Census

[stevie_d_64]

How can they prove you received it?

When they don't get a reply???

[stevie_d_64]

Read that important piece of paper folks called the Constitution...It speels it out purty clear...

I don't believe I will be unemployed for very much longer, so why do I need to saddle them with my misfortunes???

2 adults live at this address, at this time...Our "situation" may be diferent in ten years, so why do you feel the need to ask us for information which will not be germane in ten years??? But who knows...This may be the last census taken at this rate...

So if you go by the original intent of what the framers wanted to enumerate, then 2 adults at this address is what they will get...They got it last time in 2000, and that is what they'll get this time...

They will try to make examples of those of us who read and adhere to the Constitution, make them look like fools, but in the end it will go away, and they won't have the money to go after everybody...

They will have spent that gob of tax dollars on Superbowl Ads, and a few busses going around and cheerleading the intrusive, liberal-statist (progressive/populist) agenda most of us oppose...

But I guess that makes me a fool...I can live with that...

[boomerang]

[5thGenTexan]

It also states that they will contact you by phone which is strange since they aren't supposed to have names just addresses, so how they get a phone number is beyond me.

You can look up phone numbers based on addresses on the internets to a limited extent.

It's also possible that the phone company gives them the phone number at an address. That kind of thing is not explicitly secret.

I don't know how various commercial entities do it; but if you move, as a friend of mine did recently, you immediately get junk mail and phone calls from all sorts of business and also churches. Someone is selling the information.

- Jim

Back when I worked in the Pharmacy right out of high school before Big Al invented the Internet we used the old crisscross book if you had a name you had the phone number and address or vice versa. It was a wonderful tool for catching suspicious narco scripts that might warrant a chat with the Doc and/or narcotics officer before they got filled and billed. I'm sure the same folks that paid for that book use an online version now.

[seamusTX]

Just FYI, this was the information gathered in the first census after ratification of the Constitution, in 1790:

• Name of head of household
• Number of free white males of 16 years and upward, including heads of
  families
• Number of free white males under 16 years
• Number of free white females, including heads of families
• Number of all other free persons
• Number of slaves

http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/ ... 90m-02.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They did not explicitly ask for race, but the category "all other free persons" would mean mixed-race or free blacks.

The distinction between free persons and slaves was necessary to calculate the number of representatives of each state, according to the original Constitution.

Presumably the distinction between males 16 and older and younger was necessary to determine how many men could be called for militia service.

These questions were authorized by the first Congress and signed into law by Pres. Washington. Presumably they knew what they were doing.

- Jim

[03Lightningrocks]

Reading this thread I am not sure I understand the thinking. Are you folks against the census for some reason?

[chabouk]

Reading this thread I am not sure I understand the thinking. Are you folks against the census for some reason?

Against the census? No.
In favor of privacy? Yes.

[03Lightningrocks]

Not that I want to fire a whole debate about privacy and what not, but if you have a CHL, you gave the State everything but your under garment size. I have noticed that many of the same questions on the census report also show up on credit apps. If we file a tax return, the government knows how many kids we have and their ages. If you ever purchase anything by credit or debit card, your purchase goes into a marketing data base and somebody out there knows how many TV's you have. We buy firearms and fill out registration paperwork. They know what guns you have already.

I guess I am just wondering how filling out a census survey is going to compromise our privacy any more than the other umpteen things we all do every day.

[Oldgringo]

Not that I want to fire a whole debate about privacy and what not, but if you have a CHL, you gave the State everything but your under garment size. I have noticed that many of the same questions on the census report also show up on credit apps. If we file a tax return, the government knows how many kids we have and their ages. If you ever purchase anything by credit or debit card, your purchase goes into a marketing data base and somebody out there knows how many TV's you have. We buy firearms and fill out registration paperwork. They know what guns you have already.

I guess I am just wondering how filling out a census survey is going to compromise our privacy any more than the other umpteen things we all do every day.

I think the form is designed to extract detailed information from/about specific people. Have you noticed any new autos or people in your neighborhood lately?

[seamusTX]

Not that I want to fire a whole debate about privacy and what not, but if you have a CHL, you gave the State everything but your under garment size.... If we file a tax return, the government knows how many kids we have and their ages.... We buy firearms and fill out registration paperwork. They know what guns you have already.

