Terrorism – Let’s get over it

I have often said that, although it is horrible to those affected, terrorism is really a drop in the bucket. Over-reaction is the buzz today. This paper by the Cato institute should be required reading for everyone. I wish the media would get the message. But lawyers and courts make us all victims too. When was the last time anyone you knew was poisoned by a product tampered with in a store? But how many times have you started to squeeze out some mustard or pour some honey and realized you had to open it up and remove the “tamper proof seal?”

“Some sort of terrorist inoculated Tylenol capsules with cyanide in 1982, killing seven people. However, that frightening and much-publicized event (it generated 125,000 stories in the print media alone and cost the manufacturer more than $1 billion) failed to inspire much in the way of imitation.”

In 1982, some demented soul murdered 7 people. Since 1982, we all have been tearing through seals on every damned product under the sun, which annoys us and costs us and the product maker. It’s also likely there just to try to keep you from suing them when some other retard poisons you. That’s right. If Sue Bee honey didn’t put that seal on there and you died because a murderer put poison in your honey, you’d likely try to own their company. That’s pathetic. But that’s life in the USA. We go to war in two countries, search every shoe that comes on a plane, x-ray and feel up luggage, check for metal on people, seal all products, scare and annoy the crap out of everybody for what? Next to nothing. The terrorists have indeed won. No, they didn’t blow us all up. They just made us all so scared of a few dozen guys in the desert that we do all sorts of stupid, costly and annoying things, to ourselves and others. And, I might add, do all these things rather than help out our fellow Americans and humans. Taking money out of positive and helpful pursuits and into all sorts of things that help no one. By the USA declaring war on the terrorists, we have made them our equal. Equal? Yes. As we have not beaten them and never will. They are our nations enemy. And we can no more win against them than we can catch every person on the most wanted list or stop all people from getting hit by lightning or prevent some idiot from removing a tamper proof seal and injecting poison in the ketchup. We have declared war on a few dozen individuals, not a country. It can never end. And as long we continue to choose to fear them and plan our lives around them, they will always exist and they will always “own” us. Every time you tear that seal off your mustard, remember everything that has and continues to be wasted in the name of unwarranted fear.

UPDATE August 13th: I like this article. Something I have said all along. You can’t stop them, just inconvience them, whether it’s terrorists or high school shooters. And this article. Good fodder for conspiracy folks, but it is in the main media…  

August 16th: Nice to see more people using intelligence in this theater of terror. I wish our President had used some a few years ago before he lead us down this path. Here is a nice article by a chemistry student about the ridiculous possibility of the liquid explosives and the ridiculous idea we can stop the imaginitive terrorist.

I like this article too. It’s by a nationally recognized security expert. Sense. We need more people making sense.