{"id":467,"date":"2006-09-14T22:55:46","date_gmt":"2006-09-15T03:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/index.php\/the-times-may-be-changing-for-the-worse"},"modified":"2006-09-17T13:15:30","modified_gmt":"2006-09-17T18:15:30","slug":"the-times-may-be-changing-for-the-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/the-times-may-be-changing-for-the-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Times May Be Changing For The Worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

Normally you would like to let the musings of fellow media denizens stand on their own merits, but when the lead editorial<\/a> of the Sunday edition of the New York Times says we all need to check our laptops because of terrorism threats, well that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just asinine.<\/p>\n

(from eWeek<\/a>, Masked Intentions : The Times May Be Changing for the Worse<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s about damned time people start standing up and calling this anti-terrorism hysteria what it is: asinine. I’ll be taking a trip by airplane in December. It will probably be the last trip by plane I take. Being subjected to the humiliation of metal detectors and pat-downs<\/a> was bad enough. Having high school dropouts rummage through my luggage was bad enough. Now I can’t even take a tube of toothpaste or a plastic bottle of Diet Pepsi<\/a> on the plane!<\/p>\n

Let me be perfectly clear about this: nothing, and I do mean absolutely nothing, will prevent a human being from killing people if that’s what the human being intends to do. All of this faux-security at airports accomplishes absolutely nothing other than lulling the gullible into feeling safe<\/a> and inconveniencing people travelling by airplane.<\/p>\n

What the hell is the big deal, anyway? Yes, it’s tragic that people died<\/a> when airplanes hit the World Trade Center buildings, but let’s be serious for a minute: a little less than 3,000 people died as a result of the World Trade Center airplane crashes five years ago. Let’s be generous and round it up, and say that averages to 600 people a year. Let’s compare that to the main causes of death in the USA, according to the CDC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Number of deaths for leading causes of death<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Heart disease: 654,092<\/li>\n
  2. Cancer: 550,270<\/li>\n
  3. Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 150,147<\/li>\n
  4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 123,884<\/li>\n
  5. Accidents (unintentional injuries): 108,694<\/li>\n
  6. Diabetes: 72,815<\/li>\n
  7. Alzheimer’s disease: 65,829<\/li>\n
  8. Influenza\/Pneumonia: 61,472<\/li>\n
  9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 42,762<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In case you are curious, homicide came in at #15.<\/p>\n

    There you have it: heart disease kills ONE THOUSAND TIMES<\/strong> as many people per year as domestic terrorism. So where are the teams of ham-fisted guards patting down people in the meat and dairy aisles at the grocery store? Where are the weeping family members of heart attack victims calling for butter registration and mandatory refrigerator locks? Where are the venal politicians trying to use the tragedy of over a half-million deaths from heart disease<\/strong> as an excuse to go to war with Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (together which account for more than 90 percent of the beef volume and value imported by the United States)?<\/p>\n

    This whole “increased security at airports” is a farce<\/strong>. In the short term, the only thing that these ridiculous “security” measures at airports accomplish is to discourage people from flying at all. In the long term, of course, it sets the stage for universal surveillance<\/a>, which was probably the whole point of the exercise to begin with. No, I am not saying that the World Trade Center crashes were planned by people who want to spy on us and control — or at least monitor — our movements. What I am saying is that the official response<\/a> to the crashes certainly looks like it has the facilitation of domestic spying<\/a> as its primary goal. Terrorism may just be a maguffin<\/a> to get the plot going.<\/p>\n

    I’m probably giving my fellow human beings too much credit. Maybe the whole thing is just the predictable result of human stupidity, and there’s no conspiracy at all. Frankly, I think I’d prefer the conspiracy. Conspiracies can uncovered and the guilty can be punished. Human stupidity, on the other hand…<\/p>\n

    Please, let it be a conspiracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Normally you would like to let the musings of fellow media denizens stand on their own merits, but when the lead editorial of the Sunday edition of the New York Times says we all need to check our laptops because of terrorism threats, well that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just asinine. (from eWeek, Masked Intentions : The Times May […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-society"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Times May Be Changing For The Worse - Blackmoor Vituperative<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.blackgate.net\/blog\/the-times-may-be-changing-for-the-worse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Times May Be Changing For The Worse - Blackmoor Vituperative\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Normally you would like to let the musings of fellow media denizens stand on their own merits, but when the lead editorial of the Sunday edition of the New York Times says we all need to check our laptops because of terrorism threats, well that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just asinine. 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