How about we actually figure out what happened, figure out what might have effectively stopped it, calculate the costs (hard and soft and in-between) and risk involved in acting or not acting, and then Do what rationality thus dictates?
Naaaaaah … that's a non-starter if I've ever heard it.
Reshared post from +Andrew Hunter
I am not much of a believer in a democracy, but I am currently contacting all of my Congressional representatives, with an urgent demand, reproduced below:
I'm writing today because of the bombing in Boston. A tragedy like this should never happen in a just world, and I wish you…would do nothing about it.
Things like this wouldn't happen in a just world, but we don't live in a just world. We live in the real world, where evil does exist, and almost everything we do comes with associated risk. But the absolute risk–as opposed to the media hype–from terrorism is almost nil. I am much more likely to be blindsided by a Buick than caught in a bombing. Malaria killed more than 2,700 people today alone, and will kill more than a million this year. It's not callous to point this out: we have to stay strong and clear-headed even when bad things happen and not sacrifice the liberty that makes life worth living to chase down risks we simply cannot eliminate.
So that's what I want from you: nothing. It's easy–it's natural–to grandstand and to demand that something must be done. But all too often that "something" turns out to be the reduction, the slow elimination of our civil liberties. Putting aside that this rarely actually makes us safer–do you actually think anyone's life has been saved by the TSA?–even if it did eliminate 100% of all terrorist attacks, that'd be no comfort to the thousands of families who've lost fathers and daughters and friends to causes that are less newsworthy than a bombing. They matter too. And so do the rights of those who still live. Please don't take them away. Please, be brave enough to stand up and say that we should keep going, keep living, keep celebrating our freedom and taking risks and pushing forward.
Thank you for reading.
Andrew HunterWrite your Senator. Tell him to keep his hands to himself.
(Side note: at least one person has told me in the past that because of the extra effort and rarity, Congresscritters pay more attention to snail mail than email. Anyone have an opinion on that still being worth my time?)