Risk

This guy confronts risk exactly the way it should be. I really wish we had more people like Dan Gardner. (click for interview) He just published a book and I'm interested to read it. Here's part of an interview. I like the last line in the interview, which basically boils down to: 347 Americans are killed every year by police officers, while 379 people IN THE WORLD are killed by international terrorists. Imagine how much trouble you could get in on a right wing call in show if you brought that up? (Note that this doesn't include domestic terrorists, but it still throws a new light on the world doesn't it.)

4. What do you think is the most unreasonable fear rife in the Western world?

One is certainly “stranger danger.” Parents everywhere imagine perverts lurking in bushes, waiting to snatch away their children. But abduction by strangers is almost indescribably rare. In the United States, a child is 26 times more likely to die in a car crash. And yet, because of this irrational fear, parents won’t let their children play outdoors or even walk to school – which contributes to the rising rates of childhood obesity that really do threaten the well-being of children.

Terrorism is also grossly exaggerated. I know this is controversial and so I go to great lengths to substantiate my views in the book. Over the last 40 years, fewer than 15,000 people have been killed in international terrorist attacks. That figure includes the Sept. 11 attacks, incidentally. And so, on average, international terrorism takes the lives of 379 a year around the world. Let me put that risk in perspective: In 2003, in the United States alone, 497 people accidentally suffocated in bed; 396 were unintentionally electrocuted; 515 drowned in swimming pools; 347 were killed by police officers. And 16,503 Americans were murdered by garden-variety criminals.