deteriment if i hack into your bank and nose around, it seems perfectly reasonable to most americans to put on an outrage face and throw my ass in jail for life. if i walk into your bank with guns literally blazing, it simultaneously seems perfectly reasonable to most americans to nod in agreement when my lawyer points out i deliberately aimed my shots at the ceiling specifically to not harm anyone. i was there after all for the cash in the registers. not even the good stuff in the vault. and i end up with a light sentence and am out in a few years on probation. hrm. i find this situation very strange. not so much that the penalties are so out of whack. compare crack vs powdered cocaine. but because we seem to think such huge penalties actually keep the bank safe. and since we believe that, no one secures the bank. do you lock your doors when you leave? why? the criminals will stay out because, well, the law will get them. i'm sure you've seen in the news that pretty much every major corporation in the united states comes under hacker attack. deterrent is useless when the attack is coming from outside the jurisdiction of our law. the emperor has no clothes. we need to improve our domestic cyber security. and to do that we have to recruit people with knowledge of such systems, ie hackers. we can't afford to let people with interest in security slip through the cracks of society. cause they're smart folks. and if one or two examples end up dead or rotting in prison, none will follow. and then we won't be able to fortify our virtual walls. even if we wanted to.  ¶ 8:00 AM