June 2006

6/28/06
The odds of dying as a result of a terrorist attack are positively slender. About as slender as winning the lottery. If global terrorism was a true menace then everyone would lock themselves up and never see the light of day.

Overblown fears about being blown apart by a jihadi or the next Timothy McVeigh stem from our culture. Everyone is told that they are special. Fuck the emo and goth kids who say "Nah, no one ever said that" because they tell it to themselves in their own special Stuart Smalley way. Winning the lottery or being victim to a terrorist attack only serves to validate one's unrealistic feeling of self-worth.

The Republic's presence in the middle east only serves to generate revenue and esteem at home. Unreasonable searches and seizures before boarding an airplane aren't stopping terrorism. Anyone who believes the DHS or the TSA is actually doing something more than busywork should hear about my magic rock that keeps cougars away.

More people die because of automobile accidents, heart attacks or really stupid shit. Yet people continue to drive, folks shove inordinate amounts of fatty foods down their gullet and go against common sense and do idiotic shit because they sincerely believe "It's not going to happen to me."

I'd rather be free and dead than safe and afraid.

Wouldn't you?

In Yer Dreams

In a different universe the world had different borders to delineate familiar groups. The UK, Scandinavia and the northern coast of Europe were controlled by the nordic people. The entire Iberian peninsula was under their control. My initial encounter with these borders took place from high orbit where I saw the nordic lands covered in a blue goo. Eastern and southern Europe were under the sway of the Arabs along with most of Asia. Their territory was mired in a sandy yellow ooze. Central Europe was disputed and remained untouched by either substance or empire. The nordics were losing their struggle. While I was in orbit, I reached down and tried to scrape up the colored sludge from both areas but it was too viscous and tenacious.

The dream focused down to the Iberian peninsula. Only four people, including myself, were left in this territory. Everyone was planning on committing suicide to spite their enemies. Should the Arabs invade and discover the territory was unpopulated and provided no resistance then the Arabs would lose face among their subjects. I left the way I came and forgot the rest of this world.