France May Require Biometric ID Cards

Will Affleck-Asch writes "According to an article on Infoworld today, France may require her citizens pay for new identity cards that hold their biometric information in electronic format. The French government outlined its plan last month to replace the identity cards and passports offered to French citizens with new ones that carry a microchip containing digitized photographs and fingerprints. The plan is to introduce the passports in 2006, and the identity cards a year later. Citizens haven't been forced to carry ID cards since 1955."

Comments

Re:Making people extremists...

[El]

Pacifism only works against an oppressor that has a conscience. Do you really think non-violent resistance would have prevented nazi exterminations? (Actually, it did at one point, where good Aryan women were protesting the arrests of their Jewish husbands, but that's a different story. In general, it wouldn't help.)

Other than that, I agree - extremism breeds extremism, and violence should only be used as a very last resort. However, one negotiates from a position of weakness if one refuses to use even the treat of violence as a bargaining tactic.

Re:Many French support these cards because...

[Stop Error]

Interesting how you phrase deporting criminals (they are ILLEGAL aliens) with, "harass minorities".