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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
 Posted - 10/11/2004 : 12:09:13
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I just had a moment of inspiration which made me Google for the road accident fatality-rate for the US 2001.
The background is that many American citizens seems to join in the mass psychosis that terrorists are everywhere, and they are out to get just them.
The 9/11 attack on WTC claimed about 3000 victims.
My first Google hit only shows alcohol-related Traffic Fatalities from American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, and though we can't treat their numbers as gospel, my guess is that they are fairly correct. The number is almost six times as high... ~17500 fatalities.
And that is for 2001 alone.
Why not do something about drunk-drivers instead of working oneself up to a mental paralysis over something much less likely?
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
 Posted - 10/11/2004 : 12:35:32 [Permalink]
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Actually, US alcohol related driving fatalities are trending down. Most places have pretty harsh punishments now for 1st offender DUI's.
I read someplace that during the Veitnam war years there were something like 5 times more people killed in DUI-related crahses (just in the US) than in the fighting in Veitnam. Can't find any reference to back that up right now though.... |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 12:40:12 [Permalink]
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Although, that would make for a good debate question/topic.
"Mr President. If you had irrefutable proof that 17,000 Americans would die from a single type of threat in 2005, what would you do?" |
Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 12:57:25 [Permalink]
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I remember looking it up. In about the early to mid-70's, roughly 50,000 people a year were killed in automobile accidents of one form or another. About 50,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in the 11-year war.
Of course, the U.S. is probably responsible for a large percentage of the millions of Southeast Asians that died during that time. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 13:02:38 [Permalink]
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Aside from the millions of innocents...
http://www.local6.com/news/3800509/detail.html
Story on how Britons fear spiders more than terrorists
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"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 10/11/2004 : 13:05:23 [Permalink]
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Ah yes, but never forget technology improved from back then to now on.
Cars are more secure now than they were in the fifties. The car accidents usually end with a bunch of gnarled metal and somebody barely alive, but alive anyway, caught in that gnarled metal mess. In the past, such an accident would be fatal, but now... it's just a big gnarly metal mess. The physics of impact, oh my. The cars' engineering itself have saved a lot of people. |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Wendy
SFN Regular
USA
614 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2004 : 13:58:48 [Permalink]
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I work in the legal system and I used to think the law had really cracked down on drunk drivers. Then I married a man who was understanding enough to move to my area and take the first job he was offered: "Early Intervention Specialist".
"What is that?" you may ask. Well, it's a psychologist who deals with people under the age of twenty-one who have been charged with alcohol or drug related offenses.
He has been reprimanded more than once for telling his classes they are responsible for their own actions (too judgmental), and that impaired driving is stupid and dangerous behavior (too harsh).
The Court frequently refers these people to counseling, which is private enterprise. Since apparently there is real money in it, it is competitive. There is actually a desire amongst these agencies not to offend these people and "drive them away" so to speak.
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Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon.
-- Susan Ertz
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| Edited by - Wendy on 11/09/2004 06:32:30 |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/08/2004 : 19:19:38 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Wendy
The Court frequently refers these people to counseling, which is private enterprise. Since apparently there is real money in it, it is competitive. There is actually a desire amongst these agencies not to offend these people and "drive them away" so to speak.
This is yet another instance where I'm left wondering how long until a nation such as the USA is going to last before a complete meltdown. Social nets should not, indeed must not be privatized, but be kept under tight operational governmental control.
"Early Intervention Specialist" needs to be tough, parents needs to be tough. Teenagers need to be taught that there are things they just must no do. Drink-and-drive is such a thing. They must also be taught to respect other people's properties, and community-owned properties.
In short: responsibility. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2004 : 05:14:39 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dr. Mabuse
[quote]Originally posted by Wendy
"Early Intervention Specialist" needs to be tough, parents needs to be tough. Teenagers need to be taught that there are things they just must no do. Drink-and-drive is such a thing. They must also be taught to respect other people's properties, and community-owned properties.
In short: responsibility.
As good ol' Heinlein would say, "give 'em a good spanking. Not enough to traumatize, but spankin' anyway." |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Starman
SFN Regular
Sweden
1613 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2004 : 03:21:58 [Permalink]
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Smoking killed 5 000 000 people in 2000.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4034597.stm
This just to satisfy the greed of the owners of the tobacco companies.
Osama and Dubya should both be green with envy.
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"Any religion that makes a form of torture into an icon that they worship seems to me a pretty sick sort of religion quite honestly"
-- Terry Jones |
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Mr. Spock
Skeptic Friend
USA
99 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2004 : 07:03:55 [Permalink]
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| Actually, Skeptical Inquirer featured a great article about that very topic in September of 2002. To quote the thesis, "our nations priorities remain radically torqued toward homeland defense and fighting terrorism at the expense of objectively greater social needs." Amen. The fear of terrorism, IMO, has been used by the administration to whip the population into an irrational frenzy which, in the long run, will only further the terrorist cause of undermining our freedom and safety. |
"The amount of noise which anyone can bear stands in inverse proportion to his mental capacity." --Schopenhauer |
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Siberia
SFN Addict
Brazil
2322 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2004 : 07:10:58 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Mr. Spock
Actually, Skeptical Inquirer featured a great article about that very topic in September of 2002. To quote the thesis, "our nations priorities remain radically torqued toward homeland defense and fighting terrorism at the expense of objectively greater social needs." Amen. The fear of terrorism, IMO, has been used by the administration to whip the population into an irrational frenzy which, in the long run, will only further the terrorist cause of undermining our freedom and safety.
And thus, terrorism accomplishes its namesake... |
"Why are you afraid of something you're not even sure exists?"
- The Kovenant, Via Negativa
"People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs."
-- unknown
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 11/24/2004 : 08:31:15 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Siberia
And thus, terrorism accomplishes its namesake...
Ingenious, isn't it? |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard
USA
3834 Posts |
Posted - 11/25/2004 : 04:04:03 [Permalink]
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Peter Sandman is the author of a book on how we perceive threats so disproportionately to their actual risk. Here's a link to his webpage on the subject.
The outrage he speaks of is the side of risk perception he deals with as a consultant. An example is a group of people who get the idea their building is making them ill when it really isn't. Management can make it better or worse depending on how the fear is responded to.
Within the material is a good description of what increases or decreases a person's perception of risk.
If the hazard is particularly awful. (HIV, for example)
If you have no control over it. (This is a big one)
If it is unfamiliar to you.
...and so on. |
| Edited by - beskeptigal on 11/25/2004 04:12:10 |
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