Let's see if I understand this. The infamous "Shoe Bomber" acted alone, did not kill anyone and is called a terrorist. To protect us from other terrorists like him, we now must remove our shoes at the airport. The Fort Hood shooter also acted alone. He killed 13 people and wounded 29 but is not considered a terrorist. Nor are we taking any measures to protect the public from others like him.

The first is obviously terrorism because it was intended to force us to change our policies out of fear (and it was successful, we sacrifice our dignity and privacy for the illusion of security), whereas the second wasn't terrorism because it was just intended to kill a bunch of people ... what's so difficult to understand ...