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Dept. of Homeland Security To Test Iris Scanners
SonicSpike writes "The Homeland Security Department plans to test futuristic iris scan technology that stores digital images of people's eyes in a database and is considered a quicker alternative to fingerprints. The department will run a two-week test in October of commercially sold iris scanners at a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, where they will be used on illegal immigrants, said Arun Vemury, program manager at the department's Science and Technology branch. 'The test will help us determine how viable this is for potential (department) use in the future,' Vemury said."
From deciding this is a great idea and putting it everywhere? They already fingerprint (foreigners), so iris scanning isn't really that far off. I won't bore you anymore with the slippery slope argument, I think we all know where this is going.
I wonder what it'll take to rally the docile United States citizens to fight back. You guys have guns and shit, don't you? Maybe you should go confederate on the government's ass.
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John Anderton: *Mr. Yukkamoto?*
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
How many times have you heard of people leaving their iris prints on a doorknob, or wine glass, or a gun?
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
its not worse either
That rather depends on your vantage point, now doesn't it? GWB never tried to tell me that I must buy a product from a for-profit industry.....
and whats it got to do with this new administration, really?
Who do you think runs Homeland Security? The underpants gnomes?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
I signed up for IRIS because holding an image of a scan of the back of my eye on a database somewhere seems far less intrusive or harmful than my fingerprints or DNA.
Not that I have, or ever am likely to, commit a crime ever but an iris scan isn't going to put me at the scene of a crime or give much away to a private health insurance company looking for any excuse to up my premiums.
Plus the fact that the Data Protection Act over here offers some protection, provided you understand what it does & doesn't do.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
especially one led by a legal scholar
You mean the same legal scholar with the anti-gun voting record? The one that voted for retroactive immunity for telecommunications corporations that broke the law? The one that thinks the commerce clause gives the Federal Government the power to compel the citizenry to do business with for-profit enterprise? The one that thinks the 1st amendment doesn't apply when citizens band together under the guise of a corporation?
That legal scholar?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
No it doesn't, especially when the laws are so absurd to begin with. You could say the same thing about "piracy" that somehow because they are "willing" to break copyright law, they will break other laws too. But I can guarantee you that if you sample the people who "pirate" the vast, vast majority have no criminal record and are law-abiding people.
There are many cases where the law, not the people need to change.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
It's voluntary here, at least for the moment - and the reason I signed up was a trade off between an iris image on a database somewhere and the ability to jump queues at immigration, I didn't (and still don't) consider the terrorist issue completely relevant.
If I'm honest, I see the prevalence of (predominantly American) corporations gobbling up or destroying anything unique in this country as far more of a threat to the fabric of my society than a few Muslim loonies with bombs strapped to them.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
If the wars were really about that smoking hole in Manhattan, then we probably should have gone after the guys who caused it.
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What a surprise. You remembered the people killed on 9/11 but you forgot all of the US and allied service-members and innocent civilians killed by the wars.
Hundreds of thousands have died. Millions have been displaced. And our country's treasury has been raided. I don't think Halliburton caused the wars, but I do know they have conducted themselves as war profiteers. And that is a vile crime.
They already have low tech measures (people) watching customers move the store to see what path they take, and how long they spend in each area, etc. Using technology to do this lets them do more people at once... but I find it hard to get too offended about a store that wishes to track me and what I do on their own premises.
A store that is big enough to give you a loyalty card has probably already done enough damage to your social environment - what about the small family-owned businesses that have been trashed by out-of-town hypermarkets?
Here in the UK, we have a saying of "clone towns" where small businesses in town centres were trashed as a result of price-cutting out-of-town hypermarkets leaving a lot of empty properties that the big chain stores and theme bars could move into - thus many town centres in the UK look identical now.
And what about all the local varieties of fruit, vegetables and livestock that are now nearing extinction because supermarkets only want to stock tasteless crap with long shelf lives that can be shipped from acorss the world?
I think you are seriously underestimating what these stores have done and what they're capable of just to increase their profits.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
The root of illegal immigration is the lack of enforcement of employment law.
The root of illegal immigration is economic imbalance. More money and higher paying jobs exist in the US than exist in Mexico. Accordingly we should expect to see people migrating to where the economic opportunity happens to be. It's like osmosis - people will move in the direction of money an opportunity. Laws can do little more than slow the movement. Expecting people to obey the law when the alternative is abject poverty and possible starvation is absurd. We don't have a problem with Canadian's immigrating illegally because there is no economic incentive for them to do so. Help Mexico build up its economy and the problem will go away. Continue to ignore Mexico's economic problems and the problem will continue indefinitely. Building bigger fences and enforcing more and more restrictive laws will NEVER solve the problem but it will cost vast sums of money.
The quote says that the scanners will be used on illegal immigrants. They didn't say that it would be used in order to find illegal immigrants. If you already know that someone is an illegal immigrant then why bother with the scanning? Just send them back to where they came from.
Which is why we need to take that economic opportunity away from them unless they play by our rules.
Unless you plan to make illegal immigration a capital crime, you will not stop it no matter how well you enforce the laws. The economic incentives greatly outweigh the consequences. If the choice is between starvation and breaking immigration laws, the choice is easy.
It's not our job to help Mexico build up its economy.
No it's not required but that doesn't make it a bad idea. We didn't have to help Europe or Japan after WWII either but it was a good idea to do so. An economically healthy Mexico would benefit the US far more than the few illegal migrant workers do now. We reap the benefits of trillions of dollars in trade each year with the EU and Japan, countries we helped. Had we crushed them when they were down things would almost certainly be worse than they are today.
But if you prefer to be short sighted and selfish, that's fine. Just recognize that by your actions have consequences - in this case, illegal immigrants by the millions. You also need to recognize that you are wasting money on a futile, greedy and spiteful response.
From my non-American point of view, the difference between American Liberals and Republicans is like the difference between getting bitten by a cobra or mauled by a bear. One might be somewhat less painful than the other but the end result is not that different. From what I have seen, it does not matter who is the American president or from what party he is from since all of them will stick to the status quo on foreign policies (preserving American "greatness") while also eroding the rights of not only American citizens but by setting bad examples to other foreign governments to follow.
As someone who just tore his retina last week and is undergoing laser surgery to fix, there is no way I would let anyone shine another laser into my eye unless it's entirely necessary, and unless they are a Dr. - a very good one at that! America has fallen into a pit of insanity, but perhaps I spend too much time on /., and it just seems so.
I think therefore I can't be ~TTNH