A short list of areas urgently needing government attention and a little bit of funding in order to save lives. To merit inclusion on this list, the area of concern must:
* (a) kill many, many more people than terrorism, and
* (b) be an area where a tiny fraction of the money wasted on "security" would produce results vastly greater than those produced by the "war on terror".*
* I am being charitable here, and actually assuming that the "war on terror" does have some positive results to show for itself. In reality, it wouldn't be hard to argue that the WOT has actually killed vast numbers of people who would otherwise be alive today, and by inciting hate, fear, and loathing of the United States and its lackey states, substantially contributed to the number of recruits flowing into terrorist organisations. The payoff in terms of lives saved by the WOT, in this view, is negative - it has made matters worse, not better. But that is another topic and for the purposes of this post I'll ignore the evidence and assume that the WOT has actually achieved something measirable and positive.
OK, on with the list. These areas, remember, are ones which see many, many more people die than than terrorism does, and which could be vastly improved by quite small spending increases. Listed in no particular order. feel free to add others.
* Infant vaccination against infectious diseases
* Better enforcement of existing road laws, e.g.,
** Drink-driving
** Excessive speed in urban areas
* Some universal basic minimum training in road courtesy and common sense
* Proper quarintine measures to prevent the spread of (e.g.) bird flu, SARS, and others as they emerge.
* A healthy diet campaign in schools would save thousands upon thousands, millions over time.
* Triple the pitifully small mental health budget to save (let's say) 50% of the people who die from the commonest cause of death of young people of them all: suicide.
* Institute sensible and normal gun control rules (as practiced in most of the rest of the civilised world: places which have a murder rate so much smaller than that of the USA that you can't even compare the numbers).
* declare a war on racial violence
* declare a war on poverty (which is a truly massive killer)
There are probably dozens more, but any one of the above would pay vastly better dividends than the WOT (even if you believe the most ridiculous claims of the PR people supporting it), and cost a tiny, tiny fraction as much.
I fully understand what the point was. I was making talk which apparently came across the wrong way. I felt that the police would have had even less of a reason to charge her with when they went searching for some dumb misdemeanor to fit their case. You're right, even if she had an ID, she shouldn't have to show it. But, what would have happened to her if she didn’t have an ID in the first place?
