I grew up in the Cold War, with real concern that the Russians would attack us someday. I wanted to go to the Naval Academy, wanted to be on a submarine, and help defend the US. When I saw Red Dawn as a kid, that was something we thought could happen. Maybe it was a bit of a stretch, but not an outrageous one. The Hunt for Red October defined a lot of what my generation worried about. We really lived the spy world, with people being caught and posturing by governments with real weapons of mass descruction, not like today.

So the idea proposed by Bruce Schneier, which caught my eye since I like his blog and the whole data thing is part of my job, is something that resonates with me. It's something that I thought would be an issue throughout most of my life. I was amazed when the Berlin wall fell down and the Cold War ended.

So this idea, while perhaps not plausible, is something that resonated with me, and I'm sure, a few of you older folks out there.

Why did I write this? I got challenged by Andy Warren

to write a bit about why I wrote something. I complained to him that he

has some "mechanical" posts on this blog that just mention he wrote

something with some questions, and don't really blog about why he wrote

something. He challenged me to write about why I wrote something, so

here I am.