AETERNAM HABEANT REQUIEM
The cleaup operation in New York has ended, with about a thousand of the dead unidentified or unrecovered.

I was very fortunate to have lost no one on September 11. (The closest call was a friend from college who was saved because it was Tuesday, when he always goes to the gym in the morning and therefore doesn't get to work until 10.) And I can't imagine the heartache of those who did. To have the loss of their loved ones compounded by the total loss of the loved ones' remains seems more cruel than is strictly necessary, no matter how vengeful you believe your god to be. A week or so ago, I said if Chandra Levy's family had to lose her, they should at least have had a whole daughter to bury; this is incalculably worse. (But on the other hand, where were we when God created the earth? Point.)

I also see that the state of Virginia has authorized a commemorative license plate for September 11. The headline made my head spin -- but I see the plate, and it's not that bad. (I won't be putting it on my car, but it won't upset me that other people will.) And it's appropriate, if you ask me, that it should come in the Virginia DMV, since some appalling number of the hijackers got their driver's licenses here by walking through a big honkin' loophole in the Virginia residency requirements.

I just renewed my driver's license online last week. And I did this by entering a PIN code the DMV had mailed to me, on a printout of all the information contained on my license itself -- full name, address, birth date, height, driver's license number. The printout included my weight and social security number, which do not appear on my license. I guess I should be glad it didn't include my mother's maiden name, though with my social security number I doubt someone couldn't have found that out with minimal effort.

It wouldn't have been hard, I figure, to have intercepted this mailing. Say you knew someone who looked like you. Catch that person's mail on the first day of the month with his birthday in it, since his license will expire on the last day of that month. Visit the URL given on the printout, and enter all the information the DMV has helpfully supplied. Enter a credit card number; the license comes in the mail three days later. Hell, register to vote while you're at it.

I happen to be honest and upstanding -- but excuse me if this process leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.