CSotD: Saturday Short Takes
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Cartoonists seem stumped by the Equifax hack. I don't know when I've seen a topic inspire such a diversity of responses, and I'd be tempted to collect and discuss them, except that some are so wrong-headed that I'd run into a Prime Directive issue.
Dan Wasserman has what I see as the best interpretation of it all, which is that, when your only business is dealing in personal information, you have an ironclad duty to protect that information.
To use an overused current phrase, you had one job, Equifax, and you screwed it up. And people are right to be angry. And I entered my last name and last six #SS digits on their site and came up as potentially compromised, so I'm not happy, either.
But, until we see information about precisely how this happened, there isn't much to say about it beyond "You had one job."
The question of "Now what?" seems a lot more compelling.
I've had a couple of times that somebody has swiped a card number, and they cancel the charge and give me a new number and off we go again.
But when they swipe your #SS, it's not that simple, and maybe that's where the anger and reform should focus.
Back in the late 50s when I was a wee lad in elementary school, they marched us all down to the auditorium where a nice couple explained why we should brace ourselves against the Russians and the Communists who were already in our midsts.
It's very popular today to show those old black-and-white films and mock us for our Cold War fears, but one of the things the Birchers said was that, if we weren't alert, the commies would take over and we'd all be issued national IDs.
When I was 15, I needed to get a Social Security number in order to get a passport, and here is the card they sent me. In addition to blocking out my #SS, I've circled something interesting that is no longer on Social Security cards.
Well, they warned us that, if we didn't fight the Ruskies, this would happen.
And the IRS has, for several decades, required that infants have Social Security numbers, not because they're contributing to their own SS pensions and not because they are getting passports but so we can verify them as actual dependents on their parents' tax returns.
Or, to put it another way, so we can keep track of little kids like 6079 Smith W.
There's an apparently apocryphal quote from Lenin that, if you want to hang a capitalist, he will sell you the rope.
What isn't apocryphal is that it's getting harder to get around without a passport these days, though I haven't got one because I refuse to pay for a National ID.
If the gummint wants to hang me, they can damn well bring their own rope.
If I wanted a passport, according to the Dept of Your Large Male Sibling, I'd have to pay $110 for the application, plus $25 for the execution fee.
That $25 seems excessive.
In China, they only charge you for the bullet.
I wonder who's Kissinger now?
Kal Kallaugher comments on the growing concern over the Rohingya situation, or the "Bengali" situation, since Aung San Suu Kyi's government doesn't want people referring to the Rohingya as "Rohingya" because "Bengali" better reflects the idea that they belong over in Bangladesh instead of in Burma. Or Myanmar. Wherever.
We can't agree on anybody's names, and another term the Nobel Peace Prize Winner doesn't want to hear is "ethnic cleansing." At first, she said nothing, and then she decried "terrorists." And she still won't allow the UN to go in there and see what's going on.
Though I suspect that any time people are fleeing into Bangladesh, you can assume that whatever they are fleeing is pretty messed up. With all due respect to Bangladesh, I don't think many people grow up with dreams of someday moving there.
There have been some worthy recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize, but there have also been some headscratchers, and it's a shame to see Aung San Suu Kyi move from the former category to the latter.
In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize for 1991 to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wishes to honour this woman for her unflagging efforts and to show its support for the many people throughout the world who are striving to attain democracy, human rights and ethnic conciliation by peaceful means.
It's easy to be nonviolent when you are out of power.
Though, to be fair, if you look at the list of Heisman Trophy winners, a lot of them also flamed out when they got to the pros.
All of which only emphasizes my agreement with Bob Dylan that "applause is kind of bullshit."
And I feel the same way about ethnic cleansing.
How's that for going out on a limb?
Keep the homefires burning
Jack Ohman takes a break from national and international commentary to riff on some local issues. I have no idea what this cartoon is about, but folks in Sacramento surely do and that's why newspapers should have editorial cartoonists on staff.
When cable access began threatening local TV stations, they responded by "going local," with beefed up local news and community involvement.
Newspapers have responded to Internet competition by stripping their newsrooms, including firing the local cartoonists who made their papers distinguishable from the McPaper. (My mother's local paper not only fired Pulitzer Prize Winner Matt Davies but dropped intelligently chosen international coverage for generic McPaper tearsheet inserts.)
In response, the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists has just announced the Rex Babin Award, to honor local cartooning. Ohman, who took over his late friend Rex Babin's job at the Sacramento Bee, will be the main judge.
BTW, I'll be attending the AAEC Convention in November. Stay tuned for coverage!
Here's your moment of local newspaper involvement:
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