I watched 24 Season One over the summer – first and last time watching TV in a few years, TV is evil – and loved it but couldn’t find the emotional energy or time to watch the subsequent seasons. My parents are watching it, though, and the sheer intensity has rocked their world. My Mom put together an emergency preparedness kit trash can today after I noted how San Francisco was likely to be next. But I knew they have been watching too much 24 when my Dad came upstairs a minute ago, after watching two episodes on DVD, and said with gentle sternness: "I want to make sure that you are shredding anything you throw away that has personal information. Shred everything. We’re going into lock-down mode." I think anyone in my house would die for Jack Bauer at the moment.
Whatever you attribute your Father’s paranoia to… he is 100% right. You should shred anything with personal information and be cautious on how and who you hand such information. It’s called identity theft/fraud and it is very real.
Now, this guy http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/320
might be taking things too far…
And I applaud you for giving up TV at such young age, I gave it up too late, I think. Evil is a great descriptor for it.