroy nature?

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Someone in the anti-smoking camp recently was bitching about similar numbers. He said that the Native Americans can stop complaining about the disease that the Spanish brought to the new world that killed hundreds of thousands. Because the introduction of tobacco to Europe and European discendants has more than repaid the favor.

I remember that a helicopter crashed in Afghanistan killing four or five soldiers around the same time that the Columbia blew up. Seemed that the country cared a lot more about the latter deaths than the former. I think that what the deaths mean in the broader context tends to color how we view them.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Really? Somebody said this? I sincerely doubt that there were a whole lot of young warriors thinking, "Hey, I think I'll go over to the white man's settlement and pick up one of those smallpox-laden blankets - all my buddies have one already and I'll look cool in one. And if I get sick, I can just get rid of the virus anytime I feel like it !"

The settlers passed out deadly diseases to the natives without bothering to inform them - the natives didn't go down to the corner market to pay for for a pack of Virus Lights. Also, the diseases were invariably deadly to the natives, while the settlers were more likely to be immune. Hardly tit for tat.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

True. Did the settlers understand that they were conveying diseases, though?

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

In at least one case, yes, apparently.

"After first contacts with Europeans and Africans, the death of a large part of the native population of the New World was caused by Old World diseases. Smallpox was the chief culprit. On at least one occasion, germ warfare was attempted by the British Army under Jeffrey Amherst when two smallpox-infected blankets were deliberately given to representatives of the besieging Delaware Indians during Pontiac's Rebellion in 1763. That Amherst intended to spread the disease to the natives is not doubted by historians; whether or not the attempt succeeded is a matter of debate."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox

Also, I think if you look at the proportion of Euro pop killed by smoking vs. proportion of Native American pop killed by smallpox, you could slap that asshole silly.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Not originally, but smallpox-infected blankets were eventually used by colonists from all of the European powers as a deliberate weapon (in a version of germ warfare).

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

I'm not trying to excuse the horrible instances of deliberately exposing Native Americans to smallpox, etc. And I certainly don't mean to be callous about this, but wouldn't they have been exposed to the diseases sooner or later anyway?

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Wow. I didn't know this. That's pretty wild.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

PLEASE PAY ATTENTION!

white mad bad!

If white man never came here then no small pox would come. What right did white man have to come here?

like say a guy who got killed by bad american troops in Iraq- if we hadn't gone to Iraq he wouldn't die until he got wood chopped by the Hussein boys because he did a bad move on the soccer team- or maybe he had a hot daughter- whatever- White man bad!

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Yes. Just as we would have been exposed to tobacco sooner or later. But the germ warfare was pretty low.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Yup. I am chock-full of useless information.

I'd be living in a sod shack, eatin potatoes, if he hadn't come.
 

Still bitter that "Columbus Day" has become "Indigenous Peoples Day"?

I'd be living in a sod shack, eatin potatoes, if he hadn't come.
 

go back and read SHP's post. He seems as angry about small pox blanket as he is about abu gharib.

Do you think he has forgiven Cro-Magnon man for kicking neanderthal ass all those years ago?

I'd be living in a sod shack, eatin potatoes, if he hadn't come.
 

Me - angry? On a Friday? Perish the thought. Not unless the waitress is slow with my margarita.

Mostly I was taken with the comparison between smallpox and tobacco. If it inspired Hank to pen another Penske-like post, well that's just my little gift to the board.

I'd be living in a sod shack, eatin potatoes, if he hadn't come.
 

It's only Thursday.

ETA motherfucker, I forgot to go get flowers. Dammit.

I'd be living in a sod shack, eatin potatoes, if he hadn't come.
 

You can't seem to let that go. Look, some of you survived.

I'd be living in a sod shack, eatin potatoes, if he hadn't come.
 

You're right. Now I am well and truly pissed at that Cro-Magnon asshole.

I'd be living in a sod shack, eatin potatoes, if he hadn't come.
 

Penske-like posts carry the label. you wouldn't make it doing triage at the mental clinic. can't tell the varieties of illness.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Eh, it seems to me there might be a genuine moral issue regarding deliberate attempts to speed the process along. But as Hank so cleverly points out, it was a long time ago and mentioning it means you hate everything great and good about this proud land. Of ours.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

I crap bigger'n you

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

It is a national crisis. Nothing more hypocritical than a smoker talking about how he or she is worried about terrorism or Al Queda. Cigarettes are killing machines but everyone lights them up in movies. That is one thing that I hate about Hollywood - they still glamorize cigarettes. The only people in California that I know that smoke work in the entertainment industry. The same people that demand kisses on both cheeks when you meet them. I hate that.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Exactly.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

So you kiss the sides of the ashtray, instead of the middle of the ashtray itself. At least that's somethin'.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

1. I heard that Kaui had one of the only successful open sex societies. When Captian Cook first visited there were twenty thousand. After his men introduced STDs with in a year there were only 2,000.

2. I don't think you can really blame the colonists for the diseases (although the blanket stuff was pretty low). But the English were the worst offenders here. The spanish, portugese and French mixed with the local population (sure there was abuse but it was better). People of mixed decent got into political office, religious office - one of the earlier presidents of Mexico was a native American. The English, and people of English decent (which include me so I can say this without being considered a racist) just went in for the extermination thing. Australia, New Zealand, North America - no mixing just extermination and exclusion. Anglo Saxons don't play well with others.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

"No, only sailors wear condoms, baby."

"Not in the '90s Austin!"

"Well they should, those filthy buggers. They go from port to port."

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

germ warfare is the blanket stuff (if by "blanket stuff" you mean deliberately giving people stuff that would give them smallpox).

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

And, don't forget, swimming pools kill the children 100X more often than guns.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

If swimming pools are outlawed, only outlaws will have swimming pools.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

What if I'm worried that Al Qaeiuoandsometimesyda is going to blow up all of my smokes? I think that's a pretty legitimate concern.

Things not to do: Smuggle drugs in Singapore.

The deterrent effect certainly works on me. My international drug mule days are over.

Don't tell me that flying is dangerous....
 

Best....Saturday......Night.......Live.......Skit.......Ever. Before this I always thought Sting was a pretentious jerk and couldn't act. But after I saw him do Billie Idol I changed my mind.

Ever been? At the airport they bring out this electronic drug sniff and go over the luggage. I thought back on what all I used the bags for, and hoped there was some de minumus exception.

Signs all around the airport DEATH FOR DRUG POSSESION!

Scary place- but great food, and the streets are clean.

I got on a train to Bangkok in Singapore. At the station I just saw the newspaper headlines where they were executing a women for possessing some weed. She was a mother of three and was pregnant. They let her have the kid before they executed her. That was the headline.

So I get on the train and sit in my comparment and this dead head comes and sits in my compartment. He then proceeds to light up a joint.

To this day I am sure he still does not understand why I had an epileptic seizure, told him he had to be the dumbest man on the planet and left the compartment.

Awesome WWII museum on Sentoa island. Cool aquarium also.