Yesterday afternoon my automobile insurance bill from Progressive came in, after wondering when it was going to arrive and whether or not it was going to get there before my policy expired partway through June of 2007. After opening the envelope to see what the damage was, I promptly wished that they'd taken a bit more time before mailing it out.. they were demanding $1274us to renew my six-month car insurance policy, with a minimum down payment of $515 to renew the policy. Seeing as how I'd been paying between $600us and $700us for insurance prior to that (they'd never …

I don't really see how this is much of a surprise: The Pentagon and CIA have been pulling the credit records of US citizens without telling them.. Frankly, this is SOP these days. Anyone with $30us to spend can buy the credit history of anyone in this country without even a second glance. It's mostly legal to do so because information brokering companies are in the business of selling information, with the understanding (usuall enforced by a click-through agreement) that the information will not be abused. It has been a reasonably common practice for at least the past ten years …