If the Malaysian Airlines flight crashed, and if 239 people on board were killed, that's less than 2 hours' death toll for cars crashes.

But the bigger danger of cars may be that they encourage people to get less exercise.

In September 2001, car crashes killed more Americans than terrorist attacks did. Terrorists have killed only a handful of Americans since then, but cars do it again every month. So why are Americans so scared of terrorists and not scared of cars?

Partly it is due to human psychological tendencies. Many victims from one event attract more attention than many separate events with the same total number of victims. Violence attracts attention too. Conversely, whether you have a car crash is partly under your own control, which reduces the fear caused by that danger.

This is exacerbated by the mainstream media's exploitation of fear of terrorists, and by the written and voice announcements in trains and buses reminding us to be very afraid of the (probably nonexistent) terrorists.

If you are investing for the benefit of people's future, divesting from fossil fuels is absolutely necessary.

Promoting girls' self-esteem with substance rather than banning words.

There's one point I dispute: the idea that there is such a thing as "ban-worthy hate speech". That concept reflects disrespect for a right essential to women as well as men: freedom of speech.

Senator Feinstein says the CIA undermined the constitution by searching senate computers.

This is a big turnaround for her, since thus far she has firmly defended the intelligence agencies and their snooping on everyone else. Her denunciation goes against the spirit of her previous views.

Rather than condemning her for "self-contradiction" or "hypocrisy", we should invite her to change her previous views.

Congress should change the law so that it is clearly not a crime for congressional staff investigating the intelligence agencies to get and look at their documents.

Buying out the coal industry could be a cheap way to shut it down.

Rather than beg a few billionaires to carry out this important public function, we should tell our elected representatives to have the state do it. That would avoid the danger that other coal companies would start up and try to resume the mining that had been shut down.