Who are you calling a knucklehead?

This article about a panel of experts coming together in Houston to assess the city's readiness to deal with disasters is moderately interesting - I look forward to reading their conclusions, that's for sure - but what really caught my eye was this:

"We are in an era when it is easier to attack than defend," said David McIntyre, director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University.

"In the past, it was very hard for a single individual to launch an attack against a city," McIntyre said. "Technology is allowing disaffected people to have an inordinate impact on our lives -- terrorists for sure, but also homegrown knuckleheads like Timothy McVeigh or screwballs like the Unabomber."

Huh. I certainly agree that there's a dividing line between terrorists and knuckleheads, and that the latter can cause a fair amount of mayhem for which it would be best to be prepared. I just don't know how you can draw that line in such a way as to put Timothy McVeigh in the non-terrorist group. Maybe Mr. McIntyre has a different definition of the term than I do, I don't know. I just know how I'd have classified that particular example.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on January 28, 2009 to Elsewhere in Houston