Be terrified! You will be killed by terrorists, or; hope you like your home golf course, because that's all you should be playing

Normally I read Chris Baldwin’s forays into political thinking and smile, and think to myself, “hey, why aren’t I on the talking-points e-mail list?”

Ok, I’m sorry. I’m just joking. This is not a time to joke. This is a time to be afraid, to be extremely afraid. Because while the odds of you being killed in a terrorist attack are roughly the same as being getting killed by lightning, only one thing is certain:

You are going to be Killed!

Be happy you’re alive, be afraid, and what do you need to fly for anyway? Isn’t there a golf course down the street? Not that you shouldn’t be afraid while golfing, as well, or at least be reminded to be afraid at a golf Web site.

“Now that the terrorist plot to blow 10 passenger jets out of the sky is out in all of it chilling detail,” writes Baldwin.

Followed by:

“George W. Bush sounded the right tone with his we’re still at war comments.”

From the U.S. to the U.K, lock your doors and duct-tape the windows. The terrorists are sizzling, the plots are chilling, and you’re at war!

Luckily, while news organizations like CNN and Fox News and newspapers blast headlines at you in 310-point lettering about the thwarted terrorist plot, and while Baldwin nudges travelers that they should be afraid, being we’re at war and all, the average traveler isn’t falling for it. There’s been a slew of recent articles about travelers who have caught on to this whole “BE AFRAID!” game.

And rightly so. Because while there is no doubt there are those out there who want to cause harm to the Western Word – there always have been – their success rate remains low. And didn’t we just see a couple days ago that good intelligence work can thwart their plans? Wasn’t that what we should have gotten from this, rather than a “stark reminder” that terrorists want to kill you?

Here’s a good article to digest from The Cato Institute, whose motto: “Individual Liberty, Limited Government, Free Markets and Peace” reminds me quite a bit of the Republican party my dad used to love as opposed to the “Squelched Liberty, Unlimited Government, Controlled Markets and Constant War” Republicans we have now.

“Even with the September 11 attacks included in the count, the number of Americans killed by international terrorism since the late 1960s (which is when the State Department began counting) is about the same as the number of Americans killed over the same period by lightning, accident-causing deer, or severe allergic reaction to peanuts,” the article notes.

The article also quotes a passage from Arizona Sen. John McCain’s book, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life. Keep in mind, McCain is no faux-conservative. Ask his constituents. It’s very possible, in fact, he’ll be the next President of the U.S., as voters not beholden to ideologies find him to be a stand-up guy who speaks his mind and can play nicely with the other side. Plus, this is a man with a serious war record. He understands fear at a level the vast majority of us could never understand. Here’s something he had to say.

“Get on the damn elevator! Fly on the damn plane! Calculate the odds of being harmed by a terrorist! It’s still about as likely as being swept out to sea by a tidal wave. Suck it up, for crying out loud. You’re almost certainly going to be okay. And in the unlikely event you’re not, do you really want to spend your last days cowering behind plastic sheets and duct tape? That’s not a life worth living, is it?”

Is it?

Don’t be afraid.

–WKW