"Beware the leader who bangs the drums of war
in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor,
for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword.
It both emboldens the blood,
just as it narrows the mind....
And when the drums of war have reached a fever pitch and
the blood boils with hate and the mind has closed,
the leader will have no need in seizing the rights of the citizenry.
Rather, the citizenry, infused with fear
and blinded with patriotism, will offer up all of their rights unto the leader, and gladly so.
How do I know? For this is what I have done.
And I am Caesar."
--- William Shakespeare
"It was the losing side; Still not convinced it was the wrong one." ~Mal from Firefly
The LoWriter Best Bumper Sticker of the Campaign Award goes to:
"Bush/Cheney--Why switch horses mid-apocalypse?"
I don't open my bills until I'm ready to pay them. Don't ask me why. I think it makes me feel better not to see the results of my foolishness until I can pay for them. So, I realized last night that my "bill" from my student loan company had shown up a bit early. I opened it, and discovered chaos.
Apparently, my information was on a computer that was stolen from the loan company's proccessing center. Not to be tricked by a fraudulent claim, I dialed the number on my normal billing statement from the previous month to make sure that the letter was legitimate.
It was. So, aside from voting, which I did and you should do, too, I spent a good portion of my morning on hold with various creditors, and I'm still not done. I had to call one of the credit reporting bureaus, which will notify the other two as well. To be on the safe side, I'm going to go home and call my phone companies as well. Then I realized that, being the mature adult that I am, I have a retirement fund that I should protect. All so that I don't become a victim of identity theft.
And here's what I'd like to know: Who in the hell would want my identity? I'm serious. I tried to get a car loan a couple years ago and I was denied because what I make doesn't balance with what I owe. Don't ask me how I've managaed to avoid living in a cardboard box if that's actually the case, but the fact remains that, in spite of my amazing hotness, I am not very attractive on paper. It's not like you'll get rich off my identity, kids. A co-worker told me that I was really calm, and I said, "Well, there's nothing I can do about it now, anyway." I guess I've always expected to be a target of identity theft at some point, given our current society. I'm glad I got a heads up before I got any "past due" notices in my mailbox.
So I'm taking all the neccessary precautions, but I know that, given the opportunity, no one in their right mind would want my ID. And I'm reminded of the bag of papers that needs to be shredded collecting under my desk, and it actually makes me laugh. I'm very careful to sort through receipts and junk mail for anything with my name and/account number on it. I went to all that trouble, and my identity is at risk because of my bank. The things we do to head the identity bandits off at the pass that end up being totally irrelevant in the end will be the only thing our generation is remembered for.