Terrorism and peanuts

"Be afraid; be very afraid." That's the message of this administration to the American people. But what is the actually likelihood of being killed by terrorists? An article that explores that question is entitled "Peanuts Kill More Americans Than Terrorists". Here's part of what it says:

The menace of global terrorism has been labeled the greatest threat to western civilization since communism and yet swimming pools, peanuts and lost deer kill more Americans every single year. Why are our governments facilitating the terrorist's agenda by hyping a peril that simply doesn't exist?

The number of Americans killed as a result of international terrorism since the 1960's gives us a benchmark from which we can correctly identify and target other dire dangers to our very way of life.

- Allergic reactions to peanuts
- Accident causing deer
- Lightning strikes

That's correct - all of the above have killed an equal number of Americans since 1960 as terrorism. One could even categorize M&M's, lost deer and the weather as an "axis of evil arming to threaten the peace of the world," as George Bush famously once said.
...
To equal the danger that Americans place themselves in every day by driving their car down the highway, there would have to be a September 11 every month.
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The principle goal of terrorists is to terrify populations and governments into acquiescing to their political demands. The only way they can achieve this is by generating a substantial amount of fear and making people believe the lie that their life is significantly threatened by potential terrorism, when in reality the swimming pool in their backyard poses more of a danger.

You know, sometimes I wish statistics were a required subject for graduation from high school. People in this country would be a lot more informed if they understood how numbers behave.