In answer to your upthread question, O Nameless One, I have to answer "Yes". I do feel safer than I did on September 12, last year. The state of the organization that launched those attacks has been significantly depressed, and an international standard has been promulgated such that those who once felt secure launching such surprise attacks are at least on notice that the penalties will arrive, sooner or later, and they will be most painful.

Is this good? Well, no, not in any ideal sense. But it is real. Are we as secure in fact as we thought we were before those attacks? Not really, but weren't then, either. The sense of security which we felt back then may have been simple ingenuousness.

As for the scariness of our times, I don't think so. I see no benefit in promoting generalized "Dangerous environmental threats" point of view, without specifics, especially from an anonymous perch. I believe it promotes an atmosphere of ineffective timidity and does no service to anyone.

A