Continuing adventures in Big Brother

Last week, the clerk at Long's, apparently refusing to believe my repeated "No, thank you" was sincere, grabbed one of their store discount cards, swiped it on her laser reader, and said "See wasn't that easy? You can fill it out with your phone number later."

No, actually, we can't, because what Long's-- or Safeway or any other store-discount program-- is telling you right there is, "We will make more money tracking your purchases and selling the data to a marketing firm than the 3-5% discount that the card gives you." And why would you want to feed that beast? It only encourages them...