Osama bin Laden would have killed more Americans by investing in Ford and GM+. And after the bailout, he would have made a profit too!
+ I'm not picking on Ford or GM here, they make fine cars. But automobiles kill far more people every year than terrorism has in the last decade.
Seems you rather missed the point of the whole thread; terrorism isn't about killing.
If humans were rational, terrorism wouldn't work. Driving your car to work is more dangerous than taking the subway to the world trade center, even if the WTC was demolished every year. But we are afraid of what we fear, not what will actually kill us. There are a lot of people who are eager to exploit that cognitive defect.
Doing "something", something which the security state crowd had ready in '96, is what got us the PATRIOT act and the TSA.
The strong anti-gun crowd is trying to wage a slow war against gun ownership that would result in an Australia-like confiscation of weapons and the repeal of the 2nd amendment. Don't let the "do somethings" win again.
/rare political post on HN
Terrified people make stupid mistakes, sign away their rights with reckless abandon in the hope that it will allay their fears. No electorate is so easy to manipulate as one that is afraid.