Stimulus e-mail scam exposes our screwed up values

The Wall Street Journalreports(subscription required) that "Fraudsters are using the logo of the Internal Revenue Service combined with the promise of federal stimulus money to dupe cash-strapped people into divulging credit-card information to a phony Web site, the International Trademark Association said.

The phishing email uses pictures of the President and Vice President to offer recipients their chunk of the federal stimulus package. Fill out the form and you've given the crooks all they need to steal your identity.

Now, I've been trying to limit my grandfatherly lectures about how messed up our society is, but think about it: People receive emails from someone claiming to be the federal government offering them some unsolicited cash, and it's deemed believable enough to send bank account information.

Whatever happened to "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country"? The free marketeers worst fears have come true and we are rapidly turning into a crybaby nation that sees the government as the solution to its financial woes.