It seems like the weak link isn't just that you can change your name easily, but that you can do it a lot without giving out much of your own identity, which is odd. It's one thing to need to change your name back-to-back -- I can see someone changing their name when they get married, getting a quick divorce and then needing to change it back -- and another to do it eight times a year.

A quick search turned up New York state's petition, which also doesn't ask for an SSN, although it does ask for quite a bit. Was yours as thorough, or was it shorter? Did yours say "WHEREFORE, petitioner respectfully prays for an order"!?! I love the weird legalese that NYS has lying around...

Mine was two pages... and asked for a reason for the change, and also made me check boxes saying I wasn't a sexual offender and that I wouldn't be doing this for fraudulent purposes. Pretty basic. I feel like I do remember it asking me to state any previous names I've gone by, but maybe that was something else.

I like it when paranoia forces the government to make things more bureaucratic and difficult. It makes me realize just how we got into this crazy twisted situation where nothing to do with the government is straight forward in the first place.

True that... It's like with my current neighbor drama -- he's allowed to build everything he's building and it makes me think "There outta be a law!", but it's not the law that's the problem. Meanwhile a lot of people blame our housing shortage in NYC on the red tape and the various building codes and zoning laws and rent stabilization, but there's a reason why we have all of them. I'd have another skyscraper cube next door, instead of a cute, huge brownstone with an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Oh, and your state's petition is here, if you need a little nostalgia today...

Poor lindsay. Never has a wayward celebrity needed my advise and counsel so much.