This is all partially true.

CHL information is confidential unless law enforcement requests access to it for a specific purpose. Even then, it is simply a list of personal characteristics, (sex, age, etc.), and your employment, residence, and arrest history. Most of this is already in the public domain.

The fact that you have a CHL says nothing about what kind of or how many firearms you own, if any.

Similarly, your federal income-tax information is confidential unless subpoenaed. The IRS doesn't just open it to other agencies for fishing expeditions.

The Form 4473 that you fill out when you purchase a firearm from an FFL stays in the FFL's files for 20 years unless he goes out of business. Then it goes to BATFE in paper form.

The information from NICS checks is supposed to be deleted after 36 hours. When John Ashcroft became Attorney General in 2001, he found that the FBI was keeping it longer. He ordered them to comply with the law. Presumably they were still doing so at least until January 2009.

I'm inclined to think that they are still complying, because certain members of the Administration and Congress want the law changed to allow the FBI to keep the information longer.

As for the census, individual identifying information is secret for 72 years. It cannot even be subpoenaed.

I would like to know if anyone can point out an example of abuse of census information in the past, oh, 220 years.

- Jim

[03Lightningrocks]

Not that I want to fire a whole debate about privacy and what not, but if you have a CHL, you gave the State everything but your under garment size. I have noticed that many of the same questions on the census report also show up on credit apps. If we file a tax return, the government knows how many kids we have and their ages. If you ever purchase anything by credit or debit card, your purchase goes into a marketing data base and somebody out there knows how many TV's you have. We buy firearms and fill out registration paperwork. They know what guns you have already.

I guess I am just wondering how filling out a census survey is going to compromise our privacy any more than the other umpteen things we all do every day.

I think the form is designed to extract detailed information from/about specific people. Have you noticed any new autos or people in your neighborhood lately?

Nope...but I think there might be a terrorist organization forming at my local 7-11. I keep seeing a group of suspicious looking fellers hanging out around the slurpee machine.

[marksiwel]

Nope...but I think there might be a terrorist organization forming at my local 7-11. I keep seeing a group of suspicious looking fellers hanging out around the slurpee machine.

[03Lightningrocks]

Not that I want to fire a whole debate about privacy and what not, but if you have a CHL, you gave the State everything but your under garment size. I have noticed that many of the same questions on the census report also show up on credit apps. If we file a tax return, the government knows how many kids we have and their ages. If you ever purchase anything by credit or debit card, your purchase goes into a marketing data base and somebody out there knows how many TV's you have. We buy firearms and fill out registration paperwork. They know what guns you have already.

I guess I am just wondering how filling out a census survey is going to compromise our privacy any more than the other umpteen things we all do every day.

Good, no need to fill out census.

True..... but I wonder if this is how folks like Barney Frank get into office. No vote....no voice! If some of you fellers are seriously concerned with being off the matrix, you need to do a lot more than refuse to take a census report. Like for instance...posting on the internet... .

We need a tin foil hat smiley...

[03Lightningrocks]

Nope...but I think there might be a terrorist organization forming at my local 7-11. I keep seeing a group of suspicious looking fellers hanging out around the slurpee machine.

THAT'S THE GUY!!!! HE IS THE LEADER.... WE ARE ALL DOOMED I TELL YA.

[03Lightningrocks]

To worry about the census information being used against you, while not worrying about all the other agencies that are gathering your information does not make sense. It seems one is being a bit selective in their protest while at the same time not being consistent about their beliefs and values. I suppose it feels better when one is giving up personal information to gain a job, or gain credit for that new truck or to get that tax refund check. It probably feels better when it is to get permission to exercise the RKBA with a CHL.

The census can affect your life in many more ways than you might imagine. I have often asked myself, how do politicians like Barney Frank or Nancy Pelousy (intentional spelling) find enough morons to vote for them. It is actually an easy answer. The morons are the ones smart enough to make sure their voices are heard. Kind of an oxymoron, wouldn't you say?

Throw that census away if you want, but don't start crying when your neighborhood doesn't get the "voice" it should. Some of you fellers should read up on what the information they gather is used for. Stand up and be heard...or quit crying when the decisions are all made by the folks who do.