Terrorism Still Less Deadly in US Than Lack of Health Insurance, Salmonella
Since we still seem to be having a national freakout over some loser who got on a plane with a bomb in his underwear, which was apparently worthy of a presidential address, it might be a good idea to put the actual danger posed by terrorist attacks in some numerical perspective.
If you count the Ft. Hoot shooting as a terrorist attack, which even the likes of Pantload doesn’t, 16 people have died in the United States as result of terrorism in 2009. The other three deaths include the Little Rock military recruiting office shooting (1), the Holocaust Museum shooting (1), and Dr. George Tiller’s assassination (1), the last two coming at the hands of right-wing extremists.
On the other hand, 45,000 Americans died because they didn’t have health insurance and 600 died from salmonella poisoning.
Clearly, providing health care to all Americans is beyond our capabilities, so when do we launch the $700 billion-a-year War on Salmonella? Via: Fire Dog Lake
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Morgan Matthew on -
A very interesting perspective that sadly so few will even bat an eye at.
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Permalink Reply by Kirk Holden on -
If only H1N1 and Salmonella controlled territory with plentiful oil and gas we could invade their homelands and topple their terrorist regimes. And burn their petroleum in our cars.
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on -
Wait, are we not counting troop deaths? If those aren't deaths due to terrorists, then that must mean those are POW's down in Cuba.
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Permalink Reply by Morgan Matthew on
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Terrorism creates a response that is many times worse than the actual terrorist attack. A multi-trillion dollar War On Terror, that is ruining the economy and tearing down civil liberties.
I could not agree more.
I also flipped to CNN for 30 secs and turned it off and 8 hours later they were talking about the same thing word for word.
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Permalink Reply by Reggie on
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Everyone should be forced to take statistics. Okay, that is a little tongue in cheek, but you are exactly right, Ralph.
And TV news is wretched. I can't believe people get their information from it.
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Permalink Reply by Robert E. O'Dell on -
The health care impass is just the current example of how our national government is broken by debt and controled by monied interests. Its very difficult to accomplish anything positive or necessary when great chunks of the votes on an issue are controlled by vested interests that have little, if anything, in common with the public interest. It is equally difficult to accomplish anything major when those who insist that any new program be budget neutral ( ie. self supporting - rather than receiving appropriations from general tax revenues) have perhaps the strongest argument. (Proponents can not factually make the argument that we can afford any big new program when, in fact, WE ARE WAAAAAAY BEYOND BROKE!!) We just shouldn't be where we are, and it is criminal that we find ourselves here. Debt kills nations, and its killing us!!! By the way; an interesting point is raise by the article!
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Permalink Reply by Eric VanDeGenachte on -
So, MM, what can we do to ensure that the public is aware of the true losses? Is it possible to convince the public that the flash-in-the-pan "Underwear-Bombers" portrayed in the media is a veil for the deeper, more impactful problem of health care? I have dealt with my own healthcare nightmares and am frustrated beyond expression. When I think of every other business transaction I experience in my life - nothing compares to healthcare. Were I to characterize it to an outsider, I would call it a racket.
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Permalink Reply by Subzero on -
Where did you get these statistics from the total deaths caused by swine flu in US is 3741 Pulled it from wiki who updates regularly from legit sources. If you want the official number by CDC then visit http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/us/.
Look how many took your data report for real and they call it Think Atheist. People please think don't follow dumb stupid made up words.
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Permalink Reply by Eric VanDeGenachte on
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@Subzero: You're right. While I didn't necessarily focus on the absolute numbers in the graph (which I SHOULD have done), I still came away with the basic message that relatively people die as a result of terrorism relative to other preventable conditions. I will encourage Morgan Matthews and others to post their sources. It is the only way critical-thinking, skeptical, rational, logical folks can validate and assess claims and statements. I am neither contesting for vetting the data MM put up, but do wish he would have provided citations.
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Permalink Reply by Subzero on
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@doone Says World Clock 2008 Someone for got to change the label. Nice to look at but again it is Total Non-Sense like the original post.
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Permalink Reply by Skycomet the Fallen Angel on -
Actually.... I almost flunked my Junior year in high school because I came down with Samonella in February.... worst illness I ever had. I ended up in the Emergency room Twice and I went to multiple doctors but not one could tell me what was wrong with me. [wierd right] I lost about 18 pounds [when I was already borderline to underweight] and became so thin that my dermatogist was secretly afraid that I had an eating disorder. [I didn't... I tried to eat when I could... but nothing I ate would stay down.] And a friend joked "[My name] if you got any thinner, you'd turn into dust and blow away."
Anyhow... can you imagine my frustration and despair? I went through 2 months of not being able to eat enough on a regular basis. [Sometimes I would go two days without being able to eat anything] and when I did eat... I would get sick. I was living off a brat diet and the lack of protein made it so that I was in mild malnutrition a lot.
Anyhow... it took about a year for the damage that was done to my digestive system [apparently the bacteria had damaged my stomach and intestines] to go away.
Even today I have a "scar" [if you want to call it that] that developed from that year... Acid Reflux disease.
Try as I might... I can't pinpoint where I contracted the tainted food or even what it was. I won't even try! Today... processing food is SOO BAD that you can get it from ANYTHING!
I am very lucky that I DIDN'T join the 600 people who died that year. [2005] Some how I knew that I was close to dying. [You know how they say your body can tell when it's in BIG TROUBLE?] It was about a year later that I realized that I should have gone impatient to the hospital.... although I didn't know it at the time [because it wasn't red] I was throwing up blood.
[Sorry about that gross part]
Anyhow... what you're saying Morgan is TOTALLY TRUE!!! It's a scary world out there... *Shudder*
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