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Indiana Bans Driver's License Smiles, For Security
Smelly Jeffrey writes "According to a recent article, Indiana BMV Communications Director Dennis Rosebrough states that applicants for a new or renewed operator's license or state identification card will no longer be allowed to smile and say cheese. Apparently new facial recognition software being employed by the state fails to function when the face is distorted by something as innocuous as smiling. Also on the list of taboos are hats, eyeglasses, and hair that hangs down over the face. The article fails to mention, however, the legality of beards, mustaches, and bushy eyebrows." Similar restrictions are in place for the Enhanced Driver License (which serves as a sort of limited passport) implemented by the state of Washington, among others.
As those who have read my old sm62704 journals know, I was very nearsighted all my life, until I got a cataract in my left eye that was caused by prescription eyedrops. My eye surgeon implanted a CrystaLens inside it (you will be assimilated, resistance is futile), and my vision in that eye is better than 20/20 now. The doctor said I should no longer have any "corrective lens" restrictions on my driver's license.
My driving record was exemplary so last time my license was renewed I could have had it done by mail, but I went in anyway, extatic. For the first time in my life I was going to have a license without vision restrictions!
Also for the first time, I'm smiling in the picture. In light of the circumstances, how could I not?
And it actually looks like me, unlike every other picture I've ever had on my license. You should vote those morons out of office. A picture of a normally happy person who is frowning does not look like him.
Note to the mods- "Hoosier" is not an insult. Indiana is known as "the Hoosier State", and that was the motto on their license plates for decades. Indiana's citizens are proud to be hoosiers.
Free Martian Whores!
Brilliant - actually, I'm glad they allowed him to keep his hat. Saying people aren't allowed to do things, but then making an exemption for religious reasons is pointless (as now the rule doesn't apply to everyone), and discriminatory against those who have other reasons. But it's particularly annoying when they make judgements and claim that some religious reasons are acceptable, whilst some religious reasons are not. Whilst I accept that this guy probably had different intentions, in general, who's to say that someone's belief that they must wear a hat because they think they're the Joker, is any less legitimate that someone's belief they must wear headwear because they think God told them to?
As for UK passports not allowing smiles - I'm amused that most of the photo machines still have photos on the outside showing people with smiles (not to mention with dogs in the pictures, or random "fun" backgrounds added in...)
Not a problem with the Government's planned ID card scheme. This will require you to notify the Government of "drastic" appearance changes, or face a £1,000 fine.
I don't know if big bushy beards and long hair would count, but it's worrying nonetheless.
I never smile anyway, but what's with this "you can't wear glasses" rule? That seems really stupid considering I'm always wearing glasses. Will the cops now ask me to remove my glasses so they can compare my face to the drivers license?
Also:
Why is Indiana using facial recognition software? Is there now a database of faces that police are searching every time a crime is committed???
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
>>>What it is doing is trying to make the 50 states DLs uniform.
"I have searched but I cannot lay my hand on the part of the Constitution that grants the U.S. that power." - James Madison. QED the law is unconstitutional.
Of course so is the U.S. law that mandates drinking age be 21 and forced many states to change their age of consent from 18 to 21. I still don't understand that one... even though I agree with age 21 I think the decision should be left to each government for its own specific region. If Wyoming wants the drinking age to be 18, let Wyoming do so. I don't live there, so what do I care what the Wyomingites do?
FOX NEWS.com should be BANNED from television and internet. Have the Congress take it over and give us Truespeak.
That is what the E. German border guards were famous for doing, so ... Yes, probably so. Not that this will *actually* happen, but if you meet an especially scrupulous cop (in the sense of scrupulous attention to detail and procedure) then the glasses may come off.
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Favorite "getting carded" story:
I'm in an airport bar that has a very conspicuously posted sign "We ID All Guests". Ok, fair enough. I order my beer, bartender cards me, no sweat.
A few minutes later, a man older than me (I'd guess he was mid to late fifties) sits down and orders a drink. The bartender asks for his ID. He starts ranting and raving about how unreasonable this is, finally relents, and pulls out a badge case. He shows her his "Retired Placer County Sheriff's Dept" ID. She looks it over for a second, hands it back to him and says "I'm sorry, sir, I'll need to see something with your birthdate on it."
You could have fried an egg on this guy's forehead.
He did finally show his driver's license, finally got his drink, and *then* noticed the sign hanging behind the bar. He eventually sheepishly apologized, but the rest of us just sat and stared at the moron making a scene.
-- "Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?"