For those who read this and are still afraid of being a victim of terrorism, let me offer a little bit of perspective. You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease and 12,571 times more likely to die of cancer than a terrorist attack (so rather than worry about terrorism, pay attention to your health). You are also 1,048 times more likely to die in an auto accident than a terrorist attack (so pay attention to your driving and hang up that cell phone!). You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a cop or be electrocuted than be killed in a terrorist attack (so don’t fly your kite near power lines near a police station).

Terrorism is a game in which every player wins—everybody, that is, except for the ordinary people who do the bleeding and dying -- and it's a bastard child of democracy, as surely as Tammany Hall and total war, predicated on the cruelly false notion that everybody in a democratic country, even little babies in their cradles, has a part in running it, and therefore deserves equal punishment for whatever it does.

Blindly playing the terrorist card because you disagree with someone cheapens the very concept of terrorism, demeans all victims of terrorism, and belittles the terrorist-baiter in the process.

Whenever someone blatantly misuses the "terrorist" word someone should call that someone stupid to his or her face. Unfortunately, those types of mindless someones would likely consider being told the unvarnished truth about themselves as yet another example of "terrorism."

We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.

It’s like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk… It’s as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes “Jew” and “Gypsy.”

I say again, this is not how civilised governments behave. It has been obvious since the Great War that most “collateral damage” is the deliberate targeting of civilians for the purpose of demoralising an enemy. I do suggest, however, that, while terror bombing involves murder on a much larger scale, the assassination of alleged enemies – or the murder of their relatives when they themselves cannot be reached – marks a further stage in the moral decline of our civilisation. What right have we to complain about terrorism in our own countries when the only difference between this and what our own governments do abroad is the words used to describe it?

There is no doubt here that the government agents were using the fondling of Tyner's genitals as the lever to force him to comply. Tyner ONLY withheld permission for the agent to "touch his junk," nothing more. He told the agent: "I don't understand how a sexual assault can be made a condition of my flying."

The agent said: "This is not considered a sexual assault." Tyner said: "It would be if you were not the government."

Hyping their ability to prevent further attacks through big-power co-operation and more cash for spooks, is just whistling in the dark. Innocent civilians in cities like New York, London, Madrid, Mumbai and Nairobi will be the ones to suffer. And the threat is not only in the west – yesterday 52 worshippers lost their lives in yet another Baghdad bombing.

Governments who continue to fight disastrous and hopeless wars like that in Afghanistan, supposedly to root out terrorism, will never succeed in protecting their citizens from terrorist attacks. Quite the opposite.

Moreover, keep in mind that everyone is supposed to be presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. The government wants to avoid that important step and simply have its accusation be conclusive.

Criminal defense attorneys serve as obstacles to a government running roughshod over the citizenry. That’s why they are so hated and resented not only by U.S. officials but also officials in China, North Korea, and Cuba.