Worry About the Right Things by John Stossel (ABC)
It’s a good article…I like it.
Some of his other stuff is really interesting too, if you have the time to read.
Well, yes, I mostly agree. But…
This same kind of writing can be used when they don’t want us to worry about something that we should be worrying about. If you can follow the money, you can see through the disinformation.
I like this article, but second-hand smoke? While perhaps collectively we are at a very low risk, what about the child of a mother who chain smokes? That person is in danger. I have memories of going to my sister’s house and sitting in a cloud of second-hand smoke. She was always smoking, so there was always a cloud of smoke. By the way, she died five years ago at age 50 from a heart attack. So don’t smoke.
And I’m still waiting for someone to create driving statistics adjusted for age, capability, and other driving habits. Flying is safer? At least my car is designed to crash. Do they test-crash airplanes? They all fly apart and burst into flames. I’m not a 16-year-old driver. I don’t drink and drive. Most of my driving is on familiar roads (with familiar hazards). I’m careful and very attentive. I’m not driving a 30 year old Pinto with bald tires. You can’t lump me in with the inexperienced drivers and the drunk drivers and the sleep-deprived drivers and the reckless drivers. What if I lived in a town that satisfied all my needs? All the roads have a speed limit of 25. I rarely leave town. I drive every day. But I’d be safer five miles up in the air? Hardly. How many (sick/old/whatever) people die in their sleep? Are they going to say that flying is safer than sleeping in your bed?
A statistic can be applied collectively. But individually, your mileage will vary considerably.
I don’t know… socialists, collectivists, neocons, fascists… I doubt they would agree with that. They love fear. They live on fear. It’s hard to argue with the facts, so they resort to fear. This video is funny.
BTW, John Stossel was apparently mentioned by Ron Paul to be a possible running mate. Walter Williams was too.
Haha, I’ve only seen the one where it’s a 1:30 of a bunch of clips of them saying “Ronald Reagan”.
So are you saying I wasted all that money that I spent buying the emeregency preparedness kits that Art Bell told me to buy?
When it comes to worry, I was trained as a 60’s youth by guru Alfred E. Neuman and his timeless words: "What, me worry?:
The second definition on that page falsely calls Stossel a neocon… far from the truth. Neocons are the far left side of the Republican party, which includes the current administration and 9 out 10 of the GOP presidential candidates (maybe 8, as Tancredo might not be a neocon). Stossel is a libertarian, practically the opposite of a neocon. Fiscal conservative, and socially liberal… or as the libertarians call it, economic freedom and social freedom.
And it’s a lot of money, seems like total kit for the family of four would run to $900 ish!
But if it ptotects my family from whatever holocaust the martians, ghosts, religious right, and other extra terrestrials have in store for us, it will be worth it.
I wonder if I should have gotten the bigfoot upgrade?
Yes, I have (had) a friend who died around age 30 from lung cancer. She never smoked, but grew up in a house where others did. Don’t smoke around other people.
I know you’re being a little silly, but yes, flying is about 100 times safer, on average, than car trips. The problem is there aren’t flights to your local 7-11. Airplanes are designed to crash also. Drop your car from 2000 feet and it won’t hold up much better than an airplane. The difference in amount of damage is, in large part, what makes the airplane light enough to fly. They even test-crash airplanes!
This is where most people have most of their accidents. Not because of the familiarity of those roads, just because of the greater percentage of driving time spent there.
They can if you have bad credit; then apparently anything goes… 
you are missing the point. he was talking about driving cross country instead of taking a plane ride.
twice my family was involved in a car accident while on a road trip vacation (both times were unavoidable and were not my father’s fault). after that we decided it was safer to fly.
No, I think he was making a joke, while you’re missing the reality. Statistically, most accidents happen within a few miles of home. But again, they’re not as interesting, so they don’t get the attention of a family far from home, etc.
My story of our station wagon getting rear-ended in Tucson, AZ on our National Lampoon’s Vacation (the movie was copied from my family’s 1977 family vacation out west) is a much more interesting story than a fender-bender in my town.
What does “unavoidable” mean anyway? That the other guy was unavoidably drunk? Very few traffic accidents are unavoidable if you consider all the drivers involved. Yes, mistakes by other drivers can leave you cornered with no options, but sometimes that can be a driving mistake as well.
Having now read the article, I thought it was a cute piece by Stossel. That’s what he seems to do on TV also, cute pieces. He points out that the media like to hype things, which is nice an honest of him. Unfortunately it does nothing to fix the problem. How I’d love to have a news program, on TV or radio, that’s not ratings-dependent, but rather is judged on how well it reports news. Stuff that matters, not “day four of Paris in jail.” That’s not news. Even a news program that debunks the other news programs and hype out in the world. Instead of focusing on Lindsey Lohan’s embarrassing problems, maybe it could focus on how to not let this happen to yourself or your kids. How to spot the lies in offers from your cable or phone company. What you can really do to stay healthy, rather than what’s trendy or who is promoting a new book. Etc.
John, if you did that, I might actually start watching the news.
I wasn’t making a joke or being silly. Well, not this one time.
I don’t drive drunk. I’m not an inexperienced driver. I’m a cautious, attentive driver. I think about driving almost constantly (while I’m driving). I see what’s happening around me. Sometimes I’m moving out of the way before a problem in another lane becomes a crisis. I don’t tailgate or speed. I leave an out. I often leave the other guy an out, too.
Compare me to the guy who speeds and drives drunk all the time (in his 1970 Pinto with bald tires). We are not at the same risk of an accident. He is skewing the statistics. In order for the average to stay the same, there has to be someone else equally far on the opposite side (a low-risk driver).
That’s my point – statistics are valid when applied in aggregate, but we are individuals. Each and every one of us. (okay, a moment of silliness) Collectively, we have a certain risk of having a heart attack. But they always break the risk down by age, race, whether you smoke, whether you are overweight or obese, etc. People are at different risks. Same with driving. We are not all at the same risk – because of differences in age, driving attitude, driving aptitude, experience, caution, vehicle crash-worthiness, etc.
I want the breakdown. Don’t just say I am 100 times more likely to die in an automobile than in a plane. Don’t lump me in with the high-risk drivers. Insurance companies don’t, for sure. Because their money is on the line. I want the statistics by age group. Do those statistics exist? (I’ll get around to Googling it, but if anyone is ambitious…)
It just occurred to me that there is probably NOTHING we can all agree on. 
-1;
~Unicycling is cool.
~Aussies are weird.
~ShaunJ is gullible.
~BTM is an android.
Just proved you wrong. 
Unicycling is FUN. It’s way NOT cool.
Aussies are cool. Texans are weird.
BTM is from outer space. He’s not an andriod.
I disagree. Chicks dig it, therefore by the standards of [most] guys, it’s cool.
Y’all just don’t know what you’re missin’.
You didn’t refute my ShaunJ accusation…cause we all know it’s a true. 