On Monday, April 1, 2002, at 01:31 PM, Major Variola (ret) wrote: > National Archives Dusts off Personal Records From 1930 Census > > Hall joined dozens of people Monday at the National Archives looking to > fill in the blanks of their family histories as privacy protection for > individual 1930 census records expired. The expiration, 72 years after > each census, allows people to see information beyond the dry statistics > typically available after the once-a-decade count. > > http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAIUSSPIZC.html >
The Census is ONLY for the purpose of enumerating the number of voters for the purpose of apportioning Congress, that is, a head count of persons (should be just adults or those who will reach adult age before the next Census) so that the number of seats in the House of Representatives can be twiddled to add up to 435. Nothing else is specified in the Constitution and the Fourth Amendment (and other related Amendments and such) makes it clear that if government wants to know something about me or anyone else they will need a duly-authorized search warrant, due process, etc. They are not entitled to simply ask me about how many computers I have, what my race is, whether I am married or am living with an "SO" (which is where the term gained popularity, circa 1980, IIRC), whether I practice water conservation and safe sex, and whether I prefer to be called "Fijian/Tobriand Pacific Islander" or "Afro-Asiatic" or "Aryan." There were a couple of people who vocally opposed answering the invasive questions of the Census. IIRC, these were largely political prosecutions. I think the charges were ultimately dropped. Though the Census form, especially the even more Big Brotherish "Long Form," claims that a $500 fine and/or six months in jail is in store for anyone who refuses to disclose his condom usage and favorite toothpaste, the Censuscreeps are obviously avoiding such public spectacles. As for me, when I get to the Racial Purity Profile part of the Census, I check "African-American" (being changed to "Persyn of Color" on the 2010 forms). Some of my ancestors came out of Africa, I hear. Also, under the new "one drop of blood" litmus test, whereby Halle Berry is black and a one-quarter black California politician's (Ward Connerly, sp?) grand-daughter by a Vietnamese mother is "black," I'm sure I'm black, too. (Ward C. is leading a new effort to have the State of California drop _all_ references to race. To drop all questions about race on state forms, to drop all computer entries on race, to eliminate any and all mentions of race in laws, statutes, hiring regulations, jury questionnaires, and so on. I salute him. He is, predictably, being called a "racist.") The Census became a tool of oppression long ago. Ask the persons of Japanese ancestry who were rounded up and sent to concentration camps in 1942 about this. (There was no justification, no 6th Amendment due process, just concentration camps and seizures of properties. In my view, the 25,000 or so soliders, cops, judges, and politicians who were involved in this Nazi-emulating act should be tried and, in nearly all cases, executed. A day of National Execution, with executions carried out in public squares across California and across the land, should be held. Then we need to start in on the millions who have violated the Constitution....) --Tim May "The great object is that every man be armed and everyone who is able may have a gun." --Patrick Henry "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton
