Ladies and Gentlemen I'm afraid

[bobclark86]

63. The modern media in 4 seconds...

Do you know how many times we've come to annihilating ourselves, whether through war, illness, disaster and old-fashioned douchebaggery?

Take gun violence. Plenty on the news about people being shot, but the murder rate was dramatically higher when you were born (and was already on a slide then).

Take car accidents. There's always some car crash on the news, but there were three times as many fatal accidents in the 1930s than now, and there were a lot fewer Americans.

Take measles. Fatal cases 75 years ago: About 17,000. This latest outbreak? 0.

Take war. You think Iraq and Afghanistan are bad? The number of deaths of American troops are orders of magnitude below those of every other major American war. Nobody's really started an all-out brawl with us because we got "the bomb."

Here's my thought: Turn off the TV, switch from Democratic Underground to The Onion, and go live life. Go meet a girl (or guy, whatever) you like, go find a job that makes you happy (and provides enough money to live your ideal life... mine is pretty cheap, so a poor-paying job that helps people appeals to me), and live. Get your vaccines. Wear your motorcycle helmet. Wrap your tool if you don't want kids or the clap (and offer to pay for the pill for yo' lady, because you're benefiting, too). Eat what you want in moderation and ride a bike or something.

Oh, and follow the Golden Rule: "Don't be a dick."