Monday, November 29, 2004

A Sensible Elected Official

Schneier on Security: A Sensible Elected Official links to Huntsville Times, which says:
Atallo says the City Hall visitors log - another recent addition - also annoys people and doesn't do anything to make Madison safer. To prove it, he's been signing the names of famous terrorists - "O.B. Laden," "Carlos T. Jackal" - in the book.

No one's caught it.
I think it's cool that he did that. It reminds me of a crackpot idea I had on my long drive home.

I imagine that I'm President of the United States, and I'd like to improve national security by inspecting more of the containers coming into our country. Some American citizens object, citing higher costs to commerce.

I set a date three months away and offer amnesty to any foreign national who sneaks into the country in a container before that date. Make sure the folks in other countries know what we're doing, and when it's all over, do a commercial with all the refugees together to show how large the problem really is. You could even have them tell how easy they thought it was to make it across in a container they're 98% sure won't be checked.

Then I ask the people how much security they want to trade for commerce. Don't get me wrong; commerce is important. I just think that no one has really figured out exactly how much insecurity is costing us.

No comments: