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U.S. National Identity Cards All But Law
CompSci101 writes "News.com is running a story about the RealID Card legislation that's been attached to emergency military spending bills to ensure its passage. How soon does everyone think this system will be abused either by the government or by thieves ? The worst part is the completely machine-readable/automatic nature of the thing -- you might not even know you're giving your information away." From the article: "Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you'll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. Practically speaking, your driver's license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal standards."
You folks need to get a life and put the coffee and cigarettes down. The black helicopters aren't looking for you.
I'm a geek, and I suppose that carries with it a certain degree of paranoia, but this law is the only thing that stands between us and a National ID card a few years later. This law requires states to continue to provide drivers licenses, but establishes standards for the documents used to obtain an ID because the drivers licenses are used as a form of identification for gaining access to places that we don't want bad guys to be allowed to enter. It also has certain requirements for these IDs issued by states.
I'm not wild about the RFID thing, but I'm not worried if someone sniffs my ID and finds out that I'm a white male born in 1975, with brown hair and eyes, 5'10" and weigh 170 pounds.
I'm sick of the knee jerk reaction that geeks have. We have a bad reputation for a reason. We have earned it. There are too many of us that haven't been on a date in 5 years, and have learned the Klingon language while living in our parent's basement.
I honestly believe that if more of us would stop playing Everquest, and go to a park, then we'd stop acting like the government is just out to spy on the pron on our hard drives.
It's possible that I trust the government again now that the Good Guys(Republicans) are in power, and am blinded to what the bad guys(Liberals) could use their new authority for if they ever get back into power. But I don't think so. Who knows? Even if they do abuse their authority, this country will still be the best country in the world, and will survive. Eventually folks will get sick of having big brother look over their shoulder, and vote for politicians that will change the situation.
In the mean time, you guys need to get some sun.
Are you that limited in brain capacity that you cannot expand your definition of what can gain rights? States have rights. Pennsylvania is granted specific rights which are carried out by its politicians. The Fed isn't saying "well Mr Pennsylvania Senator A you have these rights to carry out these tasks...but Mr Pennsylvania Senator B --- you unfortunately do not."
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Why do you think militias, you know, those little civilian armies, you know, the ones that originally fought for our revolution, why the fuck do you think want them to only really have small arms and certainly no automatic weapons, bombs, grenades, or anything of power?
Because they're crasy, and crazy people shouldn't have bombs?
paintball
With $2.5 spent without any Democrat "interference", and the latest Budget resolution passed forecasting an additional $4T in debts over the next 5 years, what else could Republicans possibly divide their attention to care about? Spending all that money on military contractors and tax cuts for the rich, they're exhausted. So they've got only a little energy left for destroying the immensely popular Social Security, getting it out of the position of funding all those other government programs that protect consumers from corporations. What else would you expect them to do?
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make install -not war