This is a pointer to my AOL essay. BTW, AOL donates $100 to a charity of the author's choice.

I wanted to find a good image for "amateur" but what Google suggests is not for the family audience.

It used to be that when someone mentioned amateurs, I thought of the person who hits himself on the finger with a hammer, or pricks herself with a needle just below the thimble. Or maybe blows a fuse or two. Someone inept, pathetic and sad, but mostly harmless.

Now, I take a much more sinister view.

The recent case of the Russian spy who couldn't make her laptop connection work seems to me to be the latest drop in the sea of amateurism that threatens to engulf America (though, of course, it's not just an American phenomenon).

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