[Superman]

Keith, I like V8 engines myself and would love to see a NASCAR race. Perhaps I should ease up on that and other comparisons, but I also cannot seem to resist the temptation to hold some of peoples' beliefs in front of them, to see if they like the image. We've got folks who believe that we can scare the terrorists into stopping their attacks, and those same people may also believe in trickle-down economics. And now, we've even got this notion, outlined above, that the effects of terrorism are kinda like trickle-down economics in that you have to understand a (perceived to be) sophisticated cause-and-effect string of relationships in order to really understand why we should be sufficiently frightened of the terrorists to vote for Dubya. So again, I'm wanting to ease up enough to not unduly offend people here, but by the same token that goal will always take a back seat to my higher priority, which is the actual public policy debate, which is entirely critical America's interests and if getting to the heart of those matters means ruffling some feathers then you guys are just going to have to have thicker skins.

John, I'm not sure what you've added to the discusssion. There are currently all manner of emotional dialectic designed to elevate the WAR ON TERRORISM to ensure it is clearly in the #1 spot, because frankly that's all the current administation has got to win this presidential race. He's been fiscally irresponsible and his domestic policy is abysmal. You point to the emotional impact on the families who were directly impacted, and my heart goes out to them. But then I want to get back to the question of what level of ongoing threat is posed by terrorism. And no, I'm not aggregating anything. I'm suggesting we compare each of those mortality causes independently with terrorism. My guess is that terrorism comes nowhere near stacking up to them in terms of mortality. Your cause-and-effect string ending in economic decline due to consumer confidence trouble scores no points with me for at least two reasons. First (if you really understood my "broken record ideology" this explanation would not be necessary), I do not buy into the notion that what is good for business is good for people. Candidly, if the standard work week were cut back to four days, and if (a big "if," frankly) there were an equivalent economic decline, our white-hot economy might have a chance to cool a little, people would have more free time, perhaps that last 20% of income and the high-tech toys it buys are not the straightest roads to happiness. The other reason is that the same cause-and-effect relationship can easily, and perhaps more easily be drawn in the other issues. For example, what do you suppose is the unseen emotional and sociological fallout from the public's sleepy/dreamy/awakening awareness that the the social security promise, the retirement floor/rug, is going to be pulled out from under Americans soon? Ummm, would there be an impact on consumer confidence?