irrational fear

Being rational means being able to judge ratios (hence the word ratio-nal). So I loved this article in the Washington Post. Which dangers are we most afraid of?

Pneumonia killed 63,000 Americans in 2000 alone. The anthrax letters killed 5. We could also add that terrorism killed 3,000 in 2001, but almost nobody before or since. While road traffic deaths, gun deaths, heart disease... you name it, almost anything is more dangerous than terrorism. Whenever I see a headline about terrorism it always says the same thing: "Irrational fear! Irrational fear!".