Fuck Muhammad!!!

[Mohammed]

But, extra minutes at airport security does not equate to a "significant change in lifestyle", it's an occasional minor inconvenience.

I don't know if I'm representative of the American population on the whole, but ⁹⁄₁₁ didn't instill fear in me and hasn't affected the way I live my life. I don't personally know anyone who has restricted his/her personal freedoms because of that event. However, it did increase my interest and awareness of extremism outside American borders and how it affects the lives of those in other countries (and how it affects global politics as well).

You're high when you claim that America is so violent in day to day life that an attack by Islamic extremists would virtually go unnoticed in the United States, Mo. The bombing (in the name of Islam) of the Boston Marathon by an American citizen and his older brother was quite terribly "awesome". So too was the mass shooting/murders of American soldiers by a radicalized American Army Major and psychiatrist. Surely you heard about those attacks, no?

In regards to your claim that if America had a Charlie Hebdo type publication it would give Islamic terrorists a note-worthy target that is currently non-existent, that's some major bullshit you're spewing, mi amor. As I said upthread, America as a country and Americans as a people are already glaring targets for Islamic extremists/avengers -- the terrorists haven't exactly kept that secret.

Anyway, I believe that terrorism is here to stay, at least for the forseeable future. Terrorists are becoming more sophisticated, and their designated foes are becoming more aggressive in defending against terrorist acts. And so it goes and goes. Sometimes terrorist organizations, cells, and lone wolves succeed in racking up a high body count with surprise attacks. Even with the best security and most vigilant intel, the element of surprise can't be avoided altogether.

The fact that the major terrorist groups and Islamic sectors in the Middle East are fighting against each other for power and wealth is an advantage to the West, for sure. I don't think the Shiite and Sunni Muslims will be motivated to put aside their fights with each other to join forces against non-Muslims in the near future, if ever. They've been going at if for ages. But, yeah, western societies do need to remain aware of possible repercussions for engaging in wars and conflicts in Islamic countries, poking fun at Muhammad, and continuing to speak freely against terrorism at the hands of Islamic extremists. That doesn't mean significantly changing our lifestyles or negotiating our freedoms, as you continue to insist -- that's just not happening from my perspective, Mo. I instead see people uniting in protest against extremist/terrorist strikes and more committed than ever to protecting our freedoms and lifestyles, even though that sometimes means loss of innocent lives.

Of course you yourself don't change your daily life much. Why would you, you have a huge sponge of safety around yourself and your day. Once the radicals would think about attacking gays in the name of Islam, that might change so and San Francisco would be right there on top of the list with Sydney and Cape Town.

Considering the size of the States and its population, your chances of being a victim in a terrorist attack are less than you falling out of bed and dying from that. Sort of like a Scandinavian teenager getting all paranoid because of the attacks in London and Spain that time. However, ironically they also got a bit terrified by an attack right from the other side of the spectrum.

No, you yourself and about 85% of your citizens do not see any change, however, check your army, your foreign service, those that work in the airline business, and lately anybody on Capitol Hill it seems. And yes, if you would have a publication like Hebdo, those too. An individual needs to have a certain level to be a target, so 95% of you don't matter. An American in America is pretty much just .... well, an American in America. It would look a bit silly I guess, even so somewhat amusing, if some Muslims all of a sudden pop up in Chicago and state "We just kidnapped an American here, fuck yeah baby! We are off now to Dunkin Doughnuts!"

But such is not the case for your Foreign Service people, who most probably had the biggest change of their former life styles, as I was very much part of that over here to make that happen.

From moving around town, living in wonderful compounds or private 3 story villa's, being part of social events, they are all on lockdown now and either sleep right in their offices at the Embassy or have been moved into the old Sheraton here, where the Department tried to upgrade it as good as possible, but during the initial stage, my time, it was equivalent of taking you out of a luxurious mansion with pool and putting you into a cardboard box that started growing new life forms. On the in and outside!

No my gorgeous crab cake munching beauty, as long as you are not close to anything that could be a target, which are right on the other side of your country mainly, unless of course Hollywood will bring out a movie about Mohammed played by Ali G, I don't think the West Coast will be in any danger. And I'm sure happy about that!

Don't go any further East than the western boarder of Ohio and you should be fine. And the South is safe of course. From the Muslims at least.