I watched parts of CNN’s documentary last night. While it did provide more depth than the “they want to kill us because of our freedom” mantra we typically hear, it still seemed superficial. Here we have reporters who have supposedly been monitoring the guy for nearly 10 years, and they don’t offer much more than general observations on how he gave up wealth to wonder in the mountains in pursuit of his spiritually-motivated war. That’s really insightful.
It’s interesting that in a program supposedly intended to help us get to know the enemy, CNN only plays a handful of very brief clips from bin Laden interviews. I guess they had to run it through the politically-correct sanitizer before releasing it for public consumption. Or are we still worried about encoded messages buried in eight-year old interviews?
Threat To Americans
Which is responsible for more American deaths last year?
(a) The terrorist who want to kill every one of us
(b) Motor vehicles
If you only watch national TV news, you’ll undoubtedly be surprised to learn that it’s (b):
The number of people killed on U.S. roadways in 2005 climbed to the highest level in 15 years, an increase tied to rising deaths among motorcyclists and pedestrians, the federal government reported yesterday.
A total of 43,443 people died in traffic accidents last year, up 1.4 percent from the previous year, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. The agency said the motorcycle death toll rose for the eighth consecutive year.
Full report here (.pdf file).
Let me get this straight: since 2000, we’ve had what, 5,000 Americans killed from terrorism? And in the last year alone, over 43,000 were killed out on the roads.
But if you were a Martian whose only contact with Earth was in watching MSNBCNNFox, which of the two would you think was more dangerous to human life? Terrorism, of course. It’s terror all the time. Terra, terra, terra. If there’s not an alleged terrorism plot for the news networks to cover, they’re talking about potential future plots. “Are we safe?”
I’m not suggesting that terrorism isn’t something to be concerned about (especially if you’re a public policymaker). But how about some perspective on things? You know, a “fair and balanced” look at risk. Statistics suggest that 1 in 84 people will die in a motor-vehicle accident. Perhaps if the media devoted more air time to this threat, people would be more conscientious of road safety.
There’s another element to this. Not only are people far more likely to have their safety threated by a vehicle than by a terrorist, but the former is something you may actually be able to control. If a bomb goes off nearby, there might not be much you can do about it. You might simply be at the wrong place at the wrong time. But you can minimize the threat of auto accidents by taking precautions (e.g., seat belts) and driving safely (don’t drink or speed).
So ultimately, which of the two threats is it more useful to fret about?
Paris, Here I Come!!
In the 2005 Tour de France with 189 starters, here’s the profile of the average rider:
* Height — 1.79 meters (5 feet, 10.4 inches)
* Weight — 71 kilograms (156.2 pounds)
* Resting heart rate — 50 bpm
* Lung capacity — 5.69 liters (1.48 gallons)
Me:
–Height: 5 feet, 9.5 inches (?) [it’s been a while since my last laser measurement)
–Weight: 156 pounds (per doctor’s visit this week)
–Resting heart rate: the machine at Wal-Mart said it’s 39, but it has to be wrong. Last time I checked manually it was in the 48-50 bpm range
–Lung capacity: I have no idea
So there you have it, I’m the mirror image of a Tour de France rider. All I need to do is to be able to ride a tiny bit faster (easy enough said) and next year I can be ridding down the Champs-Elysées.
Linkery
Russia overtakes Saudi Arabia as world’s leading oil producer.
Face of baby Jesus found in ultrasound.
Las Vegas to end 24 hour operation of its marriage license office. Score one for the sanctity of marriage budget cuts.
Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) talks of the Iraqi “miracle.” Yes, it is rather incredible. With thousands of Americans, ten thousands of Iraqis, and hundreds of billions spent on the adventure, we’re only having a few dozen people being killed in the streets every day. Imagine how things would be if this were only a “normal” operation, without this miraculous success.
Refining Capacity
I don’t know anything about oil refinery operations, but for all the talk we hear of needing more refineries, it sure seems to take a long time to get existing units back on line after a shutdown.
One year to restart production?
Marathon of Hope
I came across the story of Terry Fox, a 22 year old who ran a 3,339 mile fund raiser after losing his right leg to cancer. (Shortly thereafter he died from the disease.)
Whenever I don’t feel like going out to do a few miles, I only need think of stories like this for motivation.