You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.
Esteban just sent me a link from /., with a news item about how the U.S. is planning to tag cars at the border with an Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, in order to track foreigners on their soil. In plain English, what that means is tracking, via radio, where a foreigner is going by a tag they have to keep on their car.
Before you react simply by saying oh well, it’s just foreigners, think about it for a moment. The stated reason by the Department of Homeland Security is that this is being done as part of ongoing efforts to tighten border security and monitor possible terrorist and criminal activity. This would only apply if:
- All terrorists and criminals were all foreigners (got xenophobia?)
- Said terrorists and criminals are willing to blow up buildings, but not steal someone else’s car for their heinous acts, or simply take the tag and stick it on another vehicle
These two points are so patently false that even a politician can see it. For point one, see Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma bombing. For point two, read Bruce Schneier’s article on the technological adaptability of Iraqi insurgents. If even a politician can see it, that means this is only a first step.
The next obvious step is tagging each and every vehicle as well, and having the foreigners carry the tag with them at all times, not only keeping it in the car. And since it’s buildings and not borders that are getting blown up, we should have RFID scanners all over town.
But why stop at vehicles? After all, cars don’t blow up buildings, people do. We should be tagging them fuckers!
And that’s precisely what the British are suggesting.
The misleading article title is Implant chip to identify the dead, which would imply that they only need to track someone that has died, and not your living citizens. Read the article, however. For instance:
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Following the Asian tsunami which struck on Boxing Day 2004, many thousands of bodies could only be identified by DNA testing - a process that, in some cases, took months to complete.
Similarly, following the bomb blasts on the London Underground, the process of identifying some bodies - particularly on the deep-lying Piccadilly Line - became very difficult, with some families upset by the amount of time it took to confirm a relative had died.
Am I the only one who sees that in order to track your decomposing corpse as it lies under several metric tons of rubble, they would need you tagged before the disaster?
The news item is well written, I’ll give them that. It even starts by justifying tagging people by association, pointing out the behavior of those selfless rescue workers, writing their badge number on their own skin before entering the World Trade Center area. It’s only so that your family knows when something happened. Heroes do it, doctors do it, researchers do it, why don’t you want to? Are you better than them, or are you hiding something?
Bye bye, privacy. So long, common sense. Nice knowing you all.
PS: Yes, Esteban, I stole the title! It’s mine now! Can’t have it back!
He stole our precious title!
It was all I had left after they attempted to steal my privacy, dignity and stuff… The stuff was the hardest part to do away with. :p
And you know, maybe it’s my sociopathic side talking, but why do people make such a big fucking fuss about knowing where every little bit of charred flesh is after a natural disaster? It’s somewhat honorable, I suppose, but still I find it atrocious that the living should happen to suffer for the comfort of the dead.
I’m just missing out on the greatly rewarding part of being returned all 24 oz of my loved one. Yet, I’m fairly doubtful I would get the same feeling of satisfaction and fulfillment as if a 32 oz steak had come my way. But like I said, maybe its my sociopathic side talking.