Genie: "GfS, you and some others (mostly of the male persuasion) keep saying it's no big deal to "always" carry your ID card (in your wallet, etc.). But I wonder if you really do, and if so, how big a risk you're taking of identify theft, if that ID card contains all the info an identity thief would need."

NOW THIS IS A REALLY FUNNY POST!

MALE PERSUASION?????...ROFLMAO!!

And keeping my ID with me is no big deal at all, nor am I paranoid of identity theft! Shit, who wants to admit that they're from Sanity?????

Genie: "Do you have your ID card on your person when you're swimming or water skiing or when you're in the shower at the gym.   Aren't there some situations where you don't carry a wallet?    For women it can be even more problematic, because we often carry a purse instead of a wallet, and that can mean the contents are more vulnerable to loss of theft since it's not always on our person."

What?? What do you suggest?...that we all be chipped???? I certainly hope you're not one of THOSE crazies!

Then you go on about Belgium??

Shit, let me tell you, when I'm driving down the street, and see a cop, and being as I live in a reasonably small town, by choice, I wave to them, and they wave back. Being as I'm pretty well known and favorably thought of, and respected, as not having criminal behavior or tendencies, I'm not terrified of the 'heat'!

I'm also a well known musician, who has helped raise over $200,000 for the local community, for those needing financial assistance, without going to the state.

I was stopped about 5 or 6 months ago, for not coming to a full stop, and the state cop, gave me just a warning....I told him, that I had just gotten out of the studio, in the course of our chatting, on the side of the road, and for him being so cool with me, that the next time I saw him, I'd get him a copy of what I was working on recording, the next time I saw him.
That came about 41/2 months later, and I had one in the car, which I turned around, and found him in town(I live just outside town)...pulled up next to him, waited for him to conclude his business with another car he had pulled over, and when he was walking back to his car(it was night), I called to him by name, and asked him if he remembered me. He thought for a moment, and said, "Yes! Hey you owe me a CD!"...Which I was holding up in my hand for him. He cam over to my window and we yakked for a bit...then asked him if he had a CD player in his patrol car. He thought o sec, and replied, "Yeah, I think I do, but I've never used it before"
So I got out of my car, and helped him figure out how to make it work, adjusted the treble and bass, for the right sound, and as the opening notes started, I said to him, Hey, with all the turmoil going on now these days, we could all use some of this!"
As he listened, He just said," Boy, we sure could. This is beautiful"

Moral of the story, which is absolutely true, by the way, is NO, I don't worry about identity theft...nor do I always carry my ID with me!...( Shhhhh... sometimes I don't always 'buckle up', either!)

The best defense is sometimes an offense.....Love might be that!

GfS