Oct 17, 2016

The American Community Snoop

A sterling citizen for whom I have great affection opened his American Community Survey packet this morning. He demonstrated his sterlingness by actually reading questions and penciling in answers for two or three pages.

Then the sorry SOB looked into the mirror of his sterling soul and saw tarnish.   File 13.

The Constitution grants Washington the power to enumerate him, so there he stands,  hand dutifully up for easier counting,  giving the federal snoopers a pass on the Article One specification that he is subject to forced enumeration only once per decade, not at any over-secretion of the enumerators' window-peeping glands.

He decided that the demanded details of his life -- personal, professional, social, and financial -- were (1) an identity thief's dream and (b)  a facilitator for further nanny-state bungling and (3)  a violation of  Article 4 of the Bill of Rights.

He was unimpressed with:  "TheCensus Bureau is required by U.S.law to keep your answers confidential." Perhaps that is because, on reading that, something reminded him of Lois Lerner who also pledged to obey the the law while in the employ of another federal tentacle required to observe strict standards of confidentiality.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

If this is the same one I got he's not heard the last of it. I pitched mine as well. "How much is your mortage", my fair ass. "How far do you live from work, how do you get there, what time do you leave", etc, etc. Then I got a letter asking if I'd like it in Spanish, which also went in recycling. Then another copy, which followed the first, telling what an honor it is to be selected. Does this year end in zero? Get stuffed.
The next letter was not as cordial. "Hey, [name],[address],[SS number] - how's a $5,000 fine sound to you?" Okay, you #$#*#$*&%^. I did the first few pages, stopping at "Race." I put it Celt for all three, with the smug satisfaction that it would mess up some GS-7s day.
If they had asked how many toilets we had I could have added, "Including your hat?"

John of the GMA