Magic Jewball

 

And now a little social and political commentary by Becca. This is so rare, I’m not even starting a category for it. No politicians will be mentioned, mostly because I don’t know any of their names. I vote and all, I just forget their names by the next day. Except that rich mayor guy. I remember him, mostly because I keep voting against him and he keeps winning anyway.

So you may have noticed we’ve had some terrorism in this area. I don’t mean to be flip, it’s just that lately this has led to a sigh of relief whenever anything bad happens and it turns out not to be terrorism. The most recent thing was a townhouse blowing up on the Upper East Side. Phew, thank goodness it was just some crackpot trying to keep his ex-wife from getting the house and not someone trying to kill the rest of us. Still sucks to be her, though.

Then there was an actual plot recently foiled where terrorists were planning to blow up a PATH train (that’s trains to New Jersey for you out-of-towners). The idea was to get a lot of guys with backpacks into one car and then detonate in a tunnel underneath the Hudson River (that’s the river between my apartment and Ikea). Yeah, we’re dumb, but no one’s getting into a commuter train car with 20 guys wearing backpacks. Well done, mad bombers, clap clap.

Anyway, with that last one, the news showed the requisite nervous subway riders and “what can I do, I have to go to work” folks. People! This is not the way to go about things. Terrorism is not about killing people, it’s about scaring you. Yes, that’s the terror part of the word. I know “if you get scared the terrorists win” has become a cliché but it just happens to be true.

It’s not like I’m one of those “don’t worry, be happy” people. I mean, my blog is black and the tag line is “all signs point to no.” But it’s like running into a wild dog. You can’t show fear or you’re a goner. And besides, a lifetime of fear is worse than a quick death, not that I’ve experienced either.

Well, OK, you say, just how do I go about not being scared? I mean, those guys are really kind of scary. Easy! Just think of it this way. There’s way more chance of you being killed in a car accident than in a terrorist attack. And New Yorkers don’t drive! So we’re WAY safer than the rest of the world. Feel better? As a matter of fact, you probably have more chance of having your house blown up by your ex-spouse. Don’t make me find the statistics on that, please. Just take my word for it.

So just remember, I blog because if I don’t, the terrorists win.

 

Title comes from this excellent song:

The Cure – Us Or Them