You – every single one of you reading this – have an overwhelmingly higher chance of dying by being struck with lightning on a sunny day with green shoes on wearing a purple hat – than dying in the next terrorist attack on American soil… Which will come. I hesitate to mention your chance of dying while driving to work tomorrow morning, etc, etc, etc.

Yet terrorism is the reason a person was forced off an airplane on American soil into waiting “security” for what *used* to be legally protected speech in the form of a political statement worn on their sleeve? Or the reason Indians (and any dark skinned person displaying too much interest in something, uh, interesting) are targeted for demeaning and embarrassing persecution and interrogation? Or any of the hundreds of other horrid things that are happening to “supposedly free”, but more important *innocent*, average Americans and non-Americans in the United States of America post 9/11?

Yet people here are defending to the teeth a commercial airline’s assault on one of our basic freedoms that strikes at the very core of our country in this case. It simply more than amazes me.

Indeed, what BA did was a complete disregard and assault that strikes at the very core of why you are the Americans you are today and how you got here. What John was wearing is/was called protected speech for a reason – it *requires* protection, even more in times of “crisis mode” because such speech is the core of the foundation that built what we are! Its not called “convenient” speech, “comfortable” speech or “agreeable” speech… Its called “protected” speech – or it used to be. Its speech that *must* be protected even when you adamantly disagree with it… *Specially* when you adamantly disagree with it. What John wore wasn’t cause for panic like yelling fire in a theater – it was a very simple and very poignant two word phrase meant to make people think… I guarantee three years ago such speech as this would have easily won in a court of law. It was the best kind of protected speech – speech that made one think.

Fear. Irrational and unmitigated fear. Its destroying (and being used to destroy) the foundation of our beloved republic. And worse, it has been ingrained so deeply the last twenty five years that many don’t even see it happening around them.

I get the extreme feeling that “dying for your country/beliefs” is a great line for a movie these days, but in the reality of too many Americans is something to personally avoid at *any* cost today – specially when it *only* costs our basic rights and freedoms as fought for by our founders and the many who have died in its name throughout our past. On 9/11, 2,800+ innocent civilians died because of the country they lived in, if not by choice. I was friends with two of them and miss them terribly. But are you aware that 3,571 (mostly) innocent civilians died in traffic accidents on our US highways and streets – *last month* alone? And that many will again this month… And next month. And every month of every year as far as they eye can see.

I promise you, I’m not belittling 9/11 in the least – far from it. I’m simply putting it in perspective… At the very, very least they died for something that means *so much more* than a traffic accident. 9/11 was an extremely sad day for our country and required/s a lot of thought and action on how to try and prevent it in the future. We must *fight* to accomplish this, however, without destroying what makes us what we are to begin with! That last part seems to be forgotten by too many just about everywhere I go these days.

My apologies to Michael Moore for doubting his premise. The more I look at many US citizen reactions and arguments post 9/11 after seeing Bowling for Columbine (particularly surprising when viewing a site such as this), the more I absolutely agree.

And I Fear for my country.

Prison rape, whether directed against males or females, is state-sponsored crime. Other rapes (in America, at least) are not.

Apples and oranges, and every one of ’em rotten.

I’m unsurprised that Richard now wants us to say that, since the number of male rapes (according to Richard, and I’m doubtful its true, even given our barbarously large prison population) is greater than the number of female rapes, rape is a male issue, not a female issue.

What I expect the figures Richard isn’t citing would show, once one got under their covers, is that the number of male rape victims is relatively small and that they are repeatedly raped, whereas the number of female victims is large and that rape is usually a one-time occurence.

That says there are two different problems, with these major differences:

Men get raped (usually) because they’ve been imprisoned in an institution where the authorities turn a blind eye to sexual assault in order to appease the most violent and dangerous prisoners at the expense of the others.

Women, on the other hand, get raped in office buildings, homes, parking garages, wherever–just going about their daily business.

There are solutions to prison rape of men. I don’t know of any for violent rape of women in the free world.

And here’s the nub:

Prison rape threatens only a small group of men. Rape in the free world threatens pretty much all women.

In other words: It’s different.

Not PC to say these things? I plead guilty.