Being under threat of death alters one's whole physical and mental condition. A knot develops in my stomach, I can't focus well on anything that requires a lot of mental processing, like programming, and I lose my appetite. But I know from experience that it won't be this way for long. I'll go back to the way I was in NYC after getting mugged early one morning in 1984 by a couple of Puerto Rican thugs. After a while you get comfortable with your death angel. You invite him along everywhere you go instead of fearing him. You're always in fight-or-flight condition but your brain has time for higher-level activity in the little snippets afforded to it during the day.
I've never studied terrorism, but my guess is that its primary purpose is to choke off the economic productivity of its target. It works for a while. But after, at the most, two or three generations, people get used to living under fire, and they manage to thrive under it (that is, if they don't die out as a race). Look at Israel. Terrorism doesn't scare them, it just pisses them off. They manage to continue outproducing all their neighbors regardless of being sniped at both with words and weapons.
Don't infer from that that I'm a Zionist. I haven't made my mind up on the subject and probably never will. Their G-d is not my friend. But I like the Israeli people I've had the opportunity to meet. Their cynicism can be annoying sometimes, but more often it and their self-deprecating humor is chicken soup for my soul.
Anyway, writing this up has calmed me down somewhat. I'll keep my eyes out for black limos but I'll get back to seeing why this goddamned stv680 driver isn't talking with my JB1 camera.
last updated 2013-01-10 20:28:01. served from tektonic.jcomeau.com