Threats, attacks, terror and freedom

Not in the mood to write about todays news. Not in the mood to analyse what's happened. I share Nosemonkey's cynicism about the timing of todays arrests and yesterdays speech by Reid. He knew it was happening. Bush got in on the act, making a blatent anti-Islamic speech, to which James L. Grant responded:

Almost 3000 people died September 11th.

They tell us to be afraid. I'm sure some of you recall that I often poke jibes at the bullshit society of fear here in the USA. It's been going on a long time, but it's been substantially worse since the towers fell.

They tell us to be afraid of Extremists for Allah. They tell us to be afraid of planes. They tell us to be afraid of buses. They tell us to be afraid of bombs. They tell us to be afraid of suitcase nukes. They tell us to fear death from above, fear the breown people, fear Islam, fear those who HATES TEH FREEDOM, fear the NAIL CLIPPERS and BOX CUTTERS, fear the MIDDLE EAST, FEAR MOTHERFUCKERS, BATHE IN IT, BREATHE IT, DREAM IT, BE BORN IN FEAR AND FUCKING DIE IN FEAR.


3000 people die of smoking-related disease every 3 days.

3000 people die in car accidents roughly every 29 days.

3000 people burn to death approximately every year or so, give or take some, in accidents involving smoke and fire. Every year, over and over.

And then one day you wake up and realize that you're less likely to die from a terrorist attack than you are from an infected wisdom tooth.


And you don't have to be afraid.

Right about then is when you take a look at the media and you get really, really pissed off.

Welcome to the fold, Rubix.

The Politics of Fear is getting to me. I grew up with the real and present danger of the IRA, and those nasty communists with their ICBM nukes. Now, in the absense of a new state based enemy, we're to fear "global islamic terror", and fear it so much that we're to give up a lot of the basic fundamental freedoms that make this country, and indeed much of the west.

The terrorist threats of AQ and other groups is real. But it's less of a threat to me, directly, than the threat of a car hitting me as I cross the road. I can directly control or stop neither.

That this plot has been caught, and stopped, within the existing framework of laws should show people that we don't need new laws and restrictions to catch the bastards, we need better resourced and trained officers within the existing framework. John Reid wants us to make more sacrifices in the name of security?

Fuck off John Reid. I won't give in to terrorism and abandon the basic principles of this country. That you are planning to shows that you have no principles whatsoever.

Technorati tags: Terrorism, freedom, threat levels, attacks