Why do you fear private corporations and yet want to centralize everything in the government?

really? Who are getting the contracts? Where are your figures? Aren't you the same guy /sarc who said that the US went there to steal Iraqi oil? 10 yrs later ... where's the f..king oil?

How about a congress without limits? Where they can pass anything they want? You want less hostility? You want to reduce the chances of the US becoming a police state? Then insist on limited government. We have a framework for that - it's called the constitution.

How is this comment "Off-topic"? Common moderator. I was answering Point 1 "1997 the government decided that people should not pay capital gain taxes on houses but should pay capital gain taxes on everything else"

Of course you pay capital gains on houses. Why do you think 1031 exchanges exist? Please.

Hmmm. Don't think so. The survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were not fatter than their contemporaries. In fact if they survived the first few years they lived as long as everyone else. This holds true for the 100+ people who had the misfortune (or great luck) to survive BOTH Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

You're correct I wasn't clear. The first, and most important thing, was that the cashier looked at the signature (on the card) while examining the customer signature. This had to be done each and every time with one exception - if it was a repeat customer. The organization was a moderately high-end fashion company (below Prada but above Macy's). Rarely did the clerk ASK for ID as that was off-putting to our clientelle. The data, that I saw, indicated that outright fraud (as opposed to serial returning or "borrowing") took place on charges above $1000.00. Therefore on 1000.00 charges the cashier had to write down the ID on a piece of paper. (Hence my job to remove paper.)

This isn't true. I worked for a retailer that had an physical presence and part of the workflow included looking at the signature.. The cameras looked down at the cashier and one of the first things that a manager would do if there was a charge reversal was to see if the cashier had looked at the ID. Our processing check list required that manager select whether or not the the cashier had reviewed the signature.

It's the inane hyperbole of science reporters that make the situation worse. Reporting and sensationalizing science news without taking things into context creates this yo-you effect. (As with most /.ers I did not RTFA so I'm assuming basic competence in the original study.)

This is why we need to stay informed and keep stressing the value of privacy and the 4th A (for those in the USA) when hiring elected officials. (ie voting)

No. Hospitals do not use SSN as a primary number. It doesn't work. There are too many visitors, illegals, john does for that to work. There are some patients such homeless John Does who suck up 100,000s of dollars every year on emergency visits and chronic care.

OK. Missed that first step. That does change things.

No. But it certainly makes you wonder what sort of analysis is currently being run by our government. As processing speeds increase (a thousand fold in the next 10-15 years) such analysis could be run by many organizations.

The analogy would be if Bush literally suspended the constitution and unilaterally tried to install a new one without going through constitutional procedures.

UIDs are part of the problem.Names (obviously) are not usable; neither are SS# as not everyone has a SS# and Medical Record Numbers do not go cross hospitals. Each hospital has it's own MRN which creates problems when hospitals merge with one another and a new set of unique medical records must be created.