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Car crashes, criminality, cancer, and the collection of calamitous catastrophes

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CartsBeforeHorses

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This is the thread for chatting about car crashes, criminality, cancer, and the collection of calamitous catastrophes in our country.

As Ayn Rand wrote in Atlas Shrugged:

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“We do not think that tragedy is our natural state. We do not live in chronic dread of disaster. We do not expect disaster until we have specific reason to expect it, and when we encounter it, we are free to fight it. It is not happiness, but suffering, that we consider unnatural. It is not success but calamity that we regard as the abnormal exception in human life.”

We are free to fight it. So how do we fight the calamities that I just mentioned, without living in a chronic dread of disaster?

Car Crashes
You'd better drive defensively, and don't drink and drive. Get an SUV, those have a higher survival rate than little grocery-getters. I hear Google is working on self-driving cars which are safer than humans driving. Maybe invest in one of those if you are concerned with car crashes.

Criminality
You can get a concealed carry permit and have a handgun with you. If you're ever mugged, pull it out and I'll bet the mugger will think twice about his proposition that you hand over your valuables. If guns aren't to your liking, perhaps invest in some pepper spray. Otherwise, take some basic measures like staying in well-lit areas when you're walking around after dark, locking your door with a deadbolt, getting a home security system, and getting a dog perhaps.

Cancer
Don't be like Ayn Rand and Peikoff. Don't smoke like they did. Also, make sure that you exercise and eat right. Get good health insurance because cancer is expensive to treat, and you want the best treatment when you get cancer.

Terrorism
Uh... never go to a public place? Yeah, sorry. Unlike everything that I just mentioned, there is literally nothing that an individual can do to reduce his risk of dying from terrorism. Unless he lives in a chronic dread of disaster and indeed doesn't go out to public places. As Sesame Street would say, one of these things is not like the others. Terrorism is different from all the other threats that people like to compare it to and call "bigger threats." Statistically? They're absolutely correct that terrorism deaths are minuscule compared to deaths from the above items. But from a sense of life perspective? Terrorism is far worse, because we are not "free to fight it" as individuals. Nothing can be done by an individual person to reduce his risk of dying in a suicide bomb, or being run over by a van, or being shot in a dark nightclub.

However, there is something that the government can do to reduce the risk of terrorism. Turns out that many terrorists in the United States come from, or are descended from people who came from, Islamic countries. Restricting immigration from Islamic countries would be a sensible thing for the government to do in order to protect its citizens' right to life... the one objective role of government. Instead, we have diversity visas and chain migration.

We are free to fight calamity, whether as individuals or the government acting on our behalf. The question is, should we? And will we?

Edited by CartsBeforeHorses
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20 minutes ago, CartsBeforeHorses said:

Terrorism

Until the cause of terrorism identified and addressed, superficially treating it by focusing on the nationality/religious/immigration angle is not going to alter the effect.

Edited by dream_weaver
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Just now, dream_weaver said:

Until the cause of terrorism identified and addressed it

How do you propose that we address the cause of terrorism? The cause of Islamic terrorism is Islamic philosophy, specifically people who read the Koran and take it seriously.

Just now, dream_weaver said:

, superficially treating it by focusing on the nationality/religious/immigration angle is not going to alter the effect.

If the United States didn't have a diversity visa program, the attack in New York would not have happened. Eight Americans would still be alive. How does getting rid of the diversity visa program not alter the effect?

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12 minutes ago, dream_weaver said:

How does putting the kibosh on immigration stop Islamic philosophy from crossing international borders and being taken seriously abroad?

Because people carry philosophy with them when they come here. It's a lot easier for Islamists to radicalize people who are already Muslim, and it's very hard for Islam to spread organically. Most of the growth in the world Muslim population comes not from conversion, but from new births to Muslim parents in the Islamic world.

"Statistical data on conversion to and from Islam are scarce. What little information is available suggests that there is no substantial net gain or loss in the number of Muslims through conversion globally; the number of people who become Muslims through conversion seems to be roughly equal to the number of Muslims who leave the faith. As a result, this report does not include any estimated future rate of conversions as a direct factor in the projections of Muslim population growth. "

http://www.pewforum.org/2011/01/27/future-of-the-global-muslim-population-related-factors/#conversion

The only way for Muslims to reliably increase their numbers in the United States is by immigration. Converting non-Muslims is a difficult prospect for them.

 

Edited by CartsBeforeHorses
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What a salad of a sentence. Why don't you use plain language? I know what the words mean, but they're difficult to digest.

38 minutes ago, dream_weaver said:

What is telling here, is the manifest desire exhibited to be wedded to the foregone propagated conclusion.

What is telling here is your evasion. I'm willing to change my view on how to stop terrorism, if you offer a better solution than mine. But you have offered no solution to the problem of terrorism. I will repeat my question:

How do you propose that we address the cause of terrorism?

Edited by CartsBeforeHorses
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