Operation TIPS. The "Terrorism Information and Prevention System." Basically, a free writ for all of us to spy on each other and call the special "Am I driving patriotically enough?" toll-free number conveniently displayed on bumper stickers in order to rat out our neighbors to the government, who will promptly whisk them away and strip them of any Constitutional rights whatsoever. How patriotic.

Let's break down the numbers, shall we? Here we go:

- Approximately 1 in 50,000 Americans will die each year from terrorist acts. When all was said and done over the course of September 11, 2001, around 6,000 Americans died in that one day, but maybe a handful have died since.
- According to a statement on National Domestic Violence Awareness Month for 2000, 1.5 million American women are raped and/or physically assaulted annually. That breaks down to around 2.5 American women raped or beaten every minute.
- According to Sarah Brady, wife of Jim Brady (for whom the Brady Bill on gun control is named), 30,708 people in the United States died from firearm-related deaths in 1998; 12,102 (39%) of those were murders.
- According to a study by Second Harvest, 23.3 million Americans sought emergency assistance from the Second Harvest food bank in 2001. Nearly 40% of the families who received food from Second Harvest included an adult working full-time but who still couldn't afford to feed their family.
- According to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, 555,500 Americans die each year from cancer. That's more than 1,500 deaths from cancer daily, and it is the cause of 25% of American deaths.

This is just a short sample of the everyday dangers we encounter as Americans, and none of them get the kind of front-page top-of-the-hour attention that terrorism has gotten -- and we've only been exposed to terrorism for less than a year, while cancer deaths and hunger and rapes and murders have been taking place for years and years and years, yet none of them have the staying power in the news that terrorism does.

We've poured billions of dollars and thousands of man-hours down the drain to fight a war against terrorism that, quite frankly, is a lot less destructive so far than almost all of the ordinary things that we face every day. Imagine if we were to direct as much of our energy and money toward Homeland Security -- but security from rape, murder, hunger, disease and other crime -- as we have done for terrorism, how much we could accomplish.

I ask you, President Moron: since you've overrun Afghanistan and tried (so far unsuccessfully) to bring the shining dawn of democracy and prosperity to the Afghans, what have you done to help us on the home front -- those of us who pay the taxes that fund your little war thousands of miles away, and who work day in and day out and are directly affected by the laws you pass? What have you done for me to make my life safer since 9/11?

Here's a TIP for you: why don't you let one of your daughters walk through a dark neighborhood in the middle of a city one night without the Secret Service or anyone else to protect her, and see who's going to jump out at her first -- a rapist or a mugger (either of which with a gun or a knife), or a terrorist. Then maybe you'll reconsider where you should be pouring your efforts.