Reason science correspondent Ronald Bailey crunches the numbers and finds what deep down we already know: the chances of getting killed in a terrorist attack are exceedingly slim -- to quote from the story:

"your risk of dying in a plausible terrorist attack is much lower than your risk of dying in a car accident, by walking across the street, by drowning, in a fire, by falling, or by being murdered."

And yet, many people are willing to give up libertiy after liberty in a vain effort to feel safer ... and in the process fail to notice that onrushing garbage truck that just blew through the light on Broad Street.

Of course, as 9/11 shows, terrorist attacks can have terrible consequences, destroying thousands of lives, destroying billions of dollars in property, and causing tremendous pain and agony. Yet in many ways, this is not unlike the other risks -- be they tornadoes, hurricanes or blizzards -- that we already must deal with, and which threaten our lives to a greater extent every year. Some how we live with those threats without turning our nation into a police state.