Jeffrey Goldberg over at the Atlantic magazine is having a writing contest. Winner gets a subscription to the Atlantic.
You may recall a posting of mine the other day, I noted an article titled, The Things He Carried, written by Jeffrey Goldberg.
Goldberg contends that the Transportation Security Administration is concerned with catching the lowest of the low hanging fruit when it comes to potential terrorists. He calls this the Hawley Principle, named for the head of the TSA, Kip Hawley. Goldberg offers Hawsley’s own words as evidence ( from the TSA’s blog):
Clever terrorists can use innovative ways to exploit vulnerabilities. But don’t forget that most bombers are not, in fact, clever. Living bomb-makers are usually clever, but the person agreeing to carry it may not be super smart. Even if “all” we do is stop dumb terrorists, we are reducing risk.
Goldberg wonders if other bureaucracies could use the same logic for their mission. Go here to New Contest: Can You Out-Lame the TSA? for more details about the contest.