Say NO to BIG SIS

I read today the comments of Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security. She said, "The terrorist threat facing our country has evolved significantly in the last ten years -- and continues to evolve -- so that, in some ways, the threat facing us is at its most heightened state since those 9/11 attacks," I cannot help but thinking that these comments are designed to create more fear among the population and to justify increased "police state" spending and abuse.

It is important to keep the threat of terrorism in perspective. The US death Rate is about 2.4 million people per year. The single biggest cause is heart related disease with about 800,000 deaths due to heart attack and stroke. Cancer is a big killer too, with over 500,000 deaths per year. Tobacco kills about 400,000 and our old friend alcohol kills 100,000. Auto accidents kill 40,000 and Homicide kills about 18,000. Terrorist kill less than 20 US citizens per year with the exception of 9/11. There seems to be a greater chance that you would die of a heart attack, while smoking and driving your car, than from any act of terror. Even airplane deaths are more common with nearly 1,000 aviation deaths per year and most of those are private plane deaths. Drowning kills 3,000 per year.

So we need to ask: Why all the scare tactics about Terrorism? In the 1950s we heard similar scare tactics about the Russians bombing America. This lead to huge increases in spending to "keep us safe." Turns out the Russians weren't going to bomb us after all. Now the new "threat" is terrorism. To keep us safe...we need to spend more Tax Money on scanners, and TSA agents. All this spending is justified because we need to be Safe.

Life is not safe. There is a risk just getting up each day. The biggest threat to America is bankruptcy and we need to cut spending. Creating a huge Orwellian Police State and spending Billions will not keep us safe. If safety is what we are seeking we should close our borders and prevent potential terrorist from walking into the United States. Paying more to search little old ladies at the Airport is not keeping us safe.