In a speech that seamlessly transitioned from quips about NASA and the laws of physics to history lessons about Abraham Lincoln and the Wright brothers, ex-Speaker of the House and contender for the GOP presidential nomination Newt Gingrich confidently laid out his vision of American exceptionalism based on the country’s religious founding and its people’s capacity for innovation. Gingrich declared:

We’re exceptional because we’ve inherited from the founding fathers an explanation of our rights unlike in any other country in the world—we’re the only society that says power comes from God to each one of you personally, you are personally sovereign. You loan power to the state, the state does not loan power to you. This is very fundamental to the nature of being Americans.

From the Wright brothers to UPS, Gingrich cited examples of innovation in the private sector to criticize intellectually decrepit federal and state governments. In an interview with campus media prior to the speech, he said, “I think we have a much greater lack of ideas than a lack of money or lack of political willpower.”

In addition to his standard criticisms of the judicial system (“courts have become engines of secularism,” he declared), secular academia and the secular news media, Gingrich peppered his speech with references specific to his young audience. For example, when he discussed Abraham Lincoln’s religiosity, Gingrich asked if any student had learned about the 14 references to God in Lincoln’s second inaugural address.

During the speech, Gingrich proposed the establishment of personal Social Security accounts, subject to compound interest, into which wage-earners pay their Social Security levies. Based on the Chilean model, these accounts would be treated as estates, which could be transmitted to heirs after death, unlike current Social Security payments. He connected his proposal to privatize Social Security to the larger battle of “the American model” versus “the European model”, laying the choice at the feet of the next generation.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not trying to kick up an alarmist sandstorm here, but if you’re one of the 6,137 undergrads who were notified that their social security numbers and/or other personal information may have been stolen as part of the heist of an external hard drive from the Office of Student Affairs, it’s probably worth trying to protect yourself. Though Georgetown’s campus-wide e-mail said no credit card information was stolen, your information could be used to take out lines of credit in your name (such as loans).

The first step is to put a 90-day fraud alert out with the 3 major credit bureaus; this will prevent new lines of credit from being taken out in your name without your first confirming them by phone. Call Equifax at 1-800-525-6285 to begin the alert; they’ll contact Experian and TransUnion (the other 2 bureaus) to make it universal.

Second, Visa’s fraud center told me that identity thieves and other bad guys will use your information to pose as you, call in, and find out your credit card info. Call your credit card company to place a password on your account, which is more secure than the typical “mother’s maiden name” question used to verify by default. Credit card companies are already diligent fraud monitors, so they’ll probably call anyway if a strange-looking charge appears on your account.

I don’t know the chances of your info being used to nefarious ends (who’s to say what they really are, anyway?), but there’s no harm in protecting yourself. It should only take 20 minutes or so (based on past experience), and will be a lot less painful than trying to deal with the repercussions should your info actually be used.