Friday, April 21, 2006

The National Security State

Today I received a copy of wire transfer authorization form from my bank in the USA, land of the free, home of the brave, as the song goes.

There is the following question on the form:
"To assist in complying with the USA Patriot Act requirements, please answer the following question: What is the purpose of the wire transfer."

My response is "The purpose of the wire transfer is none of the business of the Nazis now running our government."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a bogus question! If you were doing something "wrong" do they expect you to admit it? It's just an excuse to collect data. And you can't give an off hand answer because bone heads like that don't come equipted with a sense of humour.

Theresa

Anonymous said...

Hiya Chris, what a bizarre question to ask. Good answer.

Hey, I'm writing this from Guadalajara. Jody and I got in early Saturday morning, we're here till Tuesday and then heading to Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Morelia, and Patzcuaro - on a two week trip.

Hope things are continuing to go well for you!

Neil

Anonymous said...

oops, meant to leave my email address of naaland@comcast.net

You Know Me said...

It is indeed a bizarre, and utterly ridiculous, question. As Theresa points out, those transferring funds for nefarious purposes are certainly not going to answer the question honestly. So the only point is to collect information on law abiding persons.

The fellow at the bank to whom I emailed a .pdf file of the completed form for his review suggested my answer to the question would only raise red flags. So I compromised and did not answer the question.

Enjoy your vacation Jody and Neil.