Well, since I have some experience with living with terrorism and risk, let me try.
(a) Thinking about this stuff does you no good. None of us have the data to predict with any reasonable certainty upcoming targets, ergo there is no real action for you as individual to take. I rather dislike these announcements for just that reason, although I understand the reason (gonna leak anyway).
Some reasonable guesses, like gobears (and unlike Reeders), can be made based on past pattern but you, I, gobear, can’t do fuck all about it. Unless you want to live in quivering fear.
I’ve spent a good number of years in the Mid East. Last year in Egypt, site of numerous terror attacks. Things got real fun when the intifada started again. And the US embassy helpfully warned US citizens that we were (are) at risk and should avoid public places.
The folks who suffered were those expats who couldn’t stop thinking about it. One takes reasonable actions to limit risk (See large crowd with shouting. See the blue tin cans rolling up with the security forces, start moving the other way.) and then forgets about. Just like driving a car.
Could you drive if you spent all your time thinking about what if that Explorer or that Mac crushed me? etc. You’ve internalized actions to avoid as much risk as you can – defensive driving and all that-- and have forgotten the risk --in fact a larger one than a terror attack-- that Mr. Ford Explorer or Mr. Overweight Mac truck ain’t gonna see you, or will drop hot coffee on his lap and make a sudden that you can’t compensate for. And you’re dead.
Fear does you no good and just leads to mental suffering on your part.
(b) No, you’re not in no danger. But the % chance of you dieing from a terror attack is a whole fucking lot lower than say a car accident. Your risk is low.
© There are no embassies in Chicago. Consulates, yes, but consulates are rarely well-known. There’s no reason to get worked up about consulates. In any case, if the consulates are of “high profile” nations, you actually are probably safer around them given Sec. Serv. surviellance is very high nowadays.
(d) ObL is unlikely to have nuclear capacity. If he does, in an effective way, then we are all in world of shit no matter what you do.
I recall taking a desert taxi across the Sahara, in the Egyptian Western Desert. Now these guys, well just imagine taking a jeep across fine sand at 100kph on bare tires. Now imagine you’re sitting in an open jeep with no seat belts and you’re going up and down dunes and the driver shows little consciousness of center of gravity and rollover concerns.
Well, given I had no way to get anywhere except with one of these motherfuckers, and walking in the Western Sahara ain’t too smart, I just had to suck it up. I spent a lot of time enjoying the view and doing little mental games to not think about what a fucking stupid thing it was to come all the fuck out in the Western Sahara.
I’m not a brave guy, but experience has taught me that obsessing about risks you can’t change does you not one fuck of good and a lot of harm.
Enjoy your game, put your trust in security. There is nothing else to do. Nothing, nada, rien, walou, nothing.