On November 1st, Bruce Schneier published his essay “The War on the Unexpected“. It made the rounds online, and it well deserved the attention. I won’t start copying in bits and pieces of that text, because you really owe it to yourself to read the whole thing. 

I didn’t link to the essay at the time, but I sure as hell am now. Why now? Maybe it was all those idiotic “Terror Tips? Report Suspicious Activity” highway signs I saw this Thanksgiving. Or maybe it was Schneier’s followup post where he describes a man in the UK who “had gone into a diabetic coma on a bus” and therefore “was shot twice with a Taser gun by police who feared he may have been a security threat.” I have a loved one with type 1 diabetes, and that just makes my blood boil. 

This is just f&!king unacceptable, people. Schneier is right: fear is winning. Refuse to be terrorized.

I’ll end this on a positive note. My sister recently sent me a link to the interview with Barack Obama at Google. After watching it, I went and sent the guy some money. I love this guy. He gets it. He gets that a culture of fear is not acceptable. And he gets a lot of other things too. He’s genuine, he’s wicked smart, and he gets my vote.