I've been watching the presidential debates

 

There you have it.  I’m not proud of it, but I feel better now that it’s out there.

 

So far I’ve learned three things:

 

1. Our election process is now a reality television game show about who can deliver the best applause line.

 

2. I am consumed by terror about ISIS killing me and I can’t think of anything else.

 

3. Our election is totally about who can kill ISIS the best.  Who is the leader that can deliver us from our terror?

 

I still don’t have perspective on this, so I google causes of death per year and I get:

 

Illicit drugs                  46,000

Motor vehicles             35,000

Gun violence                  33,000

Alcohol                          29,000

Cannabis                                  0

Suicide                           41,000

Tobacco                      556,000

Aspirin                                450

 

Terrorism                               30 in the last ten years

 

The most recent numbers I found were for 2013, so they’re somewhat dated, but not terribly.  The pace of terrorism is picking up.  Of course we need to do something about it.  But I just can’t understand why our hair is on fire.  Why is every other issue we face irrelevant compared to defeating people in another part of the world, when the rest of the people in that other part of the world can’t even come to any agreement to defeat them?  ISIS is a problem for us, but so are a lot of other things.  ISIS is a GIANT problem for the other people in the region.  Why aren’t they leading the attack?