Why It's Patently Stupid To Talk about How You Have More Chance of Dying in a Car Accident or From an Armed Toddler than from a Terrorist Attack

Here's why this is PATENTLY STUPID.

It doesn't matter if there are only a few terrorists and a few Americans that get killed by them.

Unlike ALL THESE OTHER THINGS terrorist attacks are either totally unpredictable but also totally unpreventable -- without drastic means that may not even work.

Armed toddlers are fixable -- don't keep guns in your home, period.

Lightning? Er, don't go out in the rain. Stay away from trees?

Lawnmowers can be maintained so they don't kill you, I should think.

Falling out of bed? Have a lower bed and don't take drugs or alcohol.

Being shot by another American? Sure, this is both unpredictable and hard to prevent -- but not as hard as terrorism because we can control guns and we do have gun laws -- those things don't work on terrorists. And the smug "only outlaws have guns" nostrum overlooks that police can search and disarm outlaws and reduce homicides, which is what they did in NYC, like it or not, with stop and search. They can't do that with terrorists as they never know who they are in advance! Even when they've arrested them in the past! Think about that!

Terrorism is DIFFERENT. Terrorism is predicated on being unexpected, unpredictable, damaging, illegal, unheeding of any humane concern.

In Europe and the Middle East, terrorism has taken many, many more victims than in the US and therefore it is simply churlish and inhumane to spout nonsense about lightning and armed toddlers. Hundreds have been blown away in a matter of months in Turkey. They're suppose to care that they might get struck by lightning or killed by another Turk with a gun -- or a toddler -- when they have THAT? Don't be *fucking ridiculous*.

It's ok to call out the devastating awfulness of terrorism above all other forms of violence AND it's fine to call out its perpetrators, have fierce deterrence, and battle them like warriors in a war. Because it is a war.

You can put into perspective your own fears that terrorism might happen to YOU, unlike a brick falling on your head. But it still means it happens to OTHERS and YOUR COUNTRY and you need to CARE about that and use measures of deterrence and resistance. These kinds of charts -- especially coming from the hard left HRW -- mean dulling and diminishing surveillance and anti-terror laws in the name of human rights a la Snowden, and I'm definitely not for that. Your right to life against terrorism is also a human right.