{"id":33191,"date":"2013-04-15T17:49:34","date_gmt":"2013-04-15T23:49:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/15\/what-to-do-what-to-do.html"},"modified":"2013-04-15T19:00:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-16T01:00:22","slug":"what-to-do-what-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/15\/what-to-do-what-to-do.html","title":{"rendered":"What to do, what to do …?"},"content":{"rendered":"
I'm not sure the answer is to Do Nothing,<\/i> but I'm pretty sure that to Do Something<\/i> for the sake (and political coverage and emotional satisfaction) of Doing Something is probably not a wise idea, either.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

Naaaaaah … that's a non-starter if I've ever heard it.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Andrew Hunter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

I'm writing today because of the bombing in Boston. \u00a0A tragedy like this should never happen in a just world, and I wish you…would do nothing about it.<\/p>\n

Things like this wouldn't happen in a just world, but we don't live<\/i> in a just world. \u00a0We live in the real world, where evil does exist, and almost everything we do comes with associated risk. \u00a0But the absolute risk–as opposed to the media hype–from terrorism is almost nil. \u00a0I am much more likely to be blindsided by a Buick than caught in a bombing. \u00a0Malaria killed more than 2,700 people today alone, and will kill more than a million this year. \u00a0It'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.<\/p>\n

So that's what I want from you: nothing. \u00a0It's easy–it's natural–to grandstand and to demand that something<\/i> must be done. \u00a0But all too often that "something" turns out to be the reduction, the slow elimination of our civil liberties. \u00a0Putting 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. \u00a0They matter too. \u00a0And so do the rights of those who still live. \u00a0Please don't take them away. \u00a0Please, 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.<\/p>\n

Thank you for reading.
Andrew Hunter<\/p>\n

Write your Senator. \u00a0Tell him to keep his hands to himself.\u00a0<\/p>\n

(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. \u00a0Anyone have an opinion on that still being worth my time?)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I'm not sure the answer is to Do Nothing, but I'm pretty sure that to Do Something for the sake (and political coverage and emotional satisfaction) of Doing Something is probably not a wise idea, either. How about we actually figure out what happened, figure out what might have effectively stopped it, calculate the costs … Continue reading “What to do, what to do …?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-homeland-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6470,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/08\/30\/qed.html","url_meta":{"origin":33191,"position":0},"title":"QED","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Aug-04 10:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"The Justice Department has argued that various court filings (e.g., the ACLU's filings against the PATRIOT Act, ongoing) need, as so many other documents need, redaction to keep sensitive material...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13170,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/07\/05\/movie_review_hancock_2008.html","url_meta":{"origin":33191,"position":1},"title":"Movie Review: Hancock (2008)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 5-Jul-08 3:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"While the wife and kid's away, this cat will check out a couple of movies at the theater that I'm not sure I'd otherwise get a chance to see there...","rel":"","context":"In "Movies"","block_context":{"text":"Movies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/hancock.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11514,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/08\/10\/dvd_review_babylon_5_the.html","url_meta":{"origin":33191,"position":2},"title":"DVD Review: Babylon 5 – The Lost Tales","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 10-Aug-07 4:58pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Joe Straczynski brings back Babylon 5, arguably (by me) the best SF TV series of all time, in the first of a planned series direct-to-DVD tales (assuming the sales of...","rel":"","context":"In "Babylon 5"","block_context":{"text":"Babylon 5","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/media-tv-babylon-5"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":128094,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/20\/governor-huckabee-is-outraged-outraged-that-a-gay-man-can-lead-the-army.html","url_meta":{"origin":33191,"position":3},"title":"Governor Huckabee is outraged, OUTRAGED, that a gay man can lead the army","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-Sep-15 9:28am","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Huckabee is not happy about the president's nomination of Eric Fanning as the next Secretary of the Army. No, not happy at all (https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/mikehuckabee\/posts\/10153290377432869):'It's clear President Obama is more interested in appeasing America's homosexuals than honoring America's heroes. Veterans suicide is out-of-control and military readiness is dangerously low, yet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/o-MIKE-HUCKABEE-facebook5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/o-MIKE-HUCKABEE-facebook5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/o-MIKE-HUCKABEE-facebook5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":23597,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/11\/09\/overreacting-for-an-awful-cause.html","url_meta":{"origin":33191,"position":4},"title":"Overreacting for an awful cause","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-Nov-11 11:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, even if Joe Paterno were the most revered figure since Gandhi, and his outster by the Penn State Board of Trustees the greatest injustice since the Dredd Scott decision ... that still doesn't justify a bunch of (presumably) drunken students essentially rioting on the Penn State campus -- vandalism,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26432,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/15\/acting-against-their-own-interest.html","url_meta":{"origin":33191,"position":5},"title":"Acting against their own interest","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Feb-12 6:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"This isn't in the least surprising, since it's been previously noted that \"red\" states in general draw the most in federal benefits, overall costing more than they contribute to the federal budget. #ddtbReshared post from +Les JenkinsThe irony of this cannot be overstated. The people most likely to benefit from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33191"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33191\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33195,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33191\/revisions\/33195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}