Risks from terrorism

SusanG over at DailyKos has the right idea. Chertoff, Bush & Co. haven't gone far enough to protect us from the terrors of terrorism by taking away our water and toothpaste. They should go all the way. Outlaw plane travel. Outlaw tall buildings. Outlaw congregating in large groups, such as football games. Etc., etc.

I suspect this post was triggered by an earlier post at DailyKos by DarkSyde, who noted the irrationality of the fear campaign that's being conducted over terrorism. Just to carry that thought a bit further, last year, which was a fairly typical year, only 56 private Americans died from terror attacks, worldwide. None died in the US. That compares with an average of 73 Americans who die each year from lightning strikes.

Even if we look at the death rate from 9/11, which totaled about 3,000, it pales in comparison with the number of deaths each year from cardiovascular disease (910,614 in 2003), cancer (554,643 in 2002), accidents (105,695 in 2002), and HIV AIDS (13,544 in 2002) [Stats here].

The typical American has a far higher risk of accidental death when he climbs into his car than from terror attacks.

And, it's pretty clear that the people who seem to fear the attacks the worst are those at the least risk – those who live in small towns in the mid-west and in the south. New Yorkers, whose risk certainly ranks among the highest go about their daily busines more or less fearlessly.

No death is trivial, but lets face it, terrorism is one of the lesser risks we face.