A rather large package was delivered to my home recently from the US Census Bureau along with a postcard stating that I will be receiving said package and that I am REQUIRED BY LAW to fill it out and return it in short order.
I can’t believe the shear volume of information “my” Government wants from me at gunpoint.
Why does the Government want to know how many toilets I have in my house? I understand the need for the Census and that it is Constitutionally mandated, but really…
Shouldn’t it be a postcard asking me how many people live at this address? (fills in 1 blank with “3″… DONE!)
What is the minimum I can fill in to avoid the $5000 fine for non-compliance?
Actually, there’s only ONE question on the census that the Constitution requires you to answer, which is how many persons are in your household?
The founding fathers would be as stunned as you and I to find out the federal government has suddenly taken heed to the amount of toilets in our homes, and in that vein - how many gallons of water are in their tanks.
Our government as a whole has demonstrated on a daily basis that they couldn’t give a rats rear end as to what the Constitution forbids them to do.
There’s a new game out that explores the possibility of the Constitution being tossed aside by Obama in a military coup. You can google it “2011: Obama’s Coup Fails”. Aside from the plot being moderately frightening because it isn’t much of a stretch of the imagine nation to imagine it happening, it’s also pretty funny.
Comment by Daman — October 8, 2009 @ 12:39 pm
Well, if it’s any comfort to you, think of this as leaving something to your
nosygenealogist descendants.Before 1850, the census had the name of the head of household, and then just numbers of male and female household member in various age brackets. It’s really frustrating when you are trying to figure out who is who!
Comment by cathyf — October 8, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
Cathyf has a good point. For instance, I had no idea my paternal Grandfather was employed as “drayer” in 1920! I had to dig through the census records to find him, and there it was - “drayer”.
Everyone in the family thought he’d always been a blacksmith, then a welder and machinist.
Comment by Largenfirm — October 13, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
Last time, they sent me the long form, which I tossed in the recycling bin. A few weeks later, a pretty young thing came out to the house to ask me a whole bunch of questions.
I ignored her.
Comment by Bob Mulroy — November 6, 2009 @ 2:49 pm