You know sometimes I wonder why I am moderate to liberal instead of solidly conservative. Obviously the reason is that I don't walk around in a constant state of fear.
The following are the top 15 causes of death in the United States:
Cause of Death / Percent of Total
1. Diseases of the heart
28.5
2. Malignant tumors 22.8
3. Cerebrovascular diseases 6.7
4. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 5.1
5. Accidents (unintentional injuries) 4.4
6. Diabetes mellitus 3.0
7. Influenza and pneumonia 2.7
8. Alzheimer's disease 2.4
9. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis 1.7
10. Septicemia (blood poisoning) 1.4
11. Suicide 1.3
12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis 1.1
13. Primary hypertension and hypertensive renal disease 0.8
14. Parkinson's disease (tied) 0.7
15. Homicide (tied) 0.7
Just as an FYI, the odds are millions and millions and millions to one that any of the following will be your demise: terrorism, ebola, home invasions, beheading, or wild animal attack. It is a near certainty those are not what will kill you. If you are a smoker and or overweight, and you are worried about Ebola, your personal risk calculator is way off.
Today, in the United States, you have less than a 1 in 300,000,000 chance of contracting Ebola. In contrast, if you smoke, you have about a 1 in 5 chance of getting lung cancer and dying a miserable death from it. If you are obese, you will on average die about 10 years early than someone that is fit (not to mention is greatly ups your cancer risk). Personally, with all the trail running, road biking, and wilderness backpacking trips I do, if anything kills me before my time I will probably be some kind an accident resulting from some thrill junkie stunt. Point being, I don't worry about ebola killing me, terrorism killing me, some inner city youth killing me (even though I often go on runs that take me through the inner city), or any of things that statistically have little to no chance of being my demise. Similarly, I don't count on the lottery for my retirement.
Grow a pair and quit freaking out over ebola.