Coincidence? Probably.

Just an observation, don't try to read anything into it: the deadly tsunami struck one day after the Western world celebrated Christmas. Yesterday a killer earthquake struck the same area - one day after the Western world celebrated Easter. By my calendar the next big Christian event is May 5th, Ascension Day. So what will it mean if something happens Friday May 6th? (Or will it be May 16th, the day after Pentecost?)

The Logical Conclusion Of Withholding Medical Treatment

More thoughts on the Terri Schiavo circus, well actually more questions. I'm not claiming this is possible, it is just a "what if" scenario.
What if Terri can be fed like a baby (that is one spoonful of pablum at a time)?

If that were possible would it be illegal for someone to feed her? And if it is illegal to feed her then how would that be different from someone feeding a quadriplegic or even a person with no arms?

The whole premise of the living will is to give an individual (or person they have have transferred the legal right to) the freedom to refuse medical treatment. The argument in the Schiavo case is the feeding tube is medical treatment and therefore can be withheld. Carried to extremes you could argue "if any medical treatment (the feeding tube) is withheld then all medical treatment should be withheld" - this would include the bed, HVAC, and the adult diapers. Just put her outside on a reclining vinyl chaise until she leaves this earth.

I am in favor of living wills (I have one) and I would hope my wife has the compassion to pull the plug on me if I am brain dead and in need of a machine to breathe. I would turn down painful treatment if it could only add a few days to the end of my life. Having stated that I still think it is barbaric to deny a living thing water just to make it die. Prayers of healing, peace, and understanding to all parties involved - heavens knows they need it.

Where there's a will, there's a way

The battle for control and the very life of Terri Schiavo rages on. All of this would have been avoided if Terri had created a living will before her demise. You have a living will don't you? Since Terri never legally documented her wishes she has left it to the courts to decide. Her husband, Michael, has the legal upper hand and has successfully taken this through the court system to have her so called life support removed against the wishes of Terri's parents. Legally this should be the end of the story but it isn't. Why has this case sparked such emotions on both sides? I don't have answers but I do have questions:

• Why do the lawmakers feel such an urgent need to save Terri's life? After all this ordeal has gone on for a longtime, they could have done something when it was not so pressing.
  
• Why is Michael unwilling to allow Terri's parents to care for her?
  
• If the parents receive custody of Terri, what are their plans when they can no longer care for her?
  
• Since when is food and water considered life support?

As humans we need to ask ourselves at what point we give up on life. Does Society have a responsibility to protect, encourage, and even enforce life or do we as a whole tell individuals any particular life is unimportant - do with it what you want. Should there be laws against suicide? (ask a family that lost a loved one to suicide). At what point do we pull out a standardized test to measure each person's ability to live? Must anyone below a particular IQ be starved to death? I believe there is a distinct line between someone on life support to breath and a tube for food. Once we start down a road to diminished value of life we are entering a dark land. How long before we decided to starve babies that have non-perfect bodies? How long before we starve elderly patients that are bedridden? If we so strongly beleive that Terri's death is the right thing to do then why is she being starved to death? Why not just shoot her or inject her with poison? Why not let her die on an operating table as they harvest her transplantable organs? I guess that would reek of murder (or at least an execution). Read more of my thoughts here.

I do know this - Terri is in the news because her parents love her and some politicians believe life is worth fighting for even if the law says otherwise. And which choice is really in Terri's best interest? God only know. One thing I'm sure of - if I am going to err I want it to be on the side of life not death. You never know when a miracle will occur.

these days it's a crime not to be beautiful
it's a crime not to be young
it's a crime to be different from everyone else
it's a crime not to always have fun

well, that's OK
except of course that none of it is true
the real crime
is how they have divided me from you, because...

it ain't worth nothin' without love
it ain't worth nothin' without real love
- from the song "WITHOUT LOVE" by Tonio K. & John Keller (c) 1987, performed by Tonio K. on the album "Notes from the Lost Civilization"

P.I.: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas?

Private Eye: Are you sure about that?
Monday (March 7th) thieves rammed a car into a Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office in North Las Vegas. They made off with the following items

• 1,700 blank Nevada driver's licenses
  
• 1,700 blank laminated covers with the embossed state seal
  
• 1 DMV license printer
  
• 1 DMV camera
  
• 1 DMV computer
  

Now with the blanks you can make a near perfect official driver license... the only thing lacking is it wouldn't be in the Nevada DMV computer database. But no need for the thieves to worry about that because the computer contained the identidata 8,900 Nevada residents already in the database. That is everyone who was issued a driver license in that particular office between November 25, 2004 and March 4, 2005. After claiming the information on the computer was encrypted, the Nevada DMV is now admitting it was not. What sort of identidata was on the computer? Just the usual DMV stuff: name, date of birth, Social Security number, photograph and signature. If I was one of those 8,900 I'd be very nervous.

