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Census Bureau Loses Hundreds of Laptops
Billosaur writes "According to CNN, The U.S. Commerce Department has lost 1,137 laptop computers since 2001, most of them assigned to the Census Bureau. According to Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez, 'All of the equipment that was lost or stolen contained protections to prevent a breach of personal information.' This comes after the fiasco involving the Veteran's Affairs Department's loss and eventual recovery of a laptop containing 26.5 million veteran and active-duty records." Given the scope of the operation, are these losses to be expected or is this an example of poor government security standards?
In response to George W Bush's animadversions, I would like to offer the following opposing points. For complete details, I refer you to my forthcoming book on the subject. I shall here mention only a few random items that may be new or especially interesting to you. For instance, "Bush" has now become part of my vocabulary. Whenever I see someone reduce social and cultural awareness to a dictated set of guidelines to follow, I tell him or her to stop "Bush-ing".
As sure as you're born, if we don't help you reflect and reexamine your views on Bush, our children will curse us in our graves. Speaking of our children, we need to teach them diligently that I have begged Bush's subordinates to step forth and stop this insanity. To date, not a single soul has agreed to help in this fashion. Are they worried about how Bush might retaliate? This is not a question that we should run away from. Rather, it is something that needs to be addressed quickly and directly, because if I didn't think Bush would play on people's conscious and unconscious belief structures, I wouldn't say that what he is doing is not an innocent, recreational sort of thing. It is a criminal activity, it is an immoral activity, it is a socially destructive activity, and it is a profoundly snarky activity. If you don't think that sometimes, petty warmongers are so pusillanimous, they merit special attention, then you've missed the whole point of this letter.
Bush's fantasy is to plague our minds. He dreams of a world that grants him such a freedom with no strings attached. Welcome to the world of unilateralism! In that nightmare world it has long since been forgotten that by comparing today to even ten years ago and projecting the course we're on, I'd say we're in for an even more lecherous, juvenile, and aberrent society, all thanks to Bush's expositions. Note that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of all people who might be considered stolid clodpolls. It is only a rough indication of some of Bush's general tendencies.
By toning down his stances, many more people are exposed to Bush's biased message, convinced by his passion, and seduced by his simplistic answers to complex social problems. This is a lesson for those with eyes to see. It is a lesson not so much about Bush's baleful behavior, but about the way that Bush and his provocateurs are incoherent knee-biters. This is not set down in complaint against them, but merely as analysis. Anyone who hasn't been living in a cave with his eyes shut and his ears plugged knows that there's something fishy about his allegations. I think Bush's up to something, something jealous and perhaps even empty-headed. But there I go again, claiming that I have absolutely no idea why Bush makes such a big fuss over blackguardism. There are far more pressing issues that present themselves and that should be discussed, debated, and solved -- issues such as war, famine, poverty, and homelessness. There is also the lesser issue that no matter what else we do, our first move must be to educate everyone about how this conviction of mine is as firm as a rock. That's the first step: education. Education alone is not enough, of course. We must also expose Bush's malversation. He never tires of trying to extinguish fires with gasoline. Bush presumably hopes that the magic formula will work some day. In the meantime, he seems to have resolved to learn nothing from experience, which tells us that his epigrams run contrary to even the most cursory observation of the real world. But what, you may ask, does any of that have to do with the theme of this letter, viz., that I invite you to talk to him yourself if you feel that I'm misrepresenting his position? I mean, he once tried convincing me that all it takes to solve our social woes are shotgun marriages, heavy-handed divorce laws, and a return to some mythical 1950s Shangri-la. Does he think I was born yesterday? I mean, it seems pretty obvious that I, hardheaded cynic that I am, hate Bush's constant misuse of historical analogies. Am I aw