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

The highways are a meat grinder but no one seems to notice.



Death toll from road accidents 390 times that from terrorism: study

The body count from road accidents in developed economies is 390 times higher than the death toll in these countries from international terrorism, says a study appearing in a specialist journal, Injury Prevention. In 2001, as many people died every 26 days on American roads as died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11, it says.


Researchers led by Nick Wilson of Otago University, New Zealand, trawled through a US State Department database of deaths caused by international terrorism, and compared this with an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development database on road crash deaths among 29 OECD countries.

The study covered two years, in 2000 and 2001.

The authors acknowledge the widespread emotional, political and economic impacts of terrorism, but they also point out the enormous difference in scale between the two death tolls.

"Policymakers need to be aware of this when allocating resources to preventing these two avoidable causes of mortality," they say.

Security v. police state
 

Pretty much the same thing as finger prints. I got finger printed when I became a member of the bar. I don't feel threatened at all that my fingerprints are out there. My fingerprint or retinal scan information does not scare me as much as my buying patterns from my credit cards. Yet anyone can get that information.

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

This is another of those comparisons that I just don't get. I do not care if there are more deaths from road accidents than Soldiers killed in Iraq or than people killed at the World Trade Center.

Terrorism and War are decisions by people to kill others, and have to be dealt with on their own on that basis. We are a country that cherishes the individual and the individual's achievement and liberty; we should not bury ourselves in statistics to minimize the horor of any one individual killing another individual.

Security v. police state
 

While I am anything but an originalist, I usually think anything that both Hamilton and Jefferson would have objected to can't be good. I believe both Hamilton and Jefferson would have objected to random stops and checks.

Of course, we know that Adams would have insisted that he had the right to wander the streets of Boston dressed like an Indian without those damn British soldiers stopping him. Do you think Adams would have liked the Village People?

Security v. police state
 

I do patent work for a company that makes remote keyless entry systems (key fobs) and garage door openers. People steal the signals so they can break in- Why go through all that bother- two words CROW BAR.

We also do work for a company that makes security systems for ATMs.

You wouldn't believe the shit crooks do. There is a wave in Canada where they hide tiny cameras in the ATM vestibule to learn your PIN. brave new world.

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.