If the general details as outlined in the NYT story are accurate, his disregard of basic policies for handling secret materials was highly unprofessional, and had he not resigned or otherwise been subject to an appropriate sanction, it would become very difficult to enforce the necessary protocols throughout the British services.

He will be missed, no doubt, but he acted appropriately.

We seem to be in a circle of ever growing competition to cover our respective *sses and exposing politicians and others who make mistakes. In this particular case, Quick was apparently very effective in his job. Do we really want to live in a society with zero tolerance? (And I leave off any particular rubric intentionally) For a slight digression, read “The Jigsaw Man” in Larry Niven’s collection of short stories http://library.minlib.net/record=b1539130: _All the Myriad Ways_.

It may be that living in a time when there is no privacy and every single mistake we ever make is available for public criticism that humans will be forced to evolve a more proactive ability to forgive and forget.

The flip side of this is professional responsibility by the news media and others. The photo of this document was on the web before anyone gave a thought to the consequences. Someone should organize a boycott of such an organization, because they are putting their own economic interests above society’s. Sure, you have a right to publish. But tell the government what happened and give them a chance to fix the mess.

Again, we need to need to evolve a different ethic where we hold everyone responsible for their actions. Publishing that photo without thought was just as bad as walking around with it exposed to camera view in the first place.