Beats paying for college, right?
The Defense Department began working yesterday with a private marketing firm to create a database of high school students ages 16 to 18 and all college students to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches.
The program is provoking a furor among privacy advocates. The new database will include personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying.
The data will be managed by BeNow Inc. of Wakefield, Mass., one of many marketing firms that use computers to analyze large amounts of data to target potential customers based on their personal profiles and habits.
"The purpose of the system . . . is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program.
I guess this is preferable to Selective Service because now they have access to the ladies as well.
Some information on high school students already is given to military recruiters in a separate program under provisions of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. Recruiters have been using the information to contact students at home, angering some parents and school districts around the country.
Wow. That's pretty ballsy for a bunch of draft dodgers. More ballsy than their usual affronts to our citizenry, that is.
"We support the U.S. armed forces, and understand that DoD faces serious challenges in recruiting for the military," a coalition of privacy groups wrote to the Pentagon after notice of the program was published in the Federal Register a month ago. "But . . . the collection of this information is not consistent with the Privacy Act, which was passed by Congress to reduce the government's collection of personal information on Americans."
John Hamlinson: Oh Danny, how could you be so naive?
Kennard Chamberlin: Dan, court cases are decided by a series of blow jobs. In fact, our entire civilization is built on blow jobs.
No, seriously, invoking the Privacy Act these days in God's America is hilarious. Good one.
Chris Jay Hoofnagle, West Coast director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the system "an audacious plan to target-market kids, as young as 16, for military solicitation."
The article goes with pointless questions about the risks of amassing SS#s and why the Pentagon needs access to students' ethnicities (so they know who to put in the infantry, duh). But the obvious problem (one of them, anyway) with this plan is how many unwilling people are going to have their data collected. Parents will be upset and students with no intention of enlisting will be needlessly harassed (we all know how well "opt out" clauses work). Therefore, wouldn't it be better to maintain a databse of people of fighting age who have actually voiced support for the war effort and are of legal age to join up and fight?
I've got a few places the DoD can start.
FreeRepublic.com
Little Green Footballs
RogerLSimon.com
Captain's Quarters
Blogsforbush.com
Just scan the comments sections of these places for people who seem to be extremely gung-ho about the prospect of putting their lives on the line for their country.
Though now that I think about it, it's kind of odd that hardly any of them have bothered to enlist yet.
Ha. I guess there is a drawback to not reading those sites more closely. Fixed.
how's that for irony? I don't read the places much myself, and at first I thought they went over to the light side in my absence.
The best place was blogsforbush.com, though. I got my user name banned on three separate occasions for polite dissent. That'll show me!
I remember how agressive the recruiters were for my bespectacled, flatfooted, scrawny, asthmatic, and altogether too-insubordinate-n-snarky-for-service ass when I was of age, and that was 15 years ago. I got calls on a daily basis for over a year (no lie--a daily freaking basis) to sign up with This Man's Armed Forces, and they paid no attention to my pleasant nos. It took getting belligerent and nasty to stop the calls, and I'm sure that put me on a government list somewhere. Fnord.
I can only imagine what the able-bodied kids go through today (aside from those recently-revealed threats that they'd be jailed if they don't show up for interviews, I mean).
Many of us who write in support of Iraq and the Military are veterans.
A lot of those you are bitching about were not even old enough for the draft, and when Jimmy Carter was in office, he downsized the military drastically and pretty much quit all recruiting.
I think there is room for discussion on things, but accusing folks of being draft dodgers and assumming that none of us have served our Country just shows how much you don't know and don't care about the truth.
There are many, many Milbloggers who have given years of their life to this country - Blackfive, Arrgghhh!, Baldilocks, and many more.
I suspect that when you were in high school, you never got through the American History text book past World War I.
It kinda shows, guys.
I think there is room for discussion on things, but accusing folks of being draft dodgers and assumming that none of us have served our Country just shows how much you don't know and don't care about the truth.
Hey genius, if I was impugning anyone's reputation, it was those in the comments sections of the above named blogs who trumpet support for the war without putting their money where their mouths are. You conveniently ignored this little detail in your quest to upbraid us young whippersnappers.
There are many, many Milbloggers who have given years of their life to this country - Blackfive, Arrgghhh!, Baldilocks, and many more.
Uh, bully for them. Completely missed my point again, however.
I suspect that when you were in high school, you never got through the American History text book past World War I.
Wow, you sure pegged all of us. Guess I might as well pack it in, as I could never measure up to someone who packs their own blog with such incisive commentary as:
"I hope his current girlfriend (mother of his children) bewares this man. I think he may just have gotten away with murder."
Never read that chapter on Introduction to Logic, I guess?
It kinda shows, guys.
Thanks, but I've already got a mother, and not only is she able to avoid passive-aggressive guilt mongering, she actually knows how to read. Thanks for stopping by, though.
part of the cold calculating genius of the 101st fighting keyboarders is the fact that the last three sites you list don't have comments enabled. The unwashed, anonymous masses can quietly get their war porn without anyone else finding out.
Roger L. Simon's site, on the other hand...hmmm....