What are we so afraid of?

Can I just say what a bunch of wussies we are? And by "we," I mean Americans. Yes, many folks possess no critical thinking skills, thanks to our ever-eroding educational "system," and yes many folks are simply gap-toothed, slack-jawed, in-bred yokels that simply parrot what Rush or the "tea party" tells them, but seriously, when did we get to be such a nation of cowards? Was it after 9/11, when "the world changed forever"?

Beyond the typical stuff like the CONSTANT "orange alert" at the airports (has it ever been another color?), there's also the endless, scrolling WARNINGS on BART and other mass transit systems, which basically boils down to: Be vigilant! Trust no one! Report ANYTHING suspicious!" BE AFRAID, DAMMITT! BE VERY, VERY AFRAID!

And of course we have to be afraid of our food, of pesticides, of cancer, of animals encroaching in OUR territory, of "the other" (be they black, latino, or french), of crime (even tho it continues to drop), of child molesters, of dirt and germs, of peanuts, of Wall Street, etc. etc. It's sickening and exhausting!

And then, of course, the biggest bugaboo of all right now: Terrorists!! Oooooh, they plotted and planned for years, supposedly caught us by surprise, and managed to take out the twin towers (on a Republican president's watch, no less), and so now we have to CONSTANTLY worry and obsess over them? I mean, has anyone really paid attention to just how inept most of these guys are?

"The Atlantic" does. They had this great article entitled "The Case for Calling Them Nitwits." The intro parapgraph reads: They blow each other up by mistake. They bungle even simple schemes. They get intimate with cows and donkeys. Our terrorist enemies trade on the perception that they’re well trained and religiously devout, but in fact, many are fools and perverts who are far less organized and sophisticated than we imagine. Can being more realistic about who our foes actually are help us stop the truly dangerous ones?

Seriously, check out the short article in The Atlantic on this - it would be comical if it didn't make us look like such fools for continuing to be in a paranoid panty-twist over these losers.

Click HERE for the article - and also check out the interesting case they make in this issue for "The End of Men - How Women are Taking Control of Everything." (if only we could be so lucky! - well, except for scary Queen Meg).