From a Distance

The attacks on London impelled me to reflect on how I have always thought about terror. I've lived my entire life under the threat of nuclear attack, although, I did once learn we can protect ourselves by putting our arms over our head and hiding under a flimsy metal and wood desk. I believe I can trace my current bouts of insomnia back to long nights thinking that if I went to sleep I might never wake up. I was only seven years old during the Cuban missile crisis and an event like that can be pretty rough on your psyche. Add to that the fire and brimstone speeches every Sunday morning and I'm lucky I'm not more messed up than I am. Halcyon days indeed. Inauspicious days might be more like it...

But for some reason, I don't feel so bad about my lot in life anymore. The odds of a full scale nuclear war have greatly diminished. I hear the doomsday clock has been set back to seven minutes as opposed to three minutes, which is where it sat during the early '60s. And living here in small-town Indiana probably has me shielded from being among the possible first victims of a nuclear terror attack. Joseph Addison said, "There is no defense against criticism except obscurity." I'd like to paraphrase . . . the best defense against terrorism is the obscurity of your location.

[via A Little Left of Centrist]