The Bubble Genius Bob & Chez Show 7/26/12

Tragedies like Aurora make me glad I have a high tolerance for uncertainty. I’m okay with not knowing who or what (apart from the individual perpetrator) is to blame. That said, I’m no less prone than anyone else to nervous reactions after something terrible has happened. It’s what we humans do.

I’m the same sort of optimist you are, Bob. I keep hoping we’ll learn from what’s happened and take reasonable steps to prevent something similar from happening again. And I keep hoping we’ll stop overreacting and learning the wrong lessons from tragedies (and I’m forever disappointed).

Interisland flights don’t seem to me an attractive target. First, the planes aren’t fuelled for more than short flights, so hijacking one to do damage anywhere else would mean a long swim for the hijackers. Second, bluntly, if someone did somehow manage to down an interisland flight, it would only affect the economy of Hawaii, which should recover quickly enough. Backscatter body scanners are ridiculously expensive precautions under those circumstances (an assessment I stand by even if the gates are shared among interisland and mainland flights).

The terrorists won. As soon as we went panicked and ran around in circles after 11 September 2001, they won. It would be so nice if we’d grow the hell up.

Chez, Brian Ross didn’t know better—and that’s the problem. With Ross, the correct answer to “How dumb are you?” is “Transcendently.” Why he has a job at all, let alone at a network news department, is an abiding mystery. He must know where the bodies are buried.

I lost my taste for (most) fast food years ago. Too much salt, too much fat, too many mystery ingredients. No politics involved, most fast food just plain doesn’t taste like food to me. (Lest anyone think I’m being holier-than-thou, I have a serious weakness for Fresh & Easy potato chips. Mmmmmm … non-union acrylamide.)

Bob, enjoy your vacation. You deserve one. And for heaven’s sake, relax!

–alopecia