It matters quite a lot whether an act of destruction was deliberate. If someone takes credit for such an act, the act is denounced and it is immediately decided that we must do everything in our power to prevent its repetition. When the perpetrators are known but deny responsibility, we enter a gray zone, which can be whitewashed by clout and connections and money. When planes are flown into towers, killing about 3000 people, it is terrorism. When chemicals are spilled on Bhopal, killing approximately the same number of people immediately---with thousands more to follow in the ensuing weeks---no such epithet is used. The act is considered <i>less</i> evil because the perpetrator <i>didn't</i> take responsibility. The destruction and loss of human life was about the same. After 9--11, citizens of every shitsplat county in the USA were worried about Al Qaeda poisoning their drinking water. Millions, if not billions of dollars were dispensed to combat such potential dastardly deeds, none of which ever transpired. The fear stirred up by all this activity did not go to waste: it was used to fuel further restrictions on rights and transgressions on persons that have transformed the social landscape. Recently, a mining company befouled the drinking and bathing water for eight counties' worth of West Virginians. The long-anticipated nightmare had come true. Except for one twist: culpability was denied by the perpetrator. Because of this, no-one dared to call it terrorism. Past negligent behavior made it inevitable. The accident was, for all intents and purposes, indistinguishable from a deliberate act. The name of the company that poisoned eight counties is <i>Freedom Industries</i>. I cannot hear anything over the sound of Orwell's cackling laughter. Odds are, nothing will happen to this company. It will continue to enjoy the largesse of our leaders and its lobbies will keep regulation non-existent. Fines, if any, will amount to pocket change. Poor people will have to buy bottled water at inflated prices for a while and then they will presumably go back to lighting their tap water on fire and otherwise suffering their fates in silence. The news crews will have long gone home, those that even bothered to show up in the first place. But if the exact same damage had been done by somewhat duskier folk who perhaps espouse a non-sanctioned religion, the country would be in near-lockdown. If the damage had been done somewhere important, like Washington D.C., a State of Emergency would have been declared, if not outright Martial Law. Congress would be busy once again, passing slews of draconian laws that further justify torture and profiling, setting the remaining tatters of the Bill of Rights on fire. For the good of the country, of course. And for our own good. I'm sure the residents of West Virginia are breathing a sigh of relief that they are safe from terrorism.