That's why me, as well as millions of other Americans, felt that Trump was the only adult in the room.

Phobia is defined to be an irrational fear. The real question: is it actually irrational? perhaps we should ask the people of Paris, or maybe those in ISIS controlled areas?

Aside: Ares, the Greek god of war often rode into battle accompanied by his sons, Deimos (dread) and Phobos (fear).

"Phobia is defined to be an irrational fear. The real question: is it actually irrational?"

That brings up my gripe about how phobias are defined in general. Things labeled as phobias are sometimes, in themselves, not irrational. I think we can agree that triskaidekaphobia, the fear of the number 13, is inherently irrational. However, the same is not true of acrophobia, the fear of high places. After all, a fall from a high place can kill you. The fear is only irrational in a situation where there are clearly measures in place to make such a fall impossible or extremely remote, but that's context-dependent.

I have thoughts about this. I will share them with you presently and you, their reader, will take delight in them, then sharing them with friends, family, co-workers and passersby.

I've named this process the "circle of life."

Guess I better get started with my campaign to outlaw assault knives. I'm afraid I'm going to have to include butter knives, because it is too darn easy to modify them to be fully sharp-o-matic. Sorry about that guys. Good luck with your steaks.

> Now, do you really think it's "phobic"
> to fear an ideology that leads to
> plots like this -- and slaughters
> Muslims who leave the faith or who
> support a more peaceful, modern,
> interfaith-accepting Islam...or might
> this be a realistic fear?

• The "Now" + comma, like a dozen similarly-teenaged elements of this blog post, is trite.
• "Plots like this" is weird language, considering that the provenance of these guys —religiously, physically and otherwise— is nowhere described in the article. Someone sent you the link; it said they're Isis; you're ready to believe them.
• For the entirety of the time I've known of your existence— from the whole time you've lived in Los Angeles, and presumably for the whole time you lived in New Motherfucking York City and Dee Goddam Troit as well, you've lived within a short commute of a much larger number of almost identically disaffected young males, equally tortured by their environments, equally disposed to unleashing unholy furies on your pink ass, while being much, MUCH better equipped (i.e. armed) to do so. These are a couple of vaguely-literate twats with accounts at Whatsapp and Amazon.
• Your last question is clear and appropriate, paraphrasing: Am I permitted to be afraid?

But of all the shit going on in the United States right now, this focus of your seems weirdly disproportionate, which is perhaps why it had inspired only three responses when I checked in late in the day. The backhanded timidity of your question echoes the post earlier this year in which you weakly conceded that the end game of all this rhetoric was merely that we "be informed and honest about the dictates of Islam so we can do something about it."

Well, as you've noticed, our president-elect is fucking insane... Or as a friend and I discussed this afternoon, essentially psychopathological.

But Trump's announced all kinds of interesting policies to deal with this! Registries! Closed borders! Otherstuff!

Does any of this constitute, ahem, "doing something"? Are you happy?

What do you want?

It's got to be more than permission to worry. It's a free country: You've always had that.

"I'm sorry, but..."

Whoops! No "I"m"!

We begin with just "Sorry, but..."