The Nevada DMV says "removing the equipment and locking it up every night would not be realistic because of all the wiring". That is very inaccurate. Here is some free advice: Encrypt the data and use removable harddrives. They slide in and out of the PC about like a VCR tape. Pop the drive and lock it up. Or use an external drive that connects by USB or IEEE 1394 (Firewire). Of course this offers no protection from a theft during office hours. A better solution is to store the identidata on a remote network drive in a secure room. This could be inside the local office or hundreds of miles away. The Nevada DMV has already taken steps to remove the identidata at the end of each work day. That at least limits exposure to a day's worth of data.

Of course the bigger question is how secure is your DMV information?

I'm standing in the middle of the desert
Waiting for my ship to come in
But now no joker, no jack, no king
Can take this loser hand
And make it win
- from the song "Leaving Las Vegas" performed by Sheryl Crow, written by Crow/Bottrel/Baerwald/Gilbert/Ricketts (c)1993

P.I.: Its 11 o'clock do you know where your identity is?

PRIVATE EYE: Missing Identidata

Identidata is how I refer to your personal identity that is stored on a multitude of computers as binary data. So just how safe is the identidata?

Bank of America (BoA) reported last week that during the latter part of 2004 several magnetic data tapes were missing. The tapes contained credit card accounts, social security numbers, and other personal information of 1.2 million US Federal employees, including 60 US Senators. The data on tapes was not encrypted.

The missing tapes were part of a larger shipment of tapes to the company's backup center. BoA says there is "no evidence yet" of identity theft or fraudulent use of the information. The word on the web is the tapes were lost by airport baggage handlers so it is still unclear if it was a targeted theft or haphazard handling.

I report the above not to knock BoA but to show another example of the symptom we face with our identidata. For the non-IT (Information Technology) readers it is mandatory that computer data is backed up (archive) on a regular basis. Anyone that has experienced a hard drive failure understands the need to recover data. It is also good business practice to store the archived data offsite. Everything that BoA did was normal (and wise) business practice. Except maybe the fact the tapes were not encrypted but very few data centers have the resources (time, money, hardware) to encrypt backup tapes. We may see a change after the BoA incident. Even encrypting data is useless against motivated thieves.

On 2/16 I wrote about identidata theft from ChoicePoint. Legally the only people they are required to notify are California residents. And filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate that ChoicePoint is only notifying Californians that had identidata compromised during a 15 month period. Why only 15 months? Because that is when the California notification law took effect. It might be a bad assumption on my part but this implies ChoicePoint is aware of potential identidata theft that occurred before July 1, 2003 (start of the law).

For more examples of breeches in identidata see my 1/22 blog "P.I.: The Tale of Two Universities"

Radical change is needed to protect individuals. The California notification law is a tiny start but it addresses the problem after the fact. It is good to have an alarm warn you the toilet overflowed but I would rather not have to deal the mess to start with. Perhaps the BoA missing tapes will be a thing since it impacts Senators. One idea that has merit is multiple social security numbers that would be used for different categories - medical, taxes, employment mortgage, financial. If you had a different number for each financial account (banking, credit card, etc.) it would limit your exposure if one of the numbers was compromised. Then we would need strong laws to protect your identidata by the credit bureau type agencies.

A Security Credit Freeze is one such law already in place in California and Texas (although you have to be an identity theft victim in Texas to use it) and eleven other states are considering the legislation. In a nutshell the freeze law would give you, the consumer, the right to place a security freeze your credit report which prevents anyone from accessing your identidata for the purposes of granting credit. If a lending institution cannot access your identidata they will not approve credit, thus stopping an identity thief from getting credit cards and the like in your name. If you wanted to apply for a loan you would have to remove the freeze until the credit check was completed. Credit bureaus and many creditors oppose such legislation. We the people need to speak up and make our voices heard.

For more information about protecting your financial privacy visit Consumer Union's financialprivacynow.org

She left me here stranded like a dog out in the yard
Charged up a fortune on my credit card
She used my address and my name
Man that was sure unkind
Sunspot Baby
She sure has a real good time
- from the song "Sunspot Baby" by Bob Seger (c) 1976