December 28, 2009

How About the "Terrorist Differentness Ecosystem Dashboard?"

Regular readers know I like to divide the people of the ad world into two species: simplifiers and complicators.

This also applies to the non-advertising world.

I evaluate the potential efficacy of social and political activities by whether they are making things more simple or more complicated.  Generally, things that make the world simpler succeed, and things that make the world more complicated fail.

This was called to mind this weekend when a God-inspired maniac tried to blow up an airplane over Detroit.

Apparently this guy's father specifically warned officials about his son's proclivities just a few weeks ago. The warning was ignored. As I was reading an article from The Washington Post a phrase caught my eye.
"...Administration officials acknowledged Saturday that Abdulmutallab's (the maniac's) name was added in November to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment... maintained by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence at the National Counterterrorism Center..."
It sounds like a Rube Goldberg comedy version of mealy-mouthed governmental uselessness.

You want a data base that will generate some results? Call it the List of Murderous Lunatics Who Are Trying To Kill Us.

The "National Terrorism Center"...
Sounds like it has a Starbucks, a Banana Republic, and a Barnes and Noble.

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