A Fool And Her Money

Bob Somerby at the Daily Howler eviscerates Anne Applebaum's unbelievably idiotic column dismissing those who demand a voting machine paper trail as irrational, paranoid, conspiracy-minded kooks. No, seriously. She says that.

Here's her reasoning:

When the ATM asks whether I want a receipt, I usually say no. When a Web site wants my credit card number, I usually say yes. When I pay bills online, there is no paper record of the transaction. In my failure to demand physical evidence when money changes hands, I am not very unusual. Most Americans now conduct at least some of their financial transactions without paper, or at least sleep happily knowing that others do. Yet when it comes to voting -- a far simpler and more straightforward activity than electronic bank transfers -- we suddenly become positively 19th century in our need for a physical record.

Would anybody do business with a bank that didn't offer reciepts for every transaction? Has ATM ever been built which doesn't print receipts? Is there any legitimate online business that doesn't have receipts which can be downloaded and/or printed, except in Applebaum's feeble mind?

Only an upper-class nitwit can afford to be so careless with her money. No one can afford to be so careless with democracy.