Worrying about unlikely threats and neglecting real threats does not make you holy. It is evil.
When lives are at stake, anything less than full rationality is costing lives, and no amount of irrational kvetching or socially-approved attacks trying to convince people to stop worrying about reality and instead worry about fiction can change that.
You may not be callous, but aren't you the true "bastard" here?
More statistics: 3582 fatal unintentional drownings in 2005, more than one in four a child 14 or younger. Then for every child who died, there's 4 children that needed medical attention for a near drowning. (http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Water-Safety/wa...)
Plus, I don't know where you're getting this "evil" thing. I didn't mention that anything is evil, more of a "do Amber Alerts actually work and how big of an impact do they have compared with the questions asked by this one person on HN?" I don't really have an opinion going either way on Amber alerts at the moment, I'm just giving you the numbers...the numbers taking into account fire alarms, firefighters responding, building safety codes, lifeguards, good samaritans, and more.
Just because Amber alerts are one way to approach the issue of child abductions doesn't mean it's the best way, doesn't mean it necessarily works, and doesn't mean that we should just go "oh look children are in danger you're evil if you don't support it!". It certainly does not mean we should be ignoring other dangers as well, such as fires and drowning and car accidents and more - what are those, the top three leading causes of accidental death in children? To do so is to be grossly irresponsible.
Another statistic: The CDC thinks using car seats and booster seats appropriately could halve the number of car related injuries, fatal and nonfatal, in children in the United States. This estimated number in one year may actually be larger than the number of children safely recovered thanks to an amber alert in more than the decade that has passed since the program started.
Last one, I promise: I don't dispute thousands of children do go missing every day, but even NCMEC's statistics are not grim: many children who do go missing are found again (http://www.ncmec.org/en_US/documents/Statistics.pdf). That is a testament to the wonderful work being done by NCMEC and law enforcement and people everywhere. Still doesn't mean Amber alerts can't be questioned for their effectiveness.
Mostly to try to snap snorkel out of his self-righteous irrational haze, but it doesn't seem to have worked.
Choosing bad priorities means you get sub-optimal results. snorkel, you can strawman and spin all you like, but silencio's statistics don't go away, and the simple and obvious fact that we do not rationally portion out our attention to the things that really kill children while focusing on the Hollywood threats kills hundreds or thousands a year. You keep trying to paint us as wrong, but you're the one standing on the side with the net corpse count. That you happen to be standing there with most of the rest of society is no virtue.
And your examples merely prove that you don't get my point in the slightest. If you think I'm against fire alarms, you need to stop emoting and start reading more carefully, and actually put some rational thought into it.
Worrying about unlikely threats and neglecting real threats does not make you holy. It is evil.
When lives are at stake, anything less than full rationality is costing lives, and no amount of irrational kvetching or socially-approved attacks trying to convince people to stop worrying about reality and instead worry about fiction can change that.
You may not be callous, but aren't you the true "bastard" here?